Review of Obsessed (2014 Film):

The fact that their love story is so engrossing is also a testament to the chemistry between Song and Im. There is hardly any doubt at any point that their attraction is mutual, or that the sex between them is really an act of love on both their parts – as opposed to just being borne out of lust. Kim carefully details every glance, stare and smile that passes between the two actors, and his astute choice of close-ups at every turn brings his audience closer to his two lead characters.

What is also worthy to note is how Kim fleshes out the artificial world in which his characters play out their dalliance. In particular, the strict social hierarchy that exists as an unspoken rule among the army wives (what with Suk-jin being the camp commandant’s daughter) and their subsequent disdain towards Ga-heun who is not just prettier but refuses to stoop to their level of engaging in gossip is especially engrossing – and on that same note, it is admirable that Kim doesn’t make Suk-jin out to be some spiteful lady but rather the only one among the rest of the ladies to actually behave friendly towards Ga-heun.

Yes, ‘Obsessed’ may have caught your attention for being the rare Korean drama that has a major star engage in explicit sex scenes on screen, but that should remain an inadvertent selling point rather than its only one. It’s not often that you get a classy period romance from Korea, especially one that chooses as its setting the Vietnam War of the late 1960s and 1970s, and ‘Obsessed’ will have you in its rapture about how love can both consume and destroy at the same time.