Scarlet Innocence

Scarlet Innocence (마담 뺑덕, 2014) is a Korean melodrama-thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Director Lim Pil-sung — who made the horror film Hansel and Gretel (2007) — reimagines the classic Korean folktale Shimcheong as a modern story of abandonment, obsession and moral blindness.

Professor Hak-gyu ran from Seoul eight years ago after a career scandal and ended up in a provincial town, where he falls into a relationship with Dogi, a young woman at a rundown amusement park. When the university takes him back, he leaves without a word. Now he's a writer and almost entirely blind. A stranger named Jeon arrives to hold him responsible for her mother's death. A neighbour named Se-jun appears. The walls close in.

Jeon Woo-sung plays a man who has always chosen himself — and the film doesn't let him off easily. Slower and quieter than the thriller framing implies, it builds on accumulation of debt rather than plot mechanics. Stream Scarlet Innocence online on iFILM.