“Bewitching Attraction” marks the return of Moon So-lee and Jeen Jin-hee to the Korean cinema. They are the main actors of this dark comedy, which was released on March 16th in Korea. Director Lee Ha was previously involved with low-budget and indie projects, but this is his first mainstream movie. While working on this particular movie, he said he learned a great deal from the two main actors. His appreciation for the actress Moon was evident by telling the press that she’s like a “neuron surgeon doctor”. Mr. Lee felt that Moon has the capability to go into the minds of any character, and make it her own.

This movie makes fun of those who pretend to be elegant in their seemingly noble positions in society by actually seek carnal desires. Moon plays a temptress professor in a rural university teaching fabric dyeing, with a secret double life. By day, she flaunts her intelligence, sophistication and joins a local environmental group. By night, she is a seductress who sleeps with married men for her pleasure and she appears without guilt. Then one day, a man comes to the university: a man named Park Pil from her past that she wants to forget. This is when the slow paced movie starts to pick up stream.

The title “Bewitching Attraction” should really be translated to “The Secret Charm of a Female Professor” in order to match the original Korean title. That minor hiccup aside, many critics were surprised after viewing the movie: it was marketed as a sleek light romantic comedy but turned out to be a fairly dark romantic movie. So it was natural for the audience to be split: some said this darker and over-the-top tone was better while some thought it was just gloomy and sad.

Whatever the results are, “Bewitching Attraction” explores the hypocritical human nature. Launched by MK Pictures, one of Korea’s leading production companies, this film spotlights a change of image for the actress Moon and the actor Jee.