Kdramas like The Scandal: What seems to attract us in these kinds of relationships is the very thing that prevents us from looking away; perhaps the fact that such love can never be, or perhaps it is the very nature of forbidden love which makes every glance, every touch, every action far more perilous. Having watched The Scandal, I have been reflecting upon the way that Korean drama is fascinated with portraying relationships which exist on the boundary of desire, manipulation, societal expectation and true emotion. The show turns a seemingly flirtatious game into something infinitely more complex and intertwined.
The aspect of 스캔들 that I liked most is that there is more to the scandalous romance than just who is having sex with whom. It all lies in the fact that one person holds power over another. Lady Cho Yun, portrayed by Son Ye-jin, and Cho Won, portrayed by Ji Chang-wook, have a relationship full of connection, sexual tension and emotional dependency, while Hui-yeon, portrayed by Nana, gets trapped in a game she never wanted to participate in. The process of Cho Won realization of what he had done adds a new dimension to the plot, turning the game into something serious, which affects people’s lives unexpectedly.
Thus, if you are interested in finding K-dramas similar to The Scandal that provide you with this particular feeling of “a relationship destined to be troublesome,” then there are several you should definitely watch. Some are centred around the theme of adultery between spouses, those whose concept is based on the elements of manipulation and seduction, and those that involve relationships between people that become controversial due to their age differences, social norms, etc.
Kdramas like The Scandal With Scandalous Relationships
The World of the Married
For those who would love a drama where marriage, adultery, betrayal, and passion ruin everything in life for the characters, The World of the Married should be the go-to option. This drama, starring Kim Hee-ae as Ji Sun-woo, Park Hae-joon as Lee Tae-oh and Han So-hee as Yeo Da-kyung, starts with an ideal marriage until Sun-woo finds out her husband is having an affair with Da-kyung. This is more than a tale of discovering one’s cheating husband, as the affair is used to fuel the fires of revenge, relationship failures, and obsession, among other things.
Similarities between the two dramas lie in the way the secret relationship affects all those involved with it. Both dramas show the repercussions of desire for someone who is caught in social and personal complications. Much like Lady Cho and Cho Won, the characters in The World of the Married are struggling with the knowledge that love, desire, marriage and possession do not necessarily occur independently of one another. However, unlike Son Ye-jin’s drama, the theme of betrayal within marriage dominates the latter drama, whereas the former drama shows the combination of forbidden desire, manipulation, social status and seduction.
Secret Love Affair
Of all the dramas in this list, the only drama that I can instantly suggest to someone who adored the concept of forbidden love shown in The Scandal is Secret Love Affair. It features Kim Hee-ae as Oh Hye-won, an already married woman in her 40s, who enters into a love affair with Lee Sun-jae, a teen prodigy pianist portrayed by Yoo Ah-in. Their love affair is controversial right from the start, owing to the vast age gap between them and their vastly different backgrounds.
The reason why it is especially similar to The Scandal is due to the fact that the relationship takes place within the context of immense pressure from the environment around them. Hye-won cannot just get over her feelings for Sun-jae without leaving anything else behind. It means that her marriage, her career, her social status, and people that she knows are also part of the relationship. In addition, there is also a continuous doubt regarding the possibility of having a strong desire under such circumstances as those of Cho Won and Hui-yeon.
Tempted
Tempted goes beyond the concept of playing games to make them an intrinsic part of its narrative. Woo Do-hwan stars as Kwon Si-hyun, a man of privilege who accepts a wager to pursue a romantic conquest of Eun Tae-hee, played by Park Soo-young. The only catch is that Tae-hee is completely unaware that she is one of the pawns in a larger game. Initially a challenge, the affair becomes increasingly complex as Si-hyun develops real emotions for her.
It is here that the comparison between The Scandal and Tempted becomes especially intriguing. The point is that in both stories, a man starts dating a woman due to the game or bet, not knowing that the true motive lies beneath. However, in both stories, it becomes even worse once the real emotions come into play. It should be pointed out that Tempted features young actors, and the story itself is a younger one, whereas Ji Chang-wook’s drama uses the same concept in order to examine the dark side of things.
On the Way to the Airport
On the Way to the Airport takes a very different approach toward forbidden love. Kim Ha-neul is Choi Soo-ah, who is a married flight attendant. On the other hand, Lee Sang-yoon portrays the character of Seo Do-woo, who is a married individual as well, but his life gets entangled with Soo-ah’s because of a certain tragedy that befalls their respective children.
The reason why this Korean drama is similar to The Scandal is that in this drama, forbidden love is not depicted in a way that allows the audience to see it as black-and-white in terms of whether it is right or wrong. In this drama, the main issue presented is what happens when a couple feels attracted to each other despite the fact that they already have everything else going on in their life. This would be a great option for you if it was the emotional part that interested you.
Triple
Triple is the most unique suggestion from the list as it is not an example of a direct forbidden love tale like the other four stories. The story features actors Min Hyo-rin, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Sun-kyun and Yoon Kye-sang and revolves around figure skating athlete Ha-ru who moves to Seoul to join hands with her step-brother Shin Hwal and two of his friends in the house. With time, as Ha-ru gets close to others, feelings of romance start causing emotional complications among them.
However, there are a number of reasons why I would still choose to watch Triple. The main one lies in the fact that the romantic plot in the latter becomes entangled with preexisting relationships between the characters. In particular, Ha-ru’s love towards Shin Hwal becomes especially complicated due to the existence of the family relationship. In fact, the romance in Triple is much less scandalous than the one depicted in The Scandal. Therefore, I would expect an emotional romantic drama from it.
Special Mention: Untold Scandal
In all seriousness, how would it be possible for me not to include Untold Scandal on this list? Released in 2003, this movie, which stars Lee Mi-sook, Jeon Do-yeon and Bae Yong-joon, stands out among my recommendations not only because of the movie itself but also due to the fact that it is an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons dangereuses and sets it within the context of late Joseon, where it is set, about the lives of Lady Cho, Jo-won and virtuous widow Lady Jeong, who get entangled in a deadly game of seduction.
This relationship between The Scandal and Untold Scandal is not limited to the title alone; the two films feature Lady Cho and Jo-won as central characters who are immersed in a world of seduction and manipulation, and the effects that result from making a game about others’ feelings into a personal one. The movie will prove to be equally interesting to watch since it presents another perspective of the same literary base. Additionally, it is rather erotic and provocative, thus a natural choice for a special mention here.
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