Obsessed was the first romantic drama directed by Kim Dae-woo. The movie was set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, but chose to focus not on the war but on the conflict within the characters’ passions, desire, and social constraints.
Illustrated in the film is the life of Korean war hero Colonel Kim Jin-pyeong (acted by Song Seung-heon) who has been traumatized and is back to remove the memories of Vietnam. While being married to the daughter of his commanding officer, he has everything in life. He has status, a trophy in bed, and a child, but he is trapped and arranged in a mundane life. He has no love within and is stifled.
Things change for the war hero when he meets Ga-heun (Lim Ji-yeon), the younger subordinate’s wife. Initially secret, their attracted fascination quickly escalates to an imploding obsessive affair. The unstructured pieces of his mundane existence begin to reform but the reformation ends up being a sealed trap- an escape where he gets trapped.
Theories That Bloomed After the Ending
The ending of Obsessed left audiences divided. To summarize, Jin-pyeong’s desperate choices leads to capture and release simultaneously, and Ga-heun is left to carry silence. Fans soon started wondering:
Was the love real or was it just a product of the circumstances? Some believed that Jin-pyeong never truly loved Ga-heun, but simply projected his post-war emptiness. Others believed the love was real, but it was cursed.
Did Ga-heun manipulate Jin-pyeong? Some people believed that Ga-heun was aware that the affair would annihilate him, and that her goal was not passion, but rather a desperate attempt to escape her trapped existence.
An alternate ending in whispers: Digital spaces of Jin-pyeong were said to have contained a version of the script where Ga-heun walks away with Jin-pyeong, but he leaves her in the end, a reflection of his disorder to choose freedom. This is an unconfirmed “lost ending,” but it contributes to the myth surrounding the film.
The questions, unlike many people predicted, points to the most essential element of the film: capturing the subtle shift between destruction and desire, and the thin line between freedom and captivity.
Responses from the Cast and Crew to the Speculations
Song Seung-heon and the rest of the cast took the fan theories in stride. Before performing in Obsessed, the actor largely got cast in melodramatic roles and recalled the character driven narratives as heartthrobs. He noted that taking the part in Obsessed was a challenge, and this was an opportunity to go beyond the perfumed helmet of the fragility and weakness. When asked whether Jin-pyeong loved Ga-heun, he cryptically said ‘It doesn’t matter if it was love or madness–sometimes they are the same’. This comment essentially drove the conversation to speculation.
Lim Ji-yeon, who made her film debut in this role, stated that the experience was emotionally overwhelming. There were raw and intimate scenes in the film, and this led to the debate of whether the character and actor had been infantilized or empowered. Ji-yeon explained that with the emotionally complex character Ga-heun, the director had allowed her to a great extent, which was an leaning ambiguity. Ji-yeon sidestepped the question of whether Ga-heun loved Jin-pyeong. She said ‘She was searching for air to breathe, but what she found was fire’
Director Kim Dae-woo is no stranger to erotic period pieces, and with Untold Scandal as part of his filmography, he has built a reputation. He was quite elusive when it came to questions around alternate endings, but he did say that ‘several variations’ existed in the script and in the end, he stuck with the release which he felt most represented the vision he had surrounding obsession.
The Symbolism of War
Many followers of the movie noted that the shadow of the Vietnam War served as more than a backdrop. Some argued Vietnam substituted the primary war. Jin-pyeong’s battle with trauma equated to his struggle with domestic captivity. He is a combat soldier who fought to survive overseas, and then self-asphyxiates in his home. The shadow of pain contained in the love affair also reflected the concealed suffering that love affair contained.
Korean film critics saw the polished military uniforms as part of the social code. The rigid family dinners and the suffocating social code were also seen as “weapons” as powerful as a gun. Some Indian fans correlated it with our old post-war melodramas, where the soldiers returned disintegrated families. The soldiers in those stories had to deal with the misplaced public and private emotions that post-war discontent carried.
On-set Tales and Production Secrets
Obsessed was no less intense before the lens. It was reported that Song Seung-heon lost a considerable amount of weight for the part, as he was trying to capture the psychological dimensions of war in his character, Jin-pyeong. He was also taking a personal risk by choosing a role with private explicit scenes. He candidly admitted that the apprehension of taking such a role was due to the risk of losing his image as a romantic lead. The risk both shocked and impressed the audience.
At the time, Lim Ji-yeon was completely new to the craft and the production turned out to be an extreme learning experience in acting. Crew members recounted that the director, as an approach to building actor-director trust, would rehearse emotionally demanding scenes several times without rolling any cameras before the actual performance. This method proved beneficial as it allowed the lead actors to deliver emotionally naked performances.
One interesting fact that did not circulate widely was that some scenes, which were to be performed closely to one another, were to be done again and again because the lighting did not match. The actors in these new takes were said to be even deeper in the emotional flow of the character, and these takes supremely overshadowed the first ones.
Reactions from the Audience: Sympathy and Scandal
Responses to the movie were mixed, with some audiences and critics praising the risk taken in the story-line and bold performances, especially the Lim Ji-Yeon’s character. Korean audiences and critics, however, were more conservative, claiming the movie was excessive and overly erotic. This very scandal, however, was what drove the movie’s curiosity. The movie was screened at international film festivals as part of Korea’s erotic-psychological cinema, and critics praised Korea for the ability to blend the two genres. Online forums were flooded with discussions on every silent moment and gaze, passionately arguing over the themes of trauma, manipulation and passion.
Some fans imagined what happened to Ga-heun after the credits rolled, writing stories about her life being either free or stuck in a hidden life. In this way, the film continued to live after its runtime, becoming more than a story on a screen, a part of a cultural discourse.
The Legacy of an Uneasy Love Story
Looking back, Obsessed wasn’t a box office monster, but it became a touchstone in the careers of its leads. For Song Seung-heon, it marked a bold departure into darker territory. For Lim Ji-yeon, it was the risky debut that launched her into stardom, later leading to acclaimed roles in series like The Glory.
And for audiences, it left behind more than a story of an affair. It left behind questions—about desire, freedom, loyalty, and whether love can ever survive when born in secrecy.
Like its title suggests, Obsessed wasn’t about romance alone. It was about the things we hold onto, even when they consume us. And that, perhaps, is why fans are still debating alternate endings and hidden motives years after the lights first dimmed in theaters.
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