Temptation of Wife (South Korean TV series)

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Temptation of Wife
Promotional poster for Temptation of Wife
Created byStarmax
Written byKim Soon-ok
Directed byOh Se-kang
StarringJang Seo-hee
Byun Woo-min
Kim Seo-hyung
Lee Jae-hwang
Country of originSouth Korea
Original languageKorean
No. of episodes129
Production
Executive producersGo Hong Sik
Oh Se Gang
Running timeMonday through Friday 7:20pm (KST)
Original release
NetworkSBS
Release3 November 2008 (2008-11-03) –
1 May 2009 (2009-05-01)
Related
Temptation of an Angel (Male version)
Temptation of Wife (Philippine version) Beni Affet (Turkish version)

Temptation of Wife (Korean아내의 유혹; RRAnaeui Yuhok), also called Lure of Wife, was a highly watched drama in South Korea broadcast by SBS. It began to air in 2008 and continued through the early quarter of 2009, ending on May 1, 2009. Despite many controversies about the questionable content of the drama, it currently remains to be one of the most highly watched dramas averaging around 30% each day, and the cast won several awards including the Daesang (Grand Prize) for lead actress Jang Seo Hee at the SBS Drama Awards. It aired on SBS from November 3, 2008 to May 1, 2009 on Mondays to Fridays at 19:20 for 129 episodes.[1][2][3]

The series was a part of the "Wife Trilogy," which includes Two Wives and Wife Returns. the series had two remakes by China and Philippines[4] and 2009 series Temptation of an Angel starring Bae Soo-bin.[5][6]

Synopsis

Goo Eun Jae (played by actress Jang Seo-hee) graduated as a make-up artist major at a university and began preparations to study in France. Her dreams to study abroad are halted by pregnancy after Jung Gyo Bin (played by actor Byun Woo-min) took advantage of her when she was drunk. She decided to marry him and give up her dreams in order to be a responsible mother for her unborn child. Eun Jae's pregnancy soon ended in tragic miscarriage. Eun Jae was trying to protect her mother in law, Baek Mi In, when she was pushed down the steps by a creditor of the said in-law. Eun Jae fell and lost her baby. It took a long time until Eun Jae became pregnant again. Around the same time when Eun Jae found out about her second pregnancy, Shin Ae Ri (played by actress Kim Seo-hyung) returned from her five-year long from France (where she studied make-up).

Ae Ri grew up in the same household as Eun Jae ever since she became an orphan when she was about 7–10 years old. Her family was on the way to the Goo Household in order to have dinner with them when Ae Ri threw the clothes and doll her mother was supposed to give to Eun Jae as presents to her father who was driving. Also because her father was driving during a storm, they ended crashing the car. Both Ae Ri's parents died and the Goo Family has then taken Ae Ri in since and raised her for 20 years along with Eun Jae, treating her as if she were their own daughter. Later on, Ae Ri became the girlfriend of Eun Jae's brother Kang Jae. Then she left for France, revealing that someone was taking care of her tuitions for her.

After 7 years of living the Jung Family as Gyo Bin's housewife (and also as the housekeeper to the Jung Family's mansion), Eun Jae soon discovered that her husband had been cheating on her with Ae Ri. It turned out that it was he who had funded Ae Ri's travel to France. To add to this insult, Ae Ri revealed that she had Gyo Bin’s child five years prior named Min Woo. Eun Jae's brother, Kang Jae, gained knowledge about the situation, whereupon he set out in anger to assault Gyo Bin. This event gave Kang Jae and his mother, reason to force Eun Jae into signing up consent for a divorce. After the divorce, Gyo Bin and Ae Ri got married while Eun Jae moved back to her own family's house. Ae Ri went to pay a visit to Eun Jae, demanding her to get an abortion. Eun Jae refused to do so in which Gyo Bin dragged her to a gynaecologist in Sokcho, forcing her into aborting their baby. Eun Jae again refused. Gyo Bin then drove her to Sokcho Beach, throwing her necklace, given by her father-in-law as a promise not to give up on Gyo Bin, into the sea. Eun Jae tried to save the necklace, but not knowing how to swim, she soon found herself being dragged by the waves. Eun Jae begged Gyo Bin to save her baby but Gyo Bin ignored Eun Jae and abandoned her at sea to drown and die. Ae Ri and Gyo Bin decided to keep this all a secret, lying that Eun Jae had committed suicide. Ae Ri faked Eun Jae's suicide note which she gave to the police and Gyo Bin thereafter told everybody that he had not seen Eun Jae the whole day.

In the midst of all this, Min Gun Woo (played by actor Lee Jae Hwang), the adoptive son of Lady Min, was near Sokcho in a search for his missing younger stepsister, Min Soo Hee. Soo Hee loved Gun Woo and wanted to marry him. When her mother, Lady Min, refused, Soo Hee told Gun Woo to marry her secretly anyway. Gun Woo had decided not to tell his mother what was happening, as Soo Hee had run away from home. Lady Min arranged for another girl to marry Gun Woo, hoping that Soo Hee will give up and come back. Soo Hee's arranged marriage to Gun Woo was on the same day as Lady Min's arranged marriage. Gun Woo decided to follow his mother's orders and marry the other girl. Soo Hee, devastated that he did not come, then walked into the sea to drown herself. Gun Woo, searching for Soo Hee, found Eun Jae's unconscious body instead. He then took her to a doctor who reveals that she must lose the baby in order for her to be saved. Through the help of Gun Woo and the doctor, Eun Jae was allowed to live in the hospital for free where she worked at the same time to show her gratitude.

Lady Min, thinking Eun Jae's experience was similar to hers, introduced Eun Jae to her home. Thereafter, Eun Jae took on the identity of Soo Hee, in order to sought out revenge against Gyo Bin and Ae Ri who destroyed her life and tried to kill her. Gun Woo fell in love with Eun Jae in the process and Eun Jae with Gun Woo, but Eun Jae decided to hold her feelings back for him in order to fulfill her revenge. Ae Ri gets suspicious of the woman claiming to be Soo Hee. One day the two women met and Ae Ri was positive that this Soo Hee was Eun Jae. Eun Jae acted well and said that Ae Ri was crazy. Gyo Bin divorces Ae Ri and married Soo Hee (Eun Jae). Gyo Bin kicks Ae Ri out of her house, but keeps Nino, Ae Ri's son.

Ae Ri gets even more suspicious and calls Gyo Bin when Soo Hee (Eun Jae) and Gun Woo embrace. Soo Hee (Eun Jae) reassured that she loved Gyo Bin that's why she married him, ensuring him that Gun Woo and her are just close siblings. Gyo Bin wants to have sexual intercourse with Soo Hee (Eun Jae), but she bought twin beds instead of one big bed, and refused his advances. Ae Ri begs for Gyo Bin and his family to give her son to her. Ae Ri gets Ni No, but Ni No gets injured and Ae Ri pities her son, for now she was poor and could not give him a comfortable life. She returns Nino to Gyo Bin's family.

Soo Hee (Eun Jae) soon became worried about her true identity to be revealed by Ae Ri, with the help of Lady Min they went to her parents and told the truth which helped to have her true identity still covered. In order to complete her revenge, she tricks Gyo Bin to give all his family assets to her and her "mother" Lady Min, his father's company, their house, his mother's house and land and causes their family to go bankrupt. Lady Min had a history with Gyo Bin's father. They had a child together (they were not married) named Haneul Jung. To Lady Min, Gyo Bin's father supposedly killed Ha Neul due to a sickness that was never treated and killed Lady Min's father by stealing their land. Lady Min gets revenge by telling him to give all his assets (including Cheonji Constructions) and selling his house because of items on properties that was created by Gyo Bin to Lady Min. Because of this, he complied and gave them up. To humiliate his family further, Lady Min gets his family to switch houses with Eun Jae's family, or his large house will be auctioned and sold away. Gyo Bin's family is now poor while Eun Jae's family is now living more comfortably. Gyo Bin says that he now loves Eun Jae and tries to force her to stay with him, since they are still lawfully wedded but the disgusted Eun Jae hates him.

The real Soo Hee comes alive and she was suffering from serious depression. She gets mad at Eun Jae because Gun Woo fell in love with her and they planned a wedding. Soo Hee crashes the wedding. One day Eun Jae went to work and everyone was praising her because of her make-up artist skills. Soo Hee tells all the workers that she was the real daughter of Lady Min and she proclaims herself the owner of Min Beauty Shop. Ae Ri saw this and asks Soo Hee to cooperate with her to ruin Eun Jae's life. At first, this works out. Later, Ae Ri will be the reason why Gun Woo divorced Soo Hee, this collaboration ended. Lady Min persuaded Gun Woo to married Soo Hee because he thought her depression would get better and Soo Hee won't ruin Eun Jae's life. So Hee does the complete opposite.

Eun Jae continued to become the best make up artist and lives now with her family. One day, Gun Woo went to work to sign a contract with Harrison. Ae Ri wants to be back with Gyo Bin and bring back the position he had before and also the construction company, so she told Gyo Bin to sign the contract. Meanwhile, Soo Hee ruins Eun Jae's artwork and rips a page out. While they fight, Ae Ri calls Gyo Bin about how Eun Jae was being attacked by Soo Hee. Gun Woo turns the car and drives to the Beauty Shop. He sees Soo Hee ripping the page and tells her to divorce him. Gun Woo is now late for his meeting, so Ha Jo tells Gyo Bin to sign the contract instead. Gun Woo now decides to divorce So Hee no matter what. Ae Ri came back to the family. She made Gyo Bin to sleep with her, making her pregnant. While she is pregnant, doctors discovered she had a tumor in her stomach. Doctors reluctantly told her to get an abortion so she could have the cancer removed, but she adamantly refused. She felt that the baby was the only way to keep her and Gyo Bin together.

Ae Ri and Eun Jae joined a make up competition that has three stages. In the first stage, Eun Jae, another lady, and Ae Ri won and would be competing. In the second stage, Ae Ri and Eun Jae won and would be competing against each other. In the third stage, Ae Ri gets desperate so she secretly bribes the judges. The judges are just about to proclaim Ae Ri as the grand prize winner, but find out just in time that were being bribed, so they disqualified Ae Ri and awarded the contest to Eun Jae. Ae Ri had a miscarriage, but this time after realizing her mistakes and Eun Jae find the heart to forgive her childhood best friend, Ae Ri and Eun Jae once again become true friends again. Eun Jae insists that Ae Ri to get the cancer treatment, but Ae Ri is scared that the chemotherapy will make her not be as beautiful as she once was and also overwhelmed by the guilt of her past actions, and decides to let the cancer kill her.

In the last episode, Ha Neul becomes pregnant with her husband Kang Jae. Ae Ri and Gyo Bin went on vacation. During this vacation, Ae Ri made a sea shell necklace for Ni No. Ae Ri begins to make two letters: one for Gyo Bin and one for Ae Ri. Despite the efforts of both families and overwhelmed by her guilt and knows that she will die someday, Ae Ri went to the ocean to commit suicide but Gyo Bin attempts to save her. Ae Ri was screaming for him to let go because he needed to take care of Ni No and that she was going to die anyway. He said he wasn't going to let go and he was going to save her. Yet the current was too strong. Both of them were drowning and started to lose consciousness and later died. All the families attend their funeral. Eun Jae gives Ni No the sea shell necklace saying, "This is the last present your mother is giving you." Ni No goes on the street and a car nearly crashes into him. He states his mother and father were on the other side of the street. Everybody assumed that they were protecting their son from danger. Ae Ri's letter to Eun Jae said to bury her ashes on the beach where Eun Jae almost died in.

Soo Hee and Lady Min decides to go to America together. Lady Min gives Ha Jo the papers to own Cheonji Constructions once more. Gun Woo met Eun Jae while she was spreading the ashes. He said that he was very sorry for hurting her feelings and that he won't do it again. He feels that Eun Jae should be his wife. Seo Hee gave Eun Jae two rings and a letter entrusting Gun Woo to Eun Jae. Gun Woo puts his arm around Eun Jae and looks at the sky with her. They were sure that they saw Ae Ri and Gyo Bin together. The whole drama ended by having the two couples smiling at each other. Ae Ri and Gyo Bin were wearing white, and looking back at their friends.

Cast

Eun Jae is responsible, caring, compassionate and rather naive. She has big dreams and desires to be a successful makeup artist. She is always concerned about her family who has always suffered from poverty and is always willing to sacrifice for her family. She graduates from a prestigious art university where she studied to be a makeup artist. Because of pregnancy when she was taken advantage of by her boyfriend Gyo Bin, she has no choice but to give up on her dreams as she marries him. Although it was a hard decision, once she chose to marry Gyo Bin without love, she tries her hardest for her husband and in-laws and learns to cook and becomes an excellent house wife. Gyo Bin's family abuses her for the 7 years she was there, forcing her to act as a servant to them. However, she soon learns that the life she chose is full of lies and betrayals.

This forces her to transform into a different type of woman (episode 30). Her near death experience becomes a chance for her to be born again. Now, posing as So Hee, she is smart, cunning, sharp-eyed, stylish, talented, ruthless, mean and successful in all she does. She plots revenge against her husband and her adopted sister.

Since his school days, Gyo Bin had always been lazy and dependent on his family's money. He slacked off in his studies and had to resort to bribery just to graduate. He is lazy, dependent on others, useless, selfish, easily deceived, arrogant, irresponsible, a womanizer and quick to push the blame on others.

After graduation, he learned the business of real estate from his father. He had been interested in Eun Jae since high school but she ignored his efforts. He forced himself on her resulting in their marriage but after the miscarriage, Gyo Bin became tired of Eun Jae and cheated on her without remorse. He started to be interested in Ae Ri and when she showed strong interest in him as well, he used her dreams to go to France to study as a way to get her away. But when Ae Ri comes back looking better than before, and with their love child Nino he feels attraction again and listens to her advice filing for a divorce. He soon gets his just deserts as Eun Jae gets her revenge by destroying his family's assets.

Ae Ri is the daughter of Eun Jae's father's friend and when Ae Ri's parents are killed in an accident, Eun Jae's father took her in. Because she lived in another family's home since she was young, she acquired the wisdom to win favors of others around her. Ae Ri is cunning, sly, quick-witted, proud, ruthless, hard-hearted, money- and power-hungry and will do anything to get what she wants. Her desire for success is stronger than most people, and bears grudges when people insult her. She receives unconditional love from Eun Jae's brother Kang Jae and Eun Jae's parents had accepted her as their daughter in-law for the future. Although she assumes the perfect role in front of others, inside she dreams of raising her social status and was never satisfied with Kang Jae. She had always been interested in Gyo Bin and is jealous when Eun Jae marries him. As the series progresses, her mental state becomes uninhibited and she transforms into desperate monster.

She has always felt second next to Eun Jae, and is able to humiliate Eun Jae's family without conscience, even though her family has raised her since young. When she is approached by Gyo Bin, she will do anything to live the life she has always dreamed.

As an orphan, he suffered through hardships but his life turned when Lady Min adopted him as her son. He cared for Lady Min's daughter So Hee, thinking that it was the right thing to do for Lady Min but when he realizes that So Hee loves him, he tries to let her down as gently as possible. After So Hee's apparent suicide, Gun Woo feels responsible for the ordeal but he meets Eun Jae and falls in love with her. He works with Gyo Bin in the construction company as an architect although he is He has warm and caring characteristics as well but remains composed. But he has the ability to act recklessly in order to be with Eun Jae.

Eun Jae's Family:

Although he is indifferent to his wife's hard work, when it comes to his children, his love for them is extraordinary. He is a former singer who does not make much money for his family.

She is the typical mother and with her resourcefulness leads the family. She works as a house cleaner to provide for here family and meets Lady Min by chance.

With a unique personality unlike both of his parents, he lives for justice but occasionally when he gets angry, he is like fire with his hot temperament. But even for him, he is willing to do anything for Ae Ri.

Gyo Bin's Family:

He interprets everything with money and only understands money. He betrays Lady Min who practically fed him and sent him to college and acquired wealth. He later became the chairman of Chunghee Construction with a strip of land stolen from Lady Min.

As the only daughter of a wealthy family, she is ignorant and loves to spend money. She believes she is in control of her husband but in reality, her husband is more interested in money than her. She demands her daughter in-law Eun Jae to take lessons in cooking and flower arrangement but loves to gamble with her friends during the day.

Everyone knows of Ha Neul as Ha Jo's very young sister but the truth is that Ha Neul is the daughter that was born between Ha Jo and Lady Min and is the older paternal half-sister of Soo Bin and Gyo Bin. She has the capacity of only a ten-year-old but sometimes knows how to say the right thing at the right time. Her character provides comic relief.

Soo Bin attended Eun Jae's high school and is also the latter's sister-in-law. She has an entirely different mentality than that of her family and isn't focused on wealth. She's kind, caring, and considerate and helps out Ha Neul as well as Eun Jaein times of need.

Gun Woo's Family:

She is a successful owner of her own beauty shop company and vows to never trust another man after she is betrayed by her first love Jung Ha Jo. She has a daughter Soo Hee and later adopts Gun Woo in to the family. Although she is a ruthless as a business owner, she is warm and caring to her family.

When her mother was out for work, she was cared for by her adoptive brother. She starts to love Gun Woo without realizing it. She needs to have whatever she wants and thus, cannot give up on her feelings toward Gun Woo. After being rejected by Gun Woo, she commits suicide coincidentally at the same beach where Eun Jae drowned.

Ae Ri's Family:

Ae Ri's son with Gyo Bin.

Controversy

Temptation of a Wife has been widely criticized because of the content and production. For example, there was much criticism from audiences when Eun Jae comes back as So Hee, drawing a mole on her right cheek and everyone fails to recognize her as Eun Jae. Other characters also believe that So Hee is not Eun Jae because of the different personalities. Eun Jae was sweet and friendly while So Hee is mean and ruthless.[7] Other controversies have dealt with the speediness of the drama and overly set up plot. Further, there has been a lawsuit by author Jung Hye Kyung who claimed that 'Temptation of a Wife' plagiarized her book Janus' City.[8]

Some people also believe that the drama is too harsh and unrealistic in terms of content.[who?]

See also

References

  1. ^ "'휘청하던 '아내의 유혹', 뒷심 발휘! (Staggering 'Temptation of a Wife', Comes Back Strongly!)" (in Korean).April 20, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  2. ^ http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/573197.html
  3. ^ http://www.nownews.com/2009/12/19/91-2548290.htm
  4. ^ http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/04/16/2009041661456.html
  5. ^ http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1000636221
  6. ^ http://www.hancinema.net/now-showing-on-evening-tv-provocative-racy-themes-21351.html
  7. ^ "막장 논란에 마음 고생 평생 욕 다 먹은거 같아' (Pains caused by Controversies)" (in Korean).April 17, 2009. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  8. ^ "'아내의 유혹' 표절논란 결국 법정으로…정 작가-SBS "법적 대응"('Plagiarism Controversy Leads to Lawsuit')" (in Korean).April 02, 2009. Retrieved April 19, 2009.

External links