Does a solemn vow as man and wife mean more to one person than another?
The movie "Cross Scandal" ("Changing Partners") asks its viewers to probe the intricacies of that question about the meaning of marriage.
One-night stands, spouse swapping and seduction replete with exaggerated sexual movements: That was what I imagined when I first read the story line.
Cross Scandal, however, tries to convey more than just another love affair.
On the one hand, its main characters, Yun-a (Uhm Jung-hwa) and Min-jae (Park Yong-woo), who have been married for three years, are like best friends.
On the other hand, So-yeo (Han Chae-young) and Young-jun (Lee Dong-geon), another couple, barely talk to each another.
The two couples meet at a social gathering and the sparks fly — but in all the worst ways.
Both couples find themselves attracted to the others' spouse.
The fact that the object of their desire is someone else's partner, something just out of reach, causes their desire to grow uncontrollable.
The original Korean title for this movie is a question — are you living with someone you are in love with right now?
As the original title implies, "Cross Scandal" ("Changing Partners") poses an important question to its audience.
Everyone from newlyweds to older couples in the later, and often deeper, stages of love might be intrigued by the question and start thinking.
Indeed, there is a certain level of vicarious pleasure in this movie that satisfies the audiences' secret fantasies about love affairs.
The use of color and light in the movie further highlights the tension of certain moments.
Yet I think that this movie is just a glamorized version of sordid adultery.
It does touch a bit on the hard times that the characters go through, but it is just too slight of a glimpse compared to the time spent on the romanticized parts of the movie.
The story wraps up with romantic scenes played by the beautiful actors, which may blur our moral beliefs.
This type of ending makes us believe that love affairs are more exciting than binding promises.
If the plot of "Cross Scandal" ("Changing Partners") had spent more time on the dilemma of infidelity and the agony the four characters might feel after their marital wandering, the movie would have had a stronger appeal to viewers.
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