Hur Jin-ho

Dangerous Liaisons is a Chinese film by Hur Jin-ho based on the novel with the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

Under the oppressive Japanese colonial rule, Deok-hye, the last Princess of the declining Joseon Dynasty, is forced to move to Japan. She spends her days missing home, while struggling to maintain dignity as a princess. After a series of failed tries, Deok-hye makes her final attempt to return home with help of her childhood sweetheart, Jang-han.

In a quiet corner of Seoul, Jung-won runs a small photo studio. A humble shack passed down from his widower father, the studio is a space where Jung-won goes about his daily routine of dealing with fussy customers, enlarging photos of class heartthrobs for the neighborhood kids and photographing pictures to place on funeral altars. For Jung-won, life seems to be a series of peaceful events, but in reality his time on earth is too limited for comfort. Barely in his mid-30's, but perhaps too aware of the meaning of death, Jung-won accepts his fate despite the subtle gestures of concern he gets from his old father and younger sister. Life goes on as usual until one day he meets Darim, an employee at the Traffic Control Division of the local district office. She is a regular customer at the studio who comes everyday to develop snapshots of parking violations...