But while people like Jung Jin-Woo used the opportunity to portray sexuality with much more striking realism to make a statement about society, an entire sub-genre of erotic melodramas surfaced out of this period.
Although the law still limits to a degree what you can show but for how long will that law last? The film was well received by critics at home, and thanks to it she even walked the red carpet at Cannes.
She also got razzed for using ecstasy in 2002, and busted for prostitution in 2013, allegedly having taken money from a businessman in exchange for multiple sex encounters; she was found guilty by local courts, but the conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
In it, she defended her choices, and exposed the kind of hypocrisy going on around the Korean film industry: sex sells because people want to see it, but then some of the same people have the nerve to criticize actresses almost never actors, go figure for basically doing what they want.