Dangerous Liaisons

Dangerous Liaisons is a 2012 Chinese period romance drama film by Hur Jin-ho loosely based on the 1782 novel with the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The novel has been adapted numerous times, including Les Liaisons dangereuses, an adaptation by Roger Vadim (1959), the eponymous Hollywood film (1988), Valmont (1989), Cruel Intentions (1999), and Untold Scandal from South Korea (2003). This version is set in 1930s Shanghai and stars South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun and Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi and Cecilia Cheung. The film screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2012 Busan International Film Festival. Plot Shanghai, September 1931: Wealthy businessman and playboy seducer Xie Yifan is introduced to his uncle's granddaughter, Du Fenyu, when his maternal grandmother, Du Ruixue, arrives at his apartment one day. Fenyu, a young widow who has just arrived from Northeast China (aka Manchuria) where the Japanese are making incursions, is staying at the country home of Madam Du, her grand-aunt.