Set during the Chosun dynasty (14th to 19th Century), this period drama clearly demonstrates how women were forced to lead a life of forbearance and submission under a male-dominated aristocratic society. The heroine, trapped and married into an unbearable family, eventually escapes with a lover and suffers vicissitudes somewhat akin to the lovers in Mizoguchi's Chikamatsu Monogatari. In fact, the spirit of Mizoguchi is evoked several times in the incredible richness and flair of the staging-a distinctive use of the wide screen, ravishing compositions with a highly creative use of color and costuming and a narrative which digresses and expands but never loses sight of its main social point. John Gillett