Despite
Lee Eun-ju's prior experience with depicting sex and
nudity in
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000), she came under the scrutiny of Korean press and
netizens, for the highly emotional sex scenes and the notorious "
trunk scene" in
The Scarlet Letter which is regarded as "one of the most shocking and intense scenes in the history of Korean film." It is speculated her demanding role and its public scrutiny, had compounded and overlapped with an existing variety of family, financial, career, and
insomnia issues. Her severe
depression ended in suicide in February 2005, and the tragic conclusion has since become the central focus in popular
perception and
interpretation of the film, this particular one being her last. Director
Kim Ki-duk, no stranger to controversy over his own films, is quoted by Chinese film magazine "Movie Watch" (看電影) as singling out
The Scarlet Letter as among the key Korean dramas from recent years. He subsequently cast
Sung Hyun-ah, who had risen to prominence with her role in
The Scarlet Letter, as the heroine in his
Time. At the film's premiere in Japan, veteran actress
Kumiko Akiyoshi praised the lead performances and likened the film to a landmark in erotic thrillers after
Basic Instinct and
Fatal Attraction. ==Awards and nominations==