3.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Lee Hanee, Bang Hyo-rin, Jin Seon-kyu, Cho Hyun-chul
During South Korea’s dark days of the early 1980s, a top star and a principled ingénue tussle with a chauvinistic producer and a stringent censorship system as they set out to make Korea’s first erotic film.
That is the premise of Aema, the small-screen debut of Believer director Lee Hae-young. The lively six-part period drama series stars Lee Hanee (The Fiery Priest) and newcomer Bang Hyo-rin.
Notably, Aema has stylistic and thematic shades of Kim Jee-woon’s film Cobweb, which was set against the backdrop of the equally censorship-prone 1970s Korean film industry, and Lee Won-suk’s cult comedy Killing Romance, which also starred Lee.