Film

Obsessed

Name: Obsessed
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2014
Cast: Song Seung-heon, Im Ji-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong, On Ju-wan, Yoo Hai-jin

Other titles called Obsessed: the 2009 film.

A 2014 Korean drama about a clandestine affair between a military colonel and a captain's wife during the summer of 1969. Elegantly shot and emotionally restrained, it trades melodrama for quiet intensity, exploring how desire and duty collide in constrained lives. For viewers who appreciate slow-burn tension and complex moral ambiguity.

TMDb rating

3.3

If you liked this

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-wai's masterpiece about two neighbours discovering their spouses' affair. Like Obsessed, it's consumed by longing expressed through glances and proximity rather than dialogue—visual poetry about love that cannot be.

But The pacing is deliberately glacial, and if you need plot momentum or clear emotional beats, the film's dreamy repetition will frustrate rather than entrance.

The Handmaiden2016

A Korean period thriller built on deception, class tension, and forbidden desire between women. It shares Obsessed's meticulous control, lush cinematography, and refusal to let passion be simple or clean.

But The plot's multiple twists demand attention, and some viewers find the tonal shifts between sensuality and cruelty jarring rather than effective.

Brief Encounter1945

Noël Coward's quintessential affair film, where two ordinary people meet in a railway café and fall into an impossible love. The emotional restraint and social constraints mirror Obsessed's exploration of desire contained by duty.

But It's deeply British and deeply of its era—if you can't connect with mid-century repression as dramatic subject, the film will feel quaint rather than affecting.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Obsessed

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Yi Yi2000

Both films understand passion and obligation as architectural problems, not moral ones. Both trust the audience to feel the weight of an unspoken glance.

Edward Yang's three-hour Taiwanese family epic observes a multigenerational household with radical empathy and humor. Like Obsessed, it's meticulous about how desire, duty, and secrecy operate within institutions—marriage, family, work—but it finds grace and comedy in the constraint rather than only romance.

But It's long, structural, and refuses melodrama or catharsis. Some will call it patient; others will call it slow with minimal event. Subtitled, and unyielding about ambiguity.

Mulholland Drive2001

David Lynch's Los Angeles nightmare is hypnotic and seductive, built on secrets, desire, and the gap between who we are and who we pretend to be. The mood of beautiful surfaces hiding damage resonates with Obsessed.

But At 147 minutes with a puzzle-box structure that refuses easy answers, it demands engagement many viewers won't give, and rewards obsession more than casual watching.

The Lovers2015

Eros and aging in a small American town—a couple trapped in marriage and infidelity, rendered with European restraint by Louis Malle's American student. It captures Obsessed's interest in how passion persists inside stale lives.

But The emotional register is so muted that some will mistake it for meandering. It's also quite bleak about whether desire leads anywhere but pain.

Carol2015

An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith about two women's furtive affair in 1950s America. Todd Haynes' precise, elegant filmmaking and the careful choreography of stolen moments echo Obsessed's aesthetic and its understanding of desire as transgression.

But The social context matters to the story—if you're not moved by period-specific homophobic oppression as dramatic weight, the film loses its emotional foundation.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon2000

Ang Lee's wuxia masterpiece channels unrequited love and duty through graceful action and landscape. Like Obsessed, it's about characters bound by honor and hierarchy who cannot speak what they feel, expressed through visual restraint and sudden eruptions.

But The martial arts scenes may feel decorative if you're not attuned to them as emotional expression rather than spectacle.

The Deep Blue Sea2011

Terence Davies' chamber piece about a woman undone by love for a younger, unsuitable man. Post-war London stands in for constraint; the film shares Obsessed's fascination with how passion unmakes the orderly self.

But It's relentlessly interior and sad, with minimal plot. If you need external momentum or hopeful resolution, you'll find it punishing rather than cathartic.

A Ghost Story2017

David Lowery's meditative film about loss, time, and love's persistence beyond reason. Though structurally different from Obsessed, both are interested in how attachment haunts us—how we remain tethered to what we cannot have.

But It's cryptic and oblique, moving at the pace of grief rather than narrative. Many find it pretentious or impenetrably abstract rather than moving.

Andrei Rublev1966

Both are constructed as visual and emotional essays on the self's containment. Both suggest that the most profound human experiences cannot be adequately spoken.

Tarkovsky's epic about a medieval icon painter grappling with violence, faith, and artistic creation. Visually ravishing and emotionally austere, it shares Obsessed's belief that restraint and formal beauty can convey depths that words cannot. A complete transfiguration of the register—from intimate affair to cosmic struggle—but identical in method.

But It's 205 minutes, black-and-white, Russian, and philosophically dense. Its pace is ceremonial. Most contemporary viewers will find it forbiddingly difficult rather than rewarding.