South Korean actress Ok So-ri (star of films such as Kwak Jae-yong’s A Sketch of a Rainy Day, Kwak Ji-kyun’s Portrait of Youth and Kang Jeong-su’s A Pale Rainy Day) was convicted Wednesday of adultery, a conviction that under South Korean law could have meant jail time.

Ok So-ri was married to popular radio personality Park Chul when she began an affair with an opera singer. She’s spent much of the past year fighting not only to avoid jail time, but to change the conservative South Korean laws.

A popular actor who has campaigned in vain to overturn South Korea’s ban on adultery was given a suspended prison sentence on December 17 after she admitted having an affair with a singer. The court sentenced Ok So-ri to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. Her lover received a six-month suspended sentence.

Earlier this year the 40-year-old actor unsuccessfully fought against the criminalisation of adultery, which is part of the country’s 55-year-old criminal code. In a case taken to the country’s constitutional court, her lawyers argued that the law amounted to an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. “The adultery law has degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage,” they argued. In October the court upheld the ban.

South Korea remains deeply conservative and is influenced by a Confucian heritage despite decades of western influence. Supporters of the adultery ban say it promotes monogamy and keeps families intact.

[From The Guardian]

Can you believe this? We all joke about ZOMG Homewreckers and parse the words of many of these celebrities (well, some of us are joking) but for it actually to come to criminal court? And in such a seemingly-progressive country like South Korea, it just astounds me. The Guardian ran a follow-up story with comments from the convicted adulterer.

Having already lost both custody of her daughter and her fight to persuade South Korea’s constitutional court to overturn a 1953 anti-adultery law, actor Ok So-ri has been given a suspended eight-month prison sentence for her affair with an opera singer.

Ok’s former husband, radio personality Park Chul, had demanded an 18-month tariff, but the judge recognised that Park’s lifestyle was partly responsible for the breakdown of the marriage and that Ok had suffered considerable distress during the case.

On leaving court, Ok told reporters, “I would like to say I’m sorry for causing so much trouble to society.” It remains to be seen how the verdict will affect the career of an actor who is little known in the west but is hugely popular in South Korea…

[From The Guardian]

Okay, now the ex-husband is just pissing me off. He gets sole custody of their daughter, he publicly humiliates his ex-wife and most likely destroyed her career, and he’s still pushing for her to do jail time?!? I realize the guy’s pride was hurt, but this just seems like the worst kind of bitterness and institutionalized societal misogyny.

The Guardian film-blogger David Parkinson does compare-and-contrast with other famous film-star “homewrecking” scandals, name-checking Brangelina and Isabella Rossellini, which I tend to think is entirely inappropriate. Here’s the difference – Rossellini, Jolie and Pitt were never criminally charged with adultery.