The Taste of Money

🧠 Plot Summary

The Taste of Money is an erotic drama exposing the moral decay hidden beneath Korea’s ultra-wealthy elite. The narrative centres on Yoon, a young and loyal personal secretary to Baek Geum-ok, the powerful matriarch of a vast corporate empire. Geum-ok rules with ruthless control, while her husband, President Yoon, secretly carries on an affair with their Filipina maid, Eva.

When Geum-ok discovers this betrayal, she coerces Yoon into having sex with her as revenge and assertion of dominance. Yoon is drawn deeper into the family’s toxic orbit, navigating their erotic power games, corporate corruption, and violent secrets. As the daughter Nami develops feelings for Yoon, the tragic web tightens: Geum-ok orders Eva’s murder to erase shame, President Yoon commits suicide in guilt, and Yoon is left morally shattered.

By the film’s end, the cycle of power, sex, and money remains unbroken, revealing an unflinching portrait of a world where everything – and everyone – is for sale.

🎭 Characters and Performances

• Yoon (Kim Kang-woo)
  Kim Kang-woo portrays Yoon with understated vulnerability. Initially devoted and ambitious, his character’s arc into moral disintegration is grounded in silent emotional turbulence, evoking both pity and unease.

• Baek Geum-ok (Youn Yuh-jung)
  Youn Yuh-jung delivers a powerful performance as the domineering matriarch. Her portrayal fuses elegance with ruthless cruelty, embodying an ageing woman clinging to power through sexual and financial manipulation.

• President Yoon (Baek Yoon-sik)
  Baek Yoon-sik captures the cold emptiness of a man corrupted by wealth. His guilt-driven suicide serves as the film’s haunting moral commentary.

• Nami (Kim Hyo-jin)
  As the daughter caught between familial duty and personal freedom, Kim Hyo-jin adds emotional depth, especially in scenes revealing her longing for genuine love amid pervasive corruption.

• Eva (Maui Taylor)
  The maid whose affair triggers the family’s unraveling, her tragic death symbolises the expendability of the powerless within elite structures.

🎥 Themes and Symbolism

• Sex as Power
  Throughout the film, sex is used as currency and control, with no genuine intimacy. Geum-ok’s seduction of Yoon is not desire but domination, reflecting the family’s transactional worldview.

• Money’s Corruptive Force
  Director Im Sang-soo portrays wealth as corrosive, eroding morality until only greed and loneliness remain. Every character’s action is dictated by financial leverage or status.

• Class Exploitation
  Eva’s murder exemplifies how the poor are dispensable. Her life, love, and death are mere footnotes in the rich family’s narrative of entitlement.

🎞️ Cinematic Style and Atmosphere

Im Sang-soo crafts the film with sleek, cold aesthetics: minimalist mansion interiors, sterile boardrooms, and quiet tension-filled hallways. The cinematography favours long, static takes, amplifying discomfort and highlighting characters trapped in their artificial world.

The soundtrack is restrained, focusing instead on the silence of wealth’s isolation—punctuated by the hum of luxury appliances or quiet sobs, intensifying the film’s suffocating moral decay.

⭐ Reception and Interpretation

• Critical Response
  The Taste of Money received mixed reviews. Critics praised its fearless depiction of erotic power dynamics and Youn Yuh-jung’s performance, but some found its narrative bleakness and sexual explicitness overshadowed thematic nuance.

• Festival and Box Office
  Premiering at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, it garnered attention for its provocative content. While box office returns were moderate, its stark portrayal of Korea’s elite class cemented its status as an impactful erotic corporate thriller.

• Audience Takeaways
  Viewers were divided; some admired its bold critique of wealth’s moral vacuum, while others dismissed it as sensationalist. However, its haunting depiction of sex as commerce remains memorable.

✅ Final Verdict

The Taste of Money (2012) is a chilling erotic drama that strips away the glamorous veneer of Korea’s upper class to expose rotting moral foundations. Anchored by fearless performances, especially from Youn Yuh-jung, the film delivers an unflinching commentary on power, sex, and money as intertwined forces of destruction. For viewers drawn to dark social critiques with sensual yet unsettling undertones, this film offers a compelling, if discomforting, experience.