A wife is in despair when she finds out about her husband’s infidelity. Out of guilt, the husband decides they will move to the idyllic countryside to console her. There the wife meets an attractive yet pessimistic doctor who draws her into a passionate affair. Ardor may seem like a hackneyed tale of adultery, but it is a sensitive and poetic portrayal of a woman caught in traditional wedlock who must deal with betrayal and a new relationship. Filmmaker Byun Young-joo, known for her documentaries about women fallen victim to history, focuses on the general frictions experienced by a woman who believed she was content. The filmmaker chooses an alternative approach to the question of what it is to be a woman living in Korea. (Huh Moon-yung)