One of Cannes' last competition entries "The Taste of Money" looks at sex, power and corruption in Korean high society.
 
The movie follows on from South Korean director Im Sang-Woo's hit Cannes Film Festival debut 2010's "The Housemaid".
 
"Money" is a highly-stylized movie which tells the story of a conglomerate family, with returning actress Yoon Yeo-Jeong of "Housemaid" fame, as the matriarch.
 
Her husband, played by Kim Kang-Woo, is having an affair with the Filipino housemaid and plans to run off with her. But his powerful wife has other evil plans.
 
Director Im Sang-Woo said the film inspired upper class women in an unusual way.
 
"The very rich Koreans live exactly like the characters of the movie so it might upset some of them. I heard the spouses of very rich men came to see the movie and took inspiration to decorate their homes," he told the news conference on Saturday, May 26.
 
Yoon Yeo-Jeong said the film shows the emergence of strong female voices.
 
"The female characters by Im Sang-Soo and those by Hang Sang-Soo are quite different. I think Im Sang-soo tries to describe to show his female characters in a very progressive way. If we say that the old man sleeps with a young woman it will shock less people, they would say it's normal but the other way around it would shock more people and especially in South Korea, everybody's going to find that horrible. This is why I think Im Sang-soo tries to show men and women in equal situations, positions."
 
The director said the movie is sure to rile a few feathers.
 
"After the writing of my scenario, I had many difficulties to get the funding but I finally managed to shoot the movie. I am not a man who follows other people's opinions and I think it's a characteristic that artists must have. My movies probably bother some business leaders in South Korea. They must have found my critiques quite boring because they're about them but I think you have to express what you think and I call for a certain tolerance from the people who will get to see my movie."
 
He also joked with a journalist when asked how a global audience can identify with what the reporter said was a Korean story.
 
"I am a South Korean director from a small village in the Far East but don't think that what I'm doing is just cute, you have to be careful because from now on I will not only criticize the South Korean society because it's too small, I will also attack the whites."
 
The Palme d'Or will be announced on Sunday, May 27. — Reuters