A Frozen Flower (霜花店:朕的男人) is a 2008 film out of Korea. The movie stars Jo In-sung, Ju Jin-mo, and Song Ji-hyo.
The movie is based in Ancient Korea near the end of the Goryeo Dynasty. The King, played by Ju Jin-mo, seeks to rid his kingdom of control from China's Yuan Dynasty. One move he makes is to recruit and train up an elite group of body guards called the Kunryongwe. As it turns out, the King is actually gay and began an affair with the chief of the body guards, Hong Lim, played by Jo In-sung. But the king starts to take pressure from the imperial court when no heir is on the horizon. The Yuan force their hand by suggesting a crown prince. This would essentially nullify the King's powers. With no other viable options, the King recruits Hong to impregnant the Queen, played by Song Ji-hyo. However, emotions develop and it becomes a love triangle.
A Frozen Flower wraps ancient imperial court drama and the confines of royalty. The story was suggestive at first, went into detail, went suggestive again, before it finished off in tragedy.
I think I read somewhere that this was a follow up to the King and The Clown. I haven't seen King and The Clown, but I'll go out on a limb and say that the subject matter was very different, but still based on in the imperial courts. Politics, Politics. Intriguing story to say the least.
The unfortunate thing about this movie is that it spends so much time on the flesh that it doesn't do a good job selling the characters. The political rules are presented very well, but there was not enough character development to make me care. Why should we care? When tragedy befalls them, so what? In the end, I was ultimately disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment