The only complain I have about the film was the extensive sex scenes, it was too much to the eye. In a story like this, audience are more interested in the story than the sexual portrayals. A one extensive scene between the King and Hong Rim and between Hong Rim and the Queen would be enough but in every encounter between Hong Rim and the Queen the scenes are no longer pleasant to the eyes.
I love the ending where the audience are given to chance to have their own conclusion as how Hong Rim really felt. Whether he really love the King or not. Seeing Jo In Sung in this kind of film was shocking and suprising I doubt he will do this kind of film again. Jo In Sung is my favorite Korean actor by the way.
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The storyline follows a homosexual king (Joo Jin Mo) and how he rules, hides and overcomes his desires. Personally, I felt the storyline controversial topic in the depicted culture/ era; plus my investigation revealed the possibility of truth in it which makes it that more provocative and debatable in my head as each sexual scene or plots was introduced.
The love triangle that forms is well thought through and broke down in a manner that may be relatable. The unfortunate status Jo In Sung finds himself born into additional to catching the king’s eye was heart breaking to watch as well as strengthening to observe his loyalty (brilliant acting by Jo In Sung as always).
ACTING: 9/10 - CHARACTERS: 7.5/10
All three main actors/ actress (Joo Jin Mo, Jo In Sung and Song Ji Hyo) delivered a believable performance of their roles; especially during the sex scenes. I totally did not expect such intimate scenes, both the heterosexual and homosexual ones for an Asian based film (a step out of the norm).
Every plot delivered is presented in a manner that derives emotions of sadness; together with the straight faces of the actors made certain scenes overly tense as the fear of suspense filled me.
MUSIC: 6.5/10
LIKED – Despite it making me a tad uncomfortable, I liked that despite it being a known taboo in mainstream Asian films; this did not stop them from showing such in-depth sex scenes.
DISLIKED – More on a personal note as a heterosexual individual the homosexual scenes made me uncomfortable to watch but do acknowledge their relevance in the film.
CONCLUSION:
You should watch this drama if you enjoy genres such as SUSPENSE – FORBIDDEN LOVE – HOMOSEXUALITY – GREAT PLOT – SLICE OF LIFE – WAR – HOPE – GREAT ACTING – NON FICTION – EMOTIONAL.
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This review may contain spoilers
What caught my intention was the female lead (she's a regular on Running Man)
I was not expecting the vivid sex scenes in this movie, and honestly it didn't bother me as much as the storyline. The story is about a selfish king (who is gay), and from a young age, he preys on the little boys who are in training to be guards. BTW, I was shocked seeing this within the first 5 minutes of the movie. One of the guards grows up and becomes close with the king. The king probably brainwashed the guard into sleeping with him, as kings in those days had authority, and probably would kill a person and their family if they rejected the king's request. The king doesn't have an heir to the throne, and instead of fulfilling his duties as king by impregnating his wife the queen, he would rather be dethroned, send his wife to basically live as an exiled queen (aka nun), or offer his wife (the queen) to sleep with his bodyguard male lover. This happens all within the first 30 minutes. Honestly, I am disgusted with the storyline. None of this screams romance.Note: My review maybe bias, as I am not interested in BL dramas or movies.
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This review may contain spoilers
This film isn't usually my fair, but I came for the BL and felt a little cheated. It almost felt that the King was a villain, but honestly there were none, it was just a series of events that ended in a tragedy.
I don't understand people's issue with the ending. I can see where they might be coming from if I had a high-powered microscope, but to me it felt like that was the overall theme...loss.
The king had loved chief Hong for years only to have the betrayal of not being loved back and to be told, and I even think Hong during back to the King with the single tear was his apology because in saying no, was the only way for the king to let him go and fight him seriously...
Overall the movie was gripping, I always think Asian films just go overboard with straight sex like they're trying to redeem themselves for some reason, but the whole film kept me invested
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Could be gayer?!
Warning: This movie is for 18+ viewers ONLY.A year ago, I came across this movie but it wasn’t available anywhere so I read the summary on Wikipedia and gave up! Now about a week ago, by complete dumb luck, I found the movie on a website and thought I’ll watch it, anyway. It’s a good movie. The production, the story, the acting, etc. were all nice. On top of it all, it has a well-executed love triangle of the type I like. So it was a shoo-in for 10/10. It’s just…I liked the first two-thirds but the third act was kind of…meh? I wanna say it was a total sad surprise but I kind of could already tell I wouldn’t like the ending when I read that summary a year ago. No, it’s not negative bias that affected my judgment. Because when I started watching the movie, I expected to be underwhelmed but the movie surprised me by how good it was. Then the third act happened!
I’m really conflicted over this film. About how I felt about it and what to rate it. I said I’ll give myself some time to think it over but a week later and I’m still none the wiser.
You should check this out if you like:
1. Historical fiction
2. Tragic endings
3. Love triangles
4. Internal conflicts
5. Betrayals and moral ambiguity
Summary: The king of Goryeo is gay. He’s been sleeping with his chief of guards (whom he may or may not have groomed since childhood) for a long time. The problem is that Goryeo is now a vassal state of the Yuan dynasty and if the king can’t provide an heir, his country will basically get taken away from him. So, the king has the brilliant idea to have his queen and lover provide an heir for him…because that would still be in the family, right? Well… wrong!
Plot: Love triangles get a bad rep because these days we are sort of sick of them and also because they have turned into formulas that are uninspired, repetitive, and stale. Back in the noughties (The author of this review was on a noughties drama nostalgia bender at the time of watching this movie and reviewing it!) the trope wasn’t done to death yet and people still had the guts to go really wild with their love triangles. That’s the kind I love. Like here, where all three points of the triangle are involved with each other romantically and everyone is simultaneously in love with the others and jealous of them. It’s a MESS! And believe it or not, love triangles are only fun to watch when they are really bunkers. If you can already tell which side will end up together, then it’s not a love triangle. That’s two people in a relationship and a stalker. Anyway, this movie really impressed me because, for two-thirds of it, it delivers all the delicious, terrible feelings of being in love with your love rival and feeling hella conflicted and guilty about it. The final act though was rather tonally different. It was still great. The best of the acting happens during that time and it’s packed with plot and action but it fails to deliver the satisfying emotional punch that was building up in the first two acts, for me. Because while things seemed ambiguous and uncertain before, the last act tries to deliver fast and concrete answers to those questions and it cheapens the story that was told before.
The acting: It was great. I wasn’t super impressed with Jo In Sung here. His expression began to meld into the same two after a while. (But then I watched WHIB right after this, so I think he’s great anyway!) Joo Jin Mo was really good though. A Standout. Everyone else was fine. I wanna pour a drink out for the female lead who had to do so many explicit scenes though. Girl, I wouldn’t wanna be you. That looked so awkward.
Music: Great music elevated the emotional scenes in the film. It set the sad and somber mood perfectly and was also pleasant to listen to.
Rewatch value: Probably not. It’s a tragedy and has too many explicit scenes.
Negatives: For the record, yes, it does matter if the story has gay romance or not. The whole conflict exists because of the issue of sexuality so there’s no way to think about the plot by pretending the tension would still exist if the love triangle wasn’t set up the way that it was. Because the thing that makes this movie interesting and watch-worthy and the thing that sets it apart is the fact that it is known for the relationship between the king and the guard dude. If the guard was just a friend, the story would immediately be way less interesting. That would be something they would make nowadays. Not the noughties!!! With that said, I think the story was a bit conflicted in itself. Like they hesitated to lean into the implications. It didn’t know if it wanted to be about the tragic gay couple or the star-crossed straight couple and that hurts the last act because a lot of the nuance disappears as the king and the guard take the shape of stereotypical rivals more and more. The thing is, by modern standards, the straight part is not a love story at all. It’s just a physical relationship so there’s just no charisma to it. I couldn’t root for the guard and the queen to save my life! They have nothing in common except their physical desires. I can’t fault the story though. In a historical setting, I can understand how that was as good as either one could wish for. It’s just that their romance became the main drive of the last act and that was just not a strong enough romance to carry the plot. So it’s a bit less interesting to watch than when everyone is in love with everyone or married to them and they have all these feelings of lust and betrayal and confusion that they don’t know what to do with.
There were also way too many explicit scenes! Omg, just…so many! Why?! I fast-forwarded most of that because I just couldn’t stomach it. It almost looked clinical. Really disturbing. I felt so sorry for the actors…just YIKES!
Overall: The film has such a perfect set-up. When we meet the characters, the king and the chief guard seem to have a very good and intimate relationship. Same with the King and Queen who though obviously not romantic, still get along. The queen and the chief guard have this mellow rivalry which is very polite and respectful in appearance and the political unrest is interesting. Then the stuff happens and the conflicts are deliciously tantalizing as we see the three characters torture themselves and each other with their silences, with the things they keep from each other, and the stuff they want but can't have. It’s just such an interesting story to tell. The ending is still good even if it doesn’t live up to its potential. The beginning promises an epic fallout and we do get one. It’s just that it could have been an even BIGGER fallout. I think it’s worth a watch. It’s a very well-made movie.
Sidenote: If you think about it, all the problems would be solved if Hong Rim could just identify as a bisexual.
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If I will be given a chance, I really want to change how it ends because it so painful.
I despised the king because of what he had done to his lover yet I understand the cause he was madly in-love. I hope he just made sacrifices and set free his lover with the queen. Time could tell if they were truly meant for each other.
This was truly a MASTERPIECE and fascinating because it was released in early 2000s.
I hope there will be more films having the same plot like this...
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Mind blowing
This movie literally blew my brain up and changed my worldview. It was shocking and beautiful. It was my first experience with this type of production and the last one. There is simply nothing like A Frozen Flower.It is not a perfect movie, but it is certainly an interesting aesthetic experience. The story itself is beautiful, but a little shocking, so for me personally, it's a beautiful film that I never come back to.
Without a doubt, the best thing about the movie is the story itself. I must also praise the costumes and photos. The music is not memorable to me, hence the slightly lower rating.
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the actors were great... and i admit the JO IN SUNG is great actor
i watched it's ok that's love _ that winter the wind blows
and this one
in each one he represents a different personality.... and he is great in every single one of them....
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This review may contain spoilers
The whole review is a spoiler
I'll start by saying, I was forced to rate this 1 Star since there aren't negative stars available.I'm an elderly adult female who has 5 children, so I'm no prude when it comes to sex.
The story: A teenage King who groomed a pubescent boy to be his lover in the guise of "service" to the King who was homosexual and disgusted at the thought of being with a woman. The King needed an heir to keep his reign (or be killed). The King offered the services of his Chief Guard (his lover) to impregnate the Queen and hopefully no one would be the wiser that it wasn't the King's heir. The Chief & the Queen fell in lust with one another (love?, NO.) after sneaking around behind the King's back well beyond the required "services". They both were escaping a Stockholm syndrome situation with the King so they thought they "loved" each other. The King had the Chief's doonie cut off (castrated) in response to him being "betrayed" by the Chief & the Queen. The Queen had been impregnated so the King's plan did work, but now the King had to shut everyone up since too many people knew it was the Chief and not the King who had gotten the Queen pregnant. The Chief, infuriated by not having a doonie anymore, and not having a future with the Queen, decided to kill the King. The King had also killed the Queen's maid and hung her head on a pike with the Queen's sachet (given to her by the Chief) making the Chief think the King had killed her. This gave the Chief all the more reason to kill the King. The Chief killed the King. The Chief was finished off by the other Guards and both bodies were to be hidden. The Queen could give birth to the throne's heir, and everyone could not live happily ever after. The end.
TL;TR: A gay King needed an heir, offered his lover Chief Guard to service the Queen to impregnate her. The plan backfired . The King wanted to kill everyone involved, and was killed by the Chief. The end.
Korean films take leeway in explicit content, whereas their dramas don't.
SERIOUSLY, the movie should have a disclaimer attached to it (on Viki) as an erotic film, a Trigger Warning for sexual abuse (or grooming), pedophilia, explicit sexual scenes, nudity, & extreme violence. It also is not a BL movie and shouldn't be labeled as such. Anything less is being irresponsible.
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