Ssang-hwa-jeom

I didn't think that a film about a homosexual king persuading his lover to sleep with the Queen to produce an heir would be very exciting. But as so often happens, it was. I've watched this twice now, and appreciated the film a lot more the second time around.

The lead characters are well drawn, the dialog is interesting, the acting is excellent - heck, I even liked the music. There's not an over-abundance of battle and fight scenes, but what scenes there were were well -staged, and I thought the final scenes were as good as anything I've seen.

And, of course, there's sex - lots of bare-bottomed bare-breasted, tongue in tongue, man on man, man on woman sex. But none of it descends into sleaziness and perhaps because Ji-hyo Song is such a beautiful woman (and, dare I say it, In-seong Jo is such a beautiful man) the scenes don't become tedious as they do in so many other other movies. The scenes are completely integral to the movie. Funnily enough, I've always thought of the French as being the only ones capable pf handling sex in cinema properly. The Germans and Spanish and Australians always tend towards crudity, the Americans invariably imbue their sex scenes with their childish puritanism, and sex in Asian cinema can be downright ludicrous. But having said that, the most erotic and interesting sex scenes I've seen have all been in Asian movies - "Samsara", "Erotic Ghost Story", "A Frozen Flower".

I really like this film - it gets a 9/10 from me.

I found this movie accidentally which also led me to start watching several South Korean soap operas later.

I want to explain why the director employed such intensive sexually explicit scenes in the movie. One reason might be sex is the most powerful and primitive human behavior which would carry out the subsequently tragic endings.

All to be said and done, this movie gave me such reflections which I felt the story couldn't be better. The struggling between conscious and desires is forceful enough to overwhelm audience's mind. The scenes and customs were also splendid in details.

One thing I would like to point out is I watched both English and Chinese subtitles of this movie. Not to mention that Chinese version is way better. I think the language barrier can affect how you see the movie. The culture difference between east and west also have impacts.

It is loosely based on history. The plot was unexpected and mind blowing. Some reviews criticized the young actor who played the guard was not veteran enough. I would differ over that because the director tried to portray the young man's first love which would be longing, obsessed and addicted. The affection between the guard and queen was growing from lust to love. If you can imagine the society at that time which the two lovers could only express their affections privately, you will understand why the director used extensive sexual contents in this movie. However, the third part of their mating was excessive and unnecessary which only served for box office ticket sale.

If you like those eastern historian movies, you probably should understand the society some. Then you will see the movies in different way.

In this story, we have a gay king, in love with his chief bodyguard, who needs to produce an heir with his queen. Unable to perform with a woman, he commands his lover bodyguard to do the deed in his stead. While initially this is met with resistance, the bodyguard obeys the king's command with unforeseen consequences.

This ended up being a great movie. It is well written, acted and filmed. The costuming, as well as the settings, are vibrant and ornate creating significant visual appeal. The characters are passionate and sincere. Even the music plays a part in pulling you into an experience.

I enjoyed this far more than I expected to and I love films that can surprise me like this.

I've just finished watching it it's such a great move it's like an emotional rollercoaster but the movie has a lot of erotic scenes I love their acting God their facial expressions were priceless the ending was full of emotion gooood I'm dying here I love the movie

Wow, what a terrific movie! I originally just wanted to see it because of the "hot Asian men in love" theme, but it delivered so much more than that. Palace intrigue equal to anything Shakespeare ever wrote, for starters. The relationship between the leads, the king and his bodyguard, is intense to watch but the story spins out beyond that in multiple directions. Aside from the story, the film is just beautiful in terms of gorgeous sets, vibrant colors and fabulous costuming. I wanted to pause about a dozen times just to get decorating tips, since I love Chinese furnishings! Add in beautiful actors (and let's face it, one with a particularly nice butt), and the visuals alone are compelling. Without giving away anything, suffice to say that the palace intrigues keep exploding until the probably-inevitable conclusion. Truly an interesting ride from beginning to end. And yet another refreshing break from the mountains of Hollywood drivel. I'd sooner watch this again than another "car chases and explosions" piece of garbage anytime.