Sado

Superb acting, beautiful costuming, elaborate sets, and engrossing locations mark this powerful tale of the strained relationships that exist between all fathers and their sons.

Over a period of eight days, an 18th. century Korean king punishes his only son for attempted regicide. Flashbacks reveal the chain of events that led the son to rebel against his father while the women and courtiers who love them both struggle to deal with the growing conflict.

What works for The Throne is that the movie evinces a common family psychological dynamic that exists between almost all fathers and their sons, but the dynamic is amplified by the fact that the family in question is a royal family and the stakes are higher. As all fathers struggle to challenge and build their sons without breaking them and as all sons endeavor to prove themselves and earn their fathers' seemingly unattainable respect, The Throne shows us how severe that dynamic can be when the fate of an entire country is at stake.

There is something for everyone in The Throne as fathers and sons might learn something about the other side's feelings and motivations while other family members and friends can relate to the helpless frustration of watching their loved ones fight each other.

With all of that psychoanalysis stated, The Throne also delivers exceptionally well for viewers who enjoy lavish costume dramas about royal families and their courtiers and/or period pieces about Asian history and culture. In summary, The Throne is excellent story telling.

I have nothing bad to say about the storytelling. In the last 20 minutes of the film, I cried like I never did before while watching a movie. The last time I cried while watching a movie was with The Road Home (Zang Ziyi). It's very painful. A father forced to wait for the death of his son for a week. It must have been very painful for both the father and the son.

On the other hand, this film is not only true to history. It is also authentic and realistic. This is the first Korean period piece that presents the royal family like those in the paintings. The king, queen, and his concubines are not good looking. They look like real people contrary to those sageuk we used to watch where lead stars are all dolled up. The prosthetics of the elder monarchs show reality of old age. I appreciate this aspect of the film.

When I watched period dramas that present the early like of King Yeongjo, I really thought that he would be both a great father and king. I mean, King Sukjong was a great father and Suk-bin Choi was a caring mother for Pri NBC e Yeoning-gun (Yeongjo). But perhaps being a child prodigy himself, King Yeongjo expected too much from his court especially from his heir. He became a disciplinarian parent and king. His knowledge of Confucian teachings dis not help him become a good father. He never appreciated his son on his achievements. He berated him for his mistakes. All sons, princes or commoners, need love from their parents. I don't believe that a royal family is different from any other family when expressing love and care for children. This film tells us that too much adherence to rules dehumanizes a person. A son longing for a father's warmth developed depression. And a father knowing his son is already losing mind isolated himself even more from his son. Tragic.

Any time Yoo Ah-In is in the film or series, he will reward viewers with his talent, and he always seems to be maturing as an artist. This film is one of SK's finest and one of the actor's best performances. It is also based on a true story that is painful to watch unfold as it does in "The Throne", perhaps too slowly, yet the closure is also beautiful.

My respect goes to Yoo Ah-in (Crown Prince Sado)for his performance, though there were other quite good performances as well. I have watched many Korean films, and was surprised to have not seen Yoo Ah-in's face before, so I googled his name. He appears to have been a model before taking on acting, and rightfully so based on his good looks. Not sure if modeling came before acting, but either way, this guy is not just another pretty face actor. There were a couple of scenes in the film where his character simply commanded me to well-up. The "trivia of decorum" is a phrase that stuck with me after watching this film. The only advantage of being the first born boy to a monarch in many ancient cultures (not just Asian), was that you were at least guaranteed meals, especially if times were hard. Otherwise, the pressures on young heirs seems to have been almost unbearable.

Yoo ah in performance shredded my heart into a thousand peice. He a true artist and deserves all the respect in the world. The throne is about a father-son relationship that got ruined because of politics and royal blood. After reading about prince sado, the events of the movie were 100% accurate BUT it didn't include everything in order for us as the viewers to feel compassion and sympathy for prince sado, the movie didn't include alot of his wrong doings (killings/rape/violence ) that were recorded by his wife (one of his wives to be more accurate).