The Treacherous

I watched this movie not expecting much, considering it's probably not the best budget movie out there, but was really impressed with how the story caught me. It contains a good dose of intelligent political intrigue and and the beginning and the end are well chosen.

When the seemingly mad king orders a search for the "perfect beauty", it's subjects search around all the land for beautiful women and drag them to the palace offering them a royal life or, if they're not choose in the end, slavery.

It's a good depiction of the madness of an absolute power and as the story goes forward, the women contest become itself a political contest, for the ministries and other subjects in the palace know that the chosen girl will have a tremendous power over the crazy king. Eventually, different sides do whatever it takes to classify their favored candidates, and the king's madness has its peak when he finds about possible traitors inside the contest, adding to his paranoia.

After all, I found it to be very intelligent overall. The king's madness is shown progressing in the course of the movie, the scenario was beautifully recreated and the scenes (although they might be uncomfortable if you're not watching alone) are pretty good. All in all, it's a remarkable movie.

Well pun aside (sorry for that or not), it is not always the case that it gets better with more. You have more to choose from sure, but you have to make sure to please everyone (on another pun, but I just had to, right?).

This may feel like it has a lot of - not sure how to put it ... let's say the Treacherous and 10000 concubines does sound like there is going to be a lot of nudity and more. While there is more than a fair amount of nudity and sexual situations (including thigh crushing action, which unfortunately never really gets paid off), this also has a lot of action too. Which includes blood and violence - of course there have been way more explicit movies in both regards. But combining those two things (with historical setting), may not be everyones cup of tea.

Korean movies have no issue to show more than just violence - and they do make really good movies. This may not be the best they've done, but if you do like the Eastern genre, you will like the movie too. I watched the longer cut (not sure what was cut from the theatrical cut), so not sure how this will compare to the shorter cut, if you watch that.

Note: Check me out as the "Asian Movie Enthusiast" on YouTube, where I review tons of Asian movies.

The Treacherous (2015) (South Korean Drama).

After being engulfed with insanity and revenge, a prince demands beautiful women (regardless of age, marriage status, or social class) to be rounded up for his personal pleasure – this caused widespread anger in the kingdom. One of the would-be sex slaves makes an impression, but his long-time friend also has eyes for her. This film has some serious balls, and will likely offend many viewers with its immoral male characters, its wild tonal shifts, and its depiction of women (who inexplicably become very willing to be sex slaves once they enter the palace). However, this is way more interesting than one might think. Although this is primarily a drama, it does have a few highly entertaining doses of humor. There's a lengthy, hilarious "training" sequence where the women are formally educated in the art of sexual pleasure. The prince is a psycho nutcase, which provides some entertainment value in itself. Of course, there are some disturbing moments of graphic violence mixed in, which creates those oddly captivating tonal shifts. Despite the plethora of sexual references, there are only a small handful of sex scenes shown (one of which is a fairly graphic girl-on-girl intercourse). Performances are solid; the story and characters have an engaging dynamic. This film is beautifully shot and has a great visual style about it, with outstanding production values and set designs. A particularly abrasive film from South Korea, but I couldn't stop watching.

I didn't know anything about this being a true story, as some reviewers have said here, before watching this. As a narrative story I found this a little all over the place. I was never sure who was who and whose side they were all on, although I think that may be lost in translation and more of a 'me' thing.

The acting of the king was simply ridiculous, crazed one minute and crying the next.

The sets, the cinematography and the costumes are wonderful and although the story may be difficult at times, the film is always a delight to look at.

References to this being the Korean Caligula on the right track. This is not a film for the feint of heart.

A slow and overlong historical drama from South Korea, telling the story of one of that country's most sadistic kings and his mad reign. It's a little similar to CALIGULA in that respect and the king's two corrupt advisors serve to only increase the drama in the film. However, like Tinto Brass's film version of the Caligula story, this film focuses on the sexuality of the situation to its detriment. It could have been really interesting had it focused on the political intrigue in an engaging way, but instead it merely wallows in explicit sexuality and the degradation of women, which isn't something that I particularly wanted to see.