Hoo-goong: Je-wang-eui cheob

This is probably a good, or maybe even great, movie. I struggled through the entire thing. I am a native English speaker with a Masters degree ... I CAN read English. The sub titles appear on the screen and are gone too fast for anyone to completely read. Countless times I had to stop the film and skip back to read the subtitle. It was IMPOSSIBLE to take in the subtitle content and to appreciate the beautiful photography. The subtitle appeared on the screen as the actor began to speak and then immediately disappeared as their line was finished. Leaving the subtitle up for perhaps another 5 seconds, as in other subtitled movies (and I watch a lot of them), would have solved the problem. Such a shame to ruin a beautiful film with such a stupid technical error.

Set during the Choson Dynasty this film involves a young prince by the name of "Sungwon" (Dong-wook Kim) falling in love with a nobleman's daughter named "Hwa-Yeon" (Heo-heong Jo). Unfortunately, although she knows of Prince Sunwon's attraction for her, she has fallen in love with another young man by the name of "Kwon-Yoo" (Min-Joon Kim) instead. So one night, overcome by their devotion to each other, both Hwa-Yeon and Kwon-Yoo make the fateful decision to run away together rather than abide by custom or family tradition. Unfortunately, after sleeping together that night, they are caught the next morning and in a desperate effort to spare Kwon-Yoo's life, Hwa-Yeon tells her father that she will now consent to become Prince Sungwon's concubine. What she doesn't know is that, although her father agrees to spare his life, as a penalty for shaming the family Kwon-Yoo is castrated that very night. To make things even worse, when she arrives at the palace the "Queen Mother" (played by Ji-Young Park) takes an immediate dislike to her and does everything in her power to reduce Hwa-Yeon's status there from that point on. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I was very impressed at the overall depth of this movie as the plot was extremely intricate and the acting was first-rate as well. Be advised, however, that there are a couple of very graphic sex scenes which definitely precludes this picture from being seen by a younger audience. Be that as it may, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and have rated it accordingly.

You would think this movie is solely a movie about two guys wanting the same woman and being willing to do anything to have her. While this is a part of the film it is only a small part of a much larger drama that has much more to do with mothers.

The title is a bit confusing and I can only assume that it was named such due to a "Spilling the Beans" moment in the film. There is sex but not in the volumes that one might expect by the title.

The acting was quite well and I could really feel the emotional energy from the female characters coming through. It was filmed well but the scripting was convoluted in places and could've been delivered just as well with a few things omitted.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. I liked our female characters and the obsessive nature, be it fueled by jealousy, lust or revenge, of the males. Glad I found and watched it and I will be recommending it as a nice work of dramatic historical fiction.

Yeo Jeong Cho displays her body in a few surprisingly graphic sex scenes in Kama Sutra like positions. The story is a Borgia type one with an evil queen who rules with ruthlessness to further her control. Her son has no power and his queen, played by Cho, makes attempts to save her father and keep her son safe from the scheeming queen. The scenery is gorgeous and the film a great one.

Things jump quickly from one thing to another and it was hard to follow what was going on. Felt like a series on fast forward. Just couldn't keep up with the different characters. Why they did what they did isn't explained well.