| A Frozen Flower | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster |
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| Hangul | 쌍화점 |
| Hanja | 霜花店 |
| RR | Ssanghwajeom |
| MR | Ssanghwajŏm |
| Directed by | Yoo Ha |
| Produced by | Lee Tae-heon |
| Written by | Yoo Ha |
| Starring | Zo In Sung Ju Jin-mo Song Ji-hyo |
| Editing by | Park Gok-ji |
| Studio | Offers Pictures |
| Distributed by | Showbox |
| Release date(s) | 30 December 2008 |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean Mongol |
| Budget | US$10 million |
| Gross revenue | $18,980,564 |
A Frozen Flower (Hangul: 쌍화점; RR: Ssanghwajeom) is a 2008 South Korean film. It is directed by Yoo Ha and stars Zo In Sung, Ju Jin-mo and Song Ji-hyo. The historical film is set Goryeo Dynasty and is loosely based on the reign of Gongmin of Goryeo (1330–1374), but it does not strictly comply with historical facts. The controversial story is about the characters’ violation of royal family protocol and their pursuit of love.[1]
It was released in South Korea on 30 December 2008.[2]
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The king of Goryeo Dynasty (Ju Jin-mo) has a palace guard composed of thirty six young soldiers, led by military commander Hong-lim (Zo In Sung).
The King is married to Yuan Dynasty princess (Song Ji-hyo), but they do not have any children. There is constant pressure on the King both from the Yuan emperor and the Goryeo Kingdom to produce a crown prince and ensure the continuity of its royal dynasty. The King finally decides to charge his bodyguard and lover, Hong-lim, with a strange commission: make love to the Queen and beget a child. Hong-lim and the Queen are uncomfortable accepting the royal order, but they finally comply. However, their relationship does not stop at procreation, but a true love bursts into flowers between the two, and in this intimate relationship there is no place for the King.
The two lovers surpass their "official mission" and continue to meet each other at midnight in the library. The King begins to suspect Hong-lim's infidelity, so Hong-lim who asks the Queen to stay away from him and goes to the King to beg for forgiveness. Meanwhile, the Queen attempts to kill herself by slitting her wrists but fails. The King forgives him after hearing that Hong-lim's involvement with the Queen was purely lust. He decides to overlook everything that had happened and instead sends Hong-lim away for a while to have him cool down.
The night before Hong-lim's departure, the Queen's personal maid secretly informs him that the Queen wishes to meet him for one last time. She also bears news that the Queen has finally conceived. Hong-lim sneaks out of the King's bedside to meet the Queen in the library. They end up making love in the library, and the King catches them in flagrant. When the two lovers attempt to save the other by begging the King to "kill me instead," the King realizes how strong their love for each other is. In a fit of jealousy, he has Hong-lim castrated and sent to prison. The queen finds a way for Hong-lim to escape with the aid of Hong-lim's dearest subordinates.
Upon finding that Hong-lim has escaped, the King demands to know where he is from the Queen, who refuses to answer. In response, he kills her personal maid. The King is aware that the Queen is with child and by this time, everyone who was aware that the Queen's child was not the King's was exterminated.
Meanwhile Hong-lim, upon realizing that the Queen is still in the palace and not on the run as his subordinates told him in order to quickly escape, heads towards the palace on horseback despite his subordinate's protests. He stops in his journey when he realizes how futile it would be, and returns to the refuge where his subordinates took him to but find that they have been captured. At the palace, the King tortures the subordinates to find the whereabouts of Hong-lim, and when they remain silent, beheads them. Their heads are put up in posts on the palace gates along with the Queen's personal maid. But the female head is wearing the queen's necklace in order to lead Hong-lim to believe the queen was also killed and return to enact revenge. When Hong-lim sees this, he is indeed enraged and goes to the King to kill him. An intense sword fight ensues. However, the King manages to stab Hong-lim in the shoulder, and while he is pinned, he asks Hong-lim a last question: whether or not Hong-lim had ever felt real love for the King. Hong Lim replies that he had never felt love for him. At this point, the King is shocked, giving Hong-lim time to throw a lethal stab of his own sword through the King. One of the royal guards, having watched part of the battle, now intervenes by fatally stabbing Hong-lim. The queen comes upon the scene with the guards and calls out for Hong-lim, however he turns his head from her and faces the dead king, realizing that the king had not killed her because he wished to test Hong-lim, as he faces the king it is hinted that his answer to the king's question had been false. The last few seconds of the film show a flashback to when the King showed young Hong-lim the view of the city and asked if Hong-lim wished to live together, to which the young Hong-lim replied yes. The film ends on a montage of the King and Hong-lim happily hunting together.
A Frozen Flower is based on a true story from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) Korea,[3] and takes its title from a song of that era which described the sexual relationships between men and women.[4] It is the fifth feature film by director Yoo Ha, who wanted to make a change from his previous works by doing a historical film, saying, "I always felt uncomfortable with the genre but I felt I should try to overcome those feelings. It is also a new challenge for me to focus on a melodrama".[3] He also stated that the film was "a love story between men".[5]
Jo In-seong was on board from the beginning of the project, and having turned down other acting roles to make A Frozen Flower his last work before enlisting for military service. He chose to appear in the film without knowing the exact details and having faith in the director following their earlier collaboration in 2005 on A Dirty Carnival. Jo began training for the role in August 2007, learning martial arts, fencing, horse riding and geomungo.[3][5] The casting of Ju Jin-mo as the king was announced in December 2007.[6]
The budget for A Frozen Flower was $10 million,[7] and the film went into production on 16 April 2008. It was the first film to shoot at the newly built Jeonju Cinema Studio.[8]
The rights of the film was sold to Japan, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg before it was completed, and also a further seven countries at the Berlin International Film Festival.[9]
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