Shadows in the Palace

Shadows in the Palace


Hangul	궁 녀
Hanja	宮女
Revised Romanization	Gungnyeo
McCune–Reischauer	Kungnyŏ
Directed by	Kim Mee-jung
Produced by	Jung Seung-hye Won Jung-sim Kang Woo-suk Lee Joon-ik
Written by	Kim Mee-jung Choi Seok-hwan
Starring	Park Jin-hee Yoon Se-ah Seo Young-hee Im Jung-eun
Music by	Hwang Sang-jun
Cinematography	Lee Hyung-deok
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum Kim Jae-bum
Distributed by	Cinema Service CJ Entertainment
Release dates	October 18, 2007 (2007-10-18)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	US$3,500,000
Box office	US$9,723,970^[1]

Shadows in the Palace (Hangul: 궁녀; RR: Gungnyeo) is a 2007 South Korean film directed by Kim Mee-jung. The mystery thriller is a fictionalized account of gungnyeo, court maids during South Korea's Joseon era.^[2]

This is Kim Mee-jung's first feature film.^[3] She previously worked as part of the directing staff in King and the Clown (2005) and Shadows in the Palace was filmed on the same set as the aforementioned film.

Plot

The film is set amongst a group of gungnyeo, or palace women in Korea during the time of the Joseon dynasty, and is primarily about the hidden dynamics that unfold between them. Sworn into secrecy, submission, and celibacy, the women of the palace officially devote their lives to the well-being of the royal family. Currently, the kingdom has no heir to the throne, and at such a time, the royal concubine Hee-bin (Yoon Se-ah) has given birth to a son. The queen mother wishes for the queen to adopt the child as her own, but Hee-bin hesitates proceeding with this, fearing she will be disposed off once the adoption is official.

One morning, as the court maids go about their work, one of them, Wol-ryung (Seo Young-hee), also Hee-bin's most trusted maid, is found dead, hanging from the rafters of the palace roof. Initially assuming it to be suicide, Chun-ryung (Park Jin-hee), the royal medic, discovers as she proceeds with the autopsy that Wol-ryung was actually strangled. She also discovers that there are signs that the maid had given birth at some time in the past, which would have been absolutely forbidden under palace rules. Ignoring orders from her superiors to wrap up the case quickly, Chun-ryung sets off in search of answers.

Amidst a tangled web involving suspicion of Wol-ryung's involvement in an affair with a teacher at the nearby school, the torture of a mute court maid, a beheading, and finally the records of the king's nightly visits to his concubine, an elaborate scheme spearheaded by Hee-bin's advisor transpires, where Wol-ryung was chosen to bear the crown prince, and later murdered to hide the truth of the baby's origin. When exposed, the advisor imprisons Chun-ryung, overpowers Hee-bin and makes off with the baby. She is however intercepted in the forest by the ghost of Wol-ryung, and is murdered. The ghost later also visits the royal palace, and kills the queen mother, thus removing the last obstacle between the crown prince and the throne.

The baby is later discovered in the forest by Chun-ryung. The next day, as the palace women mourn the death of the queen mother in white robes, they simultaneously also witness the coronation of the new prince in the arms of Hee-bin and the transfer of power to new hands.