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Trailer

©한국영상자료원 제공

Korean Genre Films 33

King and the Clown

LEE Joon-ik|Korea|2005|119min |15+ |No Eng-Subtitle

©한국영상자료원 제공

Trailer

Schedule

Code: 303

Time: 7/4 10:30 - 12:29

Theater: CGV Sopung 4

Rate: 15

Event: Guest Visit

Unless otherwise indicated by the Subtitle code below, English subtitles are provided for all non-English language films.
별아이콘 Notice of No English-Subtitle

Schedule

Code: 303

Time: 7/4 10:30 - 12:29

Theater: CGV Sopung 4

Rate: 15

Event: Guest Visit

Unless otherwise indicated by the Subtitle code below, English subtitles are provided for all non-English language films.
별아이콘 Notice of No English-Subtitle

Program Note

Any discussion of 21st-century Korean historical genre cinema must include LEE Joon-ik. Standing apart from the mainstream tradition of Korean period drama, he has made historical films that foreground outsiders and heterodox perspectives. From the genre-blending war epics Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield (2003) and Battlefield Heroes (2011), to Blades of Blood (2010), about those who dream of dynastic revolution; The Throne (2015), a study of power and psychological complexity; and The Book of Fish (2021), set at a moment of profound historical transformation, LEE’s period films occupy a realm of singular imagination. King and the Clown stages a world of performance that cuts across the rigid boundaries of class society through the relationship between a king and two clowns—the highest and lowest figures in that order. There is the king, haunted by a lack of maternal love, and the wandering performers, who move freely through the world. Brought into the palace by chance, the clowns perform dangerous plays before the king’s absolute power, while the king comes to confront his own inner life through them. A historical drama centered on court factionalism during the reign of King Yeonsan, King and the Clown was Korea’s first historical film to surpass ten million admissions.(Kim Hyung-seok)