A Frozen Flower (2008)

"A frozen flower" is a great movie in terms of acting, scenes and directing. The whole combination made this movie a big hit.1)In acting, two main actors and the actress did a great job. The characters are really complicated while facing opposite emotions such as loyalty and betrayal, love and hate, duty and passion, obey and disobey at the same time. It is not easy to show cruelty and affection at the same time as two main actors did great in this movie. The actress also was great in showing her two different kinds of relationship with them. They all did a great job to reveal these emotions in their mimics and actions. Their internal combat reflects in their acting amazingly.2) In scenes, the movie includes both sexual scenes and historical scenes. While a lot of discussions has been made about the sexual ones, I believe they serve the purpose of the movie perfectly. They are not similar to some sexual scenes in other movies, when you feel like they are not necessary and are just there to make it an R rate movie. No. Here these scenes reflects the growing emotions and changing winds in the characters' souls. The historical scenes are vivid as well. full of colors, actions and harmony,each and every second of them serves the storyline and events. They help to actually take our minds to that historical era in Korean history. They show us how they pray, socialize and celebrate life events in that time, which is crucial to make us understand the characters, their duties, feelings and social aspects.3) Directing and editing (metaphored as the second directing) are done perfectly. The camera angles are chosen wisely both in big shots in events and close ups while dealing with characters' mimics and inner feelings. Colors and designs works in harmony to elaborate the settings of that era. Imagine I saw the movie without any background in Korea's history; and it encourages me to search a bit to know more. Great movie to watch, to enjoy and also to explore a different time era if you are interested.

I found this movie accidentally which also led me to start watching several South Korean soap operas later.I want to explain why the director employed such intensive sexually explicit scenes in the movie. One reason might be sex is the most powerful and primitive human behavior which would carry out the subsequently tragic endings. All to be said and done, this movie gave me such reflections which I felt the story couldn't be better. The struggling between conscious and desires is forceful enough to overwhelm audience's mind. The scenes and customs were also splendid in details. One thing I would like to point out is I watched both English and Chinese subtitles of this movie. Not to mention that Chinese version is way better. I think the language barrier can affect how you see the movie. The culture difference between east and west also have impacts.It is loosely based on history. The plot was unexpected and mind blowing. Some reviews criticized the young actor who played the guard was not veteran enough. I would differ over that because the director tried to show the young man's first love which would be longing, obsessed and addicted. The affection between the guard and queen was growing from lust to love. If you can imagine the society at that time which the two lovers only could express their affections privately, you will understand why the director used extensive sexual contents in this movie. However, the third part of their mating was excessive and unnecessary which only served for box office ticket sale.If you like those eastern historian movies, you probably should understand the society some. Then you will see the movies in different way.

This movie is nothing all that new and the taboo part of this movie is what drives it. Although it has some sword fighting sequence than and there. And the fight sequences although isn't the major part of this movie is well done. The other elements in the movie besides the taboo aspect of the movie is interesting enough to be passable. So the king of Goryeo Dynasty has palace guards and is being suppressed by the Yuan Dynasty and is pressured to make a heir from the Yuan princess. And things go wrong from there on. This movie also features Ju Jin-mo and Jo In Sung, two of the popular actors in Korea. This movie has few disturbing parts but if it had a bit more originality it would have been better cause it has been done before. Maybe a bit of a different direction with some shock factor, cause overall it's actually quite predictable. This is a watchable movie but doesn't really stand out as much as it should have.6.0/10

About love. Its nuances, price and forms. Beautiful, powerful and aesthetic exercise. Fight scenes makes with delicate attention and the action as mountain river. Nothing new for a Coreean production. ButA Frozen Flower is interesting not only for colors and recreation of an era. Cntemporan questions are parts of a historical drama and the answers are sword blades. The tyrant is not a gray character. The loyal friend is not the traitor without conscience. The child is seal of crisis. Love is not a white page but a drawing in which two men hunt. The happiness and the sense of their search. In fact, a movie of porcelain. Game of emotions and sensitive description of feelings. The end, not special, is ribbon of a military book about peace essence.