11-10-2014, 12:03 AM
In Korea’s Chosun dynasty, two clowns stage a play satirizing the king and get dragged to the palace and threatened with execution. Their only hope is to perform for the king and make him laugh.
The text and photo on the DVD cover convinced me the clowns were man and woman. But there was a bit of photoshopping going on, because it turns out they’re both men. One is a “boy flower,” highly sought after by every man in sight, including ultimately the king. The other clown is eternally jealous, though never intimate with Boy Flower.
The satirical plays they put on are surprisingly raunchy. I give the movie credit for that. But I couldn’t get interested in either clown, or the King, or the King’s influencial consort (the brunt of their humor as well), or anything else in this movie. The characters were flat throughout.
The King and the Clown was a huge blockbuster in South Korea, and they chose it (over The Host directed by Bong Joon-ho and Time directed by Kim Ki-duk) as their official submission for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This seems unfortunate. While tremendous work and expense went into this costume drama, I feel The Host was a much better film. I haven’t seen Time, but have tremendous respect for Kim Ki-duk for his masterful Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.
I’d pass on this one unless you're Korean.
The text and photo on the DVD cover convinced me the clowns were man and woman. But there was a bit of photoshopping going on, because it turns out they’re both men. One is a “boy flower,” highly sought after by every man in sight, including ultimately the king. The other clown is eternally jealous, though never intimate with Boy Flower.
The satirical plays they put on are surprisingly raunchy. I give the movie credit for that. But I couldn’t get interested in either clown, or the King, or the King’s influencial consort (the brunt of their humor as well), or anything else in this movie. The characters were flat throughout.
The King and the Clown was a huge blockbuster in South Korea, and they chose it (over The Host directed by Bong Joon-ho and Time directed by Kim Ki-duk) as their official submission for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This seems unfortunate. While tremendous work and expense went into this costume drama, I feel The Host was a much better film. I haven’t seen Time, but have tremendous respect for Kim Ki-duk for his masterful Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.
I’d pass on this one unless you're Korean.
I'm nobody's pony.