A Frozen Flower
霜花店（サンファジョム） 運命、その愛
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A Goryeo king orders his male lover to impregnate the queen; the three nights he allows turn into an affair of their own.
Goryeo, in the fourteenth century. The King, married to a princess of the Mongol Yuan empire, has no heir, and without one the Yuan court and his own nobles are ready to replace him. His personal guard is made up of young men he chose as boys and raised at his side, and he loves their captain, Hong-rim, who shares his bed. He cannot bring himself to sleep with the Queen. So he orders Hong-rim to do it in his place: a child who looks like Hong-rim, he says, is one he could love.
Hong-rim and the Queen obey reluctantly. The three nights the King allows produce no child, but duty has turned into desire, and they go on meeting in secret in the palace library. The King senses the change and, jealous, announces that another guard will take Hong-rim's place. The Queen begs Hong-rim to run away with her; he refuses, and she tries to take her own life. Hong-rim swears to the King that it was only lust, is forgiven and is ordered away from the capital for a time. On his last night the Queen sends word that she is pregnant. They meet in the library, and the King catches them. He has Hong-rim castrated and thrown into prison.
Hong-rim's friends among the guards free him and hide with him outside the city. The King has them hunted down, tortured and executed, kills the Queen's maid, and uses the Queen's necklace to make Hong-rim believe that the Queen is dead.
Hong-rim comes back. Disguised as a returning soldier, he forces his way into the King's chamber, and the King orders his guards to stand back. At the end of their fight the King, the stronger fighter, has Hong-rim at his mercy and asks whether he ever loved him. Hong-rim says no. In the moment the King falters, Hong-rim kills him, and is killed in turn by the vice-captain, Seung-ki. The Queen, alive and pregnant, is pulled away from the doorway. Hong-rim sees her, understands that the King spared her, and dies with his face turned towards the King. The film ends on a memory: the young King asking a small boy whether he would like to live with him, and the boy saying yes.
Starring
Zo In-sungas Hong-rim
Captain of the King's personal guard, raised at his side and loved by him, ordered to give the Queen a child in his place.
Hong-rim’s story
Hong-rim was a small boy when the King asked whether he would like to live with him, and grew up at his side, captain of his guard and his lover. Ordered to give the Queen a child, he obeys reluctantly, and the three nights become a secret affair. When the King names another guard for her, he refuses to run away with the Queen and swears to the King that it was only lust. On the night before he is sent away, they are caught together. Castrated and imprisoned, he is freed by friends in the guard, who are then hunted down and executed. Believing the Queen dead, he forces his way into the King's chamber, tells the King he never loved him, kills him and is killed by Seung-ki. Seeing the Queen alive, he dies facing the King.
Joo Jin-moas The King
The childless King of Goryeo, pressed by the Yuan empire for an heir, who loves the captain of his guard.
The King’s story
The King chose Hong-rim as a small boy, raised him at his side and loves him. He cannot bring himself to sleep with his Yuan queen, though without an heir he may be replaced, so he sends Hong-rim to her in his place, and is relieved when the first night comes to nothing. As the arrangement becomes an affair he grows jealous, then forgives Hong-rim when he swears it was only lust. Catching the lovers in the library, he has Hong-rim castrated and imprisoned. He has the friends who freed him executed, kills the Queen's maid and uses the Queen's necklace to lure Hong-rim back. When Hong-rim breaks in, he orders his guards to stand back, and at the end of their fight asks whether Hong-rim ever loved him. The answer is no, and Hong-rim kills him.
Song Ji-hyoas The Queen
A Yuan princess married to the King and ignored by him, who falls in love with the man sent to give her a child.
The Queen’s story
The Queen, a Yuan princess, is ignored by her husband and resents Hong-rim, the man who has his favour. Ordered to conceive a child with him, she obeys and is humiliated, and then the three nights turn into desire; they go on meeting in the library. When the King chooses another guard for her, she begs Hong-rim to run away with her. He refuses, and she tries to take her own life. On the night before he is sent away, she sends word that she is pregnant, and they are caught together. She has her maid warn his friends, who free him, and will not tell the King where he has gone; the King kills the maid. At the end, carrying the child, she runs to the King's chamber and is dragged away, calling Hong-rim's name as he dies.
Shim Ji-hoas Seung-ki
Vice-captain of the guard, jealous of Hong-rim's place at the King's side, who stays loyal to the King to the end.
Why it matters
A Frozen Flower was the sixth most attended film in South Korea in 2008, a historical epic loosely based on the reign of King Gongmin of Goryeo that puts a king's love for another man at its centre. Its subject is what love becomes when one lover owns the other. The King can command Hong-rim's body, lend it to his wife and take it back; the Queen, too, is used as a means of producing an heir. Neither is asked. When Hong-rim finds a desire of his own, the King answers with cruelty on a scale only a throne allows. The film leaves its central question open: whether Hong-rim's last word, that he never loved the King, is the truth or the last lie he has left to tell. It closes not on the lovers but on the King's memory of a boy who said yes.