The Concubine
後宮の秘密
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A Joseon court where a woman's body is the only currency that outlasts the king.
In the Joseon court, the late king's concubine, now the Queen Mother, has a son of her own, the timid Grand Prince Sung-won, and no blood tie to the reigning king, her stepson, who has no heir. Sung-won is in love with Shin Hwa-yeon, a nobleman's daughter. Hwa-yeon loves Kwon-yoo, a low-born servant in her father's house. When she is chosen as a concubine for the king, the lovers run away and are caught after one night together. She agrees to enter the palace if Kwon-yoo's life is spared. Her father has him castrated.
Five years later Hwa-yeon is queen, mother of the king's only son. The king dies of a mysterious illness, and the Queen Mother rules through Sung-won, her puppet on the throne. Hwa-yeon's father, trying to prove the king was poisoned, is arrested for treason. Among the palace eunuchs Hwa-yeon finds Kwon-yoo, embittered and working for the Queen Mother's ally, Minister Yoon. Sung-won orders her father spared, but Kwon-yoo lets the execution go ahead. The Queen Mother gives him poison meant for Hwa-yeon and her son.
Sung-won makes Hwa-yeon's maid, Geum-ok, a concubine, and learns from her that the prince was born early and that Kwon-yoo was once Hwa-yeon's lover. He confronts Hwa-yeon and tries to rape her; she pushes him away and tells him to come back when he is truly king. Kwon-yoo, now believing the boy may be his, changes sides. He puts the poison in the king's medicine, and when Sung-won makes him drink it himself, he does. The trail leads to Minister Yoon, and the Queen Mother admits that she poisoned the late king. Kwon-yoo testifies against her and Yoon, and Sung-won orders the conspirators put to death and his mother confined. On the way to execution, dying of the poison, Kwon-yoo begs Hwa-yeon to protect their son. She answers that the prince is no one's son but hers.
That night she goes to Sung-won, now king in fact. They sleep together, and she kills him. The Queen Mother dies soon after, and Hwa-yeon's small son takes the throne. In the last scene he plays on it in the empty hall while she watches, and the smile leaves her face as the doors close.
Starring
Cho Yeo-jeongas Shin Hwa-yeon
A nobleman's daughter forced into the palace as the king's concubine, who becomes queen and fights to keep her son alive.
Shin Hwa-yeon’s story
Hwa-yeon loves Kwon-yoo, a servant in her father's house, and when she is chosen for the king she runs away with him. Caught after one night, she buys his life by entering the palace. Five years later she is queen, with the king's only son. After the king's death she begs Kwon-yoo, now a eunuch, for help; he lets her father go to his execution. When Sung-won tries to rape her, she pushes him away and tells him to come back when he is truly king. When Kwon-yoo, dying, asks her to protect their son, she answers that the prince is no one's son but hers. That night she kills Sung-won with the hairpin he once gave her. As her small son plays on the throne, the doors close and her smile fades.
Kim Dong-wookas Grand Prince Sung-won
The Queen Mother's timid son, made a puppet king, who has loved Hwa-yeon since before she entered the palace.
Grand Prince Sung-won’s story
Sung-won, the Queen Mother's timid son, fell for Hwa-yeon at first sight, before she was chosen for the king. Five years later, back from his travels because the king is ill, he gives her a hairpin. When the king dies, his mother puts him on the throne and rules through him. He orders Hwa-yeon's father spared, but Kwon-yoo lets the execution go ahead. He takes her maid, Geum-ok, as a concubine, learns of Hwa-yeon's old love and the prince's early birth, and tries to rape Hwa-yeon; she tells him to come back when he is truly king. When he makes Kwon-yoo drink his medicine, the poison comes to light, and his mother admits that she poisoned his brother. He orders her confined. King at last, he receives Hwa-yeon that night, and she kills him with the hairpin he gave her.
Kim Min-joonas Kwon-yoo
Hwa-yeon's low-born lover, punished for running away with her, who returns to the palace as a eunuch bent on revenge.
Kwon-yoo’s story
Kwon-yoo is a servant in the house of the woman he loves. When Hwa-yeon is chosen for the king, he runs away with her; they are caught after one night, she saves his life by entering the palace, and her father has him castrated. Five years later he is a palace eunuch, embittered and in Minister Yoon's service. He turns Hwa-yeon away, sees her father's execution through against Sung-won's order, and accepts poison meant for her and her son. Coming to believe the prince is his, he changes sides and puts the poison in the king's medicine, and when Sung-won orders him to drink it, he does. Barely alive, he testifies against the Queen Mother and Yoon, and on the way to his execution asks Hwa-yeon to protect their son. She says the prince is hers alone.
Park Ji-youngas The Queen Mother
The late king's concubine, who poisons her way to power and rules the court through her son.
Jo Eun-jias Geum-ok
Hwa-yeon's maid, who becomes the king's concubine and gives away her mistress's secret.
Why it matters
The Concubine was promoted in Korea almost entirely on its sex scenes and on Cho Yeo-jeong's nudity, a campaign local critics found misguided and demeaning to a film that The Korea Herald said had an almost Shakespearean psychological intricacy. Its real subject is a palace in which every body belongs to the state. A servant who loves above his station pays with his body. A timid prince is made a puppet king by his own mother. Hwa-yeon learns the rules completely: she gives up the man she loved, lets him die for a son she will not call his, and secures the throne for that son by the only means the palace has left her. Power in this court passes through a woman's body, and the film does not pretend that her winning is a victory. Its last image is a mother watching her child play on a throne, and the doors closing behind her.