Frozen Flower

B-

Directed by Yu Ha

Director Yu Ha (great name!) tries his hand at the costume drama with "A Frozen Flower" an entertaining if not groundbreaking tale of illicit love during the Goryeo dynasty.

Hong-rim, a valiant, dashing warrior, leads the king of Goryeo Korea's personal guard. He is also involved in an illicit affair with the royal highness, a fact that seems to be common knowledge to the king's inner circle, Hong-rim's fellow guards and even the queen. When the queen begins to pressure the king to provide them a heir, something he says is impossoble for him to do, he dispatches Hong-rim to bed the Queen and conceive a child. Hong-rim quickly begins to develop feelings for the Queen, however, and a love triangle soon develops.

Overall, Yu Ha's film is a satisfying and oftentimes quite riveting period piece that is heavy on the melodrama, just the way it should be. It doesn't do anything groundbreaking (aside from its rather overt eroticism which went quite a bit further than most viewers were probably expecting) and it mostly foillows the "drama in the castle" playbook of costume dramas. The acting tends to be a bit over the top at times, especially in the case of the male leads, but their excesses are somewhat blunted by the restrained and arresting performance of Song ji hyo who is mostly known for her work in television.
One of the biggest probelms with "A Frozen Flower" is that it's competing in an already saturated market, (the "Korean Goryeo/Joseun period piece" market to be precise) so several similar yet far better films are readily available for comparison. This also extends to the film's artistic direction which, although quite good, pales in comparison to films like "Chihwaseon", "Shadows in the Palace", or "Portrait of a Beauty". The point here is that if you're going to makee a Korean costume drama, you better pull out all the stops because the bar is already quite high.The varaible nature of Hong Lim's sexuality is also an area of concern to me and likely many others who viewed "A Frozen Flower" insofar as his attraction to the king is easily broken after a few forced encounters with the Queens who he quickly becomes infatuated with. There's always the possibility that Hong Lim was simply using his charms to move into the king's inner circle but the tone of the film doesn't really suggest that as a possible motive for Hong Lim's actions. As such, were left with the rather confusing suggestion that Hong Lim's love for the king was broken rather effortlessly by the charms of the queen. I'm not sure how gay viewers will react to the message but I doubt the reaction will be overly positive...