mrdes: Frozen Flower

Firstly, this South Korean historical drama takes more than six months before landing on this sunny island, suffering cuts of gay sex scene (s) along the way. Believe me, I don't think we miss much, as the gay love has nothing much to crow about and is rather over-glorified.

Though, in term of soundtrack, images and plot, "Frozen Flower" manages to better "King and The Clown 王的男人", it suffers from bad acting and casting, the chemistry like that of Jang-seng (KAM Woo-sung) and Gong-gil (LEE Joon-ki) in the latter doesn't materialise. And why the director never even once shoot the exquisite, oriental dance sequences from a wider angle or from the top, I'd never understand.

The love triangle between the King, the Queen and the Commander, Hong Lin, could have been better developed and more subtle and intricate emotionally to make this movie work. There must have been some internal struggle or confusion in Hong Lin, in his love for the King (which he obviously has, though I couldn't much see the depth, the passion.) and his attraction (or is it just sexual?) to the Queen. And the Queen's character becomes something like a background to the plot, when it should have been stronger. These two points couldn't be better demonstrated in the beautifully-crafted, underrated "Fleeing by Night 夜奔", where the nearest things to gay sex were a touch of hands and a near-kiss in a car, and Rene Liu was excellent, truly.