When Forbidden Love Meets Royal Duty
In A Frozen Flower, directed by Yoo Ha, we’re plunged into the late Goryeo Dynasty. The king, played by Joo Jin-mo, has no heir, but his personal life complicates everything. He is deeply bound to his commander Hong-rim (Jo In-sung), who also leads the royal guard. Under political pressure from Yuan and demands within his own court, the king orders Hong-rim to sleep with the queen (Song Ji-hyo) so that an heir may be born.
This decision ignites a storm of forbidden desire. Hong-rim, loyal yet torn, finds himself drawn to the queen, and the affair evolves into something deeper than a duty. What begins as the king’s attempt to secure power spirals into betrayal, jealousy, and brutal consequences. The arcs are sharp: the king’s increasing desperation, Hong-rim’s confusion between love and loyalty, and the queen’s aching journey from complicity to passion.
The Challenges of Embodying the Unconventional
The bold nature of the film led to a unique set of challenges for the filmmakers. Same-sex relations and eroticism were considered to be beyond the scope of mainstream South Korean cinema. Even within the conservative South Korean landscape, the mere announcement of the project invited suspicion and signs of potential backlash. The filmmakers, however, held their ground, arguing that the film’s target themes of desire, politics, and love merited an unabated approach.
Jo In-sung was aware that this role could reframe the public’s view of him, and served as the last role to complete before military service. For this reason, the role of Hong-rim came with an unusual sense of urgency. He was aware that the public’s reception of the film would largely define his career for the years to come, making this much more than an ordinary role. It was a bold wager with the South Korean film industry.
Song Ji-hyo, the queen, later emphasized the emotional toll her job took. The filming of the intimate scenes required not the physical capturing of exposure, but the intricately emotional undercurrents of a scene. It did, however, become very tiring because some sequences required filming dozens of times. Then there was the requirement of emotional control and exposure. For nine months, she was deeply involved in this role, trying to give the queen a more powerful, active role rather than just a mere representation of duty. A queen with a heart, a woman with a pain, a longing, a missing connection.
When Historical Drama Demands Personal Risk
For a Korean historical drama, the ten million dollar budget was high. It allowed for the construction of elaborate sets, costumes, for authenticity in battle choreographies, and in the music and court ritual performances.
Jo In-sung had to go through months of preparation for the physical aspects of the role. He was trained in martial arts, fencing, horseback riding, and for court scenes in which he had to play a character that “moved” traditionally. He had to play Hong-rim’s character dualility, both of a disciplined commander and a vulnerable lover. The looming of his enlistment was another problem which had the production working against time. The deadline added to the pressure of the schedule and set.
Scenes That Cut Deeper Than the Sword
Intense and emotional exhaustion followed the erotic and violent scenes of the movie. The actors put their careers and comforts on the line. For Jo In-sung, the initial worry of playing a role that involved intimacy and tenderness with potential typecasting and typecasting was worrisome. Song Ji-hyo, on the other hand, faced criticism as a female in a culture that is quick to label women, particularly for crossing sexual boundaries.
Even Joo Jin-mo as the king dealt with the inner and outer conflicts of portraying tenderness and cruelty, paradoxically. His performance was impressive, however, it was psychologically taxing to play a character who was losing control and destructively manipulating the love of a woman.
The actors bear the on-screen pressure of making painful choices that, in real life, comes with the risk of societal backlash. The case of Joo Jin-mo is a classic example as he embraced a role that was guaranteed to attract public scrutiny.
The Blur of Reel and Real
The unwillingness to show one’s true self is mirrored in the filmmaker’s character. Jo In-sung’s fear and apprehension is a reflection of the lived realities of the censorship in the film industry. The king’s unwillingness to show his true self and the paranoia that comes with it is a withheld performance clearly echoed in the filmmakers’ attention of control and observation in the scenes.
Even in the editing room, compromises had to be made. Explicit sequences were cut to obtain a more favorable rating for a wider release. This created another layer of irony: a film about repression and the forbidden truth had to suppress parts of itself to survive in theaters.
Despite the controversies, the film was a commercial and critical success, attracting millions to the box office. Joo Jin-mo’s portrayal of the king earned him Best Actor, and the film’s music, costumes, and art direction were also richly acknowledged.
However, the personal costs were and are significant. For Song Ji-hyo, the bold role risks typecasting, and her emotional range was often overshadowed by the media’s fixation on her nude scenes. For Jo In-sung, the film’s cut and the subsequent mandatory enlistment left questions of the film’s impact on the trajectory of his career. For Yoo Ha, the film sealed his reputation for boundary pushing. However, it also placed him in the center of conversations about decency juxtaposed with the freedom of artistic expression.
The Lasting Echo of Desire and Sacrifice
When reflecting on A Frozen Flower, its beauty is not in its striking visuals, lavish spending and bold narrative alone, but rather in how much the cast and crew understood the hardships of their characters. Love is onscreen imprisoned by power and secrecy. But in the offscreen world, the actors were burdened by the cost of stigma and the weight of personal sacrifice.
The film did not simply dramatize the costs of desire; it lived them. The real-world anxiety of the people who brought the film to life was palpable in every intimate scene, every bloody betrayal, and every act of fractured passion. The blurring of reel and real gave the film its haunting quality.
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