When I first heard that the movie King and the Clown was being made, I thought that it wouldn't be very interesting. But it was so good. Directed by Lee Joon Ik(a quite well known director in our country,though not in overseas),King and the Clown tells about a love story between two courters and the triangular relationship between them and the king.(of course,unlike what many foreign audiences might think,although the king,his concubine and Kong Gil are real people,the story itself is 100% made up)What was most astonishing about this movie was that,it showed the passionate love between the two male jesters without showing any sexual scenes.(I liked Brokeback Mountain,but not it was too explicit)And the choreography,costumes etc were so beautifully made with a low budget(around 4.5million dollars). Finally I see a well made Korean movie that was very interesting even without any star actors.

King and the Clown was South Korea's best selling film of 2005, having sold more than 12 million tickets over a span of 7 weeks. But after watching it, it's difficult to fathom the craze, nor about the New York Times hype that it "may be the equivalent of 'Brokeback Mountain'". Not that it is a bad movie, it is actually entertaining and tells an intriguing story in the courts of the Korean emperor.

Perhaps anything to do with the gay theme will suffer inevitably comparisons to Lee Ang's acclaimed Brokeback Mountain. But somehow, the way this film developed, I saw it in a different light - a story between two male best friends, even though one of them might look and behave more effeminately than even some girls do. Instead of jumping to the straight conclusion that both the protagonists are gay, why can't it be a platonic relationship, and that the more effeminate one had chosen what he had to do, i.e. sell backside, because being poor minstrels, they cannot afford to put food on the table? Literally capitalizing on his looks, to bring back the dough. Sure his friend might not like the idea, and it could be interpreted as either being jealous (as a lover),or disapproving (as a friend). Then again, because of culture, this movie might have decided to be more subtle about the theme. Ambiguous to say the least, but it makes for interesting debate if you watch this with a friend.

Two friends, Jang-seng (Kam Woo-sung) and Gong-gil (Lee Joon-ki),are impoverished street performers who dream of having their entertaining performances reap rewards they should be getting. They come up with a wildly popular and bawdy performance poking fun at the emperor and his consort, and it's not long before they get arrested, only to have Jang-seng proposition a dare, that if the King doesn't laugh at their skit, they can be put to death.

As fate would have it, their jittery performance brought on a favourable response from the tyrannical King (Jung Jin-young). Having now become official court jesters, their subsequent plays, whose content they obtain from coffee-shop talk of those days, about the royal family and other court scandals, serve as suggestive fuel for the King to break free from his constrictive shackles, and take some serious action according to his whims. But dictator attitudes aside, he casts a lustful eye at Gong-gil, and turns almost childlike when in his presence, in private. The most powerful man in the kingdom, reduced to a vulnerable kid in the presence of a lowly minstrel. What ensues is an interesting look at the relationship dynamics amongst the three men, and with the people around them.

Set during the Chosun Dynasty, King and the Clown has some of the most gorgeous sets bringing to life an era long gone, and beautiful costumes that drown the movie in a myriad of colours. The songs are also fairly pleasing to the ears, and the skits, I believe, are likely to be many times more enjoyable if you understand Korean, instead of having to rely on subtitles.

The movie also makes discreet jibes at those in power, and their ability, or inability, to accept satires about themselves. It is always easy for men in power to dismiss harshly the satires and their creators, but it takes a lot more to be able to look past the comic and understand the issues made fun of. There are brief scenes at courtroom politicking and on corruption, but these scenes are too short to leave any lasting impression or distract the audience.

The cast is a delight to watch as they carry their roles with aplomb. The chemistry between the 3 main leads was almost perfect, especially Jung Jin-young as the temperamental King - childish at times, serious at others, and the androgynous looking Lee Joon-ki truly owned the role of Gong-gil, that even as a guy, I thought he was beautiful to look at (*ahem*).

All in all, King and the Clown is a story of friendship, how good friends fend for each other, how, despite shortcomings and misunderstandings, the best medicine is always laughter, and it's the strength of the bonds between men that can ultimately stand up against fear and overcome any adversary. If only the opening didn't spoil the entire movie.

The King and the Clown is a movie about a pair of street performers who come to the attention of King Yeonsan of Korea around the start of the 16th century (the Chosun Period).

Yeonsan is tired of his ministers who chirp away about the example of his dead father and provide consistently contrary counsel. Yeonsan is both a genuinely sensitive individual and also a deeply disturbed one, whose neuroses are amply watered in the fertile garden of his royalty, and allowed to blossom bloodily. I felt there was some sort of allusion to North Korea here, where the "Supreme Leader" Kim Jong-il is quite literally second-in-command to his dead father, theocrat Kim Il-sung, and certainly does have a twee side.

Jang-sang and his partner, the extremely effeminate Gong-gil, are clowns who come to the attention of the king. They put on shows that are sometimes extremely bawdy, or acrobatic, comic, or dramatic. They divert Yeonsan from his concubine Nok-su whose skirt he lives inside (as even the public are aware). I think this is a key point that the movie makes that the diversions of the clowns are more interesting than fondling even the most seductive woman a king can find; sex an inferior version of play that adults have come up with.

The King becomes attached to Gong-gil in an apparently non-sexual way, re-entering a childish state. The story touchingly reminded me very much of the biblical one where David plays the harp to soothe King Saul when madness came upon him.

The film in many ways is a feel-good one, times are very harsh in the Chosun era, but the performers don't let this get them down, and can find ways to cheer each other up even when times are bad. The "blindmen" scene is the key example of this. The characters perform even when no audience is around, to amuse themselves, and because they seem to feel most alive when living in a form of collective identity. Gong-gil even enjoys the stage of party nights when vomiting starts.

The film manages to capture the innocence and virtues of childhood (which the performers have kept intact),for example, and there are times in my life when I have seen this happen, admitting to misdeeds that you have not committed to avoid the collective punishment of your group. Another lovely example would be a puppet show where a love story is enacted by the furtive stroking of one another's hands. The film has a lot of bright colours and looks good, although this may be more down to the often exquisite set design than any particularly beautiful cinematography. One good example of shooting though was in a meadow, which I like to think of as daisy drop.

Aspects of the movie that weren't to my taste were the bawdiness, which was a little strong for me (I still have some innocence too, so this is a very subjective point),and the fact that Yeonsan's back story intruded a lot (the intrigue surrounding his mother's death),and was quite hard to follow.

The King and the Clown is however an excellent movie, full of values that have almost vanished, and need some reviving.

This is for Mollie for the memories at Renato's.