King and the Clown 王的男人 英语影评

The King and the Clown is a 2005 South Korean film, adapted from the 2000 Korean play titled "Yi", ("You") about Yeonsangun of Joseon, a Joseon dynasty king who falls in love with a court clown who mocks him. The movie is based on a small passage from the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty that briefly mentions the king's favorite clown. Production costs were relatively modest for a Korean film, approximately $4.5 million dollars.

There are alternative titles of this movie: The King's Men or The King's Man (the literal translation of the Korean title to English) and All the King's Men (working title). In Chinese, the title is "王的男人" or "王和小丑", and in Japanese, it is known as "王の男".

This film was chosen by Korea as its submission for the Oscars in the best foreign film category.

Set in the early 16th century during the rein of King Yeonsan, two street clowns and tightrope walkers, Jangsaeng (Gam Wu-seong) and Gonggil (Lee Jun Ki), are part of an entertainer troupe. Their manager sells Gonggil's body to the nobility, and Jangsaeng sickens of this practice. After killing their manager in defense, the pair flees to Seoul, where they form a new group of street performers.

Together the group comes up with a skit mocking some members of the Royal Court, including the king and his new concubine Jang Noksu. After they are arrested for treason, Jangsaeng makes a deal with Choseon, who turns out to be one of the King's servants, to either make the king laugh with their skit or to be killed. They perform their skit for the king, but the clowns are so scared they mess up. Gonggil and Jangsaeng barely save themselves with one last joke at the king, who laughs and then makes them part of his Court. The king falls for the effeminate Gonggil, whom he calls to his private chambers often for puppet shows. Jangsaeng becomes jealous of this time alone (though it is never explicitly stated that there is anything more than friendship between him and Gonggil - this topic of friendship/love has been much debated by film reviewers). Meanwhile, the King becomes more and more unstable and kills people as he watches plays with resemblances to his past, where his mother was publicly executed via poisoning. Jangsaeng asks Gonggil to leave with him and the gang at once before the King may kill them too out of his fits. Gonggil refuses, sympathizing with King Yeonsan.

The king's main concubine, Jang Noksu, becomes enraged by the attention the king has been lavishing upon Gonggil. She tries to have him killed during a hunting trip, resulting in the death of one of the members of their street performing team. Days after the hunting trip, there is a kiss between the king and Gonggil (which has caused much buzz and excitement among film reviewers). Then, she tries to have him jailed by having flyers run in Gonggil's handwriting insulting the king severely. Jangsaeng takes credit for the crime for which Gonggil has been falsely accused and is imprisoned.

Choseon silently releases Jangsaeng, saying that he should now forget about Gonggil and leave the palace. But after being released from prison Jangsaeng surprisingly walks his tightrope between palace rooftops, this time openly mocking the king. The King fires arrows at him while Gonggil tries to stop him. Jangsaeng falls off and is caught, and has his eyes burned out and he is rejailed. Gonggil attempts suicide, but his life was saved by the palatial doctors. The king has Jangsaeng walk his tightrope blind. As Jangsaeng tells a story on the rope, Gonggil runs out of the palace and joins him, and they have a conversation together with much hidden meaning and significance, about returning in the next life again as clowns.

Throughout the film, the tyranny of the king and corruption of his Courts is revealed. At the very end there is an attack on the palace, and as people storm through the court beneath the tightrope, Jangsaeng and Gonggil jump together, and Jangsaeng tosses away his fan, signifying the death of both which is never actually seen in the film.