2010 NYKFF: A FROZEN FLOWER Review
A Frozen Flower is a Korean costume drama set in the Goryeo Dynasty. Directed by Ha Yoo, the film focuses on an affair between a King (Jin-mo Joo) and one of his elite bodyguards, Hong-lim (In-seong Jo). As the Queen (Ji-hyo Song) struggles with her feelings towards the King, the kingdom is at unrest due to the lack of an heir. To prevent a revolt against the throne, the King commands Hong-lim to impregnate the Queen so an heir can be conceived. However, things turn grim when Hong-lim and the Queen fall in love.
I really don't have much experience seeing Korean epics,
although the film feels really familiar. I hate to say this, but being exposed
to Zhang Yimou's works may have endowed me with unrealistic expectations of the
martial arts period drama genre. A Frozen
Flower is in no way a small production. However, the degree of stylization and scale in this Korean
film does not come close to any recent Zhang Yimou film. The film is lush with grand scenery and bright colored
wardrobes. While it is not a
bad looking one, something substantial seems to be missing that prevents A Frozen Flower from becoming a
satisfying cinematic experience.
The first half of the film feels dreadfully slow and uninspired. Twenty minutes in and I was cringing for the film to pick up. It's not that A Frozen Flower is a slow simmering kind of movie. It's a matter of uninteresting predictability and myopic storytelling. The interactions between the King and his boy toy, Hong-rim, are too familiar, and it comes across slightly too juvenile. At times it's simply not believable. Maybe this is something that Ha Yoo, the director, is going for. The relationship between Hong-rim and the King feels rather superficial, while on the other hand, the affair between Hong-rim and the Queen feels so much more real. The problem is not the contrast, but how it comes across in the film. I really don't know whether Jin-mo Joo and In-seong Jo just have terrible chemistry together, or if it's something completely intentional.
It doesn't help that the melodrama in A Frozen Flower feels rather cheap and predictable. Honestly, the movie is barely interesting until the King confirms his suspicion in regards of the relationship between Hong-rim and the Queen. It is understood that the film's plot is about the love triangle, however everything else feels thrown in just for the sake of plot advancement. Even one of the most important events in the film, which involves the massacre of an entire room of people, doesn't have the emotional impact that it should.
I think Yoo should look at what Ang Lee did with Lust, Caution and maybe get a hint of what to do with a story like this one. Sex is a big part of the movie. We see Hong-rim humping the Queen a lot, and the King gets in on the action early on in the movie as well. But just like everything else in the film, it feels tedious and routine. Passion and grit are missing from how the sex scenes are shot. I think the sex in the film comes across too fake for the context of the story. It needs to be something more dangerous, something more primal - not an awkwardly put together montage of side boobs and asses.
I do appreciate, to an extent, how homosexuality is portrayed in the film. There is some shame associated with the King's sexual orientation, but eventually it becomes something that is trivial to how the characters feel for each other. The characters are not gay characters. They are characters that happen to be gay.
In the end, A Frozen Flower is an experience that is not as unpleasant as I thought it was going to be at first. But even though the film attempts to compensate for the first half with a very packed second half, it was a little bit too late.
A Frozen Flower is screening as part of the 2010 New York Korean Film Festival this Sunday (Oct. 4th) at BAM. Click here to buy tickets.
