The King's Warden - Wonderfully Acted, Brilliantly Told & Beatufully Done Historical Drama Movie

I had been aware about this movie for a while now and became really interested when I read it was a major success in South Korea. But I did not realize it was already playing in Indonesia on Wednesday so we only saw it yesterday when we had the chance. It was a bit of challenge cause the movie did not play in that many studios. Luckily one of them was the cinema not far from our home. All right then, let us get on with the film.

Brief Story Line

Set during Joseon periode, the young King Yi Hong-wi (Park Ji-hoon - Weak Hero TV series, Audrey etc) was overthrown and demoted to a normal Lord called Nosan. Minister Han Myong-hoe (Yoo Ji-tae - Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area TV series, The Swindlers etc) tried to push Nosan losing his will to live by putting him into exile. Meanwhile Cheongnyeongpo village chief Eom Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin - Exhuma, Yadang: The Snitch etc) who heard about the nice things for an exile place, managed to convince Myong-hoe to choose his village and he himself became the Warden.

Unfortunately, Heung-do did not realize he was going to accomodate the fallen king who came along with his maid Mae-hwa (Jeon Mi-do - Hospital Playlist, Connection TV series etc) and realized too late that he was putting himself and villagers in danger. As Heung-do tried his best to keep Nosan alive, they somehow would form an unlikely close bond.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

After seeing this movie together with my wife, I could finally understand why it became the highest-grossing film in South Korea to date and the third most watched film in term of admission (admission and box office performance is not necessarily in-line due to lower ticket price in the past). The movie was indeed very good with plenty of heart warming drama, some simple yet nice humor, even a bit of action and lots of very dramatic & touching moments. It was a well spent almost 2 hours time in the studio.

The story telling was definitely something that I loved. Although there were things that my wife and I did not quite grasp about the overthrowing of the King (in the early stage), but once the movie progressed to the introduction of Heung-do, everything seemed to move very nicely and really interesting. I believe this was due to the great work of director Jang Han-jun (Spring Breeze, Forgotten etc) who also co-wrote this together with Hwang Seong-gu (Anarchist From Colony, Little Forest etc). Obviously everything fall into place nicely because of the hard work by the cast.

I thought the performance of Yoo Hae-jin was brilliant as the village chief turned warden and his chemistry with Park Ji-hoon was just fantastic. I also admired Yoo Ji-tae who was so convincing in portraying this ruthless minister who we really wished for the worst. In addition to the ones I mentioned above, the film also supported by other cast who added some color and also important to the story, such as Lee Joon-hyuk (The Art of Sarah mini series, Firefighters etc) as Grand Prince Kumsong, Park Ji-hwan (The Frog mini series, The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure etc) as the Magistrate, Lee Jun-hyuk (Honey Sweet, Joseon Attorney: A Morality TV series etc) and Kim Soo-jin (The Closet, Ca$hero TV series etc) as Mak-dong's parents, Kim-min (Rebound, Chief Detective 1958 etc) as Heung-do's son Tae-san and few others. Funny thing was I did not recognize most of the people here despite already saw them many times before as Joseon setting appearance somehow made me having difficulty to identify them. Only after my wife told me that I realized who they were.

This movie was based on actual historical events. However I am very sure there were few dramatization to make it a more coherent story. Being non South Korean, I do not have knowledge of how things would end, so it was a wonderful experience when wathing the film with anxiety and curiosity of how it would conclude and the feeling we had during those final moments. However, even if you do know the history, I think the film was still an amazing way to see the events unfolding. I believed this was one of the factor it was such a huge success, with obviously the drama and acting which brought audience satisfaction.

Overall this was an awesome historical drama movie that would rouse your emotions from joy, hopeful to sorrow and tragic. The movie's exact duration was 117 minutes including closing credits but no mid or post end credit scene. Before the credits were shown, there were few words about the King and the Warden that were added to provide closure. And despite a bit melodramatic at times (there were no dry eyes in the studio where we saw this yesterday, especially my wife who had to hold herself from breaking down in heavy sobbing), I think the essence of wonderful friendship was perfectly delivered here. So if you like historical drama with such attributes, I am quite sure you would love this one. Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars