The King And The Clown (or, And the winner is not...)

Nathaniel, over at The Film Experience has been keeping a little list of the films that foreign lands have been nominating to step up for the race for next year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Korea just announced The King And The Clown as their official entry, a film that has been heralded by some (don't make me search for a link) as the Korean Brokeback Mountain. To celebrate (the nomination, not the Brokeback comparisons) I decided to watch it.

It's that time honoured story all over again: boy loves girly-boy, boy and girly-boy mock king, king likes boy, king REALLY likes girly-boy... trouble ensues.

The King And The Clown is a really solid film but it ain't no Brokeback Mountain. I don't say that to diminish the quality of Jun-ik Lee's feature, just to say that they don't share much in common in the "how gay are you" stakes. Probably due to the conservative nature of Korean society (the imdb boards have someone commenting that some elderly Koreans don't even believe homosexuality exists... have I got some videos for them!), The King And The Clown fits better into the very-strong-friendship-that-could-easily-be-construed-as-homosexual-love camp. In this respect, it is probably a little closer to The Lord of the Rings.

Tossing those concerns flagrantly aside, The King And The Clown is a sumptuous period piece with some extremely engaging performances and pretty costumes. The two clowns are genuinely charismatic and exceedingly easy on the eye. Jun-gi Lee is so stunning that he out-girls most of the concubines and his lover/bestest of best friends, Jang-sang (played by Woo-seong Kam) is just as stunning but in a more manly, tightrope walky sort of way. Their bawdy act is an extension of their characters and it is easy to see how they beguile the king, especially this one, since he is so vapidly one-dimensional.

The King was one of my biggest issues with the film. Historically, he was one of Korea's most tyrannical rulers but here he just comes across as petulant and capricious. In this, as with most of the film, I got a real sense that there is something more going on that wasn't being spelt out on the screen. Given that the film was a massive hit at home in Korea, I can't shake the feeling that there was a little culture barrier hindering my full enjoyment and understanding of the film (there is a four hour cut floating around too apparently, maybe that would help). Unfortunately, the king's characterisation made it difficult to buy into the drama of the film and ultimately hamstrung any emotional response.

The King And The Clown is not going to win the Oscar but a good film nonetheless. If you loved Sliding Doors then you should see this film because you have crap taste and this one is much better.

Tags: movie review, Korean cinema, queer cinema