Kirpianuscus
the image. the story. the performances. parts of a South Coreean historical drama. like many others. but only at the search sigh. because it is more a parable than recreation of an episode from the past. it is touching and dark and strange. a story about love and power and relationships in a not ordinary manner, a story who not use the myth but represents a bitter trip to the essence of things. a film for a precise target. because it is wise answer to different challenges, because reflects the politics and personal life in a manner who reminds old taboo and ambiguous rules.it preserves the atmosphere of historical dramas, it propose same questions and solutions but it remains different because it preserves the rhythm of every day contemporary existence. short, a film about survive. and that definition could be enough.
Neo Sky
"A frozen flower" is a great movie in terms of acting, scenes and directing. The whole combination made this movie a big hit.1)In acting, two main actors and the actress did a great job. The characters are really complicated while facing opposite emotions such as loyalty and betrayal, love and hate, duty and passion, obey and disobey at the same time. It is not easy to show cruelty and affection at the same time as two main actors did great in this movie. The actress also was great in showing her two different kinds of relationship with them. They all did a great job to reveal these emotions in their mimics and actions. Their internal combat reflects in their acting amazingly.2) In scenes, the movie includes both sexual scenes and historical scenes. While a lot of discussions has been made about the sexual ones, I believe they serve the purpose of the movie perfectly. They are not similar to some sexual scenes in other movies, when you feel like they are not necessary and are just there to make it an R rate movie. No. Here these scenes reflects the growing emotions and changing winds in the characters' souls. The historical scenes are vivid as well. full of colors, actions and harmony,each and every second of them serves the storyline and events. They help to actually take our minds to that historical era in Korean history. They show us how they pray, socialize and celebrate life events in that time, which is crucial to make us understand the characters, their duties, feelings and social aspects.3) Directing and editing (metaphored as the second directing) are done perfectly. The camera angles are chosen wisely both in big shots in events and close ups while dealing with characters' mimics and inner feelings. Colors and designs works in harmony to elaborate the settings of that era. Imagine I saw the movie without any background in Korea's history; and it encourages me to search a bit to know more. Great movie to watch, to enjoy and also to explore a different time era if you are interested.
eucalyptus9
I didn't think that a film about a homosexual king persuading his lover to sleep with the Queen to produce an heir would be very exciting. But as so often happens, it was. I've watched this twice now, and appreciated the film a lot more the second time around.The lead characters are well drawn, the dialog is interesting, the acting is excellent - heck, I even liked the music. There's not an over-abundance of battle and fight scenes, but what scenes there were were well -staged, and I thought the final scenes were as good as anything I've seen.And, of course, there's sex - lots of bare-bottomed bare-breasted, tongue in tongue, man on man, man on woman sex. But none of it descends into sleaziness and perhaps because Ji-hyo Song is such a beautiful woman (and, dare I say it, In-seong Jo is such a beautiful man) the scenes don't become tedious as they do in so many other other movies. The scenes are completely integral to the movie. Funnily enough, I've always thought of the French as being the only ones capable pf handling sex in cinema properly. The Germans and Spanish and Australians always tend towards crudity, the Americans invariably imbue their sex scenes with their childish puritanism, and sex in Asian cinema can be downright ludicrous. But having said that, the most erotic and interesting sex scenes I've seen have all been in Asian movies - "Samsara", "Erotic Ghost Story", "A Frozen Flower".I really like this film - it gets a 9/10 from me.
Armand
About love. Its nuances, price and forms. Beautiful, powerful and aesthetic exercise. Fight scenes makes with delicate attention and the action as mountain river. Nothing new for a Coreean production. ButA Frozen Flower is interesting not only for colors and recreation of an era. Cntemporan questions are parts of a historical drama and the answers are sword blades. The tyrant is not a gray character. The loyal friend is not the traitor without conscience. The child is seal of crisis. Love is not a white page but a drawing in which two men hunt. The happiness and the sense of their search. In fact, a movie of porcelain. Game of emotions and sensitive description of feelings. The end, not special, is ribbon of a military book about peace essence.
AD
