The Concubine (film)
| The Concubine | |
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Promotional poster for The Concubine
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| Hangul | : |
| Hanja | : 의 |
| Revised Romanization | Hugung: Jewang-ui Jeob |
| McCune–Reischauer | Hugung: Chewang-ŭi chŏp |
| Directed by | Kim Dae-seung |
| Produced by | Hwang Yoon-jeong |
| Written by | Hwang Yoon-jeong Kim Dae-seung Kim Mee-jung |
| Starring |
Jo Yeo-jeong Kim Dong-wook Kim Min-joon |
| Music by | Jo Yeong-wook |
| Cinematography | Hwang Ki-seok |
| Edited by | Kim Sang-bum |
| Distributed by | Lotte Entertainment |
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Release date
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Running time
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122 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | ₩19,330,302,500 $16,463,290 |
The Concubine (Hangul: 후궁: 제왕의 첩; RR: Hugoong: Jewangui Chub; lit. "Royal Concubine: Concubine to the King") is a 2012 South Korean historical film directed by Kim Dae-seung. Set in the Joseon Dynasty, it centers around Hwa-yeon (Jo Yeo-jeong), who becomes a royal concubine against her will, Kwon-yoo (Kim Min-joon), a man torn between love and revenge, and Prince Sung-won (Kim Dong-wook), who has his heart set on Hwa-yeon despite the countless women available to him. These three characters form a love triangle which is ruled by dangerous passion. The struggle to survive within the tight-spaced boundaries of the palace is intense, and only those who are strong enough to overcome the hell-like milieu can survive.
Set during the early Joseon Dynasty, the film begins with the queen mother and former concubine (Park Ji-young) in a precarious position of having no blood ties to the childless king (Jung Chan). She schemes to replace him on the throne with his stepbrother and her submissive young son Sung-won (Kim Dong-wook). Indifferent to his mother’s plans, the timid prince falls in love at first sight with Hwa-yeon (Jo Yeo-jeong), an aristocrat’s daughter, who has already found love with Kwon-yoo (Kim Min-joon), a low-born commoner. When her father (Ahn Suk-hwan) decides to send her to the royal palace as a concubine for the king, the two lovers try to elope but are caught after their first night together. She only gives in to parental demands in a quid pro quo for his life.
Five years later, Hwa-yeon has become the queen from giving birth to a son. Sung-won comes back from traveling to see the King upon hearing of his ill-health. In a private conversation, he hands a hair stick to her as a present and as a confession of his feelings. After the king passes away to what the eunuchs assume is poison, the Queen Mother appoints herself as Regent and she sits her son, Prince Sung-won, on the throne as a puppet king, giving the ruthless matriarch firm control over the royal court. Hwa-yeon is moved to a closely watched humble residence where she is being under surveillance constantly. When Hwa-yeon's father suspects the missing pages of the King's Log to contain the assassination of the king, he is arrested for treason. Present at her conversation with Sung-won is her former lover, Kwon-yoo, who she is quite surprised to see. However, when she reaches to him for help, he gives the image of being a helpless eunuch all the while plotting to end her father's life as revenge for castrating him for his elopement with her. Hwa-yeon continues to subtly beg Sung-won for her father's life and even manages to find the woman who recorded the King's Log to exonerate herself and her father. Kwon-yoo is ordered by Sung-won to save her father but he refuses to help in any way, thereby making the exoneration impossible. To assassinate Hwa-yeon and her son in order to secure her position in the palace, the Queen Mother tells Minister Yoon, in charge of medicinal purposes, to pass off a rock with poisonous fumes to Kwon-yoo to give to Hwa-yeon.
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