In S. Korean top-grosser The King’s Warden, a prison for nobles sets the scene for heartfelt drama

The King’s Warden (NC16)

117 minutes, opens on April 9
★★★★☆

The story: In 1457, a violent coup throws the Joseon Dynasty into disarray. Teen king Yi Hong-wi (Park Ji-hoon) has been stripped of his crown. In a remote mountain settlement, village chief Eom Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin) struggles to keep his people fed. When he learns that hosting an exiled noble can elevate a village’s wealth and status, he makes a pitch for his hamlet of Cheongnyeongpo to be the next open-air prison for those too politically dangerous for the capital. His wish comes true, but instead of an old lord, his village gets a thin, pale teenager who seems to have given up on life.

Since its domestic release on Feb 4, this drama based on historical events has earned roughly US$100 million (S$129 million) in its home country, making it the highest-grossing film by revenue in South Korea.

There is little doubt that critics will find plenty to like in The King’s Warden as well. It has a richly detailed story grounded in the psychological realism of an era when omens and portents decided whether one lived or died.

A problem with too many historical dramas, especially those based on real events like this one, is what has been called “iPhone face” – when actors have auras so modern that they take viewers out of the story.

No danger of that here. Director and co-writer Jang Hang-jun (Forgotten, 2017) has packed the cast with faces that appear to have never met a plastic surgeon’s knife. Nor are the cast members sporting make-up that makes them look as though they have been processed through an Instagram filter.

Visual authenticity is crucial in a film featuring rough rural characters, such as the villagers of Cheongnyeongpo. In this provincial backwater, food is scarce, but mosquitoes are plentiful, according to one character.

Veteran actor Yoo (Confidential Assignment, 2017; Exhuma, 2024) is compellingly watchable as the leader with a wacky plan of turning his rustic enclave into a high-end prison, one that his cynical constituents mock.

As the peasant with ideas far above his station, the chief is the classic cheeky striver and eternal optimist, viewed with contempt by the nobles whose favour he is trying to win and warned to stay humble by farmers afraid of his hubristic plans.

From a clever comedy about a man fighting his fate, the film switches tones to become something else by the second half, after the haggard Yi shows up.

It then becomes a study of two men separated by class who grow close because they need each other. The relationship is purely transactional at first. The former king and his entourage need isolation; the village chief needs them to stay healthy, lest he lose the flow of money trickling down from the former royals.

Actress Jeon Mi-do as the king’s maid Mae-hwa is excellent as the elder with a motherly interest in him.

The film charts warming relations between the prisoner and his warden through food. The daily menu becomes a focal point that is as interesting as it is mouth-watering, another mark of a period work that never assumes historical details do not matter.

When the bittersweet climax arrives, its devastating emotional impact rests on a central relationship that has earned every bit of its importance in the story.

Hot take: A crowd-pleasing historical drama that earns its heartfelt resolution by grounding a king’s tragedy in the unlikely friendship between two men who need each other to survive.