Ssang-hwa-jeom

One of the best movies about pure love. I loved last fight that was a fight between love and pure love. The looser was the winner and the winner was the looser! To find out what I say, watch movie.

In this story, we have a gay king, in love with his chief bodyguard, who needs to produce an heir with his queen. Unable to perform with a woman, he commands his lover bodyguard to do the deed in his stead. While initially this is met with resistance, the bodyguard obeys the king's command with unforeseen consequences. This ended up being a great movie. It is well written, acted and filmed. The costuming, as well as the settings, are vibrant and ornate creating significant visual appeal. The characters are passionate and sincere. Even the music plays a part in pulling you into an experience. I enjoyed this far more than I expected to and I love films that can surprise me like this.

Just saw the director's cut of this movie, because I wanted to see some earlier work of actors, who are playing in recent k-drama series, and I am still reeling from the shock. The shock effect of Blood & Flowers or The Frozen Flower has nothing to do with the sex, violence, or death scenes in this movie. I found the story harsh, because of its total lack of romance. I can handle Asian love stories, that are heading towards an inevitable unhappy ending, but a complete absence of love, or love that is misunderstood, makes me sad. This movie made me think of that old French classic "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) of Choderlos de Laclos. It shows how people, who are playing with other people's loyalty and love, will destroy everybody involved, including themselves. I won't reveal too much about the story lines and I don't want to discuss the homo sexuality in this movie either. It has been done already, and better. This movie left me with a lot of questions about love. Can lust turn into love? What is love anyway, is it just a pleasant misunderstanding between lovers, if it isn't tried too much? Can you gain something in life if you use your heart in stead of your brain? I won't take 'no' for an answer, but this movie does. At least I got the impression the second man in the king's guard, who wanted to claim the position of his chief, survived everyone in the end, because he was such a cold, calculating bastard. My verdict: Blood & Flowers left me in the dark, and in a dark mood. I still give it a 7 out of 10, because the acting was really good. Also the characters are fleshed out, no one is really good or evil. I recommend this movie to everyone, who wants to discuss the meaning of love with some friends afterwards.