Olbbaemi

Stumbled upon this while scrolling through movies available on Astro Go. Must admit, what a great movie! Started off light hearted, with funny moments then it escalates well. Suspense is intense, plot development is awesome. And the message it tries to portray is deep. THIS MESSAGE IS WHAT MAKES THIS MOVIE HAS ADDED VALUE that makes it more meaningful.

In the era of monarchy, somehow you wonder how people lived in the past. Great watch, definitely must see.

Genre:historical Korean, fiction, suspense, power struggle.

"We commoners can only live by being blind" (quoted, sort of)

Loved the acting by the casts, especially the main characters, tho i never knew any of them before except maybe the king. 🔥🔥🔥

I watched this movie today and I had to pause every 5-10 minutes to digest what I saw. The performance by lead actor was nothing short of amazing, other actors did great job too. The movie succeeded at creating the particular atmosphere, and I was taken back to 17th century. I really loved the historical details, as a big fan of Korean period dramas. I liked little twists throughout the movie, and they did great job portraying the political battle and cruelty of politicians. The ending was good, they tried to keep it real without giving it happy ending. Overall, good thriller with good plot, a unique work although I would not say it was "wow".

It was completely ruined without a properly translated subtitles. The settings, the acting, camera operating, directing...etc., etc., are all pretty good, but with a barely correct translation by translation engine, the so-called AI translation, sometimes totally wrong, sometimes suddenly omitted, the available English subtitles did not help a bit but just caused more confusion. There are so many scenes without translated subtitles, or completely disappeared, or misplaced names or titles, this supposedly not bad Korean palatial thriller turned out to be quite clueless often. The actor who played the blind guy either played dumb or overacted like a numb and helpless guy. So if you don't know Korean language and completely rely on the only available but absolutely horrible subtitles which about 85% wrong or incorrect or clueless or either slower or faster 0.5 sec to match the on-screen dialog, all you could do is to GUESS to fool yourself. I wish there would be a more accurately translated subtitles that would allow me to watch it again from the very beginning. But if you understand the Korean language, you might enjoy this seriously produced thriller.

The movie is well made with an interesting storyline although I had to find different subtitles multiple times to understand the movie in English, despite that in many places where the korean caption is written within the movie, there is no translation given in subtitles. I can compare and say I had a similar feeling while watching Game of Thrones final season only to arrive at a bad ending. Many aspects were inconclusive - some of the characters' stories were completely skipped at the end. The ending felt hurried and suddenly it's fast forwarded to someother timeline after several years and you'll remain wondering what just happened. Overall an interesting watch but they could have written the ending so much better while still keeping the story realistic.

It's an amazing Korean cinema as always. Had to wait a long time to watch it as it's been out for long. The lead actor is amazing as he always is and the veteran actor playing the King is always a screen presence. (No need to write out names since this site is mostly western users).

The story and the cinematography stands out, the acting and period piece settings makes a statement as should, but I won't deny this wasn't the way a movie like this should end. It felt like the twist and turns that made it work for 70% of the movie became so exciting for the writers they decided to push it further unnecessarily. A few major character arcs were left out very dully (kings wife, Prince wife, Prince son, etc). The other twist with a major actor seemed probable but somewhat unsavory, and didn't even have a final pay off. And in the end, a few things felt like, "let's just end it this way." Maybe if the plot with the world becoming modern was explored a little bit, some things could have been more relatable, but it wasn't. Even the King's back story could have helped if there was a better explanation or flash back. (A part of me feels this was intended to be a 6 part mini series but budget wasn't there).

Regardless, for what it intended to be and was for a major part, it was amazing. Wish it ended better.