I thought it was all very contrived and elements of the movie are a blend of others done before all meant to push forward a modern tolerant society alternative lifestyle movement.
Tony Curtis/Laurence Olivier had a similar dynamic in Spartacus. The version we saw had English subtitles so the characters appeared to be speaking an Elizibethan Shakespearean form "thou art a knave" , but the spouse said the spoken Korean was current colloquial. That was the initial thought, oh yeah, this is a lift from Shakespeare's Europe, the court jesters, men playing women's roles (wouldn't they at least shave??), the palace court and consort scheming away, a play within a play. "The Play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King". The costumes and roles we saw before in the episodic Dae Jang Geum series - (did they re-use the sets and clothes??), everything looked very familiar. I was looking for the palace cooks and maids in the background...
That being said, the "Captain" of the minstrels, Jang Saeng, comes off as an interesting, athletic, strong moral character, against any possible stereotyping as a limp wristed homosexual.
So, nice try, but too much "sampling" of previous arts.
Tony Curtis/Laurence Olivier had a similar dynamic in Spartacus. The version we saw had English subtitles so the characters appeared to be speaking an Elizibethan Shakespearean form "thou art a knave" , but the spouse said the spoken Korean was current colloquial. That was the initial thought, oh yeah, this is a lift from Shakespeare's Europe, the court jesters, men playing women's roles (wouldn't they at least shave??), the palace court and consort scheming away, a play within a play. "The Play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King". The costumes and roles we saw before in the episodic Dae Jang Geum series - (did they re-use the sets and clothes??), everything looked very familiar. I was looking for the palace cooks and maids in the background...
That being said, the "Captain" of the minstrels, Jang Saeng, comes off as an interesting, athletic, strong moral character, against any possible stereotyping as a limp wristed homosexual.
So, nice try, but too much "sampling" of previous arts.