CinemaSerf

Rating:7/10

Based on real events from Joseon history, this tells us the story of the enthusiastic efforts of village chief Um-Heung Do (Yoo Hae-jin) to improve the lot of his citizenry. When a hunting expedition goes quite bizarrely wrong for him, he finds himself in a neighbouring town where the people are doing rather better. Why? Well that’s because a previously high-ranking official from the government had been exiled there and some of his prudent friends had lavished gifts on him, and the townsfolk, in eager expectation that he would be reinstated. When he duly was, their policy left them much better off and better educated. When a new king accedes, he anticipates that there will be more such banishments and so volunteers the former home of their shaman as a place to house a prestigious prisoner. Guess what? He gets one. It is not, however, a distinguished looking gent with a big hat and grey beard. Instead it is a teenage boy (Park Jo-hoon) who arrives in a palanquin with a devoted servant (Jeon Mi-do) and who seems pretty determined to starve himself to death. Having his charge die on his watch is no use to the locals and so they begin an hybrid mixture of charm offensives to see if they can reinvigorate their guest. It’s only when gossip finally reaches them revealing the true identity of Lord Dosan that the ante is upped for everyone in quite a perilous fashion. For the first half hour of this, I found the relentlessness of Yoo Hae-jin’s performance downright annoying, but once we’ve established the dynamic of who is who and what’s gone and going on here, I felt he played into his role engagingly. A man of courage and integrity emerges as he and his son (Yoo Ji-tae) begin to bond more with a visitor who, gradually, begins to realise that his supposed destiny might be more in his own hands that he’d originally thought. There’s a bit of intrigue, plotting, some humour and even a fairly dastardly enemy mixed into this and what’s more, unless you are familiar with 15th century Korean history, you are unlikely to predict it’s denouement. It’s a very human story that is delivered well, especially by the young Park Jo-hoon; the production design is stylish and once it got going, I quite enjoyed it.

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