Morality on the Film: A Frozen Flower

Korea has a rich culture and history. By this, on December 2008, a film entitled A Frozen Flower hit the theatres resulting to outstanding rates of sales; and it is critically accepted by the board of evaluators as a historical film. It has won awards as it proclaims its own glory and valor.

Note: The following paragraphs impart a brief background and summary of the film and subsequent to that is how the sash of morality is bestowed upon the film, A Frozen Flower (disclaiming the brief background).

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Background

A Frozen Flower derived its name from a Korean word “Ssang-hwa-jeom” which is a Goryeo song. It is a song written by an anonymous composer at the time of King Choong-ryul, the 25^th ruler of Goryeo. The song is about the worldly secret affairs that take place inside a shop that sells “Ssang-hwa” (which also means “dumplings”). Under King Sung-jong’s reign in the Chosun era, it was thought to go against Confucian ways and was considered as a song of “obscene lyrics about lovers’ play” and “forbidden secret love affairs”.

Director YOO Ha thought the daring men and women in the Goryeo song, ‘Ssang-hwajeom’ resembled the lovers who were unrestricted by social class, rules, conditions, and ethics in the film, and thus decided to use the title “SSang-hwa-jeom: A Frozen Flower”. Furthermore, the “well” in the lyrics metaphorically refers to the palace and the ‘dragon’, the king, to show Yuan’s meddling in Goryeo’s affairs at a very politically unsteady period. This chaotic era is the setting behind the film.

Another meaning for “Ssang-hwa”, “a frozen flower”, is also symbolic of the nature of love expressed in the film. The film, “A Frozen Flower” captures the hot, passionate love growing cold and in turn giving birth to betrayal and doomed destinies (Ha, 2008).

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­­In the end of Goryeo era politically manipulated by the Yuan Dynasty in China, the ambitious King of the Goryeo Dynasty organizes Kunryongwe, the royal guards. Hong Lim, the commander of Kunryongwe, captivates the King of Goryeo, and the Queen keeps her eyes on the relationship between Hong Lim and the King with a reluctant view.

Meanwhile, the bilateral relation between Goryeo and the Yuan gets worse as Yuan demands to install the cousin of the King in the Crown Prince of Goryeo with ascribing it to no son the King has. The King refuses it resolutely, so the high-ranking officials of Goryeo, who are in submission to Yuan, are discontented with the king. One day, the King gives Hong Lim a covert yet unobjectionable order to sleep with the Queen instead of him to protect the independence of Goryeo from the Yuan by making a son, the successor to Goryeo throne (M-Line World Distributions, 2008). Unfortunately, due to this order, the Queen and Hong Lim develop a feeling for each other; they see each other without the King knowing about it. By now they are both fatally attracted to each other and have trouble staying away for long periods of time. Hong Lim’s frequent absences and wandering mind irritate the king, who suspects the truth but is willing to believe in Hong Lim’s (weak) denials.

Hong Lim is ordered by the King to kill the conspirators who are disloyal to him and one of them is the brother of the Queen. But a subordinate later reveals to the king that the brother was let go for the sake of the queen. (He’s still dead by someone else’s hand, though, as the head in the box attests.) By this, it was assured to the King that there has been a secret agenda with Hong Lim and the Queen. The King loses faith in Hong Lim while the latter is full of self-doubt at his own betrayal. He does promise the king that he was acting out of mistaken lust. The King decides to send Hong Lim away to the border to clear his mind. However, the queen sends for Hong Lim, with the news that she is pregnant. They meet in their usual place, the library, and are caught in the act by the king and a retinue of servants and guards.

The King, enraged, order the guards to castrate and imprison Hong Lim. Hong Lim escapes with the help of the Queen and his friends.

Defeated and alone, Hong Lim returns to the capital in time to see the heads of four men (his friends) staked on the wall – he recognizes them, and also the pendant of the queen hanging from the fifth head.

The king has killed everyone involved in the adultery case, with the exception of the vice captain. Now he tells everyone in the guard of what has happened, as a safeguard for his own life and the future of the Kunryongwe guards. While the discussion is going on, Hong Lim has entered the king’s chambers and forced a fight. He intends to kill the King, though the latter is mostly yielding to him. As always, the king is the better swordsman, and when Hong Lim asks for death, the king stabs him through the shoulder, pinning him to a pillar. The king asks if Hong Lim had ever loved him, and he denies it. Then he walks forward, impaling himself further and stabbing the king in the stomach.

The king dies pretty quickly, but Hong Lim’s shoulder wound isn’t immediately fatal, so it’s up to Seung-ki, the vice captain, to kill him as an assassin. (It’s almost a matter of personal revenge, as Seung-ki seems to have been in love with the king this whole time.) The queen finally pushes her way past the guards in time to see Hong Lim in his death throes on the floor. He hears her voice, and with the (er, hopefully) last effort of a dying man, lifts himself up so that he dies looking at the body of the king.

Discussion

The guidelines that Father Gardiner formulated instructs that: the critic is concerned with the book , not with the author; the critic is concerned with treatment, not with subject; if sin is discussed or represented in a piece of literature it must be recognized for what it is at least by the writer; sin may not be so presented as to become a temptation to a normally discriminating reader; and a single moral flaw or a small number of such flaws do not render a whole book immoral in its effect (Gardiner, 1946). These are the standards that will be used to identify how morality existed on the motion picture, A Frozen Flower.

Yoo Ha, director of the said film and also the author of the story, has created high-quality dramas with issues that strike at the heart of society. He took everyday social codes and systems such as marriage, school violence, and gangs, and realistically showed how natural desires are realized, sacrificed, and devastated. Furthermore, he showed variations within the limited genre of dramas and delivered new stories to the audiences (M-Line World Distributions, 2008).

“A historical drama must be a mirror that reflects

reality. If it does not look real, it is nothing but an

old folktale. The Goryeo song, ‘Ssang-hwa-jeom: A

Frozen Flower’ was used to show a new

interpretation of the natural relationship between

people and explore love, betrayal, obsession,

chastisement, revenge, political ambitions, etc.”

- Director YOO Ha –

Yoo Ha’s style is to depict a society as it is presented in reality. He is more on the realistic side of writing and showcasing his masterpiece. For A Frozen Flower, it has depicted as a historical film.

The first guideline is the critic is concerned with the book, not with the author (Gardiner, 1946). Since the film was originally written by Director Yoo Ha, morality has to be only within the context of the story; morality existed only in the story and not within or with the writer. And since it is a historical film (it is based on history), there is no imputing motives of the writer. It is basically of the history and culture of the Koreans wherein the story is set.

The second guideline states that the critic is concerned with treatment, not with subject (Gardiner, 1946). The story was treated as a realistic flick. It aimed to portray the things that had happened in the history of Korea. Sin is portrayed through the three main characters, Hong Lim, the King and the Queen. The movie delivered the essence of dramatic form which is the struggle of these three main characters in lust, murder, crimes of pride, wrath and envy which led to the death of the King and Hong Lim. The death of the two main characters, the King and Hong Lim, produce the poetic judgement needed for it to be a moral movie. In the end, the selection, idealization and interpretation of those materials of the writer in conduct of his artistic processes in working out of his artistic idea have thoroughly being processed throughout the story.

The third guideline is if sin is discussed or represented in a piece of literature it must be recognized for what it is at least by the writer (Gardiner, 1946). The very essence of dramatic literature is its conflict. Without it, there can be no tragedy, comedy or even farce. By this conflict, morals are recognized and tension is produced. In the film, lust, murder, envy, anger – all forms of sin – is presented as a crime and turpitude. And as it was said in the second guideline, poetic justice was claimed in the end and it manifested that the sins of the three characters has put into justice. The story tells to the audience that, the sin a man attended must be put into the line of judgement and must be corrected.

The fourth guideline manifests sin may not be so presented as to become a temptation to a normally discriminating reader. The sin of adultery and murder are the main sins in the film. It is not represented to its audience as a topic to indulge in the real life. Actually, the film gives a lesson for the audience to understand and not to cosset these sins.

The film is not a discreet pornography. It did not yield to advocate sex as an entertainment and exhibition. Sex is depicted in the story as a sin made by a wife (the Queen) and a man (Hong Lim) who is not his husband; and a husband (the King) not with the wife but with another not by a woman but with a man (Hong Lim).

The reader (or audience) has his own duty here: if a novel or a play (or a film) offers particular temptations to him, he has the obligation to be his own censor (Gardiner, 1946).

The fifth guideline is a single moral flaw or a small number of such flaws do not render a whole book immoral in its effect. The flaws in the film are of the characters and their sin. These are the flaws that are said to be immoral and yes, they are really are. In real life, those scenes are also depicted as immoral but life is not immoral. So there are barriers that disconnect the immoralities to the righteousness within a single context. Critics should not judge a piece for its immoral; he should see and scrutinize it as a whole and criticize it fairly balancing everything in its whole framework.

For the film, there are flaws which suggest immorality. But it has been taken care of in the end part of the story in which the poetic judgement of the characters who are the particular sinners has been assessed. This poetic judgement has led these sinners, the King and Hong Lim, to die in their own hands and for the Queen, she suffered for no one was left for her to raise her child and also that her love one (Hong Lim) has just died. With this fact, the sin has been judged and it is really erroneous. It is really presented in the story, for the welfare of the audience that it is moral and that morality exists in the story.

As a conclusion, with these facts which are stated above, it is undeniable that the film, A Frozen Flower has a moral value and that the sash of morality is bestowed upon it.

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