Introduction
The "King
and the Clown" (Wang-ui Namja)
is adapted from the 2000 highly acclaimed Korean play titled "Yi"
("You") about Yeonsan-gun, a Joseon dynasty king who falls in love
with a court clown who mocks him. The play is based on a small passage from the Annals of
the Joseon Dynasty that briefly mentions the king's favorite clown. Instead of focusing on
the love between the clown and the king, the movie craftfully blends in many other
subtexts (life, love, politics, fate, etc) making it a much subtle and deeper film. Yet,
it is highly entertaining at the same time.
It
was the highest grossing (over US$85,000,000 in domestic receipts) Korean film in history
with 12.3 million viewers, surpassing the total admissions of Silmido and Taegukgi
until the horror film The Host surpassed its record in September of 2006. For a
Korean film, it has a relatively modest production cost of only approximately US$4.5 million
dollars.
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