UK premiere at the 23rd Leeds International Film Festival.

This South Korean film combines the martial art genre with a moving love story. It has excellent production values and looks great on the big screen, the proper place to see it. There is luxuriant colour, beautifully framed wide-screen cinematography and convincing production design with beautiful detail. This is director Yoo Ha’s first venture in the genre and is completely successful. He also scripted the film. And he has assembled an excellent cast to interpret the story.

Warning – plot spoilers follow.

The setting is C12th Korea in the period Goryeo (or Koryo) dynasty. The Korean title is also that of a song of the period describing sexual relations between men and women. This was a feudal society with competing dynastic lords competing to establish a dominant kingdom. The peninsula was also dominated by Yuan China and under threat from the Mongol invasions. The king (Ju Jin-mo) recruits a team of young boys who are trained up into an elite bodyguard. The leader of the bodyguard is Hong Lim (Ju In-sung), who also becomes the king’s lover. This romantic and martial idyll is undermined when the king is forced to take a Chinese princess, (Song Ji-you) as his Queen. Unable to produce an heir, essential to quiet the scheming courtiers and alternative ruler, the King orders Hong Lim to sire one. Thus begins a passionate affair between the bodyguard and the Queen that leads to tragedy and dynastic convulsions.

Yoo Ha has apparently based his film on an actual story, though the central gay theme would seem to be his own interpretation. For UK audiences the central triangle is likely to be reminiscent of the Arthurian tragedy involving the King, Guinevere and the knight Lancelot. However, this version has the authentic feel of Korean history and the explicit depiction of both the violence and the sexual actions. Several of the secret assignations between Hong Lim and the Queen take place in the Palace library, in the section devoted to military writings. However, given the way their lovemaking develops it feels more likely that they are perusing the section on erotic writings.

As one would expect in a period drama there are a number of finely staged set pieces, including an assassination attempt on the king. There are also several large royal events including a state banquet. My favourite was the settling of accounts with the corrupt courtiers, who are despatched in a manner worthy of Ivan the Terrible or the Borgias. The inevitable ending is carefully developed and leads to a climax, which provides a worthy flourish to the film.

There are many more complexities in the plot that suggested here. The director commented that “A historical drama must be a mirror that reflects reality. If it does not look real, it is nothing but an old folktale. The Koryo song, ‘Ssang-hwa-jeam: A frozen Flower’ was used to show a new interpretation of the natural relationship between people and explore love, betrayal, obsession, chastisement, revenge and political ambitions.

Frozen Flower was filmed in the new Jeonju Cinema Studio: a facility presumably funded by the success of Korean cinema over the last decade. Their films have been some of the most exciting and intriguing in foreign language cinema over that time. A Frozen Flower maintains the standards that have contributed to that success. As yet there does not appear to be an UK release date, but hopefully it won’t be long before it can be enjoyed on British screens.