The Concubine

The Concubine (; lit. "Royal Concubine: Concubine to the King") is a 2012 South Korean erotic romantic historical film directed by Kim Dae-seung. Set in the Joseon dynasty, it centers around Hwa-yeon (Jo Yeo-jeong), who becomes a royal concubine against her will, Kwon-yoo (Kim Min-jun), a man torn between love and revenge, and Prince Sung-won (Kim Dong-wook), who has his heart set on Hwa-yeon despite the countless women available to him. These three characters form a love triangle which is ruled by dangerous passion. The struggle to survive within the tight-spaced boundaries of the palace is intense, and only those who are strong enough to overcome the hell-like milieu can survive. Plot The film begins with a concubine of the previous king (Park Ji-young) in a precarious position of having no blood ties to her step son, the current childless, widower king (Jung Chan). She schemes to replace him on the throne with her submissive young son Sung-won (Kim Dong-wook). Indifferent to his mother's plans, the timid prince falls in love at first sight with Hwa-yeon (Jo Yeo-jeong), an aristocrat's daughter, who has already found love with Kwon-yoo (Kim Min-jun), a low-born commoner. When her father (Ahn Suk-hwan) is obligated to send her into the royal palace as a concubine for the king, the two lovers try to elope but are caught after their first night together. Hwa-yeon agrees to enter the palace in exchange for saving Kwon-yoo's life. Five years later, Hwa-yeon has become the Queen from giving birth to a son. Sung-won comes back from traveling to see the King upon hearing of his ill-health. In a private conversation, Sung-won gifts a hair stick to Hwa-yeon as a present and confession of his feelings. The king dies of a mysterious illness, and the former concubine sits her son, Prince Sung-won, on the throne as a puppet king, naming herself Regent and Queen Mother and taking firm control over the royal court. Hwa-yeon is moved to a closely watched, humble residence, where she is under constant surveillance. When Hwa-yeon's father, a royal court minister, attempts to prove that the previous king died from poisonous assassination, he and all of the ministers disloyal to the queen mother are arrested for treason.