A Frozen Flower

The King needed an heir to secure the dynasty. Since his marriage to the Yuan princess had produced no children, both the Yuan emperor and his own counselors pressured him to produce a crown prince. Rather than risk the Queen bearing a child from an unknown man, the King ordered his most trusted guard and lover, Hong-rim, to fulfill this royal duty.

Early in the film, the King’s counselors emphasize the urgency of securing an heir, establishing the political pressure that drives his devastating decision.

Their romance began during the midnight encounters required by the King's commission. What started as a calculated royal duty gradually deepened into genuine emotion as they met secretly in the palace library, away from prying eyes. The forbidden nature of their relationship intensified their feelings.

The summary notes their initial reluctance, which transforms into dangerous passion as they spend more time together in secret.

The King became suspicious of the lingering affection between Hong-rim and the Queen after his junior commander provided evidence of their affair. To test their loyalty and punish them, he decreed that the Queen should continue trying to produce an heir, but with a different soldier instead of Hong-rim. This cruel test shattered the trust between all three.

The King's suspicion is triggered when a junior commander brings him evidence of the affair, marking the turning point from duty to betrayal.

The Queen attempted suicide by slashing her wrists after the King ordered her to bear a child with another man. This decree was a direct insult to her dignity and exposed the depths of the King's distrust. Her act of despair revealed the brutal psychological toll of the royal machinations surrounding her.

The King's decree to replace Hong-rim with another subordinate directly precedes her suicide attempt, showing how his suspicion spirals into cruelty.

When the King walked in on Hong-rim and the Queen together in the library, he flew into a furious rage. He ordered Hong-rim castrated as punishment for the betrayal and imprisoned him. This brutal act was meant to destroy both the man who cuckolded him and the physical evidence of their intimacy.

The King's suspicions had been building since the junior commander provided evidence of the affair, making this discovery an explosion of long-suppressed jealousy.

The Queen's maid helped orchestrate Hong-rim's escape by coordinating with his loyal subordinates. Together, they freed him from captivity, and Hong-rim fled the city with his men to a refuge outside the palace walls.

Earlier, the Queen's maid had been a trusted ally to both lovers, making her involvement in the rescue consistent with her character.

The King's forces captured and killed the Queen's maid when she refused to reveal the lovers' whereabouts. Later, her head was displayed on the palace gates alongside the executed guards, part of the King's brutal campaign to silence everyone who knew the truth.

The King had ordered the execution of all who knew the secret, making the maid's fate inevitable once she was caught.

Hong-rim returned after seeing the gruesome display of his men's heads on the palace gates, including the Queen's necklace, designed to make him believe she was dead. Enraged and believing the Queen dead, he disguised himself as a soldier during a celebration and infiltrated the palace to kill the King for revenge.

The display of heads on the gates was specifically meant to drive Hong-rim into a rage and lure him back, which the King anticipated.

In their final confrontation, the King asked Hong-rim if he ever felt love for him. Hong-rim replied "No", but this was a lie told to give himself the resolve to kill the King. The flashback showing the young King and Hong-rim together, with Hong-rim promising to live with him, proves their past bond was real. His denial was a final act of defiance and sacrifice.

The closing montage reveals the depth of their original bond through the hunting flashback, contradicting Hong-rim's dying declaration.

The King's painting depicted a hunting scene that represented his dream of a peaceful life with Hong-rim, a dream of love and companionship outside the court's constraints. During the climactic duel, the painting is destroyed as collateral damage, symbolizing the shattering of that impossible dream.

The closing montage echoes the painting's imagery, showing the King and Hong-rim hunting together as the dream the painting captured.

The Queen was pregnant with Hong-rim's child. After the King discovered the affair, she was left alone in the palace to navigate her fear and longing. The film's ending shows her arriving at the scene of the duel in horror, but her ultimate fate and the fate of her child remain ambiguous, the junior commander proclaims the King was killed by an assassin to maintain the cover story.

The Queen's maid revealed her pregnancy earlier, making the child a crucial element driving the Queen's desperate plan to save Hong-rim.