THE KING'S MAN

I've just come across a movie I really want to see! It's a Korean movie called The King's Man starring Lee Joon Gi, aka 'the most beautiful man in Korea', who Megucchi turned me onto. Apparently he won the Korean equivalent of the Oscar for Best New Actor, for his role in this historical fiction as Kongil, the Korean equivalent of an onnagata, a man who plays woman's roles.

Here's the plot from the website, which seems nice and slashy.

16th century Korea. Kongil, and the much more manly Chamsen, are popular actors in a small village. They leave the village after one of the head honchos offers to pay money to 'make Kongil's beauty his own for a night', and decide to head to the capital with the goal of becoming the most famous actors in the country.

In the capital, they join a group of actors. The king taken Nokus,a former courtesan, as his mistress, and the capital is full of rumors of the debauched life the king leads with her. Chamsen writes a play ridiculing the king, which becomes a big hit, and they become the toast of the populance. Chamsen 'is just happy to see Kongil enjoying himself and his ability to act freely'.

But of course the king hears of what they're doing, and they are arrested for insulting the king, and sentenced to death. Chamsen argues that it's not insulting him if it makes the king laugh. So the king, who has never laughed in front of people, agrees to let them put on a play for him. The rest of the troupe is frozen with fear, and Chamsen doesn't know what to do. But then, Kongil charms the king with his seductive smile, and suceeds in making the king laugh with his fine performance.

So the two are invited to come live in the palace, where they quickly learn that things are horribly corrupt, and no one is thinking about the people at all. But the reason the king is so messed up is that he saw his mother murdered when he was a kid, and it warped his personality. Kongil learns this, and feels pity for the king. In turn, the King is drawn to Kongil's beauty and purity. He begins to spend more and more time alone with Kongil, arousing the worry of Chamsen and the jealousy of his mistress Nokus.

Chamsen decided the palace is too corrupt for him and that nothing good can come of being there, so he decided to leave. Kongil asks Chamsen to perform one last play.
The play ends up revealing who killed the king's mother, the king is frantic and gets revenge on the ones who poisoned his mother, and his grandmother dies of shock.

Shocked by the horrible consquences of their play, the actors gather their things. Kongil decides to stay at the palace, and Chamsen is hurt that he's been betrayed by the one who's shared all his joy and struggles. But Nokus' plot for revenge sets in motion a far more tragic consequence....


Yes. Now I just have to find this movie somewhere...

Things of the Happy

- TAI's new video for 'Neighbors'. While I love the 'Big Mess' video to death, what with the evil!William and Pete and Butch cameos, this, this is what I want from my TAI music videos: Frenetic camera work like they shot most of it themselves, half performance and half crazy band antics, pillow fights, and boys running around shirtless and signing things and just being generally cute and crazy. Especially when it includes a scene with Pete and William hugging. And William looks so grown up in the b&w shots where he makes weird faves and sings. And I love Michael Guy Chislett poping up behind him, Chizzy is so handsome! Which almost makes up for him not being Tom. Almost. Oh my boys.

- Namie's new album, 'Play' came today, which means I got it on the day it came out, which is pretty awesome. The album's taking a little bit to grow on me, because it's is rather ecclectic, and well, 'playful'. But I think it's growing on me, since I've decided that I really don't like only one song. So I think I will be getting on the bus for Funky Town after all, just maybe not the first one out. Also? Namie speaking English at the beginning of songs? Will never stop being hot. 'I wanna taste you' indeed.

- Also arriving today was 'Happy quitting' present to myself which I ordered my last week of work: my copy of Tokio Hotel's reissue of their first album, after Bill's voice changed. I feel like I should be a bit embaressed about it, like it's my guilty pleasure album, but I actually ordered it from Amazon.fr because the french edition has 5 more tracks, and also translations of the lyrics into French, and music videos. So I feel like I have really come way too far for shame at this point. Also, it seems kind of ironic, at best, to be embaressed of an album whose title means 'Scream as loud as you can'. So yes.