A Frozen Flower

A Frozen Flower 2008 directed by Yoo Ha, featuring the beautiful actress Song Ji-hyo, who previously appeared in Sex is Zero 2 but without any 18+ scenes. However, in A Frozen Flower, she shed her previous image to engage in several bold and daring love scenes.

A Frozen Flower is a collaboration between three major film companies: South Korea’s Showbox, Taiwan’s Hao Hao Film Company, and Hong Kong’s Hiu Kwong Company. It became a sensation in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. With a budget of 10 million USD, the film began production on April 16, 2008. Upon its release, the film won numerous awards and high nominations in 2009 and 2010.

A Frozen Flower tells the story of a love triangle involving homosexuality and bisexuality, which violated royal rules. The film is set during the Goryeo dynasty and stars Jo In-sung, Ju Jin-mo, and Song Ji-hyo. Centers around a king of an ancient Korean dynasty. His anguish stems from the fact that he has no interest in women. The tragedy begins when his courtiers urge him to have an heir to the throne. The king then decides to have his lover, Hong Lim, sleep with the queen. What begins as a purely physical relationship evolves into deep love between General Hong and the queen. This decision plunges all three into a spiral of anguish, jealousy, hatred, and ultimately, death.

Though the film features many explicit scenes, they are not vulgar, they are for the sake of art. It would be a shame to overlook the artistic and humanistic value the film conveys simply because of these scenes. Objectively speaking, it is indeed an 18+ film, but it doesn’t possess the essence of a typical 18+ movie. The message that the director aims to convey is profound.