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The Concubine

The Concubine

Drama · 2012

Living a torturous life of poverty and barely able to survive, Hwa-yeon decides to offer herself as one of the king’s concubines. Once inside the royal palace, two men are immediately seized by the woman - the Grand Prince Seong-won, a megalomaniacal ruler drunk with power and lust, and Kwon-yoo, who has everything to lose if his desire for Hwa-yeon is exposed.

Movie details

The Concubine

“The one the king couldn't have.”

2012 Drama 2h 2m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.0 / 10

2.8K votes

TMDB

5.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Living a torturous life of poverty and barely able to survive, Hwa-yeon decides to offer herself as one of the king’s concubines. Once inside the royal palace, two men are immediately seized by the woman - the Grand Prince Seong-won, a megalomaniacal ruler drunk with power and lust, and Kwon-yoo, who has everything to lose if his desire for Hwa-yeon is exposed.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Concubine?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kim Dae-seung

Written by

Kim Dae-seung · Kim Mee-jeung · Hwang Yoon-jung

Cho Yeo-jeong

Cho Yeo-jeong

Hwa-yeon

Kim Dong-wook

Kim Dong-wook

Grand Prince Seong-Won

Kim Min-jun

Kim Min-jun

Kwon-yoo / Choong-young

Park Ji-young

Park Ji-young

King's Mother

Cho Eun-ji

Cho Eun-ji

Geum-ok

Lee Kyung-young

Lee Kyung-young

Chief Eunuch

Ahn Suk-hwan

Ahn Suk-hwan

Hwa-yeon's Father

Court is in session

Put The Concubine on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.