CIFF: A Frozen Flower

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 5, 2009 4:20PM

This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the 45th Chicago International Film Festival.

13th-century Korea: at the royal court the King has shared his bedchamber with his male bodyguard for the past twenty years. But there are rumblings of a plot to dethrone him, for he's unable to sleep with the Queen and produce an heir. The King convinces his bodyguard to take his place in her bedchambers. It's a duty which he ends up performing all too well.

That plot description may sound sordid, but actually A Frozen Flower is a rather polite Asian transplant of the Camelot love triangle. With a bisexual twist. It's also one of those movies that has a single, mildly intense gay sex scene but about half a dozen hardcore straight sex scenes. Oh well--at least they're all smokin' hot. Conventional plotting aside the story is well-paced and handsomely mounted, with exquisite costumes and production design. The food at the consummation feast is enough to make your mouth water. And there are also a handful of kickass battle scenes with plenty of swordplay and spurting blood.

The climax is needlessly protracted and lays on the symbolism pretty thick. But overall A Frozen Flower is worth your time, especially on a big screen where your eyes can drink in every visual detail.

A Frozen Flower screens October 11 and 13.