It seems that the 15th-century Korean equivalent of a special economic zone was a court official exiled to a remote backwater, with all the attendant wealth and comforts that arrive with them. That’s the hook of this lively period piece, in which village chieftain Um Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin) strays into a neighbouring settlement and – because the former minister of justice is in residence – is amazed to find the place awash in mouth-smacking treats.
Wanting a piece of that action, Heung-do puts in a bid to sinister government official Han Myeong-hoe (Oldboy’s Yoo Ji-tae) for his own outcast. But a pasty-faced youth turns up on a palanquin, and turns out to be a much bigger fish than the elder can handle: the kid is the recently deposed king Yi Hong-wi (played by K-pop singer Park Ji-hoon), who is too conspicuous to be openly bumped off like the rest of his retinue. With counter-rebellion brewing, Heung-do realises that his new ward is more likely to bring a landslide of trouble than an influx of goodies.
Early on, The King’s Warden flirts with being an ironic Ealing-style comedy about the price of upward mobility, with the simpering chieftain hoisted by his own ambition (the chief of the village he gazumps turns up to sarcastically congratulate him). But once the guest’s identity is revealed, director Jang Hang-jun changes tack and cycles rapidly through other, less piquant genres: a sentimental two-hander, similar to Mrs Brown, about the growing rapport between a monarch and a commoner; pious social commentary about inequality; and strident political thriller, as the stripling king finds his courage and endorses the fightback.
Strung together rather disjointedly, this straggling parable doesn’t distil subversive political apercus of the same quality as fellow Joseon court drama Masquerade from 2012. Nor does it gather the emotional momentum needed to sell the tear-jerking finale in which Heung-do puts everything on the line for his high-born pal (in real life, the pair are buried together). That it works at all is credit to a high-energy but subtle performance from Hae-jin: an initial tour de force in jabbering desperation that, underpinned by Heung-do’s concern for his fellow serfs, hides an integrity that turns decisive.
• The King’s Warden is in UK and Irish cinemas from 6 March.
