Quite an impressive Joseon drama, “The Throne” was the official Korean selection for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, although it was not nominated. The film is based on the true story of King Yeongjo, a famous Joseon king who led the dynasty to its apogee. However, he also suffered from an inferiority complex because he was the son of the previous king’s concubine, who was not of noble birth. Due to this fact, he spent his life constantly trying to achieve perfection, both in his practices and his behavior. He even demanded the same from his son, Prince Sado, who did not seem to share his inclinations, being interested instead in martial arts and archery. The continuous conflict between father and son eventually resulted in the former locking the latter in a wooden rice chest, leaving him there to die. …show more content…
According to the actual story, the prince was held for eight days in the chest and Lee shows each day, including a number of flashbacks regarding Sado’s life, in a prototypical type of narration that manages to include 56 years of the royal family’s story. The chronological back and forths are many, but the film remains easily understandable, particularly due to the magnificent editing by Kim Jae-beom and Kim Sang-beom, who used an elaborate technique to depict the age difference: the face of each protagonist fades into his younger or older self, respectively, in a very smooth and impressive transformation. The sole flaw I found in both the direction and the script is that, at moments, the film assumes that the spectator already knows the actual history. This tactic can create some gaps in the story that are not always