This historical movie tells the story of Hong Rim, the Chief of King's guard and his relationship with King Gong Min who ruled in the latest half of the 14th century of the Goryeo Dynasty. I find very interesting the period of history in which the film is set as well as all the the romantic premise which build up in a gut-wrenching love story.

Story-wise, I really enjoyed the imbalance of power in the relationship and in the romance. Nothing is as simple as it seems as the feelings get more and more intricated and layered with jealousy, fear, passion and a lot of bad decisions (which frustrated me a lot as they were not super logical sometimes)...It was really love and lust leading to madness in a heart breaking way.
Despite it relative long length, I found the pacing of the movie quite good. My only regret is that we do not spend enough time on the beginning of the relationship between Hong Rim and King Gong Min: I would have loved to see their kinship and affinity evolve in something more, especially with the difference in status in the context of the court. The ending was very satisfying to me because the final actions of the protagonists made it very clear to me as to where their affections were truly lying. I am convinced that it is NOT what was said that is the most telling regarding the romance but rather what was left unsaid and rather shown by the characters.

The acting performance for the three main roles was pretty solid. The trio of Zo In Sung (as Hong Rim), Joo Jin Mo (as King Gong Min) and Song Ji Hyo (as Queen No Guk) worked very well together. I found the relationship between the two male leads the most compelling one but Song Ji Hyo hold her own quite well in these very tortuous relations. Regarding the secondary characters, it was quite good overall, no obvious stand out on the support roles with the exceptions of some of the guards. It was really nice to see some familiar faces acting as secondary characters: Song Joong Ki, Noh Min Woo, Jo Jin Woong ,Yeo Jin Goo and Park Sung Hoon.

The production value was really impressive, even looking at it 16 years later. The fight scenes were very good and the more gruesome parts felt very effective in conveying the violence of the story at that period of time. I loved the decors, it felt rich and well put together. The numerous (but purposeful) sex scenes were also very well filmed. I enjoyed the soundtrack, in particular the scenes were some of the characters were singing: really beautiful and poetic.

I would recommend this movie to people looking for an historical movie with a gut-wrenching love story. The romance is really interesting in the dynamics that it explores. I wish the scenario would have spend more time on some aspects of the relationship and I got frustrated by some choices made by some characters...But overall, I was very satisfied by this movie and its ending as well.