Shadows in the Palace

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Movie: Shadows in the Palace
Revised romanization: Kungnyeo
Hangul: 궁녀
Director: Kim Mee-Jeung
Writer: Kim Mee-Jeung
Producer: Woo-suk Kang, Joon-ik Lee
Cinematographer: Hyung-duk Lee
Release Date: October 18, 2007
Runtime: 112 min
Production Budget: US$ 3.5M
Distributor: Cinema Service
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

Plot

A court lady is discovered dead, hanging by the rafters of the palace Deep within the suffocating stern palace where no one but the king can choose to die, the dead body of Wol-ryung, a court lady, is found dead hanging by the rafters. Chun-ryung, a court nurse brought in to examine the dead body, suggests the possibility of murder. The supervising court maid and court maid Shim under the royal concubine Hee-bin, however, order her to cover up the death as a suicide while worried about any setbacks in Heebin’s son becoming the royal prince.

The mysterious death and the court ladies forced to bury the truth As Chun-ryung does an autopsy on the corpse, she finds traces of Wol-ryun having given birth. She suspects it to be a murder disguised as a suicide and starts investigating in secret. She suspects Jung-ryul, the one who first discovered the body, and starts questioning her. However, Jung-ryul appears possessed and tormented by a ghost while the other court ladies keep their mouths tightly closed.

On-going murders and a massively growing secret In the tightly closed palace where even a whisper cannot dare seep out, Chung-ryung is madly on the search for the murderer. Meanwhile, the supervising court maid plans to hold the annual ‘court ladies discipline training’ where court ladies of misconduct are brought together and punished to set right. Her plan is to pick a sacrificial lamb to take the blame for murdering Wol-ryung and close the case. On the night of the discipline training, Chun-ryung discovers an unexpected sword belonging to a court lady and the palace’s eerie shadow of death creeps upon her....

What is the truth behind the court lady’s murder? What is really happening at the palace?

Director's Statement

Through Shadows in the Palace, I wanted to bring to light the stories of the neglected and hidden people’s lives in history. In the repressive palace, where women remain nothing but shadows in time, I hoped to show that court ladies, too, struggled with uncontrollable, natural desires and ambitions.

By showing how they had to cast aside and destroy themselves, I wanted people to experience the unrest, insecurity, and fundamental fear that people forced to live according to social prejudice must feel. Likewise, as we struggle to survive in the midst of millions of people but are eventually weeded out and forgotten, we too may be living in a modern day dark ‘palace’ much like the court ladies. -- Mee-jeung Kim