Just saw the director's cut of this movie, because I wanted to see some earlier work of actors, who are playing in recent k-drama series, and I am still reeling from the shock. The shock effect of Blood & Flowers or The Frozen Flower has nothing to do with the sex, violence, or death scenes in this movie. I found the story harsh, because of its total lack of romance. I can handle Asian love stories, that are heading towards an inevitable unhappy ending, but a complete absence of love, or love that is misunderstood, makes me sad.This movie made me think of that old French classic "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) of Choderlos de Laclos. It shows how people, who are playing with other people's loyalty and love, will destroy everybody involved, including themselves.I won't reveal too much about the story lines and I don't want to discuss the homo sexuality in this movie either. It has been done already, and better. This movie left me with a lot of questions about love. Can lust turn into love? What is love anyway, is it just a pleasant misunderstanding between lovers, if it isn't tried too much? Can you gain something in life if you use your heart in stead of your brain? I won't take 'no' for an answer, but this movie does. At least I got the impression the second man in the king's guard, who wanted to claim the position of his chief, survived everyone in the end, because he was such a cold, calculating bastard.My verdict: Blood & Flowers left me in the dark, and in a dark mood. I still give it a 7 out of 10, because the acting was really good. Also the characters are fleshed out, no one is really good or evil. I recommend this movie to everyone, who wants to discuss the meaning of love with some friends afterwards.

"A frozen flower" is a great movie in terms of acting, scenes and directing. The whole combination made this movie a big hit.1)In acting, two main actors and the actress did a great job. The characters are really complicated while facing opposite emotions such as loyalty and betrayal, love and hate, duty and passion, obey and disobey at the same time. It is not easy to show cruelty and affection at the same time as two main actors did great in this movie. The actress also was great in showing her two different kinds of relationship with them. They all did a great job to reveal these emotions in their mimics and actions. Their internal combat reflects in their acting amazingly.2) In scenes, the movie includes both sexual scenes and historical scenes. While a lot of discussions has been made about the sexual ones, I believe they serve the purpose of the movie perfectly. They are not similar to some sexual scenes in other movies, when you feel like they are not necessary and are just there to make it an R rate movie. No. Here these scenes reflects the growing emotions and changing winds in the characters' souls. The historical scenes are vivid as well. full of colors, actions and harmony,each and every second of them serves the storyline and events. They help to actually take our minds to that historical era in Korean history. They show us how they pray, socialize and celebrate life events in that time, which is crucial to make us understand the characters, their duties, feelings and social aspects.3) Directing and editing (metaphored as the second directing) are done perfectly. The camera angles are chosen wisely both in big shots in events and close ups while dealing with characters' mimics and inner feelings. Colors and designs works in harmony to elaborate the settings of that era. Imagine I saw the movie without any background in Korea's history; and it encourages me to search a bit to know more. Great movie to watch, to enjoy and also to explore a different time era if you are interested.

I didn't think that a film about a homosexual king persuading his lover to sleep with the Queen to produce an heir would be very exciting. But as so often happens, it was. I've watched this twice now, and appreciated the film a lot more the second time around.The lead characters are well drawn, the dialog is interesting, the acting is excellent - heck, I even liked the music. There's not an over-abundance of battle and fight scenes, but what scenes there were were well -staged, and I thought the final scenes were as good as anything I've seen.And, of course, there's sex - lots of bare-bottomed bare-breasted, tongue in tongue, man on man, man on woman sex. But none of it descends into sleaziness and perhaps because Ji-hyo Song is such a beautiful woman (and, dare I say it, In-seong Jo is such a beautiful man) the scenes don't become tedious as they do in so many other other movies. The scenes are completely integral to the movie. Funnily enough, I've always thought of the French as being the only ones capable pf handling sex in cinema properly. The Germans and Spanish and Australians always tend towards crudity, the Americans invariably imbue their sex scenes with their childish puritanism, and sex in Asian cinema can be downright ludicrous. But having said that, the most erotic and interesting sex scenes I've seen have all been in Asian movies - "Samsara", "Erotic Ghost Story", "A Frozen Flower".I really like this film - it gets a 9/10 from me.

One would be puzzled with the title of the movie: Frozen Flower, or better known as Frozen Flower Shop in Korean. While the title was related to a song performed in the movie, the plot is far stretched from what it seems to be.Set in the Koryo Dynasty, the King (Ju Jin-Mo) and Hong Lim (Jo In-Seong), the chief of guards, are two best friends growing up together. Hong Lim devoted his life to the King, while the King sees him as a close friend he can trust, including the physical intimacy they shared with each other.Under the pressure from the Yuan Kingdom of China for unable to have a son as a heir, the King comes with a solution: to allow the Queen (Song Ji-Hyo) conceived by Hong Lim. After sharing the intimacy with Hong Lim, the Queen began to meet Hong Lim in private, so as to fulfill her desire. It ends up in a tragedy which no one would have foreseen in the first place.Directed by Ha Yu (Marriage is a Crazy Thing), Frozen Flower dealt with the modern day issues in a ancient Koryo Dynasty background. Homosexuality and adultery are the two topics which is a hush-hush in South Korea today, has been fully exploited and utilized in the palace. Issues such as conspiracy on overthrowing the King and control of power, which were commonly seen in a Korean drama, did not get a chance to see the daylight. It ends up as a supporting agenda to tell the story.The movie revolves around the King, the Queen and Hong Lim, on exploring their desires for each other, betrayal and lust. Apart from that, there is nothing much left to see on the remaining characters, since they are dispensable, and their existence in the story do not give much support to the presentation of the story.The affection between the King and Hong Lim were displayed through their daily conversations and actions to each other, such as feeding each other when sick, exchange of sword fighting skills and pillow talks. On the other hand, you will get more than what you see for the relationship between Hong Lim and the Queen, where both were seen having sex most of the time.Frozen Flower can be easily related to any modern day love triangle relationship drama, or some modern day Korean drama sharing the similar plot. However, the movie is greatly similar to Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972) from HK's Shaw Brothers Studios. The 1972 production discussed similar issues, in the view of 2 women and a inspector.If sword fighting and love triangle relationship is your cup of tea,Frozen Flower will be a good choice.