Photo credit: http://www.dramarecap.com/
Fateful Encounter is an apt name for this film (the original translation is King's Wrath) but it turns out there is a manga and another film/drama (?) with the same name and it was not as easy to find visuals. Hyun Bin is the guy in the photo plays the King Jeongjo who is the son of Prince Sado (who died a very unpleasant death). He is a good king but he has major issues like getting revenge for his father, balancing the government in which a faction has more power than the other, his freaky step grandmother etc. Despite being a hottie and a decent actor, his part of the story was the least interesting. The other side of the story tells about the King's eunuch. This man is devoted to the King and does his best to aid him. He is caught after a failed assasination attempt and we learn that he was caught by vicious and merciless assasins as a kind and was painfully trained to be a deadly man. He chose to be an eunuch spy in the palace to save another kid he befriended in the hell hole they lived. The other kid was saved from being an eunuch but he ended up being a deadly assassin (unconvincingly played by Cho Jung Seok, this man just gets on my nerves) and they grew up being apart but not forgetting each other. The deadly assassin is chosen to murder the King but he is smart, supported by loyal followers and quick witted enough to make some change sides.
All in all while loving and shedding tears over the melodrama of the assassins, I was kind of cold towards the troubles of the king (despite the fact that Sado incident being a very interesting one). All in all this film failed in the box office and I can understand why. The director Lee Jae Kyu is more suited to direct melodrama than tense political intrigue.
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