Forbidden Dreams
Pupule rating 3.9 (out of 4)
Consolidated Pearlridge
There is something special about the Korean film industry, and I mean this because even in the limited number of features we get to view in Hawaii, even the most potentially mundane or underwhelming topics — in a world of life-threatening stunts and action movies — Forbidden Dreams makes the most of its content and more.
I walked into theater No. 4 with no clue about the plot. I guessed it would be a modern setting, some or a lot of action. If anything, something a bit similar to the last Korean film I saw: Parasite.
This was not Parasite. This was 15th century Korea, a kingdom at the beck and call of Ming, the lords in China. Class differences. Ginormous gaps between the upper class and working class. A slave who somehow has educated himself to design the first working* clock. A celestial map. A king who embraces the slave and vows privately to bring education to all people.
Classic. Like many Korean flicks, this telling of what is kinda, sorta based on a true story, truly caters to the aesthetic. Passion for intellectual pursuits and dreams. Universal equality and access to education. And it closes with a sacrificial choice by the hero of the story, even to the point of forcing the king to basically execute him so that three innocent men can be set free. Maybe it’s the American in me, but I dreaded that final scene because as nuanced and tender and brutal as it was, I wanted the truly guilty parties to be punished. Their heads should have rolled. But this tale was not about true justice. It was about a humble man, Jang Yeong-sil, sharing in the ultimate dream of his king, ushering in and accelerating the speed of introducing their inventions, including a Korean alphabet.
Last year, another film from Korea centered everything around another theory about who invented the country’s written language. Both films are excellent, but Forbidden takes the emotion and friendship to a higher, more celestial place.
There are a few issues. There is so much emphasis on the King and Jang Yeong-sil’s friendship and creations that we don’t learn enough about the political crisis and why a “king” can’t kick his corrupt ministers to the curb. Or why the upper class has such a hold on him. Constraints on time, sure, and this would have worked well as a mini-series, too. It’s a minor complaint for a nearly perfect presentation that would be many times more interesting than a straight documentary.
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