The historical film “The King’s Warden,” also known as “The Man Who Lives With the King,” has provided hope for struggling Korean cinema as it continues to take the country by storm.
Directed by Jang Hang-jun, the film, which reimagines the exile of King Danjong, reached 12 million admissions after surpassing 11 million viewers on March 8, just 33 days after its release on February 4, signalling continued box-office dominance.
The film had already surpassed 10 million admissions just 31 days after its release, becoming the 34th film overall to reach the milestone, The Korea Times reported.
The feat makes it the first film to reach the milestone in two years, following Jang Jae-hyun’s thriller “Exhuma” and Heo Myeong-hang’s “The Roundup: Punishment” in 2024, which both drew over 11 million viewers.
It is also only the sixth film to cross the 10 million mark since the COVID-19 pandemic and the fourth historical film to do so following “The King and the Clown” (2005), “Masquerade” (2012) and “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” (2014).
A reverse trend
Unlike most movies, “The King’s Warden” has not yet seen the standard box-office drop-off, as its weekend attendance has continued to increase from 760,000 in its first week to 1.75 million a few weeks later.
It also set a single-day record with at least 810,000 ticket sales on March 1, when the country celebrated the 107th anniversary of the Independence Movement.
The achievement came a few weeks after it attracted 2.67 million viewers during the Lunar New Year holiday, accounting for 62.5% of total box-office revenue, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
Film industry expert Kim Hyung-ho attributed the strong ticket sales to positive word-of-mouth, the return of moviegoers and the film’s cross-generational appeal.
“It seems the number of views greatly increased as audiences, who had not been going to theatres much since ‘Exhuma’ and ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ two years ago, returned,” he told the Korea Times.
Well-known tragic fate
The film centres on the tragic fate of King Danjong, who ascended to the throne at the age of 12 in 1452 and was forced to abdicate in a coup led by his uncle three years later.
It is also widely known that the monarch was later stripped of his title and exiled to a remote village, where he was eventually killed at 16, though historical accounts vary on how he met his end.
While the story is well-known, “The King’s Warden” shifts its focus away from royal power struggles to Danjong’s (played by Park Ji-hoon) unlikely bond with village chief Eom Heung-do (Yoo Hai-jin) and the everyday lives of the villagers.
Moviegoers also praised the chemistry and bromance between Danjong and Heung-do, as well as their performances, which became a driving force behind the film’s success.
“The historical tragedy was beautifully reinterpreted with a warm perspective, and Park Ji-hoon’s expressive gaze left many viewers in tears,” a moviegoer wrote in a review.
The performances of other actors, including Yoo Ji-tae, Jeon Mi-do, Kim Min and Lee Jun-hyuk, also gained rave reviews and formed the ensemble cast for the hit movie.
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Impact beyond the screen
The film’s success has also led to a massive increase in visitors to Yeongwol County, including the historic sites of Cheongyeonpo Meandering Stream and Jangneung Royal Tomb.
Local authorities said the sites recorded over 10,000 visitors over a single recent weekend, pushing the cumulative number of visitors to more than 109,000 as of March 8, The Korea Herald reported.
Aside from boosting regional tourism, sales of related history books have also surged in bookstores and libraries.
In particular, sales of books related to the “Annals of the Joseon Dynasty” increased nearly threefold between the film’s release and March 2, according to Kyobo Bookstore.
According to Library Information Naru, a big-data analysis run by the National Library of Korea, the number of books loaned on Danjong of Joseon, Sejo of Joseon and the history of the Joseon dynasty has increased since the film’s release.
Notably, “The Tragedy of King Danjong” by Yi Kwang-su was borrowed 148 times in February, five times higher than the 28 loans recorded in January, Maeil Business Newspaper reported.
Poor CGI, accusations of plagiarism
But despite its massive cultural impact, “The King’s Warden” has faced criticism for its poor computer graphics of a tiger in the film, with audiences and critics describing it as “distracting” and “outdated.”
It also faced accusations of plagiarism after MBN reported that the family of the 31st-generation descendant of Eom Heung-do claimed some scenes in the film resemble a drama titled “Eom Heung-do,” which the descendant had been preparing before his death in 2019.
However, production company OndaWorks denied the accusations, arguing that “The King’s Warden” is an original work based on historical facts.
“Because the work uses historical figures and events as its subject there may be works that claim similarities, but there is no path of exposure or causal relationship indicating that the work was encountered during the creative process, and there is absolutely no fact of plagiarising another work during planning, development and production,” it said, as quoted by Chosun.
Despite these issues, the film is expected to maintain its dominant box-office run, and the industry now awaits the final admissions tally to see where it will rank among the top-grossing Korean films.
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