The King’s Warden review – lively Korean period drama, as 15th century deposed monarch takes refuge

Yoo Hae-jin’s confident performance redeems this disjointed parable about an exiled king, which awkwardly straddles satire, sentiment and social commentary It seems that the 15th-century Korean equivalent of a special economic zone was a court official exiled to a remote backwater, with all the attendant wealth and comforts that arrive with them. That’s the hook of this lively period piece, in which village chieftain Um Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin) strays into a neighbouring settlement and – becaus...

By Phil Hoad