Title : Forbidden Quest
Genre : Comedy / Romance
Category : Korean Movie
Synopsis :
At the start of the film, Kim Yoon-Seo, an Inspections officer
(police inspector) is seen at his home where his brother has been
beaten almost to death. His family wants to submit a false appeal
to the king accusing the family of the Deputy Prime Minister, the
Lim family. The Lim family had by the past submitted a false appeal
against Yoon-Seo's family. However Yoon-Seo does not wish to submit
such an appeal, much to the anger of his elders.
He returns to the court where the King hands him an important
assignment. The King's concubine, Jung-bin, had a painting she had
drawn mounted, but it was replaced by an exct copy, she only
realised because of the lack of a scribble she had drawn on the
back. The King would like Yoon-Suh to find the culprits. Yoon-seo
is impressed by the talent of the artist who made the fraudulent
copy. Jung-bin is in turn impressed by Yoon-Seo's knowledge on the
subject and invites him to talk to her some more about art some
day.
Yoon-Suh teams up with Lee Gwang-hun, an inspector who likes to
torture people in his dungeons, to try and hunt down the culprit.
They enter a shop in their search for the criminal. In the basement
Yoon-Seo encounters an old man transcribing an erotic story book.
Back upstairs a group of men from the village enter the shop and
engages in a fight with Gwang-hun, who beats them away with his
truncheon, however Yoon-Suh is knocked out so Gwang-hun takes him
back to his house with him. When Yoon-Suh awakes he admires
Gwang-huns painting artwork. Back at the shop the old man confesses
to Yoon-Seo that he does not wish to protect the mounter either,
but that one of his friends is involved and he does not wish to
betray him. After Yoon-Seo has promised to protect his identity,
the old man gives him an address he may go to. Out of curiosity
before he leaves he reads few verses from the book the old man is
reproducing. He is at first outraged by the content (pornography
being illegal at the time), but when the old man says the whole
city is waiting for the book he shows some interest and perhaps
embarrassment about never having heard of the author. He reports
later to the King that he found the culprits and had each flogged
fifty times.
Jung-bin invites him around for tea, to thank him. When a bee
lands on her he violates all protocol risking his death, by going
beyond the curtain and brushing it off her shoulder. Jung-bin
however does not report his attitude, and thanks him instead. She
also appears to be very fond of him.
Yoon-Seo writes an indecent book himself and returns to the shop
to present to the shop keeper, asking him to read it. The
shopkeeper, Hwang is impressed and they decide to copy and sell his
work. His book becomes a best seller.
To get his books to sell better he asks Lee Gwang-hun to
illustrate them for him. At first he is outraged but in the end
accepts. Meanwhile Jung-bin sends him an embroidered kerchief, by
means of her eunuch, who asks him to not accept the present, or
else Jung-bin will be wanting to meet him. He does accept though,
and later meets Jung-bin, in private. They start to cuddle, but
Yoon-Seo leaves when she attempts to kiss him.
The illustrator has trouble understanding some of the things he
is supposed to draw, so next time Yoon-Seo meets Jung-bin, he has
him hide behind a wall, and spy on them while they have sex.
Yoon-Seo writes about his affair with Jung-bin in his next book.
When she forces the one of her maids to tell her, she goes to the
shop and confronts Yoon-Seo. She tells him to divulge the name of
the illustrator Gwang-hun. However he refuses to betray him.
Jung-bin has Yoon-Seo sent to the town prison, the prison for
which Gwang-hun the illustrator is responsible. In the presence of
Jung-bin, Yoon-seo is tied to the ceiling and severerly beaten with
sticks.
Gwang-hun wishes to stop but Jung-bin decides to call the matter
to the King's attention. They tie Yoon-Seo to a contraption, and
Gwang-hun turns the handle until the bones of his legs snap in
half. The King is satisfied with the torture but Jung-bin wants to
continue, after their meal. During meal time Gwang-hun removes him
from jail, so he can escape with the help of the book publisher,
the shopkeeper. However Jung-bin's eunuch follows them and a fight
ensues in between the people from the shop and a group of warriors
the eunuch brought along. The shopkeepers are no match for the
warriors, however Gwang-hun does put up a good fight. In the end he
is beaten but is forced to leave with the people from the shop
while the eunuch takes Yoon-seo back to his jail. Gwang-hun is left
alive because Yoon-seo threatens to claim the eunuch is the
illustrator, which would be possible because he did come with
Jung-bin to all their meetings. On the way back the eunuch becomes
more worried about what Yoon-seo may say and attempts to kill him.
One of his warriors however chops off his hand to avoid him
stabbing Yoon-seo. The eunuch is shocked and the warrior asks him
why he disobeyed an order. The eunuch tells him he had an order
from his heart also (he is secretly in love with Jung-bin, and
became a eunuch to stay with her); at which point the warriors
shoves his dagger through the top of his shoulder and down through
his heart.
Yoon-seo is brought back to the palace and to Jung-bin and the
King. Jung-bin decides he has had enough. The King asks her about
her sudden change of mind. And tells her how he knows that what she
had wanted Yoon-seo to say all along was not the name of the
illustrator, bu that he loved her. The King can not understand why
he did not lie and say he loved her.
The King tells the servant to castrate him and make him a eunuch
so he may be with Jung-bin for the rest of his life, even though
the operation may kill him due to his age. Jung-bin intervenes and
takes all the blame saying she used her influence to seduce him.
Yoon-seo then confesses his love to her. Jung-bin says she will
wait till they meet again in the next life. The King is overcome by
anger and grief, as he was most in love with her, and at first
wants to personally kill both Jung-bin and Yoon-seo. He decides
against this though, as he realizes that it would be useless as
they would just be reunited in the afterlife, and leaves them both
alive.
At the end Yoon-seo is sent to live in exile on an island, where
he continues to write. Jung-bin remains at the palace "to rot".
Later it is revealed that the words "indecent" were branded on
Yoon-seo's forehead as part of his punishment.
The film ends with Yoon-seo, Gwang-hun and the shopkeeper
walking along the shore, talking about future works, which include
their first homosexual male erotic story, and even the discovery by
Yoon-seo of the basic principles of animation or "moving pictures"
.
My Rating: 
My Review: With a viewership of
2,200,000 upon its release in 2006 in South Korea, this ought to be
a movie not to be missed. Don't worry, with its censorship, not
much is left for expectation.
http://freekoreanmovies.blogspot.com/2009/02/watch-forbidden-quest-2006-korean-movie.html
