[FICTION VS. HISTORY] Crown Prince Sado’s difficult history: While ‘The Throne’ is accurate, it misses complexities of a complicated relationship
However, the prince is remembered as a tragic royal heir because he was put to death by his father by being locked in a wooden rice chest after a number of violent outbursts. This incident in itself was so dramatic that it has been turned into a number of movies, including “The Throne” (2015) by director Lee Joon-ik, starring Song Kang-ho as King Yeongjo and Yoo Ah-in as Prince Sado. The film was released in September 2015, and sold more than six million tickets just a few months after its release.
Sado’s life itself is dramatic enough that the director did not have to conflate historical events to make the film interesting. However, since the film is not a documentary, the director did not include the controversies or different theories surrounding the death of the prince that many historians continue to argue about.
There are many historical records illustrating Prince Sado’s death, including the “Hanjungrok,” also known as the “Memoirs of Lady Hyegyeong,” the “Annals of the Joseon Dynasty” or more recent revelations of Sado’s tomb stone text known as myojimun, which were buried with the corpse as well as historical records left by the two opposing political parties Noron and Soron that all seem to describe the story of Prince Sado based on truth, but from their own perspectives. The sad reality of Sado’s life is that historians still can not come to a consensus about the prince’s tragic death.
The film “The Throne,” however, focuses on the cause of the prince’s death being the result of a deteriorated father-son relationship and the sensitive emotions of the two characters, barely touching on the political background that got them there in the first place.
For example, the film starts off with what could be a climax, when King Yeongjo summons his son after hearing that the prince stomped into the Gyeonghui Palace with a sword in hand to kill the king. The king asks if the prince is wearing mourning clothes and made a casket to murder him, and the prince cries that the casket is for himself because “the father treats me like a dead man.”
The director stays true to historical facts, but historians insist that there is more to the real story than an angry father attempting to punish his son who disappointed him. The film also has several scenes showing the king’s anger and discontentment with every decision Sado made during his daerichungjeong, or regency, - when the king leaves the task of running the country to a dependable son to train him on the art of politics from an early age. These scenes can’t be simply explained as a conflict between a father with high expectations and his defiant son.
Yeongjo, who many say had an inferiority complex because he was born into the lowest social class, became the king when his half-brother King Gyeongjong died after eating food served to him by Yeongjo. Despite ascending to the throne, King Yeongjo suffered from rumors that he assassinated his brother to become the king. Many people believed this at the time and the Noron and Soron factions fought fiercely against each other for power. The Noron faction pressured King Gyeongjong to step down, attempting to put Yeongjo in the throne so they could get power.
Therefore, when Crown Prince Sado was being trained, it is said that the Noron faction did not approve of many of the policies that the prince was coming up with, such as taxing yangban, or aristocrats. Yeongjo, who became the king with the help of the Noron faction, would have been at his wits’ end about what to do each time Sado argued with the Noron faction. Of course, a two-hour movie is too short to show all of the context of this complex history and, indeed, the complex history of conflict between a father and son, but it should be understood with a historical background.
BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [sharon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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