It's not that scary, but it's its goriness that is so real and in-your-face that gives me the chills. There are many scenes of the court maids being punished for their mistakes, be it a simple one or a serious one. Btw, this movie is based on South Korea's Joseon dynasty. It focuses on women and shows how they're treated cruelly in the palace, even by each other.
Back then, every court maiden (maid or nurse) must pledge her chastity (a.k.a. virginity) to the King. The reason is that any one of them may be chosen by the King to be his concubine. If a maid is detected to have lost it, she will be accused of threason. Her punishment is death.
A court maiden must also pledge to pretend that she did not see nor hear anything that might get a royal or themselves in trouble. So if she speaks, her tongue will be pulled out. They may also get rid of the girl if she is suspected to want to speak.
Also if a maid steals, her fingers will be pierced with hot needles (forced under the fingernail till the flesh, which causes it to bleed till the nail dies and falls off), or her hands will be chopped off. A court maiden who is suspected of a crime or betrayal will be tortured brutally by the supervising court maid and her cronies.
Plus a maid will be chosen (based on her records or crime) to be sacrificed at their monthly maid's ritual. The sacrificing method is either by hanging or beheading.
So now you know how difficult, scary and brutal it was to be a courts maid then. So anyways, everything I've told you above are depicted throughout the movie. Damn gory!
Also, you can somehow feel their pain. Some of the torture scenes are especially hard to watch. Disgustingly brutal.. ugh! There are other uber gory scenes as well.
One faulty aspect of this movie is that it's pretty confusing throughout. The flashback scenes (which are plenty) aren't obvious, so we couldn't really tell when they were shown.
Also, most of the women look so damn alike that we had a lot of difficulty differentiating who from who. Same with the characters' names. But after a while, we managed to recognise most of the main characters, which made thing a lot more easier.
But it was overall a pretty interesting movie. Plus, I do like many things Korean, so ya. Okay, enough ramblings.
Darren out.
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Shadows in the Palace (궁녀)
A maid-in-waiting hangs herself within the palace walls. However, while performing an autopsy, palace medic Chun-ryung suspects murder and starts to investigate. With a sense of justice and full of wisdom, Chun-ryung bravely unmasks the deceptions, but soon confronts the veiled past, kept hidden by those with far more power than she had expected.
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