The Eunuch

A tale of doomed romance and palace power games, Eunuch follows two forlorn lovers who end up in the service of the king: one after being forced to become a eunuch, and the other after being sent away by her father to the royal harem. Set in the Joseon Dynasty era, with beautiful cinematography and production design, Eunuch stands out among Shin Sang-ok’s costume dramas as an especially lush widescreen technicolor entertainment that takes a step into exploitation cinema with sprinkles of sensuous eroticism and bursts of violence. At the same time, it also serves as a critique of the oppressive social structure of the past, especially when it comes to the role of women. Living within the suffocating confines of the royal palace, the queen and the court ladies have only two choices: to suppress their need for fulfillment, or to be punished for excesses that go against Confucian social norms.