This movie pretends to deal with Korean history but freely departs into legend. A stout young fellow (and brilliant swordsman with his sort-of chopping axe) falls for the delicate and edible Queen before she is crowned, when she takes his punt to the seashore. Plenty of canoodling at this point. Later, she is Queen in the palace and the young man's prediction comes true (there's nothing but trouble in that there palace). He manages to barn-storm his way into the Palace guard, after successfully testing a new bullet-proof jacket. From then on he is dedicated to saving the Queen from destruction and his sword is irresistible. At one point he leaps around among the stars as he takes on the biggest swordsman in the Guard (they fight to a stand-off). When he runs off with Queenie for a few days to save her, the King's attention is alerted, and he decides to abandon his mistress and vigorously knock up the Queen (missionary and cowgirl positions). Eventually, the historic Japanese-friendly chancellor swears to kill the Queen, and our friend makes a brilliant, but suicidal, attempt to defend her. She is graphically run through by several super-sharp swords and dies with the young man's name (Johanes) on her lips for the first time. This is a grotesque romanticization of an ugly part of Korean history and the director does Korea no favours with his fantasy nonsense. Not strongly recommended.
Review of The Sword with No Name
