Boy, oh boy

The King and the Clown may lack the usual ingredients of South Korean blockbusters - no North Korean secret agents, gunfights or gangsters - but that hasn't stopped the period drama from luring a staggering quarter of the country's 48 million people to the cinema, making it the most popular domestic movie ever.

The film, about minstrels at the 16th-century court of a tyrant king, features a homosexual subplot, and has fuelled what has been dubbed a nationwide 'pretty boy syndrome'. However, quite how it's managed to sell 12.2 million tickets is a mystery, even to its director. 'Let's say I'm a midfield soccer player, who just kicks a ball, and it bounces around and then goes into the goal,' muses Lee Jun-ik.

In the film, Kam Woo-sung and Lee Joon-gi (below) play two wandering minstrels. They perform a bawdy play, which mocks royalty and the aristocracy, for an unstable and violent king, played by Jung Jin-young.

The king falls in love with Lee's character, Gong-gil, who plays feminine roles, provoking tension with Kam's character, who is Gong-gil's protector and possibly his lover - their relationship is ambiguous. The affair also stirs the jealousy of the king's consort, played by Kang Sung-yeon.

As his lust for the boy increases, so do his clashes with his ministers, who are appalled that the king has embraced the raucous theatre of the peasantry. Meanwhile, his consort plots against Gong-gil and the troupe.

The film has created an unlikely idol in Lee, a virtual unknown before the film, and fuelled a trend in macho South Korea: the pretty boy syndrome.

'I think there was a hidden need for men to express themselves and become prettier,' Lee says. 'Now, it's become easier for men to express themselves in a more feminine way.'

However, The King and the Clown doesn't just portray pretty boys - who already populate many Korean pop groups. The movie, based on a stage play, was called The King's Man in South Korea, a title clearly alluding to homosexuality. 'Movies have talked about so many things - there aren't many sensitive themes left,' says Kam, who plays the more heroic and macho of the pair. 'But these sensitive things are what people want to see.'

In neo-Confucian South Korea, homosexuality is taboo. Only in the past few years has a community appeared, with gay and transvestite bars opening in the capital's Itaewon district.

The gay theme isn't the only reason for the movie's success. Lavishly shot, with beautiful attention to period detail, the film also features some of the bawdiest and most original dialogue in recent Korean film. These factors, allied with its unconventional theme, testify to a new creativity in the industry.

Such is the film's popularity that President Roh Moo-hyun even invited Lee to join him for a nationally televised speech to the nation last month.