Now, that I’ve written three separate posts (King1, King2, and Queen) to interpret the two big confrontation scenes between the King and Queen in Episode 1, I can proceed to writing about my first impression on the episode as a whole.

To start, I know this kdrama is adapted from a blockbuster movie called “Masquerade” made in 2012. Eight years is enough time for any writer worth her salt to create an entirely new story, don’t you think? It shouldn’t surprise us if the writer used the same skeletal framework — beleaguered king, poison, body double, swap, queen, intrigue, war, exile. Long Live the King! — but put on different flesh to resurrect the story.

The original movie was clown-centric. Given that it was limited to two hours, it had to be tight in scope. In this kdrama, we have 16 episodes and more than enough hours to weave a convoluted tale for the King and Queen and to mesh in a couple of side stories which the movie didn’t have the luxury of time to do so.

To me, the first episode focused on the King instead of the Clown. To others, the title “The Crowned Clown” is sufficient indication that the Clown Hasun is the central figure. However, to me, the movement of the story in Episode 1 revolves around the BIGGER Clown, the King himself. A clown is just another name for a crazy one, or to be more precise, a foolish character who performs on stage. Compared to Hasun, the King is the real clown.

Hasun only ACTS like a clown. But he’s in reality he’s the leader of the troop. In that short scene when he stole the dried fish from the jar, we see him acting more like a leader than a clown. He defends his people from injustice, takes action for the group, and decides their next plan. Didn’t you see his troop follow him to Hangyang even though the supposed leader, the Fat Clown, opposed the idea?

In contrast, we have a King who’s supposedly the leader of the nation, cowering in fear for his life. He’s admitted to turning slowly into a fool or the CRAZY one by the constant conspiracies against his reign.

Remember his words: “They all whisper to each other that I have gone insane. They think I’ve gone mad and killed my little brother. But look. There are people hiding outside trying to kill me. They don’t acknowledge me as king. They’re trying to kill me. They’re trying to make me go crazy!”

In his case, being a fool is not just stage ACT. He is becoming a crazy one, a grotesque caricature of a King because of his paranoia. He knows it. The royal secretary knows it. His Father-in-law knows it, too. And the Queen.

He’s right to fears his slowly diminishing mental capacity because he’s beginning to look like a foolish character performing wildly on the royal court for all his ministers, guards, servants, and enemies to see.

Do you see how he too took center stage here, like Hansung did in the court of the lord?

The cinematography was brilliant! We had the king in white amid the black guards in the dimly-lit sinister courtyard. He had just finished a frenzied hacking and slashing of the assassin. His adrenaline was pumping. He lost control of his senses. He was a crazed man.

But the clown Hansung foreshadowed all these. Earlier in the episodde, hHe had been in black and red amid his troop of white acrobats in a brightly-lit, festive courtyard. He was dancing widely, arms flailing, body twisting. His adrenaline was pumping, too. He was lost to the beat of the drum. He was a crazed man.

After his performance, however, Hansung could toss his bloody red mask and grin. He was exhausted but jubilant. He knew he did an amazing, crowd-pleasing heckuva job. 👍😂

In contrast, the King had no red mask to remove. His face remained splattered with blood.😱

He too was exhausted, but nobody was cheering at his performance. Everybody looked stunned and horrified. But he held it all in until he reached his room where he collapsed. He was terrified. His dark side terrified him.

The King 👑 was the reverse mirror of the Clown 🤡.

See how the directing, the cinematography and the acting worked with the script to pack a visceral punch? It’s easy to see who the real crowned clown is once the scenes are broken down and explained. 🙂

Now, I can cite three other reasons. I’ll post two for now and the third as an installment tomorrow.

1. Clowns get no respect.

Didn’t you see Hasun’s clown act? The crowd went wild with his crazy performance.

He and his troop worked hard to entertain the folks at the Lord’s residence but the following day, they were ordered to leave by the Lord and stiffed out of their wages despite their crowd-pleasing performance. They were treated like dirt. Hasun got mad and went back to smash the ceramic pots and to steal food.

In a bigger scale, the Crown Prince received the same disrespect and animosity from his own father, the previous King. At his deathbed, his father told his younger brother tenderly, “It saddens me deeply not to see you grow before I go.”

Then, his father motioned him to approach. He looked hesitant but he obeyed. Then, the dying King said, “When I think of passing on the Royal throne that I have protected with my bloody tears to an arse like you, it makes me so angry that I cannot close my eyes.”

Similar to Hasun, the Crown Prince, and future King, was regarded like dirt. He was a nobody in comparison to his beloved younger brother. When his father ordered him to protect his younger brother, he responded “Your Majesty, that’s not how you ask for a favor. You should plead with tears and beg on your hands and knees.”

This might have sounded unfilial but he was demanding respect for the office of the king (or position) which he would soon hold. It was not as a son that he spoke but as the future king. 👑

THAT’s why his father answered and threatened to watch, from the afterlife, how he would rule over the people as a king. His father gasped, “Alright, I’ll watch over you, how your world will unfold and what actions you shall take, you insolent fool.” (lol. The dying king thought he was a fool, too.)

Yet despite his cold words to his father, after his father’s death, the new King vowed “Your Majesty, the throne you protected with your blood and tears is now mine to shield and cherish. May you rest in peace.” And he was crying.

See that?

Both clowns got no respect. But Hasun at least could go back and break the vats.

But unlike Hasun, the Crown Prince could hardly get mad and retaliate. He couldn’t go back and break the throne. I doubt he even killed his younger brother.

2. Clowns are dispensable.

Hasung’s troop of clowns were dismissed peremptorily and when they arrived at Hangyang, they were told that they weren’t needed.

“We have enough jokers and entertainers here. Go elsewhere.”

His situation isn’t any different from the King. The King too is replaceable because there are other sons of the previous king who can claim the throne. That’s the whole point of the assassin’s accusation. According to the assassin, the King only acquired the thrown through bloodshed. “You killed the late king’s firstborn son, and you have stolen the king’s throne…Killing your father wasn’t enough, so you killed your little brother, too.”

A bit of history here: The assassin referred to a firstborn son. This firstborn son was the King’s elder brother, the first son of concubine #1. The King is only the SECOND son of concubine #1.

Then, from concubine #2, there were three issues, but the first two sons died young, and the third one is Prince Jinpyung, who’s allying with the Queen Dowager to oust the King. There are more sons from the other concubines but the only LEGITIMATE son born of the Queen Dowager and the previous king was the younger brother killed by poison.

See that? The glut of clown performers mirrors the surfeit of princes waiting to be king. However, the clown Hasung is still better off than the King since extra clowns don’t get killed by their competitors. lol.

Now, I must mention the relevance of the show the clowns were performing at the beginning of Episode 1. Aside from serving as contrast to the King’s killing spree, I think there’s another important message embedded in it. The clowns were presenting the King’s problem in a nutshell. I’ll explain…

The Chubby Clown pumped up the crowd. He said, “In all eight provinces of Joseon, do you know what the scariest thing is that will make people pee in their pants with fear?” The people answer randomly, “Tigers? Lords? Loneliness?” And the head clown answered, “No, the scariest thing, scarier than tigers, lords, or savages who cut off your nose and ears, the scariest one is the…”

Then the clown Hasung, masked in red and dressed in black with a red robe, leapt to the center. He shouted, “The one that even the ghosts spit on and avoid is the loutish rogue. The loutish bastard.”

NOTE:  That’s how Viki subbed it: “the loutish bastard.” And I think the Viki subbers got this right. For the King IS the most feared man in the country because 1) he’s a bastard in the figurative sense, that is, a despicable guy, and 2) he’s literally a bastard because he isn’t legitimate. He’s only the son of the concubine, not the Queen.

However, Dramabeans recapped it as “a buffoon who doesn’t know his roots,” and Dramamilk subbed it as the “the guy who doesn’t know who his father is.”

To me, these subs are also correct because the King is INDEED forgetting his origins. Willfully.

But you have to be careful parsing the meaning of DF and DM recaps. The words don’t mean that the King is scary because he has no knowledge of his lineage or his paternity. No. That’s taking the words literally. 🙂 Rather, the words mean that the King is terrible and scary because he’s deliberately DENYING his lowly beginnings. (Like, How dare he!! How dare he covet his father’s throne when he’s only the second son of a concubine!!!)

Then, the clown Hasung continued, “I’m the king of this country. (then pointing at a spectator) How dare you try to go ahead of me without any fear?!! Get him and beat him up.”

Do you see how subversive the performance was?

According to the clown Hasung, the King rounds up and beats up his brothers with prior claims to the throne, that is, anybody who’s “ahead of him” to the throne. The King is only an illegitimate second son, with a concubine for a mother, yet he ends up wearing the crown. He forgot his lowly beginnings and he’s usurping the crown because he’s scarily ambitious.

That’s the point of the clowns’ show: the bastard King stops at nothing to ensure his reign.

Clever, right? 😀  That’s why it’s taking me so long to write my “First Impressions” on Episode 1. There’s so many important details to go over.

3. I’ve scheduled #3 tomorrow. I’m on vacation but I’ve set the write-ups to post at regular intervals while I’m gone. (That way, you won’t feel like I’ve abandoned you. hahaha) I’m not a techie, so I hope my plans work.