The best Yoon Kyung-ho’s history movies

During the Japanese colonial era, roughly 400 Korean people, who were forced onto Battleship Island (‘Hashima Island’) to mine for coal, attempt to escape.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Japanese Empire seeks to eradicate the Korean language and identity. In retaliation, a small group of Korean patriots try to protect their language by compiling the first Korean language dictionary.

In 1801, after a new king ascended the throne, a scholar Jeong Yak-jeon who served the late king is exiled to Heuk-san Island. There he meets Chang-dae, a young fisherman who is a huge admirer of Confucianism and has a wide knowledge about the sea.

The movie depicts the three months before Choong-nyung (the future Sejong the Great) becomes king. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which follows the history of the Joseon Dynasty between 1413 and 1865, leaves out records of this crucial period. While future generations would come to know him as King Sejong, the legendary figure who created the Korean alphabet and advanced the country’s scientific research and law, Prince Choong-nyung was originally dismissed as a reclusive bookworm. When his older brothers Yangnyeong and Hyoryeong fail to impress their father King Taejong, the king makes a royal command for Choong-nyung to become the next ruler of the kingdom instead.