The Throne

“The ways of a royal household.”

On July 4, 1762, King Yeongjo (Song Kang-ho) orders his own son, Crown Prince Sado (Yoo Ah-in), to take his own life after an accusation of treason. When the prince's closest vassals stop him, the king has a wooden rice chest brought in and shuts him inside, without food or water. Lee Joon-ik builds the film on the distance between a father who rules and a son who cannot satisfy him.