Editorials 
This review may contain spoilers
What a Beautifully Tragic Story...
They really did fatten us up with all those wholesome moments in the first half of the movie, just to brutally slaughter us in the second half 😭 But I can’t even complain because it was all done so beautifully. The actors ATE with their performances. I genuinely have nothing bad to say about this movie.
Even though I knew how the story was going to end, I still found myself praying and hoping for the opposite, for the characters to somehow get their happy ending and live happily ever after.
The tragedy of this movie hits even harder knowing that it was based on a true story, that these characters were real people who actually went through all of this. And the most tragic of them all was the 17-year-old king, whose life was cut short. He never got to be a kid. He was forced to endure so much humiliation and suffering, and ultimately died tragically because of the greed of the evil adults surrounding him.
But at least, during the last period of his life, he finally met people who genuinely cared about him.
I’m actually so glad the writers didn’t show his face while he was dying or after he died. Because he had refused to do that, and to me, it felt like an act of respect toward the young king’s final dying wish.
And the scene after he killed the tiger and saved the villagers, when he finally decided to eat again, was so beautiful to me. Before he was dethroned, he had spent two days hearing his supporters screaming while being unable to do anything to save them. I interpreted his refusal to eat as him feeling like he wasn’t worthy of eating or even living after failing to protect them.
But when he finally saved the villagers, he saw himself as worthy of living again. And so, he chose to eat.
I LOVED that scene so much. It was such a subtle but powerful way of showing his character and everything he had been carrying inside.
Even though I knew how the story was going to end, I still found myself praying and hoping for the opposite, for the characters to somehow get their happy ending and live happily ever after.
The tragedy of this movie hits even harder knowing that it was based on a true story, that these characters were real people who actually went through all of this. And the most tragic of them all was the 17-year-old king, whose life was cut short. He never got to be a kid. He was forced to endure so much humiliation and suffering, and ultimately died tragically because of the greed of the evil adults surrounding him.
But at least, during the last period of his life, he finally met people who genuinely cared about him.
I’m actually so glad the writers didn’t show his face while he was dying or after he died. Because he had refused to do that, and to me, it felt like an act of respect toward the young king’s final dying wish.
And the scene after he killed the tiger and saved the villagers, when he finally decided to eat again, was so beautiful to me. Before he was dethroned, he had spent two days hearing his supporters screaming while being unable to do anything to save them. I interpreted his refusal to eat as him feeling like he wasn’t worthy of eating or even living after failing to protect them.
But when he finally saved the villagers, he saw himself as worthy of living again. And so, he chose to eat.
I LOVED that scene so much. It was such a subtle but powerful way of showing his character and everything he had been carrying inside.
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