Dae Wang Sejong (2008): Season 1, Episode 44 - Episode #1.44 - full transcript
The Queen must be deposed!
Will you depose the Queen?
Aiding a criminal of high
treason is not a light crime.
Very well.
It's for the best.
It's in her interest as well.
This is a hard place to be even
for an iron-willed woman like me.
It wasn't easy keeping my sanity
watching my brothers die one by one.
Do it.
Tell them to depose her and
throw her out of the palace.
But I do feel sorry for you,
my dear husband.
You'll have to put even more blood
on that heinous sword of yours.
And when we get a new Queen to replace
her, you'll have to slaughter yet more
in-laws to stop their abuse of power
whether they abuse their power or not.
I asked them to come.
May we go to the Hall of
Ease for a moment?
We cannot allow this to continue.
We will not forgive those who are
bearing down on you riding on the
coattails of former King's authority.
Please let us help you, Your Majesty.
General Choi.
Yes, Your Majesty.
You're the de facto leader of the military.
Are you with your men on this?
Royal subjects are supposed to serve
the King, not intimidate him.
Are you offering to be my swords?
If this is your loyalty to me,
I will gladly accept.
Secretary Yi.
Who do you think is my
biggest political enemy?
What brings you to my
chambers at this late hour?
Are you scrambling to find a way
to save one of your closest aides?
No, I came to tell you that I finally
have a deeper understanding of you.
The King who was honest
with his desire for power.
The King who knew power can't be shared
not even between a father and a son,
so banished his own father, the Great
Ancestor King Taejo, to Hamheung...
I finally understand you, Father.
My King.
Now it s time for you to give me an advice.
If I were to brandish my
sword where should I aim?
Are you trying to say you are
going to aim your sword at me?
Is that your advice?
Do you think you can defeat me?
How about you?
Do you believe you defeated
the late King Taejo.
Tell me why you're here.
I will give up my father-in-law
Prime Minister Shim On.
But...
He will have to be the last.
I can't give up my wife either.
She tried to get political asylum
to a criminal of high treason.
She is the mother of my son.
If you depose the Queen for treason,
legitimacy of Joseon's royal house will be
on the chopping block again.
Officials will oppose fiercely.
I'm sure you didn't start this
without a contingency plan.
Would you follow my plan?
You must first give me your word
that there will be no more killings.
For some reason I feel like I've
been played with by my son.
Your Eminence...
He can negotiate quite well.
He's grown.
Do you still want to be the sword
that slays my political enemy?
Then you don't deserve to be soldiers.
A soldiers sword belongs in the military
and it should be aimed at foreign enemies.
Your Majesty...
I do not want to use the precious
swords that protect my people
to slay my political enemies.
Royal Inspector's Office
Your sword...
Use your sword.
Park Eun, Yu Jeonghyun, kill them all.
Just arrest all of your political
enemies and cut them to shreds!
That's what your father
is trying to teach you
not how to rule your aides but how
to suppress your political enemies.
That's what the former King's
alter ego Hwang Hee told me.
Your Majesty.
This is the only chance you have of
saving your most dedicated servant.
Raise your sword and destroy
your political adversaries.
It seems I released you from
disciplinary confinement prematurely.
Your Majesty...
Don't stop.
No, I hope I didn't wake
you from your sleep.
You look very tired.
You told me the other day that I
should try to be more like Liu Bei.
Man who knows how to
enjoy politics like a game...
Your Majesty...
You also said he learned early on
in his life that one can't have it all.
I doubt it was a game for him either.
Deciding what to acquire
and what to give up...
It couldn't have been easy as a game.
It has to have been painful for him
every time he had to make a choice...
Your Majesty...
Stay away from sweets.
Don't forget to eat
your vegetables.
You must eat variety of foods.
You mustn't be lazy with your studies
or give the servants a hard time.
Jeongso...
You're going to take my place now.
Take care of your brothers.
Mother...
It might be harder for you to forget me
since you're older than your brothers,
but you must try.
Forget you?
Are you going somewhere, Mother?
Promise me that you'll be a big girl.
That you won't pine for me,
you'll take care of your brothers
and you'll grow up to be a
kind and virtuous princess.
Mother...
You must be healthy and strong.
Yi Sun.
Yes, Your Highness.
You can take the children
back to their rooms now.
How could you do this?
If you care about the children,
you can't do this.
You heard me.
Just tell them I acted alone and you
knew nothing of what I've done.
Send me back behind bars
and let me take the blame.
You'd put me to such shame?
Everyone has turned their back on
me including my own husband.
But you're the only one who
stuck with me to the end.
If i had failed to protect you,
it would've been my eternal regret.
Your Highness...
Take care of my children.
My steps will be lighter when I leave
the palace knowing they have you.
Your Highness...
It's way past bed time.
Take the children to their rooms.
Father, where is Mother going?
She looks so sad.
She will be just fine.
Your father is the most
powerful man in this country.
So he will make sure
nothing happens to her.
Are you sure?
Is she right, Father?
You shouldn't have come.
I had to come.
I will not have you deposed.
Do you know how cruel those words are?
I might have to say many more
cruel words in the future.
Concubines?
And not just a few of them but
eight concubines all at once?
I'll have them set up an agency to deal with
the rites so you can
conduct the selection personally.
A beast with a human face...
I'm tired of telling you to have decency.
Prestige of the Royal house
must be preserved,
so choose from only the noblest families.
Stop!
Please stop.
How will you bear the
consequences of all of this evil?
Depose the Queen instead.
The King and the Queen
were a happy couple.
The Queen is about to lose her father
and you're telling the poor child to share
her husband with other women as well?
You are not new to politics. I can't
believe you'd say something so naive.
The Queen is not just our
third son Doe's wife anymore.
She's the mother of our people
and the mother of the future King.
Your Eminence?
It's not a good thing for a
King to love only one woman.
Because then all of his
power will be in her skirt.
Would you believe me if I told
you that I did this to protect you?
I don't want to believe you.
Escort Han.
Yes, Your Highness.
I'm going to have to transfer
you to the Queen's hall soon.
Your Highness...
Watch her closely so she
doesn't do anything hasty.
Do you understand?
Open up the cell.
I gave you an order.
But we're not authorized to...
May I help you?
Please tell these guards to open the cell.
With all due respect, this
is no place for the Queen.
Have you forgotten?
You're the one who said I am
not the mother of this country.
Your Grace...
You have children as well.
What child in the world could see her
father in such condition and turn her back?
I married young and had no chance to
do my daughterly duties to my father.
This may be our final moment
together so please let me stay
by my father's side for a while.
I beg you.
Father...
Father...
Why, I wonder.
Why do I feel sorrier for you than for
that man lying on the jail cell floor?
For the past decade, you've always
been at the center King Tejong's
gory slaughter of his in-laws
and political adversaries.
Has it been bearable?
How about you?
Did you volunteered for this because
you thought it would be bearable?
It's not bearable and it never was.
But it's a job that has to
be done, and you just do it.
Were you afraid of the former King?
I'm sure many in the
court believe that I was.
He is undefeatable after all.
I never start a fight I can't win.
But fear of the King was
not the only reason.
"Did I have to kill them?"
"Was I right to kill them?"
I'm not completely without regrets,
but I believe it had to be done in order to
bring order to this government
in shortest time possible.
And this time?
Did you accept this job for
the same reason this time?
I'm not young scholar
but an old politician.
And sometimes in politics,
you must do what needs to be
done instead of what's right.
Do you see me, Father?
Guards.
Guards!
Father.
Take the Queen out of here at once!
Father.
It's an order!
Get her out at once!
Don't, Father.
You can yell at me all you want,
but please let me stay by your side.
You're the Queen of this state.
I will not have you tend to a prisoner.
I'm not the Queen anymore.
Is the King... going to depose you?
No, it's me.
I don't think I can bear to live
with him after this, Father.
Is it my lack of virtue?
Did I raise my daughter to be a wife
who doesn't understand
her husband of ten years?
The King is my son just as much as
you are my daughter if not more.
I raised him with my heart
with deep affection.
That son is going to forsake ou.
If he doesn't forsake me,
I would take my own life.
Father!
This is not by his choice.
Many others would die
if he tried to protect me,
and that cannot be allowed to happen,
so he is making a very painful decision.
Your husband, the new King of
this state, is a profound thinker.
I don't know what you mean.
I don't want to know.
Stop being a child and go
back to your chambers.
No, let me stay with you.
How about your son?
You're a mother.
How could you leave your children?
Father!
Ignore everything else
and think of your son.
Just focus on raising
him well and go forward.
He is a remarkable boy.
He has the King's intelligence
and your prudence and virtue.
In the future, he will rise to the
throne as the fifth King of Joseon.
And you have the duty to raise him
to be even wiser and more
compassionate than your husband.
Father...
I know.
I know it's going to be
painful to see me go.
You'll have to endure so
much cruel pain and agony...
But you must endure it and go
forward without looking back.
Kings and Queens do not look back.
Don't blame yourself for
what is happening to me.
Just look to the future and go forward.
Only then...
Only then... I can rest in peace.
Would you do that for this old man?
Your Highness...
Your Highness...
Can I endure it?
I don't know if I can make
it in this cruel world.
Let me be your strength.
My parents named me
Yi Sun (Two goodness)
to have at least two devotions in my life.
I already gave my first
devotion to my mother,
so I let me give you the second devotion.
Yi Sun.
Yes, Your Highness.
You are a good woman.
My son, I will go to my son.
Prisoner Shim On, your heinous crime is
punishable by drawing and quartering,
but in consideration of your
devoted past services to this state,
this tribunal grants you compassion
to take your own life.
And he became a courageous
young man like you, Hyang.
- Do you understand?
- Yes.
- My lord!
- My lady!
Lady Ahn...
You are the Queen's mother now,
so please take care of her.
Forgive us, my lord...
for failing to protect you...
No, I am the one who feels contrite.
We said we'd cross the heavy seas
together, but here I am jumping ship...
My lord...
This is where my service
to the King will end,
but you must stay with him to the end.
Prime Minister Shim On,
executed by poisoning, December 23, 1418.
Grant the Queen title of Gongbi
and give her a grand inaugural.
Newly chosen concubines and
their maidservants, Your Highness.
I hereby declare Lady Shim of Chungsong
Gongbi and take her as my Queen,
and I order that she be honored.
Bean County, Choongchung Province
Bean County, Choongchung Province...
It's the location of a large shipyard
where warships ire being built.
They will have to give up the conquest
if we attack and destroy all the ships.
There is a large explosives
storehouse near the port.
Steal the explosives, and
destroying the warships
will not be difficult.
Is it gambling debt?
Are you giving us this information
to pay off your gambling debt again?
I don't know about my father,
but I can't live as a Joseonese.
Tahirano Mouko,
you're a proud son of Tsushima.
Do not fall back! Attack!
Retreat! Retreat swiftly!
Japanese pirates attacked Bean County?
I declare war and ordered
them to surrender,
and they launch a preemptive attack?
Assemble the warriors at once.
If the enemy we ordered to surrender has
made a preemptive move, what's next?
No, call everyone. The Supreme
Council, Six Ministries, everyone.
I have an important announcement.
Are we to launch an immediate
attack on Tsushima?
Will you depose the Queen?
Aiding a criminal of high
treason is not a light crime.
Very well.
It's for the best.
It's in her interest as well.
This is a hard place to be even
for an iron-willed woman like me.
It wasn't easy keeping my sanity
watching my brothers die one by one.
Do it.
Tell them to depose her and
throw her out of the palace.
But I do feel sorry for you,
my dear husband.
You'll have to put even more blood
on that heinous sword of yours.
And when we get a new Queen to replace
her, you'll have to slaughter yet more
in-laws to stop their abuse of power
whether they abuse their power or not.
I asked them to come.
May we go to the Hall of
Ease for a moment?
We cannot allow this to continue.
We will not forgive those who are
bearing down on you riding on the
coattails of former King's authority.
Please let us help you, Your Majesty.
General Choi.
Yes, Your Majesty.
You're the de facto leader of the military.
Are you with your men on this?
Royal subjects are supposed to serve
the King, not intimidate him.
Are you offering to be my swords?
If this is your loyalty to me,
I will gladly accept.
Secretary Yi.
Who do you think is my
biggest political enemy?
What brings you to my
chambers at this late hour?
Are you scrambling to find a way
to save one of your closest aides?
No, I came to tell you that I finally
have a deeper understanding of you.
The King who was honest
with his desire for power.
The King who knew power can't be shared
not even between a father and a son,
so banished his own father, the Great
Ancestor King Taejo, to Hamheung...
I finally understand you, Father.
My King.
Now it s time for you to give me an advice.
If I were to brandish my
sword where should I aim?
Are you trying to say you are
going to aim your sword at me?
Is that your advice?
Do you think you can defeat me?
How about you?
Do you believe you defeated
the late King Taejo.
Tell me why you're here.
I will give up my father-in-law
Prime Minister Shim On.
But...
He will have to be the last.
I can't give up my wife either.
She tried to get political asylum
to a criminal of high treason.
She is the mother of my son.
If you depose the Queen for treason,
legitimacy of Joseon's royal house will be
on the chopping block again.
Officials will oppose fiercely.
I'm sure you didn't start this
without a contingency plan.
Would you follow my plan?
You must first give me your word
that there will be no more killings.
For some reason I feel like I've
been played with by my son.
Your Eminence...
He can negotiate quite well.
He's grown.
Do you still want to be the sword
that slays my political enemy?
Then you don't deserve to be soldiers.
A soldiers sword belongs in the military
and it should be aimed at foreign enemies.
Your Majesty...
I do not want to use the precious
swords that protect my people
to slay my political enemies.
Royal Inspector's Office
Your sword...
Use your sword.
Park Eun, Yu Jeonghyun, kill them all.
Just arrest all of your political
enemies and cut them to shreds!
That's what your father
is trying to teach you
not how to rule your aides but how
to suppress your political enemies.
That's what the former King's
alter ego Hwang Hee told me.
Your Majesty.
This is the only chance you have of
saving your most dedicated servant.
Raise your sword and destroy
your political adversaries.
It seems I released you from
disciplinary confinement prematurely.
Your Majesty...
Don't stop.
No, I hope I didn't wake
you from your sleep.
You look very tired.
You told me the other day that I
should try to be more like Liu Bei.
Man who knows how to
enjoy politics like a game...
Your Majesty...
You also said he learned early on
in his life that one can't have it all.
I doubt it was a game for him either.
Deciding what to acquire
and what to give up...
It couldn't have been easy as a game.
It has to have been painful for him
every time he had to make a choice...
Your Majesty...
Stay away from sweets.
Don't forget to eat
your vegetables.
You must eat variety of foods.
You mustn't be lazy with your studies
or give the servants a hard time.
Jeongso...
You're going to take my place now.
Take care of your brothers.
Mother...
It might be harder for you to forget me
since you're older than your brothers,
but you must try.
Forget you?
Are you going somewhere, Mother?
Promise me that you'll be a big girl.
That you won't pine for me,
you'll take care of your brothers
and you'll grow up to be a
kind and virtuous princess.
Mother...
You must be healthy and strong.
Yi Sun.
Yes, Your Highness.
You can take the children
back to their rooms now.
How could you do this?
If you care about the children,
you can't do this.
You heard me.
Just tell them I acted alone and you
knew nothing of what I've done.
Send me back behind bars
and let me take the blame.
You'd put me to such shame?
Everyone has turned their back on
me including my own husband.
But you're the only one who
stuck with me to the end.
If i had failed to protect you,
it would've been my eternal regret.
Your Highness...
Take care of my children.
My steps will be lighter when I leave
the palace knowing they have you.
Your Highness...
It's way past bed time.
Take the children to their rooms.
Father, where is Mother going?
She looks so sad.
She will be just fine.
Your father is the most
powerful man in this country.
So he will make sure
nothing happens to her.
Are you sure?
Is she right, Father?
You shouldn't have come.
I had to come.
I will not have you deposed.
Do you know how cruel those words are?
I might have to say many more
cruel words in the future.
Concubines?
And not just a few of them but
eight concubines all at once?
I'll have them set up an agency to deal with
the rites so you can
conduct the selection personally.
A beast with a human face...
I'm tired of telling you to have decency.
Prestige of the Royal house
must be preserved,
so choose from only the noblest families.
Stop!
Please stop.
How will you bear the
consequences of all of this evil?
Depose the Queen instead.
The King and the Queen
were a happy couple.
The Queen is about to lose her father
and you're telling the poor child to share
her husband with other women as well?
You are not new to politics. I can't
believe you'd say something so naive.
The Queen is not just our
third son Doe's wife anymore.
She's the mother of our people
and the mother of the future King.
Your Eminence?
It's not a good thing for a
King to love only one woman.
Because then all of his
power will be in her skirt.
Would you believe me if I told
you that I did this to protect you?
I don't want to believe you.
Escort Han.
Yes, Your Highness.
I'm going to have to transfer
you to the Queen's hall soon.
Your Highness...
Watch her closely so she
doesn't do anything hasty.
Do you understand?
Open up the cell.
I gave you an order.
But we're not authorized to...
May I help you?
Please tell these guards to open the cell.
With all due respect, this
is no place for the Queen.
Have you forgotten?
You're the one who said I am
not the mother of this country.
Your Grace...
You have children as well.
What child in the world could see her
father in such condition and turn her back?
I married young and had no chance to
do my daughterly duties to my father.
This may be our final moment
together so please let me stay
by my father's side for a while.
I beg you.
Father...
Father...
Why, I wonder.
Why do I feel sorrier for you than for
that man lying on the jail cell floor?
For the past decade, you've always
been at the center King Tejong's
gory slaughter of his in-laws
and political adversaries.
Has it been bearable?
How about you?
Did you volunteered for this because
you thought it would be bearable?
It's not bearable and it never was.
But it's a job that has to
be done, and you just do it.
Were you afraid of the former King?
I'm sure many in the
court believe that I was.
He is undefeatable after all.
I never start a fight I can't win.
But fear of the King was
not the only reason.
"Did I have to kill them?"
"Was I right to kill them?"
I'm not completely without regrets,
but I believe it had to be done in order to
bring order to this government
in shortest time possible.
And this time?
Did you accept this job for
the same reason this time?
I'm not young scholar
but an old politician.
And sometimes in politics,
you must do what needs to be
done instead of what's right.
Do you see me, Father?
Guards.
Guards!
Father.
Take the Queen out of here at once!
Father.
It's an order!
Get her out at once!
Don't, Father.
You can yell at me all you want,
but please let me stay by your side.
You're the Queen of this state.
I will not have you tend to a prisoner.
I'm not the Queen anymore.
Is the King... going to depose you?
No, it's me.
I don't think I can bear to live
with him after this, Father.
Is it my lack of virtue?
Did I raise my daughter to be a wife
who doesn't understand
her husband of ten years?
The King is my son just as much as
you are my daughter if not more.
I raised him with my heart
with deep affection.
That son is going to forsake ou.
If he doesn't forsake me,
I would take my own life.
Father!
This is not by his choice.
Many others would die
if he tried to protect me,
and that cannot be allowed to happen,
so he is making a very painful decision.
Your husband, the new King of
this state, is a profound thinker.
I don't know what you mean.
I don't want to know.
Stop being a child and go
back to your chambers.
No, let me stay with you.
How about your son?
You're a mother.
How could you leave your children?
Father!
Ignore everything else
and think of your son.
Just focus on raising
him well and go forward.
He is a remarkable boy.
He has the King's intelligence
and your prudence and virtue.
In the future, he will rise to the
throne as the fifth King of Joseon.
And you have the duty to raise him
to be even wiser and more
compassionate than your husband.
Father...
I know.
I know it's going to be
painful to see me go.
You'll have to endure so
much cruel pain and agony...
But you must endure it and go
forward without looking back.
Kings and Queens do not look back.
Don't blame yourself for
what is happening to me.
Just look to the future and go forward.
Only then...
Only then... I can rest in peace.
Would you do that for this old man?
Your Highness...
Your Highness...
Can I endure it?
I don't know if I can make
it in this cruel world.
Let me be your strength.
My parents named me
Yi Sun (Two goodness)
to have at least two devotions in my life.
I already gave my first
devotion to my mother,
so I let me give you the second devotion.
Yi Sun.
Yes, Your Highness.
You are a good woman.
My son, I will go to my son.
Prisoner Shim On, your heinous crime is
punishable by drawing and quartering,
but in consideration of your
devoted past services to this state,
this tribunal grants you compassion
to take your own life.
And he became a courageous
young man like you, Hyang.
- Do you understand?
- Yes.
- My lord!
- My lady!
Lady Ahn...
You are the Queen's mother now,
so please take care of her.
Forgive us, my lord...
for failing to protect you...
No, I am the one who feels contrite.
We said we'd cross the heavy seas
together, but here I am jumping ship...
My lord...
This is where my service
to the King will end,
but you must stay with him to the end.
Prime Minister Shim On,
executed by poisoning, December 23, 1418.
Grant the Queen title of Gongbi
and give her a grand inaugural.
Newly chosen concubines and
their maidservants, Your Highness.
I hereby declare Lady Shim of Chungsong
Gongbi and take her as my Queen,
and I order that she be honored.
Bean County, Choongchung Province
Bean County, Choongchung Province...
It's the location of a large shipyard
where warships ire being built.
They will have to give up the conquest
if we attack and destroy all the ships.
There is a large explosives
storehouse near the port.
Steal the explosives, and
destroying the warships
will not be difficult.
Is it gambling debt?
Are you giving us this information
to pay off your gambling debt again?
I don't know about my father,
but I can't live as a Joseonese.
Tahirano Mouko,
you're a proud son of Tsushima.
Do not fall back! Attack!
Retreat! Retreat swiftly!
Japanese pirates attacked Bean County?
I declare war and ordered
them to surrender,
and they launch a preemptive attack?
Assemble the warriors at once.
If the enemy we ordered to surrender has
made a preemptive move, what's next?
No, call everyone. The Supreme
Council, Six Ministries, everyone.
I have an important announcement.
Are we to launch an immediate
attack on Tsushima?