Original subtitles

What is the meaning of this?

My woman is ill, Father.

How could you!

Summon the royal physician for me.

Are you out of your mind?

She is with my child.

You wouldn't turn away an injured animal.

She has your grandchild, Father.

What are we doing here? We should be at the audience hall.

We must beseech the King to remove the Crown Prince!

You exposed the Crown Prince's immoral conduct with leaflets in the palace?

I beg your pardon?

Digging up dirt on your political enemy...

You're getting good at this, Minister Shim.

Where am I?

It's the palace.

You're in my chambers.

I'm going to leave.

You don't have to.

Lie back down.

Lie back down and rest.

You lost your mind.

I think you're right.

Call the physician and keep visitors out.

But Your Highness...

Do as you're told.

Your Grace...!

Announce me.

But...

Do you want my neck hanging on the crossbeam or

will you open that door?

Your Grace...

Control yourself, Princess.

Return to your chambers.

I'm going to kill myself. Either that or set this palace on fire.

You must control yourself.

I am not you, Mother.

Princess!

They said I had to be like you if I am going to be the Queen.

So I tried my hardest to imitate you.

But as a result, I lost my husband.

He is my husband before he is the Crown Prince and the future King.

Ignore it.

Pretend that it's just you and me and no one else is here.

How can I?

Try.

I shouldn't have acted so arrogantly pretending I'm the mother of the state.

If I had been true to my own feelings and shown him that my only true love

is the smart and kindly prince I married at the age of thirteen,

he might still be mine.

I'm not angry because he brought a lowly wench into the palace.

I'm angry because I, the mother of his child,

have no place in my husband's heart!

Child...

Exploding with rage is just about all I can do.

There's nothing I can do except kill myself before him in spite, Mother.

How about your son?

What is to happen to him?

You'd abandon your child because you lost your husband?

I'm hurting a lot of people...

Hang in there. It'll soon be over.

I have postponed the royal lecture.

Then call Minister Hwang Hee...

Your Majesty...

Minister Hwang is no longer here.

I keep forgetting that I had him exiled.

I must be getting old.

Your Majesty...

I sent too many men away.

Now I have no one left to put my guard down and complain about my son with.

Is this punishment?

Yes, I think I'm being punished...

My lady...

Would you see me out of the palace?

You should stay.

Before anyone finds out that I am in here...

Everyone already knows.

Someone posted slanderous leaflets all over the city last night.

Leaflets?

Who did it? Who maligned the Crown Prince?

Does it matter who did it? What's important is that it's the truth.

You should go to the Royal Lecture Hall now.

King should not skip his Royal.

How much more do you wish to patronize me?

You walk in here after committing such treacherous sins and dare...

I learned this all from you, Father.

What's the difference between taking your wife's servant as your concubine

and taking a high lord's concubine as your woman?

How dare you!

You are a bold woman.

How dare you come in here and approach me!

Do you know the chaos you've created in the palace?

You mean what you've created.

Did you have to do this? I begged you not to.

Did you have to stoop this low?

You can't put Prince Choongnyeong on

the throne unless you destroy the Crown Prince first?

Listen!

What does she mean?

What is this woman saying?

Your Highness...

Is she telling the truth?

Did you malign the Crown Prince to put me on the throne?

Why would I need to?

I would not have started this fight in the first place If you were an inferior

man that could not rise to the throne without personal attacks on his enemy.

Then who?

Who exposed this if you didn't?

Would you order the Administer of Memorials to prepare a decree?

I would like to depose the Crown Princess.

Jae!

I never loved her from the start.

I married her because I was told to marry her,

and I slept with her on chosen days for conception.

Both of us have played this charade long enough, so...

When are you going to stop?

But I don't need two women.

That's the difference between you and me.

When are you going to stop?

When are you going to stop breaking the laws and when

are you going to stop defying your father?

If the King can do no wrong, neither can the future King.

Who says you're the future King?

I want to protect you,

but the public and the ministers will not tolerate you anymore.

Isn't that solely your decision?

Suppressing defiance? That's your forte.

Not this time. This time you're on your own.

I can no longer protect you.

When did you ever protect me?

I never gave up hope on you.

You never once quietly obeyed your father, but I never...

That's not hope. That's called obsession, Father.

But whether it is hope or obsession,

you did it not because I am me but because I am the eldest.

You're not mad at me. You're mad at yourself.

You're upset and angry because now you're forced to defy primogeniture

that you so stubbornly insisted on!

Bastard!

Accept it. That's the truth.

Royal Attendant!

Royal Attendant!

Get him out of here!

Throw him out of the palace and don't let him set one foot back inside!

What are you waiting for? It's an order!

Your Highness...

Have the Royal Physician look in on him.

Your Highness...

The King doesn't have as many close men as one might think.

You cant really call those sycophants his close men.

Take care of my old man for me.

You know that he's a softly underneath that hard exterior, don't you?

Are you all right?

We must have done something really awful in our past lives.

Let it go now.

Take the crown from Jae.

But you must preserve the practice of primogeniture.

What happened?

With what?

You know what I'm talking about.

She's gone. She must have left.

Did you?

Did I kick her out?

Did you?

Can't I?

No!

It wasn't me.

I may not be very kind, but I am not that callous.

I wouldn't kick out a woman that's ill...

I'm sorry.

I wanted to say those word so many times,

but I never got the chance to until now.

You would've been happier without me.

You're a good woman.

Don't go. Please.

Please stay with me.

Not for me, but for our son. You can't leave.

Now this child, our son, has to be the Crown Prince, so...

Stop. Stop this!

Your Highness!

Did I ever once look happy to you?

Let it go.

That's what's best for you and the child.

This is why palace is no fun.

Your Highness...

Are you here to congratulate me?

You should congratulate me.

I'm finally getting out of this nauseating place.

You two have a rough road ahead.

You're not yourself lately.

Why won't you name your successor when

the Crown Prince has been removed from the palace?

Are you having doubts about Choongnyeong?

He did once deny the legitimacy of this country Joseon.

Would you mind if I helped?

An evaluation?

You must not utter anything to deny the legitimacy of the regime.

You'd have me be untruthful?

Let us just get through this.

The Royal House Council is leading this, but His Majesty is behind them.

This could be a trap set by the King.

The abdicated King brought this up.

He's pushing Hyoryoeng as the wise one.

Remember.

You can do a thousand more things to change this world

as a King than as a Prince.

An evaluation?

This is pathetic.

I am letting my subjects choose my successor.

Your Majesty...

Royal subjects choosing their King to suit their taste...

This must be hard on the King...

It's harder on you.

How cruel he is to send you out to a shabby hut like this...

Perhaps you should stay with Lady Auri in Jang-dong.

Don't tell her anything. She doesn't know about this yet.

Let us begin.

Prince Choongnyeong, in 1416,

you made a statement denying the legitimacy of Joseon. Is this correct?

Yes.

How about now? Do you still maintain your belief?

I cannot acknowledge.

I oppose.

I am against political purgings and violent retaliations between factions.

If this is what this country is founded on and if this is the practice that is

still used to maintain this regime, I cannot acknowledge its legitimacy.

You may go.

Then...

You just said Choongnyeong denied the legitimacy of this regime.

What more is there to talk about?

Is it that difficult?

All you had to do was to say one little word. One little word...!

Say something. Please!

Frustrated?

He just won't listen.

He wouldn't be kingly material if he just did what he was told to do.

Huh?

May I bother you for a moment?

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms"?

I thought you were studying

something serious when they said you were at the library.

I had no idea you'd be reading books like these.

You should read them, too. They're very good.

Why did you do it?

The throne could've been yours.

You should at least give your followers an explanation.

I'm sorry. I ruined everything...

Is that a tone of regret?

Let me see what I can do if you want to take it back.

That's not necessary.

I can't change my answer even if I were asked again.

What made me dare conceive of the idea of rising to the throne is

my desire to stop the political purgings.

I can't compromise that.

You might consider becoming more like Liu Bei.

He enjoys politics like a game.

All or nothing? That's now how games are played.

Finding a middle point is what makes games fun.

And FYI, Zhang Fei is my least favorite.

He was originally a butcher,

and there's a good chance he'll treat his own child roughly.

It's Heaven's will.

It's wrong.

I'm walking off with the crown while my two brothers are busy fighting for it.

So what?

What you do next is what's important.

It doesn't matter how you get the crown. What matters is what you do with it.

I have to be somewhere tomorrow.

Once I get back, I'll be able to take a long break away from the city.

Would you come with me?

I'd like it if you'd come.

You weren't thinking of leaving me here, were you?

I'll be back.

Take... care.

What kind of goodbye is that?

Just be safe.

You're going to be King soon, is that it?

You shouldn't get in the habit of making your older brother wait.

Are you... happy?

Why not?

How about you?

Are you happy now that you will be King?

Does it matter to you whether I am happy or not happy?

I'm not a bold man like you.

And I know how to conform and comply with the demands of the world.

That's why you're not it.

What is your definition of wise one?

Your Highness...

Brother. Call me brother.

I won't be the Crown Prince after today.

It's not you.

You're not the wise one.

You're too clean to be the wise one.

There's not a mark on you because you've only walked on safe roads.

My definition of wise one is a hundred times rougher than you are.

Someone who is not afraid to get hurt for what he believes in.

That's the wise one.

Give it up.

I didn't break the King's heart so you could have the crown.

Break the King's heart? You mean those slanderous posters were...

Yeah.

I couldn't think of any other way to make the old man give up.

Brother...!

Don't tell father about this.

Just let him be. Let him live his way.

If you try to break him, if you take away his pride...

It'll make him age even faster.

Why don't we give Prince Choongnyeong another chance?

I'd like to give him another chance to prove himself worthy before the King.

This is Jae's...

Doesn't this belong to the Crown Prince?

He told me to give it to you after much time has passed, but...

He asked me to tell you to think of him as an arrow that's left the

bowstring and forget about him.

And tell him that I won't keep a single friend for the rest of my life.

I let him down and failed to succeed his throne as King, but...

I will share and endure the loneliness the King feels from where I am.

It's clear the throne was not meant for Jae, and I don't think it is meant for me either.

Do not open your heart to your subjects in haste

and do not fancy yourself their friend.

Such is luxury King cannot afford.

A King is a man who stands alone and endures the pain of solitude.

I knew this day would come.

I knew I would have to leave you someday...

But I didn't know how heavy my heart would be.

I hear your voice in my head,

and I hesitate as take my first step struggling to let go.

But the future is too daunting to endure with love alone.

I don't have the strength to watch your despair,

and I don't have the courage to forgive myself for what I've done to you.

And so...

I return to the place where your sadness rests,

where I first held the naive desire to spend my life sharing your sorrows,

I return to this place to say good bye.

I pray that your remaining days are not filled with sorrows alone

and that you'll find some peace somehow...

The world says now that you are not the wise one.

Do you still wish to put forth your effort?

Are you prepared to sacrifice yourself for a state you do not

yet acknowledge legitimacy of?

I am.

As long as we know the principles that cannot be compromised,

we will find a way to compromise.

As long as we're willing to respect each other's opinions,

we will bring best and not worst results.

I will try.

Not alone, but with all of the royal retainers.

You look well.

You look a little thinner.

"Yangnyeong." It's your princely title.

Every time I bestowed titles to my sons, I chose easy names.

Yangnyeong is a suitable name for you who gave up your crown for your brother.

I'm unworthy of such a noble name...

Jae...

Yes, Father.

I am not forsaking you.

I know.

In this third day of June, 1418, I hereby depose Crown Prince Yi Jae

and install my third son Yi Do as the new Crown Prince!