A film crossing 13 million admissions has a way of making people curious about what actually happened.
"The King's Warden" has done something unusual for a Korean blockbuster. It has sent audiences to libraries and historical sites rather than just streaming platforms. The National Library of Korea is now responding to that curiosity directly, with a special exhibition opening March 24 that will show the public a 293-year-old government document for the very first time.
{img}The document at the centre of the exhibition dates to 1733, when King Yeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty issued a decree through the Ministry of Military Affairs granting special exemptions from military service and labor to the descendants of Eom Heung-do. The reason behind those exemptions is the heart of the film. Eom was a local village chief who, at great personal risk, secretly retrieved and gave a proper burial to King Danjong after the young king was executed in exile in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province. In the Joseon era, associating yourself with a deposed king was enough to get you killed. Eom did it anyway.
The document shows that the state eventually recognized what Eom did, almost three centuries after the fact. A descendant of Eom's family deposited the artifact at the National Library in 2019, and it has never been displayed publicly before. The exhibition, running March 24 to April 19 at the library's main building in Seocho District, is being held with the family's consent.
{img}Six other historical records will accompany it. The "Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty" will detail the process of King Danjong's exile. A handwritten manuscript of Lee Kwang-su's 1930s historical novel "Danjong Aesa" will appear alongside its 1935 printed edition. Biographical records of Eom's life and actions, drawn from compilations published in 1817 and 1936, round out the collection.
Hyeon Hye-won, head of the library's old and rare books division, said the exhibition was organized specifically to extend the public interest triggered by the film into Korea's actual heritage records. "We hope the public interest triggered by the movie will extend to our precious heritage records and old literature," she said.
{img}For foreign visitors in Seoul around the BTS comeback who have also caught the film, or for anyone curious about the real story behind one of Korea's most successful movies this decade, the exhibition offers something the film could not. It shows the original paper.