Best movie of this year hands down!

What a beautiful movie!

Fantastic!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Honestly, despite my love for korean movie / series, I'm not a fan a sageuk genre. They tend to bore me to tears because sometimes I have no idea their background and I don't know South Korean history. It might be this movie will have a first draw to people like me who doesn't like sageuk genre at all and start to appreciate the genre. If there is one thing this genre brought me to tears, It's the circumstance surrounding the citizen and how they crave about how a great KING will lead them. Lee Byung Hun really nail it as a KING and the pretending one. Which led you to think even if have already A King, Do you really thing your subordinate think you as one? There is abit naivety behind it, but it's very entertaining movie and worth a try to bring you joy for the first time on sageuk genre.

Well this movie is not meant to be hidden! I know enough history to recognize that the two faces of the ancient god Ianós have no relevance to bad or good or prince Gwanghae or the dual role of Byung-hun Lee.But the acting of the latest is surely godlike.Byung-hun Lee plays the part of Gwanghaegun the fifteenth king of the Joseon Dynasty and this movie is a work of fiction created around a quote that I love , "Do not put on record what is meant to be hidden".The plot of the movie is the following.The king, afraid of his life during rumors of assassination attempts, searches for a man that looks like him and can replace him as long as the danger for his life remains.What follows is a masterpiece.Great actors,great direction and great costumes create a drama worth anyone's time.Do not miss it.

'Masquerade' is kind of movie that is hardly to find weakness from it. It is so beautiful and entertaining from the beginning through the end. The first half of the movie is about how Ha-seon adapts in palace environment which is interesting to see and sometimes really funny, and the last 45 minutes of the movie is just so tense. This is an example movie that is handled by professional cast and crew members. Chang-min as director built a dazzling and powerful movie, the cinematography is beautiful captured and solid frame by frame, the make-up and costume design are also did their responsibility well. Cast member also had done an incredible part especially Byung-hun as King Gwang-hae and Ha-seon. His name has already known internationally as a tough fighter in 'G.I. Joe series' and will be in 'Red 2' too but you wouldn't find him acts like in this kind of movie, it's totally worth to see. Byung-hun acts really convincingly as two different character here, a serious charismatic king and a naughty lazy comedian. Without the right guy who plays exceptionally in the main role, this movie wouldn't be that great. Overall, 'Masquerade' is a serious making movie with great storyline and strong performances although the ending is not so extraordinary. No wonder 'Masquerade' is appreciated and so successful in South Korea which it well deserved.

***Spoilers below*** I will be very surprised Lee Byung-Hun does not get the best actor prize in Korea this year. The transition from the real king to the impostor/actor was absolutely amazing (to say the least) making it easy to know which was which; very important in my ability to follow the story as it unfolded. The only confusion I felt was which high government official was which - all the way through the movie, the only way to figure out who was whom was if they "stepped out" when the king called on them; they all had the same clothing, hat, beard, mannerism (I do realize that this is how it was back then but still I kept asking myself, "now, who the heck is this nut?")Overall, it was a wonderful movie with high production value that I thoroughly enjoyed. It could have used better editing about 15 minutes from the end of the movie tho - it dragged a bit where the lighting was way off - the reason for a 9 out of 10.Cinematography was phenomenal!