Yoo Hae-jin’s confident performance redeems this disjointed parable about an exiled king, which awkwardly straddles satire, sentiment and social commentary

It seems that the 15th-century Korean equivalent of a special economic zone was a court official exiled to a remote backwater, with all the attendant wealth and comforts that arrive with them. That’s the hook of this lively period piece, in which village chieftain Um Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin) strays into a neighbouring settlement and – because the former minister of justice is in residence – is amazed to find the place awash in mouth-smacking treats.

Wanting a piece of that action, Heung-do puts in a bid to sinister government official Han Myeong-hoe (Oldboy’s Yoo Ji-tae) for his own outcast. But a pasty-faced youth turns up on a palanquin, and turns out to be a much bigger fish than the elder can handle: the kid is the recently deposed king Yi Hong-wi (played by K-pop singer Park Ji-hoon), who is too conspicuous to be openly bumped off like the rest of his retinue. With counter-rebellion brewing, Heung-do realises that his new ward is more likely to bring a landslide of trouble than an influx of goodies.