{ "id": "eptj6y8808", "slug": "sword-in-the-moon", "title": "Sword in the Moon (청풍명월)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure", "label": "Action and adventure films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.martial-arts-films", "label": "Martial arts films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.martial-arts-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.martial-arts-films.yr-1986-2026", "label": "Released 1986 to 2026", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.martial-arts-films.yr-1986-2026" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Action and adventure films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure", "label": "Action and adventure films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Sword in the Moon (청풍명월, Cheongpungmyeongwol) is a 2003 Korean muhyeop period action film by Kim Ui-seok, starring Choi Min-soo and Cho Jae-hyun as sworn friends split by the 1623 Injo coup; Cannes 2004, 536,258 admissions.", "snippet": "Sword in the Moon (청풍명월, Cheongpungmyeongwol) is a 2003 Korean muhyeop period action film by Kim Ui-seok, starring Choi Min-soo and Cho Jae-hyun as sworn friends split by the 1623 Injo coup; Cannes 2004, 536,258 admissions.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.martial-arts-films.yr-1986-2026", "markdown": "# Sword in the Moon (청풍명월)\n\n**Sword in the Moon** (청풍명월, *Cheongpungmyeongwol*) is a 2003 South Korean period action film directed by Kim Ui-seok, set around the 1623 Injo coup (인조반정) in Joseon Korea and centered on two sworn friends from an elite military academy who end up on opposite sides of a palace purge.[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092) • [2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) It was released in South Korea on July 16, 2003, runs 103 minutes, and was rated 15 and over.[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 청풍명월 (淸風明月), \"clear wind, bright moon\"[3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) |\n| Director / writer | Kim Ui-seok; screenplay by Jang Min-seok[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092) • [2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) |\n| Release | July 16, 2003, South Korea; 103 minutes; rating 15[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092) |\n| Lead cast | Choi Min-soo (Ji-hwan), Cho Jae-hyun (Gyu-yeob), Kim Bo-kyung (Si-yeong)[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) |\n| Setting | The aftermath of the Injo coup of 1623; the title unit is a fictional elite officer academy[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) • [3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) |\n| Budget | Over 7 billion won, more than twice the average Korean film budget at the time[3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) |\n| Festival run | Cannes 2004 (Un Certain Regard), plus Fantasia, Fantasy Filmfest, Deauville Asian, Palm Springs, Melbourne, and Asian American festivals[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092) |\n| Admissions | 536,258 in South Korea[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and title\n\nThe film opens after the Injo coup, the 1623 usurpation that deposed King Gwanghaegun and devastated the country. In its aftermath, an elite academy for training military officers, called Cheongpungmyeongwol, is founded to embody the people's wish for a peaceful era in which they can live under a \"clear wind and a bright moon.\"[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) • [3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) The unit is fictional; the JoongAng Ilbo review notes that no such academy existed historically.[3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762)\n\nInside the academy, the two finest swordsmen, Ji-hwan ([Choi Min-soo](https://www.edgepedia.org/choi-min-soo)) and Gyu-yeob (Cho Jae-hyun), swear an oath of friendship: \"if you die, I die.\" When a coup breaks out, Gyu-yeob is forced, with his unit members' lives as the stake, to join the attacking forces and strike his own teacher Kim-in and his friend Ji-hwan; Ji-hwan falls clutching the wooden fish he had carved as a gift for Gyu-yeob.[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) • [4](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20030714/7964008/1)\n\nFive years later, Gyu-yeob has a reputation as a cold, brutal officer so merciless he is called a \"human butcher.\" When an assassin begins killing the coup's meritorious officials, the court orders him to lead the hunt. A sword engraved with \"Cheongpungmyeongwol\" is found at a scene, and Gyu-yeob realizes the assassin is Ji-hwan, who survived.[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) The Korean Film Council synopsis frames the same premise as Seoul in 1628, where an assassination of a city official spreads fear and Yun Gyu-yeop leads an elite military unit ordered to capture the mysterious killer.[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092)\n\n## Production\n\n**A long, expensive build.** According to the production company, the film took 15 years from initial planning to completion. Because the muhyeop (martial-arts period) genre is a minor one in Korean film, with little accumulated know-how, and because even small props required careful historical verification, financing was difficult; the final budget exceeded 7 billion won, more than twice the average Korean film production cost.[3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) [The Dong-A Ilbo](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-dong-a-ilbo) reported pure production costs of 7.5 billion won, with 700 suits of armor, 44 real swords, 550 wooden swords, and about 100 bows made for the shoot.[4](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20030714/7964008/1)\n\nUnlike *Bichunmoo* and *[Musa](https://www.edgepedia.org/musa-2001-film)*, which shot in China, the entire film was shot on Korean locations, including [Namhansanseong](https://www.edgepedia.org/namhansanseong) in [Gyeonggi Province](https://www.edgepedia.org/gyeonggi-province), Mudeungsan in Gwangju, and Cheongsong in North Gyeongsang Province.[3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) • [4](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20030714/7964008/1) The most costly set piece was a recreation of the royal procession crossing the Han River by boat, which cost 1 billion won, including 38 boats built at 20 million won each.[4](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20030714/7964008/1)\n\n**Action design.** The swordplay was choreographed by the Hong Kong martial arts directors Won Jin (*[My Wife Is a Gangster](https://www.edgepedia.org/my-wife-is-a-gangster)*) and [Won Bin](https://www.edgepedia.org/won-bin) (*The Swordsman*, *[Swordsman II](https://www.edgepedia.org/swordsman-ii)*).[5](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=19918) The Cine21 review describes an action style that alternates slow and fast motion, with few moments of blade-on-blade contact and an emphasis on the flow of the sword, and singles out a scene in which Ji-hwan beheads a man with a galdae leaf as a striking invention; it nonetheless judges that the film's many ideas, such as a ferocious fight on a narrow bridge, were not used to full effect.[5](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=19918) Lead actor Choi Min-soo, a 4th-dan kendo practitioner, said he took pride in the film showing Korean swordsmanship rather than the exaggerated Chinese style.[6](https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200307171600141/amp)\n\n## Reception and context\n\nThe film drew 536,258 admissions in South Korea and received a Cine21 audience rating of 5.32 out of 10.[2](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559) Korean critics were mixed. The JoongAng Ilbo gave it three stars out of five, crediting its solemn question about whether men's loyalty and friendship are outdated but faulting sword-fight scenes that felt derivative.[3](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762) The Dong-A Ilbo praised the cinematography of Korean landscapes and the meticulous period detail, but found the story structure and acting uneven and the graphic violence excessive.[4](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20030714/7964008/1) The Kyunghyang Shinmun noted that about 50,000 extras were used and argued the film's effort went into spectacle at the expense of story and character.[6](https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200307171600141/amp) On aggregate sites it holds an IMDb rating of 5.7 from about 1,500 votes and a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 48 percent from more than 500 ratings.[7](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/sword-in-the-moon) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sword_in_the_moon)\n\nInternationally, the film traveled widely on the 2004 festival circuit: Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Focus Asia at Fantasy Filmfest, the Korean Cinema program at Fantasia, the Asian American International Film Festival, Out of Competition at the Deauville Asian Film Festival, World Cinema Now at Palm Springs, and Regional Focus at Melbourne; it later played the Tiger Eye Firecracker Showcase in 2005 and Fantas Porto in 2008.[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092)\n\nWithin Korean genre history, *Sword in the Moon* belongs to the small wave of early-2000s period swordplay films, alongside *Musa: The Warrior* (2001), *Shadowless Sword* (2005), and *The Sword with No Name* (2009), that adapted the muhyeop tradition of period action literature to Korean settings.[9](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/news/features.jsp?blbdComCd=601013&mode=FEATURES_VIEW&seq=493) A scholar of South Korean period action cinema groups it with *Musa* as a film whose bloody action sequences, including the deaths of both central protagonists in the climactic battle, helped establish Korean period action as a genre in which action is shaped by thematic concerns; unlike *Musa*, its focus is internal, on Korea itself rather than Korea and its neighbors.[10](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/19053/Thesis-Connor-McMorran-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2)\n\nThe title should not be confused with *A Sword Under the Moon* (월하의 검), a 1970 period action film by Im Kwon-taek preserved by the Korean Film Archive, which shares a similar English rendering.[11](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002645)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Sword In The Moon (2003), Korean Film Council](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20030092)\n2. [청풍명월 (Sword in the Moon) 상세정보, Cine21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=5559)\n3. [\"[개봉작&상영작] '청풍명월' 外\", JoongAng Ilbo (2003)](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/202762)\n4. [\"[씨네리뷰] '청풍명월'…우정 가르는 '칼의 세월'\", Dong-A Ilbo (2003)](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20030714/7964008/1)\n5. [\"고전 무협영화에 대한 존경과 변형, <청풍명월>\", Cine21 (2003)](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=19918)\n6. [\"눈빛 깎아내고 따뜻함 담았죠\", Kyunghyang Shinmun (2003)](https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200307171600141/amp)\n7. [Sword In The Moon streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/sword-in-the-moon)\n8. [Sword in the Moon, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sword_in_the_moon)\n9. [\"Weapon of Choice: Korea's Period Swordfighting Tales\", Korean Film Council](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/news/features.jsp?blbdComCd=601013&mode=FEATURES_VIEW&seq=493)\n10. [Connor McMorran, PhD thesis on South Korean period action cinema, University of St Andrews](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/19053/Thesis-Connor-McMorran-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2)\n11. [월하의 검 (불완전판), Cinematheque KOFA](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002645)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1986 to 2026*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Sword in the Moon (청풍명월)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Sword in the Moon (청풍명월)](https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon](https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Sword in the Moon (청풍명월)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/sword-in-the-moon. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Sword in the Moon is a 2003 Korean muhyeop period action film by Kim Ui-seok, starring Choi Min-soo and Cho Jae-hyun as sworn friends split by the 1623 Injo coup; Cannes 2004, 536,258 admissions." }