A needlessly detailed breakdown of the visual language used in The East Palace
(Other parts: Framing (bonus), Colour, Light & Shadow, Costuming, Camera Angles & Sound, Bonus)
One of the strongest elements of The East Palace is how visually striking it is, without ever feeling gratuitous. Yes, every single shot is a painting, but it also serves to tell the story. The East Palace is the exact opposite of a show made to watch while scrolling. The dialogue is only one element of the story, the visuals are meant to convey the rest.
An important aspect here is the way in which characters are framed and positioned within a shot.
Wide, open shots convey feelings of openness, possibility, uncertainty. Situations are not yet defined, but there is an overwhelming sense that something is about to happen.
At the same time, these wide shots can be used to emphasize the helplessness of the characters. Who are you, small human, in the face of the primordial forces of nature, death and demonkind? To the viewers, the characters in these shots become distant, faceless beings. They are but ants, and you get the sensation that at any point something large will crush them.
Similarly striking are claustrophobic, constricting framings. Characters are quite literally being compressed by the edges of the shot, or by elements of the scenery around them. Visually, this can represent the limits placed on them by their social standing, or lack thereof.
While both the king and the dowager queen are often shown in wide framings that emphasize their power over the court, in these shots the traditions and rules of the royal palace literally constrain their (re)actions. Gu-cheon, on the other hand, is physically being constrained by the king on one side and emotionally by the palace walls on the other. He's stuck between forces that are outside of his control.
For both the king and the dowager queen, claustrophobic shots are also used to represent moments of unstable mental health. The walls are closing in on them, and so is the frame.
Another way to look at the framing of the East Palace is not just where characters are in relation to the camera (small and far away or close and constrained), but how two characters relate to each other in a single frame.
You can tell a lot about characters and their power relations by who is framed high/tall in a shot and who is low/small. In some cases, this is literal: the king and dowager empress are often framed higher because they are the most powerful people in the palace.
In other cases, characters deliberately give another person power over them. The primordial Gwi-mae is much taller than Gu-cheon, on the one hand because it is more powerful, but also because GC has come to bargain with it. He is doubly in a subordinate position, and this is reflected in the way this scene is shot. Similarly, the king deliberately tempts GC into attacking him in the realm of Gwi, thus taking the low ground.
In some cases, high-low framing is used to show that power relations between characters have changed or are reversed. While Saeng-gang is hierarchically in a higher position than Gu-cheon, they are usually framed on even ground. However, when GC is part gwi-mae, he towers over SG when he is choking her. In the second frame, SG is placed above GC, because she has drugged him and he is now fully powerless.
Sometimes, characters that are technically more powerful - the mother of the king & the ak-gwi of the crown prince - are shown in a lower position to symbolize that they have lost their power. They no longer have what it takes to defeat our leads, and are thus no longer a threat.
As a little bonus to this post, I'm also making one to showcase all the interesting and unique ways the leads are placed in the frame together. You can find that here (tomorrow)
