The Narrative of Sound and Emotion: Musical Expressions of Desire and Power in the The King and the Clown

This study analyzes how music constructs narrative structures of desire and power and articulates emotional layers in the Korean historical film The King and the Clown(2005), directed by Lee Joon-ik. While traditional historical dramas in Korean cinema have often relegated music to a secondary, atmospheric function, this research reveals that music in The King and the Clown functions as an active narrative agent that expresses character psychology, mediates shifts in power, and enhances the emotional arc of the storyline. Adopting Claudia Gorbman’s (1987) framework of diegetic and non-diegetic music, supplemented by the auxiliary concept of ‘Borderline music,’ this study provides a close reading of the film’s audio-narrative structure. The analysis demonstrates how sound organizes character relations and ideological tensions through the interplay between on-screen performance and extradiegetic scoring. Three major characters－Jangsaeng, Gong-gil, and King Yeonsan－are each marked by distinct musical motifs: Jangsaeng is underscored by rhythmic traditional percussion reflecting satire and resistance; Gong-gil is framed through delicate flute timbres, guitar dissonances, and suspended tonalities that suggest gender ambiguity and repressed desire; and Yeonsan is characterized by a dichotomy of Confucian court music (aak) and the dramatic intrusion of Western string orchestration to express psychological unraveling and power collapse. Furthermore, the narrative’s spatial structure－spanning from the courtyard to the palace, and ultimately to the symbolic tightrope－triggers musical transitions that reflect emotional intensification and political inversion. Notably, the tightrope scenes illustrate the convergence of diegetic and non-diegetic sound: the first performance emphasizes dynamic traditional percussion, while the climactic final sequence features the main theme first introduced on the daegeum, later taken up by violin and cello to emphasize tragic resonance. By examining the auditory orchestration of affect, identity, and political dynamics, this study argues that The King and the Clown exemplifies a recontextualization of Korean traditional music within modern cinematic language. It demonstrates how film music, through sonic hybridity, functions not merely as accompaniment but as a key semiotic system that actively constructs and reshapes the emotional and ideological grammar of Korean historical cinema. The findings offer a foundational model for future research into traditional music’s appropriation in contemporary visual narratives and extend the analytical horizon of film music studies in the Korean context.