Jongmyo is architecture reduced to essentials, and all the more impressive for it. The Confucian ancestral shrine of the Joseon kings occupies a walled precinct in central Seoul, where a single low hall - lengthened again and again as new spirit tablets were added, until it became the longest wooden building in Korea - stretches along a raised stone terrace under a plain tiled roof. There is almost no ornament; the effect comes from proportion, repetition and shadow. The film explores the precinct, the spirit path, the subsidiary halls and the ritual furnishings, and covers the Jongmyo Jerye ceremony still performed there, with its ancient court music and dance. Inscribed on the World Heritage List, and one of the essential sites for understanding Confucian statecraft in East Asia. Excellent for sacred-sites collections and Asian-heritage strands.
