Five centuries after his death, Korea’s official historical records still cannot agree on how the ill-fated King Danjong died. Now, “The King’s Warden,” this year’s surprise box office hit, steps into that gap, offering its own version of a story that the dynasty’s chroniclers documented in conflicting accounts. Danjong was just 10 when he ascended the throne in 1452 as the sixth monarch of the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty, following the short, illness-plagued reign of his father, King Munjong. Within a year, his own uncle, Grand Prince Suyang, staged a coup that swept through the court in a bloody purge, claiming the lives of senior officials and driving many others into exile. Forced to relinquish his crown, the boy king was reduced to a figurehead. By 1457, stripped of his royal title and demoted to a prince in name alone, he was sent into exile in the remote mountain valleys of Yeongwol, Gangwon Province. A few months later, the 16-year-old met his end there, far from the palace that had so briefly been his world. What remains far less certain, however, are the circumstances