A.frozen.flower.2008.director-s.cut.720p.bluray... Link

In the landscape of contemporary Korean cinema, where historical epics often glorify royal lineage and martial valor, A Frozen Flower (2008) — specifically its Director’s Cut — stands as a defiantly tragic exploration of power, sexuality, and the violent fragility of human intimacy. Directed by Yoo Ha, the film reimagines the relationship between a late Goryeo Dynasty king and his loyal geom (royal guard) commander, using its explicit content not for sensationalism but as a precise tool to dissect the collision between duty and desire. The Director’s Cut: Restoring Emotional Nuance The Director’s Cut of A Frozen Flower is not merely an extended version with additional minutes of eroticism; it is a re-calibration of the film’s emotional core. Compared to the theatrical release, this cut restores key character beats — particularly in the second act — that clarify the queen’s isolation and the king’s desperate, manipulative love. Scenes of the king (Joo Jin-mo) observing Hong-rim (Jo In-sung) from afar are elongated, emphasizing his obsessive, almost voyeuristic affection. Likewise, the commander’s slow, conflicted surrender to the queen (Song Ji-hyo) gains psychological weight through extended silent exchanges. The director’s cut thus transforms a story of betrayal into a meditation on how political imprisonment distorts even the purest bonds. The Geometry of the Love Triangle Unlike a conventional love triangle, A Frozen Flower presents three individuals, each trapped in a different kind of prison. The king is physically impotent but politically absolute; the queen is a womb to produce an heir, nothing more; Hong-rim is a weapon forged to obey without question. When the king orders Hong-rim to impregnate the queen, he commits an act of profound self-harm — believing he can control love as he controls the court. The director’s cut lingers on the aftermath: Hong-rim’s hands shaking after the first night, the queen’s newfound voice in political meetings, and the king’s slow-motion realization that he has engineered his own cuckolding. The film argues that institutional power inevitably corrupts intimacy; the bedchamber becomes a battlefield no less brutal than any sword fight. Visual Metaphor: The Frozen Blossom The title’s “frozen flower” recurs visually throughout the director’s cut. Winter landscapes dominate the first half — cold, sterile, beautiful but dead. As the affair between Hong-rim and the queen warms, spring arrives, yet the blossoming flowers are often shown framed by palace walls or reflected in frozen streams. In an extended scene unique to the director’s cut, the queen places a wildflower on Hong-rim’s armor as he sleeps; the flower is later crushed under the king’s boot. This imagery suggests that authentic emotion, under absolutist rule, can only exist in secret and will inevitably be destroyed. The final, brutal castration of Hong-rim (a scene more graphic in the director’s cut) becomes the literal unmaking of the male body as political instrument — a frozen flower shattered. Conclusion: Tragedy Without Villains What makes A Frozen Flower enduringly powerful is its refusal to assign blame. The king is sympathetic in his loneliness; the queen is heroic in her awakening; Hong-rim is tragic in his divided loyalties. The director’s cut amplifies this moral ambiguity by restoring moments of tenderness between all three pairs (king/queen, queen/Hong-rim, king/Hong-rim) before violence severs them. In the end, the film suggests that in a world where bodies are property and heirs are policy, love can only flourish briefly — like a flower blooming in snow — before the weight of history crushes it. For viewers seeking not just historical drama but a ruthless inquiry into the cost of desire, the Director’s Cut of A Frozen Flower remains essential, heartbreaking viewing.

Today, we've updated the Express Edition ODBC Driver for Oracle.

Installation and configuration takes only minutes, by following the documentation which remains available anytime, specifically for this driver on OS X and Windows.

Release 7.0 licenses are also available for immediate purchase.

Client Platform Support

Release 7.0 installers are available for immediate download for Mac and Windows. (Express Edition is not typically produced for Linux and other Unix-like OS will be available soon; please contact us if you have specific need.)

Release 7.0 supports all 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC client tools and applications, both GUI and command-line, on —

DBMS Version Support

The Release 7.0 Express Edition ODBC Driver supports virtually every version of Oracle in current use, including —

Changes since Release 6.x

Additions

• Support for Oracle 12c

• Support for OS X Yosemite, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012

Fixes

• Enhanced support for Oracle 11g

• Enhanced support for OS X Mavericks

In coming months, we'll be gradually shipping Release 7.0 of all our UDA drivers. This post will be the first of many, describing some of the fixes, changes, and improvements in each driver as they are made available.

Today, we have the Lite Edition ODBC Drivers for Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server.

Installation and configuration takes only minutes, by following the documentation which remains available anytime, specifically for this driver on OS X and Windows.

Release 7.0 licenses are also available for immediate purchase.

Client Platform Support

Release 7.0 installers are available for immediate download for Mac and Windows. Builds for Linux and other Unix-like OS will be available soon; please contact us if you have urgent need.

Release 7.0 supports all 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC client tools and applications, both GUI and command-line, on —

DBMS Version Support

The Release 7.0 Lite Edition ODBC Driver supports virtually every version of Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase Adaptive Server in current use, including —

Changes since Release 6.x

Additions

• added support for SPARSE columns in SQLColumns() call

• added DSN options SHOWSPARSECOLS / ShowSparseCols and Multi-Tier connect option -X )

• details, based on test table:

       
  CREATE TABLE tbl_sparse_test 
    ( col1  INT SPARSE
    , col2  INT
    , col3  XML COLUMN_SET FOR ALL_SPARSE_COLUMNS 
    )
  
       
      

  • wildcard query will return only col2 and col3; will not include SPARSE columns. This is standard SQL Server behavior, and it cannot be changed.

           
    SELECT * 
      FROM tbl_sparse_test
      ;
    
           
          

    To include SPARSE columns in results, they must be explicitly SELECTed

           
    SELECT col1, col2, col3 
      FROM tbl_sparse_test
      ;
    
           
          

  • By default, calls to SQLColumns() don't return Sparse Columns. To receive full columns list:

    • via our Lite Edition ODBC driver —

      1. open connection with SHOWSPARSECOLS in DSN connection string, e.g., "DSN=TdsSQL;UID=sa;PWD=sa;SHOWSPARSECOLS=Y;"

      2. SQLColumns (hstmt, NULL, 0, NULL, 0, L"tbl_sparse_test", SQL_NTS, NULL, 0 );

    • via the Microsoft ODBC driver —

      1. SQLSetStmtAttr (hstmt, SQL_SOPT_SS_NAME_SCOPE, (SQLPOINTER)SQL_SS_NAME_SCOPE_EXTENDED, SQL_IS_SMALLINT);

      2. SQLColumns (hstmt, L"tempdb", SQL_NTS, L"dbo", SQL_NTS, L"tbl_sparse_test", SQL_NTS, NULL, 0 );

• added support for new SQL Server datatypes such as datetime2

• added support for NBCROW token

• added support for Sybase 15

  • added support for BIGDATETIME and BIGTIME

  • added support for UNITEXT

  • added support for UNSIGNED BIGINT

Fixes

• fixed issue with SQL Server BIT datatype

• fixed memory overwrite error, when DB procedure is called with SQL_PARAM_OUTPUT parameter of CHAR/VARCHAR/LONGVARCHAR

• fixed issue with VARBINARY datatype and DB procedures

• fixed issue with converting TIMESTAMP to CHAR/WCHAR

• fixed datatype info in SQLGetTypeInfo -- new Sybase and MSSQL datatypes were added

• fixed database catalog and query metadata info for Sybase 15's UNSIGNED INT, UNSIGNED SMALLINT, BIGINT, SYSNAME, LONGSYSNAME

Situation Analysis

It's the year 2015, and the fundamental issues associated with the utility of data access drivers remain confusing. Basically, we remain uncertain about the value-to-compensation alignment of ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), and ADO.NET drivers/providers.

ODBC	JDBC
ADO.NET

Why do we pay for anything?

After allowing for consumer irrationality [1], the basis of any payment is fundamentally tied to the monetization of opportunity costs. Essentially, we pay for one thing to alleviate the (usually higher) costs of something else.

The rest of this post focuses on highlighting the real pains associated with the $0.00 value misconception associated with Data Access Drivers: ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLE-DB, etc.

Real Costs of Data Access Drivers

In the most basic sense, there are some fundamental aspects of data access that are complex to implement and rarely implemented (if at all) by free drivers. The list includes:

• Escape Syntaxes for Dates and Functions -- abstraction for dates and function signatures at the application level (i.e., the same abstraction works across all compliant databases)
• Metadata Calls which enable smarter ODBC compliant applications -- this feature is typically missing in Drivers and abused by the Clients (consumers); i.e., clients are made DBMS specific by testing for specific DBMS names, rather than utilizing feature and functionality metadata returned by drivers
• Scrollable Cursors -- this is how you deal with change sensitivity and paging through large datasets; some drivers actually fake support and get away with it due to shortage of applications to test proper cursor types (Static, Forward-Only, Key-Set, Dynamic, and Mixed models).

Beyond actual driver sophistication, in regards to key feature implementations, let's up the ante by veering into the area of data security. At the most basic level, It's extremely important to understand that all data access drivers provide read-write access to your databases; thus, it's imperative that data access drivers address the following:

• Read-Only or Read-Write Access modalities scoped to specific
  • users
  • user groups
  • target databases
  • data access standards (e.g., ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET)
  • client applications
  • client host operating systems
  • client host IP addresses
• Any combination of the above as part of a configurable collection of data access rules (or policies).

Once you're done with security, you then have the thorny issue of data access and data flow management. In a nutshell, your driver needs to be able to handle:

• Protection against Cartesian-product-based network flooding (e.g., user queries an enormous table without knowing or understanding back-end implications)
• Enabling or Disabling of key DBMS engine data access optimization features (e.g. SQL RDBMS-specific extensions exposed via Environment Variables or SQL-command-based settings)
• Conditional Connection Pooling across various dimensions such as Users, User Groups, Applications, Host Operating Systems, IP Addresses
• Encryption of Data in Transit

Once you've dealt with Security and Data Flow, you then have to address the enforcement of these settings across a myriad of ODBC compliant host, which is where Zeroconfig and centralized data access administration comes into play i.e., configure once (locally) and enforce globally.

OpenLink Universal Data Access (UDA) Drivers

When OpenLink Software entered the ODBC Driver Market segment (circa 1992), the issues above were the fundamental basis of our Multi-Tier Drivers. Although the marketplace highlighted our drivers for high performance, stability, and specification adherence -- to all of which we remain committed -- our fundamental engineering focus has always been skewed towards configurable data security, platform independence, and scalability.

Every item of concern outlined in the section above is addressed by security features built into our Multi-Tier Drivers [2][3][4]. These features all leverage the fact that our multi-tier drivers include a sophisticated DB session rules book that enables construction and enforcement of user attribute (user name, application, client operating system, IP address, target database etc.) based rules which are applied to all database sessions (single or pooled).

Today, in the year 2015, the security issues that pervade Data Access, whether via Native SQL RDBMS Drivers, or ODBC, JDBC, and ADO.NET Drivers/Providers, have only increased, courtesy of ubiquitous computing -- facilitated by the Internet & Web, across desktop and mobile device dimensions. Paradoxically, there remains a fundamental illusion that all Data Access Drivers are made the same; i.e., they simply provide you with the ability to connect to SQL RDBMS back-ends, for the industry standard price of $0.00, without consequence -- thereby skewing the very nature of SQL RDBMS data access and its security and privacy implications.

I hope that this post brings some clarity to a very serious security and general configuration management issues associated with Data Access Drivers. Free ODBC Drivers offer nothing; that's why they cost $0.00. When dealing with real issues associated with Open Data Access, you must have a handle on the inevitable issues of data security and privacy.

Links

1. The Irrational Consumer: Why Economics Is Dead Wrong About How We Make Choices
2. OpenLink Multi-Tier ODBC Drivers
3. OpenLink Multi-Tier JDBC Drivers
4. OpenLink Multi-Tier ADO.NET Providers

Related

• Oracle Security Auditing Horror Stories -- showcases social dimension of security that exploits literal identifiers used by SQL RDBMS products in regards to user identity
• Database Security Strategies Need to Grow Up in 2010
• Whose Data is it? Part 1
• Whose Data is it? Part 2