kdrama: Hometown Legends 2008 & 2009
Sep. 22nd, 2010 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreHometown Legends is a continuation (reboot?) of a long running series of Korean supernatural and horror stories. The episodes of the 2008 series and its 2009 sequel are all standalone (most actually watch like slightly shorter movies) and most focus on the ghosts of vengeful women punishing those responsible for their deaths, and a lot also have lovers/husbands looking for their lost lovers/wives who are now vengeful ghosts, but the motivations behind the ghosts and killings vary, and there are enough stories that aren’t of that type to keep it from feeling repetitive. Aside from a couple episodes, I thought they were all pretty good. I think the 2008 series was better than the 2009 series, but that’s fairly normal for something that’s following up something that was more successful than expected. Incidentally, I have not seen episode 6 of the 2009 series because I could never get it to download. If you can help me with that, it would be appreciated.
These are my favorites:
Return of the Gumiho (2008, ep 1) This is actually my favorite episode out of both series, about two sisters in a family cursed to have most of the daughters of the clan turn into gumihos at adulthood, and so the family systematically kills them. Naturally, things don’t go well for the family this time around, and the scenes of the gumiho’s revenge are some of my favorites of all of the series.
Curse of the Sajin Sword (2008, ep 3) About two soldiers and a shaman sent to investigate strange events surrounding the creation of a royal sword, and the failure to create the same sword twenty years earlier. This might be my favorite of the various vengeful ghosts.
Oh Goo the Exorcism (2008 ep 5) About a nobleman who becomes an exorcist after his lowerclass lover is killed and possesses his sword, then meets a young woman who looks like his dead lover and follows her to her hometown, which became infested by vengeful ghosts while she was away and now all the villagers hate her father. If I were to write out the plot in outline form, I suspect I’d think I should dislike it, but for some reason, I loved it. Probably the characters.
The Regrets of the Bamboo Knife (2009, ep 2) About soldiers sent to investigate an island where a scholar and all of his followers were slaughtered, with one of the soldiers looking for the fate of his wife, who was living there. Naturally, all the dead people are now vengeful ghosts.
Silent Village (2009, ep 7) About the wife of an official who was arrested for reasons I cannot recall, who’s sent with her children to their old village, which seems to have been completely transported to a new location. It was a fun ghost mystery, but mostly, I just really loved the wife.
Gumiho (2009, ep 8) Another gumiho story, though this one was more standard than the one in the 2008 version, following the plotline of the fox demon who tries to live with humans but learns how money corrupts. I feel like I’ve watched and read numerous variations of it before, but really liked this one.
These are my favorites:
Return of the Gumiho (2008, ep 1) This is actually my favorite episode out of both series, about two sisters in a family cursed to have most of the daughters of the clan turn into gumihos at adulthood, and so the family systematically kills them. Naturally, things don’t go well for the family this time around, and the scenes of the gumiho’s revenge are some of my favorites of all of the series.
Curse of the Sajin Sword (2008, ep 3) About two soldiers and a shaman sent to investigate strange events surrounding the creation of a royal sword, and the failure to create the same sword twenty years earlier. This might be my favorite of the various vengeful ghosts.
Oh Goo the Exorcism (2008 ep 5) About a nobleman who becomes an exorcist after his lowerclass lover is killed and possesses his sword, then meets a young woman who looks like his dead lover and follows her to her hometown, which became infested by vengeful ghosts while she was away and now all the villagers hate her father. If I were to write out the plot in outline form, I suspect I’d think I should dislike it, but for some reason, I loved it. Probably the characters.
The Regrets of the Bamboo Knife (2009, ep 2) About soldiers sent to investigate an island where a scholar and all of his followers were slaughtered, with one of the soldiers looking for the fate of his wife, who was living there. Naturally, all the dead people are now vengeful ghosts.
Silent Village (2009, ep 7) About the wife of an official who was arrested for reasons I cannot recall, who’s sent with her children to their old village, which seems to have been completely transported to a new location. It was a fun ghost mystery, but mostly, I just really loved the wife.
Gumiho (2009, ep 8) Another gumiho story, though this one was more standard than the one in the 2008 version, following the plotline of the fox demon who tries to live with humans but learns how money corrupts. I feel like I’ve watched and read numerous variations of it before, but really liked this one.