kdrama: Dae Jang Geum eps 13-18

[meganbmoore]

These episodes mostly focused on the competition between Lady Han and Lady Choi to succeed Lady Jung as Head Kitchen Lady. Uhm…am I a bad person if I really like Lady Choi for her devotion to being evil and calculating?

Jang Geum got her sense of taste back! But then she sacrificed the integrity of her cooking to get better ingredients and use a shortcut so she could beat Keum Young! The shame! So shounen!

The political aspect took a backseat in these volumes to the private, polite war in the kitchens, but that’s OK. I love all the quiet backstabbing and outmaneuvering and then banding together to stave off the downfall of the empire with cooking. And it looks like it’s getting back to the political aspect in episode 18, what with the epidemic in the capital and the Chinese envoy. And hey! Jang Geum and/or Lady Han will now save the dynasty by treating the Chinese envoy for his diabetes!

I both loved and cracked up at the bit where Jang Geum is sent to care for the Queen Mother’s nursemaid as a punishment for sacrificing the integrity of her cooking. Because it was so obviously an excuse to have her away from the palace so she could do some bonding with Officer Min (I learned his name! Yay!) away from the castle, as well as let him do a bit of the fighting evildoers bit. I loved when he hunted for a smaller brush because Jang Geum only had a big one and then told her that it was an extra one he had. And then she barely noticed as she was busy pestering the guy who worked there for secrets about his food, and he was all “Yeah, I know. The universe is secondary to cooking secrets.” Though I’m getting a bit tired of their not realizing that she’s the one who saved him back during the golden pheasant thing. If nothing else, once he was on good terms with the family, you’d think he might ask why Duk Gu and his wife were so desperate to get Jang Geum’s trinket back. And really, while I get why he wouldn’t recognize her, he saved her from being roughed up and then she spent a while patching him up.

I’m sad that Keum Young already gave up her battle to not completely fall in with her family’s evil plots. I also find her relationship with Officer Min interesting. Primarily because she sees him as her first great love, and he seems to barely remember her. It reminds me of Emperor of the Seas where Bogo and Yum Moon were only friends for a few days while Yum Moon taught Bogo to fight, and Bogo remembers him as such and a friend, but not a major part of his life, but Yum Moon seemed to see Bogo as his first and only friend. I wonder if that’s a normal thing for the longer sageuks: where two characters have a relationship in their youths, and one sees it as casual, but the other life changing. I also loved Keum Young’s scene with Officer Min in episode 18, where he asked her if her family sold a lot of ginger and she told him that it was only polite to ask after a person’s health when half the people of the palace had been removed due to an illness. And then she was all “yeah, you had your chance, later” when he took the hint and asked. Because, you know, part of it is that her family is up to illegal ginger trading, but that was also a put down worthy thing. Man barely even said hello first!
 
And sadly, that’s it for me and Dae Jang Geum until I get my hands on the next set. I hope that’s soon, actually, because I’m curious about how the envoy plotline plays out. I’ll probably start on Jumong or Hansungbyulbok soon.