Of Swords and Parasols

59 x BOSS
43 x Chuno
38 x Jack of All Trades
68 x Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
78 x Magadheera
77 x Yasuko to Kenji

  
  

icons @ my lj

Unrelated (kinda…discovered while getting more subs): Does anyone know why, when I click to DL subtitles @ WITH2S’s website, it opens a new window with the text instead of the download box? I need to be able to rely on doramas getting licensed, and so spare myself DL agonies.

On to Chuno…

( spoilers )

After the traumatizing montages in the second episode of Spartacus (what I watched of them, at least) I will no longer complain about wardrobe choices in Chuno. Though I am glad Dae Gil and Wang Son have proper shirts now. Though I’d rather Wang Son just went away. If I were charmed or amused by sexist sleezes, I’d watch more of the so-called-comedies Hollywood churns out.

( spoilers )

Alice x 23
BOSS x 16
Chuno x 48
Mei-chan no Shitsuji x 28
Meitantei no Okite x 14
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency x 19
Rose of Versailles x 32
Spartacus: Blood and Sand x 18

    
   

icons @ my lj

Ten years ago, Dae Gil was the sweet, clean shaven son of a nobleman and in love with a slave named Un Nyun. Then his home was attacked and the next day his father, presumably realizing his son was a wee bit too fond of a slave when he ignored everything else to save her, hung her by her arms in a storage shed and had her whipped. Un Nyun’s brother responded by freeing her, burning down the house, and killing everyone but Dae Gil, who mostly just got a lucky break. (As such things go.) Dae Gil then spent ten years obsessively hunting for them and becoming a slave hunter with scruff and scraggly hair, and and has become a cocky angstmuffin. He has also taken to wearing a shirt that looks like he found a giant rag and cut armholes in it. I have realized that the shirt is why I don’t care for the overall look. I want to burn it.

Un Nyun, meanwhile, is no longer a slave and she and her brother have apparently been adopted into a noble family, but she runs away on her wedding day, cutting off ties with her brother. There is extremely unconvincing crossdressing involved. In response, her husband sends a hot female Ming assassin after her, and her brother sends his righthand man. Baek Ho, after her in hopes he’ll find her before assassins. (For someone who seems to have lived an extremely sheltered life, one nasty instance aside, she actually does a pretty decent job with the whole “dangerous road trip” thing, for the most part.) Thankfully, she meets up with Tae Ha, a former general who was made a slave (complete with betrayal, torture, and his faily being killed), but ran away to join what seems to be a brewing rebellion. Tae Ha does grunge much better than Dae Gil (Un Nyun has yet to look anything but pristine, even when wounded, delirious, and half-nekkid on the floor of a cave) and is an overly noble angstmuffin with a White Knight complex, but thankfully not one that says he can’t let people take care of themselves when they’re able to.

Naturally, Dae Gil is chasing Tae Ha for the huge bounty on his head.

( more spoilery )

The above is an actual line from the currently-airing historical kdrama, Chuno. Actual line.  All I'm saying.

I've only watched two episodes so far, and I actually dislike watching airing dramas, but I've learned that waiting for the really popular dramas I'm interested in to finish tends to kill some of the interest from overhyping and spoiling.

Any, a few extremely shallow comments (I'll have actual pertinent comments once i've watched more):

1.  For whatever reason, a lot of Korean Jang Hyuk can pull off scruff and beards more attractively than most actors*.  Jang Hyuk is not one of those actors.  Actually, the long hair and scruff combined with the narrow, suspicious look makes him look kind of weaselly to me.  He should stay bathed and clean-shaven, like in the flashbacks.  (I prefer his character then so far anyway.)

2.  Oh Ji Ho, OTOH, joins Song Il Gook and Lee Seo Jin in being able to pull the beard off fabulously.  Though, I'm still very confused as to why they wanted him to lose body fat for the role.  I mean, where was he hiding it, anyway? 

3.  All I have to say about Lee Da Hae's crossdressing is that, unlike Liu Yi Fei in Chinese Paladin**, at least I could tell she was supposed to look like a man.

4.  I am apparently amazingly shallow, as I'm apparently in love with Hot (Possibly) Evil (Possibly) Spy Lady after one scene.  Or possibly it was the dress.  The only way that scene could have been better is if it had been Yun Mi Joo***.  (Actually, the actress has a similar composure/pressence, so that may be it.)

5.  I keep getting distracted by how the sidekick slave hunters vaguely resemble less-attractive versions of Abe Hiroshi and Song Il Gook.  The big one even grunts like Abe Hiroshi.


*Though no one pulls off scruff the way Abe Hiroshi does.  No one.
**Though, that was my first or second wuxia, so I wasn't as familiar with the "ignore the fact that she doesn't look like anything other than a girl, these are boy clothes so everyone will totally believe it!"
***Who apparently is in Invincible Lee Pyung Kang.  Apparently, I need to watch that.