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kdrama: Gu Family Book
Aug. 10th, 2013 10:12 pmWhile 2012 was positively drowning in fantasy (mostly time travel) sageuks, this appears to be 2013's only entry into that subgenre. (I know Nine also involves time travel, but I believe it's all within the relative present.)
Gu Family Book is about Choi Kang Chi, the son of a Wol Ryung,1000 year old nine-tailed gumiho, and Seo Hwa, the daughter of a nobleman who was framed for treason and sold into slavery. Wol Ryung decides to try to become human for Seo Hwa (who doesn't know he's a gumiho), and to learn how, he has to spend 100 days in prayer, help any human who needs it, harm no humans, and not let anyone learn about his supernatural nature. If he fails, his soul will be cinsumed and he'll turn into an evil spirit who only wants to destroy everything. As Seo Hwa is a runaway slave and the man who betrayed her father has his men searching the mountains for her, you can imagine that this goes wrong in every possible way, resulting in baby Kang Chi imitating Moses and being found floating in the river, resulting in his being adopted by the head servant of an extremely prosperous inn and being raised as the sibling of the owner's children, Tae Seo and Chung Jo.
More Doom and Tragedy and Angst occur and Kang Chi ends up (unknowingly) joining the ranks of the sheriff who killed his father, and having various adventures with the sheriff's daughter, Yeo Wool, and her very put-upon BFF, Gon. Kang Chi spends a number of episodes believing Yeo Wool is a man, under circumstances that make me wonder about him at times. By which I mean, this is a considerable period (at least a month, I believe) in which he spends multiple hours with Yeo Wool every day, with people often referring to her as "Lady," "Miss," "her" and "she" while Kang Chi is around. While Yeo Wool does wear men's clothing, she never claims to be man and there are visible breast-shaped lumps on her chest. I mean, the girl isn't top-heavy or anything, but there was obviously not a flat chest under there.
While I had some problems with it, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and liked most of the characters and their dynamics. I was spoiled for part of the ending when I was on episode 3-people were commenting on the reactions of others without specifica spoilers, but in a way that made it easy to logically narrow things down to a few options, and then an extremely spoilery screencap showed up pretty much everywhere you might see things related to kdramas, and within a couple hours of raws hitting the internet, it seemed assumed that everyone had already seen it. Which isn't uncommon for US and British TV fandoms, but I'm not used to that with kdramas, where fandom usually remembers that a lot of fandom might have to wait a few days for fansubs or dramafever. Still, it didn't seem
( spoilers )
Gu Family Book is about Choi Kang Chi, the son of a Wol Ryung,1000 year old nine-tailed gumiho, and Seo Hwa, the daughter of a nobleman who was framed for treason and sold into slavery. Wol Ryung decides to try to become human for Seo Hwa (who doesn't know he's a gumiho), and to learn how, he has to spend 100 days in prayer, help any human who needs it, harm no humans, and not let anyone learn about his supernatural nature. If he fails, his soul will be cinsumed and he'll turn into an evil spirit who only wants to destroy everything. As Seo Hwa is a runaway slave and the man who betrayed her father has his men searching the mountains for her, you can imagine that this goes wrong in every possible way, resulting in baby Kang Chi imitating Moses and being found floating in the river, resulting in his being adopted by the head servant of an extremely prosperous inn and being raised as the sibling of the owner's children, Tae Seo and Chung Jo.
More Doom and Tragedy and Angst occur and Kang Chi ends up (unknowingly) joining the ranks of the sheriff who killed his father, and having various adventures with the sheriff's daughter, Yeo Wool, and her very put-upon BFF, Gon. Kang Chi spends a number of episodes believing Yeo Wool is a man, under circumstances that make me wonder about him at times. By which I mean, this is a considerable period (at least a month, I believe) in which he spends multiple hours with Yeo Wool every day, with people often referring to her as "Lady," "Miss," "her" and "she" while Kang Chi is around. While Yeo Wool does wear men's clothing, she never claims to be man and there are visible breast-shaped lumps on her chest. I mean, the girl isn't top-heavy or anything, but there was obviously not a flat chest under there.
While I had some problems with it, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and liked most of the characters and their dynamics. I was spoiled for part of the ending when I was on episode 3-people were commenting on the reactions of others without specifica spoilers, but in a way that made it easy to logically narrow things down to a few options, and then an extremely spoilery screencap showed up pretty much everywhere you might see things related to kdramas, and within a couple hours of raws hitting the internet, it seemed assumed that everyone had already seen it. Which isn't uncommon for US and British TV fandoms, but I'm not used to that with kdramas, where fandom usually remembers that a lot of fandom might have to wait a few days for fansubs or dramafever. Still, it didn't seem
( spoilers )
kdrama: Sword and Petal, eps 1-2
Jul. 4th, 2013 09:40 pmThe last few weeks haven't exactly left me feeling particularly patriotic, which might explain why I spent most of the day watching kdramas.
Sword and Petal (also being translated with interchangeable "blade," "knife," "flower" and optional "the"-s) is a sageuk drama that started airing this week. The plot is set in Goguryeo, inspired by General Yeon Gaesomun's overthrowing King Yeongnyu in 642, with the main plot focusing on Yeongnyu's daughter, So Hee, seeking revenge for her father's death, while being in love with Yeon Gaesomun's illegitimate son, Yeon Choong. It seems to be somewhat experimental, with unusual camera shots and fewer closeups than most sageuks, and various scenes have a sound effect (or no sound at all) drowning everything else out. The first episode actually has very little dialogue, relying largely on visuals and sound cues, though there's much more in the second.
The series opens with a scene set later in (or perhaps after) the series with So Hee delivering a rather bitter and vengeful speech while in an empty palace courtyard before flashing back too the main plotline, much of which seems to be presented as So Hee's memories. As such, there are scenes that might appear to be cheesy tween montages of a girl going gaga over a hunk in the market. This is because it's a woman remembering being an innocent young girl going gaga over a hunk in the market. It happens. The second episode has less cheesy gaga-ness (and really, the cheesy gaga-ness is endearing in that emotionally manipulative "you have no idea what's about to hit you, kid" way) though So Hee and Yeon Choong's scenes still have the wide-eyed naive innocent POV with "the world is about to kick you in the butt" lurking in the background. Somewhere along the way, Yeon Chung also become So Hee;s bodyguard, because your first love being the angsty lowerclass boy who is secretly the son of your father's enemy just isn't quite enough angst and they needed that one extra trope to throw in. (I almost wonder if the writers are off somewhere, sulking because they couldn't think of a way to work fakecest in.)
So far, though, we haven't reached the Vengeful Princess stage, and the plot is largely centered around Yeon Gaesomun and Jyongnyu political battles, leading up to Jyongnyu being overthrown. (I imagine that will take place next week.) While I appreciate the writers obviously making a conscious effort to make So Hee as involved in that as possible...well, there are entire dramas devoted to important men of history doing important political things in a sea of greying beards and hats, and I know where to find them if I want them. While people are rightly praising the actors for their performances, I'm here for vengeful princesses being bitter and revengey whilst inconveniently in love with their enemy's son, and am ready to get to that. Also, so far, So Hee is the only female character of any importance, and I really hope that changes soon.
So, basically, I like it even though I'm not entirely sure what to make of it at times, and am ready to get past the background and to the angst and vengeance and Doom.
Also, I've been watching and loving Gu Family Book the last week or so (up to ep 14...my only issue is that they're so committed to making the villain eeeevil that I almost expect him to start literally twirling his mustache) and keep meaning to post on it, then realizing that I could watch a whole episode in the time it'd take me to post on my love, so I guess that's waiting until I finish the series. (I have this issue a lot lately "I could comment on my fiction...OR I COULD CONSUME MORE.") I do want to comment, though, that promo pics I saw of Bae Suzy and lee Seung Ki being all cute and smiley and saucy led me to expect slightly lighter fare than what I got.
Sword and Petal (also being translated with interchangeable "blade," "knife," "flower" and optional "the"-s) is a sageuk drama that started airing this week. The plot is set in Goguryeo, inspired by General Yeon Gaesomun's overthrowing King Yeongnyu in 642, with the main plot focusing on Yeongnyu's daughter, So Hee, seeking revenge for her father's death, while being in love with Yeon Gaesomun's illegitimate son, Yeon Choong. It seems to be somewhat experimental, with unusual camera shots and fewer closeups than most sageuks, and various scenes have a sound effect (or no sound at all) drowning everything else out. The first episode actually has very little dialogue, relying largely on visuals and sound cues, though there's much more in the second.
The series opens with a scene set later in (or perhaps after) the series with So Hee delivering a rather bitter and vengeful speech while in an empty palace courtyard before flashing back too the main plotline, much of which seems to be presented as So Hee's memories. As such, there are scenes that might appear to be cheesy tween montages of a girl going gaga over a hunk in the market. This is because it's a woman remembering being an innocent young girl going gaga over a hunk in the market. It happens. The second episode has less cheesy gaga-ness (and really, the cheesy gaga-ness is endearing in that emotionally manipulative "you have no idea what's about to hit you, kid" way) though So Hee and Yeon Choong's scenes still have the wide-eyed naive innocent POV with "the world is about to kick you in the butt" lurking in the background. Somewhere along the way, Yeon Chung also become So Hee;s bodyguard, because your first love being the angsty lowerclass boy who is secretly the son of your father's enemy just isn't quite enough angst and they needed that one extra trope to throw in. (I almost wonder if the writers are off somewhere, sulking because they couldn't think of a way to work fakecest in.)
So far, though, we haven't reached the Vengeful Princess stage, and the plot is largely centered around Yeon Gaesomun and Jyongnyu political battles, leading up to Jyongnyu being overthrown. (I imagine that will take place next week.) While I appreciate the writers obviously making a conscious effort to make So Hee as involved in that as possible...well, there are entire dramas devoted to important men of history doing important political things in a sea of greying beards and hats, and I know where to find them if I want them. While people are rightly praising the actors for their performances, I'm here for vengeful princesses being bitter and revengey whilst inconveniently in love with their enemy's son, and am ready to get to that. Also, so far, So Hee is the only female character of any importance, and I really hope that changes soon.
So, basically, I like it even though I'm not entirely sure what to make of it at times, and am ready to get past the background and to the angst and vengeance and Doom.
Also, I've been watching and loving Gu Family Book the last week or so (up to ep 14...my only issue is that they're so committed to making the villain eeeevil that I almost expect him to start literally twirling his mustache) and keep meaning to post on it, then realizing that I could watch a whole episode in the time it'd take me to post on my love, so I guess that's waiting until I finish the series. (I have this issue a lot lately "I could comment on my fiction...OR I COULD CONSUME MORE.") I do want to comment, though, that promo pics I saw of Bae Suzy and lee Seung Ki being all cute and smiley and saucy led me to expect slightly lighter fare than what I got.
