Of Swords and Parasols

Pope Joan is a 2009 movie about the crossdressing female pope who may or may or may not have existed in the middle ages. I thought it was pretty good and the lead actress in particular excellent. Unlike many of these biopics about historical women, it didn’t feel the need to make her all about the men in her life. Since part of her legend is that she was discovered when she went into labor in public, Faramir from Lord of the Rings is there as the obligatory love interest, but is far far less obnoxious and intrusive than the norm. And points to her for telling him to accept her choices and either support her or hit the road. That said, I had to deduct some points from the movie for the depiction of his wife and her relationship with Joan/Johanna in the early part of the movie. Warning for sadly-historically-common domestic abuse early in the movie.

Trailer (I actually watched it in English, but didn’t find a trailer in English.):




Hwang Jin Yi, meanwhile, is a 2007 movie about the titular Joseon Gisaeng. The movie was incredibly beautiful, but could have been better than it was. While I would expect a movie about a courtesan with famous love affairs to at least somewhat also focus on the men in her life, this really was mostly about the Boyfriend and her being a tragic figure. While Hwang Jin Yi’s famous intellect is present, we only really get glimpses of her wit and poetry, and there’s nary a dance or other artistic endeavor in sight. And…well, it isn’t fair all to compare 2 ½ hour movie to a 24-and-change hour movie, but I couldn’t help but regularly compare it to the 2006 TV version, which is one of my favorite kdramas, and possibly the best kdrama I’ve seen. And, of course, I couldn’t help but think about how, there, the men are present, but it was really a story about a woman and her love for her art, which she could only really have in her life the way she wanted it if she was a courtesan.

Which is not to say that the movie isn’t still pretty good, but it could have been better.

Trailer (I would not have chosen most of these scenes myself. The sexual assault at the beginning of the trailer is actually an attempted rape of her maid that Jin Yi stops.):



ETA: Fun tidbit for those following the current kdrama season: Hwang Jin Yi's working name-both historically and in in both versions I've seen-was Myung-Wol.

Class good-boy and the top student in his school, Jeong-Sun (recognizable to some here as the younger version of the lead in Legend) walks into an empty classroom to find the corpse of the class slimeball, who he was recently seen fighting with. Like all people of intelligence, he picks up the bloody murder weapon (it’s ok, about half a dozen other people do, too) then wipes the blood off on his shirt. Saving him from a quick trip to jail is Da-Jeong, the mystery-obsessed creepy girl in the class (she’s like a mix between Nancy Drew and Sunako from Wallflower) who realizes he’ll be the main suspect quicker than he does, and says they have to find the real killer before class ends, and other people find the body. This, clearly, is a thinly veiled excuse to have teenagers frantically running all over campus and a somewhat convoluted plot that probably won’t hold up if you’re allowed to stop and think about it.

This watches a bit like the pilot of a mystery jdrama (one of my favorite genres) though the beginning is a bit odd and slow (and aspects of the final scene cause serious facepalming for me). Some parts really don’t hold up to close examination, but it’s fun to watch. Here’s the trailer. (No idea if the last part is supposed to be silent, or if it’s just this video.)