Under the Queen's Umbrella | Official Trailer | Netflix
The Swoon
Here we go again with another Korean historical drama involving machinations in the royal court. It's mostly about the queen, the king's mother and the king's ten other wives and all the petty and not so petty intrigue going on. The king's mother seems to very pleasant on the surface, but it is slowly being revealed that underneath she is a murderous thug, just like everyone who has climbed to the top of the heap. The king's wives are all trying to promote their sons into positions of power, but like all teenage boys they just want to get out of the palace where they are confined and are constantly being watched. So far they haven't figured out that they are just pawns in this real life chess game and their lives may be forfeit if they are not played correctly.
Seems like we have seen a bunch of these kind of shows. I mean I'm starting to recognize some of the buildings and the costumes are all very similar. From the way they look they all seem to be set right around the same time. Shoot some of them may be about the same exact events, just told from a different point of view.
Here we are in the 17th century, 100 years after the whaling ship San Juan de Pasajes, this time on the other side of the world. The Qin and Ming Empires have divided China between them. Korea (Joseon) was formerly allied with Ming, but Qin have pushed their way in so Joseon and Ming no longer have a shared border. They are divided by Qin, and Qin is offended that Joseon is allied with Ming, so we have an invasion.
The movie alternates between battles and high level discussions amongst the leaders. The Koreans are on edge because the invading Qin army is ten times the size of their own. The minister of defense is an aging blowhard without much in the way of brains. He's going to get them all killed if someone doesn't put a stop to him pretty quickly.
The way the crowd of courtiers starts howling for blood when they hear something they don't like reminds of nothing so much as the antics that have been going on in Washington D. C. since, well, since forever.
The Koreans have muskets. Since the minister of defense is such a stupid bull, someone else probably instigated their acquisition, most likely the King. How accurate are these props? Wikipedia says muskets have been in common use since the 16th century, so for a hundred years before this battle, which should give them enough time to migrate from Europe to Korea.
Kingdom: Ashin of the North | Main Trailer | Netflix
Netflix
A violent, vicious movie set in the Joseon Empire, which means somewhere between 1400AD and 1900AD. It was a little hard to keep track of who was what, too many furrin names. Near as I can make out, we have a group of Jurchen people who, with the permission of the Joseon Emperor, came south across the border with China and settled in Joseon, which is modern day Korea. In this case specifically North Korea. Things are going along moderately smoothly until a group of Jurchen come south across the river to hunt for ginseng. The local lord takes exception to this and kills them all. Another guy, not quite sure what his position is, a leader of a group of soldiers (we'll call him the major) dares to speak up and tell him that he shouldn't have done that. The ginseng hunters violated the Emperor's law, so they should have been dealt with within the law, not executed out of hand.
Now the Major (in an attempt to cover up the local lord's misdeed) sends Ashin's father, headman of the group of Jurchen living in Joseon, to the Jurchen in China (north side of the river) to explain that the ginseng hunters had been killed by a tiger. So now we have a tiger hunt. The Major brings a squad of soldiers and large group of peasants to act as beaters. The Jurchens (from the north side of the river) send a squad of lunatics armed with knives. I mean, who goes after a tiger with a knife? I mean, except Tarzan.
Meanwhile, out in the woods, there is a plant that can bring the dead back to life. Seems a deer ate one of these plants and in short order fell into convulsions and when the convulsions ended, the deer was now a zombie, intent on attacking and killing anything that moved. And wouldn't you know it, the first thing the deer runs into is the tiger. Of course. The deer puts up a good fight, but the tiger prevails. However, the deer got in at least one good bite and now . . . you know what happens . . . the tiger becomes a zombie!
Now we have tiger hunt and when the tiger is finally killed (after wiping out half of both hunting parties including a score of peasants), the Jurchen discover that it is some kind of devil and didn't actually kill the ginseng hunters, which means Ashin's father is a liar, and since he is also Jurchen, he is a traitor.
The northside Jurchen attack the southside Jurchen village, kill everyone and burn the place to the ground. Ashin escapes because she wasn't there.
Time goes by, the child Ashin grows to be a tough young woman who has managed to acquire a bow and a goodly supply of arrows. She is being employed by the local lord (the major? someone else?) to spy on the northside Jurchens. An opportunity presents itself and she sneaks into their village where she finds that they have kept her horribly mutilated father in chains all these years. She's pissed to say the least. She manages to escape with her father, and obeying his wish, kills him.
Meanwhile, the bulk of the soldiers from the village where she's been living have been called away to fight against a Japanese invasion in southern Joseon. That's okay, killing the people that are left will make a good start on her revenge. She turns some of them into zombies and when they get going she stands on a rooftop and shoots anyone who looks like they might get away.
MY SASSY GIRL 엽기적인 그녀 Ep 10: Joo Won & Oh Yeon Seo's First Kiss [ENG]
Another Korean historical drama. This one is a little short on history, though someone who is fluent in Korean might be able to pick out some clues that would tell you the era. It's not too old because some people are using chairs, and I suspect that didn't happen before the Europeans showed up. No firearms, which is kind of odd because those came with the Europeans as well. But we aren't too concerned about the history here. We are here to watch boy-girl interactions, and they are amusing.
We've watched several of these Asian historical dramas, some are from Korea, some from China, and the plot lines are fairly similar. We watch them because the lead characters are attractive, their clothes are made of acres of fabric, and the buildings are fabulous. I think the hook that keeps us interested is that there is always a bad guy plotting some kind of underhanded skull drudgery, and since the subtitles are invariably weak, we have to piece together what is going on. So it's a romantic comedy with a bonus: a challenge to unravel the thread of mystery.
Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung | Official Trailer | Netflix
This series is a historical drama set in Korea around 1820. The series isn't complete, or at least not all episodes are available just yet. Naturally, it's mostly a love story, but we also have palace intrigue, bits of comedy from some of the supporting cast, acres of fancy cloaks, spectacular buildings, and some real insight into how people think. We're enjoying it.
Our girl, Hae Ryung, family name Goo, lands a job as one of the first female court reporters. They call them historians here, but court reporting is what they do. They take their notebook and pen-and-ink case to official meetings in the palace and transcribe what is said, holding their writing brushes vertically and drawing pictographic characters lickety-split.
One of the subplots involves a 20 year old secret connected to the Catholic church. Digging around, I turn up a massacre of Catholics in 1801, which fits our time frame. The secret hasn't come out in the series yet, so we will have to wait and see how well the show correlates with the very scant history I found.
Another plot excursion involves smallpox inoculations. Seems the standard method of treating outbreaks of smallpox at this time was to quarantine the villages where the outbreaks occurred, but there is one woman (associated with the Catholics somehow) who knows how to perform inoculations. The king has sent his number two son to the area to reassure the people by performing some ritual. The prince gets wind of this inoculation business and decides to be the guinea pig in a public demonstration. It's easy to think now that it would be a simple matter, but back then, when it wasn't well understood, it would take some real intestinal fortitude to do such a thing.
So mostly we have a very attractive couple making goo-goo eyes at each other, but every once in a while they display some real courage in situations that would have any normal person shaking in their boots. I mean, situations where if the king is in a bad mood you could lose your head.
We started watching this series a couple of nights ago and it promises to keep us occupied for many more. The first couple of episodes hold much of the back story and are a bit confusing. Who are all these people? But eventually it sorts itself out. The story takes place in Korea around 1900. Japan, Russia and the USA are all trying to carve out a place in Korea. The Americans send a fleet of five warships, including a paddle wheel steamer. It was pretty great seeing that on the screen, even if it was just a computer generated image.
The best part is the alien thought processes on display, and the conflict between the different cultures about what is normal, right and proper. It's pretty great.
The story centers on an orphaned Joseon (Korean) slave boy who escapes to America and a young Korean noble woman. The slave boy grows up and becomes a U.S. Marine
officer, who then gets sent back to Korea as part of a diplomatic
mission. The young woman is a contrarian, not satisfied with a life of flower arranging that her grandfather wants. She takes up target practice, initially with a matchlock rifle and later with bolt action repeating rifles.
