byof
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Posts posted by byof
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Every time I spot Seolhyun wearing the red beaded couple bracelet that Hwi gifted Hee Jae just brings me straight back to how tragically sad the show's ending was.
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Well, I just finished watching the finale subbed and man My Country ended on a devastatingly sad note. I'm honestly still gutted on the second watch. Despite its flaws, I'm seriously going to miss this one and it's definitely one of my favourite historical dramas. And quite easily my favourite historical drama of 2019.
Overall, it was just so tightly produced: cinematography, acting, soundtrack, battle choreography--everything just oozed with style. I think it's definitely a great entry point for people who don't enjoy sageuk, and a probably bit less so for the more serious sageuk fans because when you dig a little deeper there's issues.
The series was originally planned to run for 20 episodes, but 16 Episodes with an average episode run time of 70 minutes was what we got. This is no where near enough to cover the historical timeline of the end of Goryeo to start of the Joseon era and it really showed. At times I felt like from the character dialogue that things just happen off-screen and I feel like I'm just missing a whole great deal of context. As a proper historical drama about Joseon era, this is not the drama you want to be watching.
Another one of my biggest gripes I've said and said again is that getting slashed, stabbed, or even impaled really does not mean much in the show for our main cast. It's just so disappointing that some form of decision was made in writing, direction, editing for really little to no gain at all. For starters, Seon Ho's immortal body guard--no more words to be said about this one. A more recent example would be Seon Ho stabbing Hwi at the end of Episode 14. The shot clearly shows Seon Ho's sword go right through his abdominal, but Hwi just shrugs it off, goes into battle straight away and says it's not that deep of a wound to Mun Bok in Episode 15. There's just straight up inconsistencies with fatal wounds being delivered for 'dramatic' effect, but then the next shot the wound disappears. It's incredibly jarring to watch and really waters down the fights, the great battle choreography and the series a a whole.
Flaws aside, I think My Country at its core is character driven drama in a historical setting more anything. Hwi and Seon Ho, Hwi and Hee Jae, Bang Won and Yi Seong Gye, Nam Seon Ho and Nam Jeon. I was enthralled by the great production values, but stayed for the characters and the character dynamics. There's really not many dramas where I happen to like all the characters and I feel like My Country is one of them. I think the casting, acting, the chemistry between the cast was really spot on for the series overall and covered a lot of weaknesses of the show.
This said, as much as I loved the characters they still did suffer from the irratic pacing of the series. There were often times where things would happen that really came out of nowhere. Seon Ho confessing to Hee Jae jumps to my mind, but there was definitely more than that. Either way the biggest loss, really, was that there was just so many interesting character developments that we didn't see. An extended arc of Hwi at Liaodong? Seon Ho's journey building influence with the Jurchens post Nam Jeons death? An extended journey of Hee Jae departing Iwharu to become the Queen's attendant? More Hee Jae Ihwharu politicking? I dream of a world where this series was 30 or 40 episodes long.
Hwi, overall, from the start to beginning stayed honest, loyal, compassionate and warm at heart. A true bro. I feel like Yang Se Jong is just so well casted for Hwi as a character. He just looks like a warm, nice guy haha. Only complaints was that I would've to see more development and interactions with Hee Jae early on as the romance did jump the gun a bit and at times I felt like his leadership prowess, plotting skills came out of nowhere post Liao Dong time-skips.
Seon Ho's character started so strong, but I feel like the writer really didn't know what to do with him half way through the show. As we find out in the finale he intended for him to go full circle with Hwi but after Nam Jeon died his character's motivations and drive just didn't quite make sense to me. I feel like if it wasn't for Woo Do-whan's stellar performance and his on-screen chemistry with Yang Se Jong I would have enjoyed his character much less.
Hee Jae. The least popular of our three main leads from what I see. She was the queen's attendant, led Ihawru, negotiated with princes and kings. She was a boss. It's a shame there wasn't more scenes with her. I lowkey have a soft spot for Hee Jae, and I really would've loved to see an extended journey of her departure from Ihawaru and just more general Ihawaru shenanigans. She's smart, brave, kind and generous, possibly the most loyal girl you can get by the way she supported and protected Hwi over 10 years and it's really endearing. Her love story with Hwi is just so crushingly tragic and the finale hammered that in with the all the Hwi and Hee Jae scenes.
I mean. That. Final. Scene.
With Hwi gazing at his couples bracelet, with Seon Ho dead in his arms mumuring "You're going to cry again. And I wish you made you smile more when I could." And then the gates open and cue in Hee Jae at the gate seeing Hwi with a squadron of archers behind him primed to kill the love of her life. A terribly tragic throwback to the end of Episode 1 as Hee Jae watches Hwi and Seon Ho beat up the guards to sign up for the military exam.
Ugh.
I feel like I could write about this drama forever. When I find some time I'll think I'll have to do a re-watch, but for now:
Hwi, Hee Jae, Seon Ho.
You'll be missed.
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And that's the last of the BTS.
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That was a completely and utterly depressing ending. I'll definitely have to do a rewatch with English subs before I do a final write up and gather my thoughts on the series as a whole, but man Hwi, Seon Ho, Hee Jae's story is just so tragic. I'm honestly at a loss of words.
I normally dig my sad endings, but after all they went through, I really just wanted a happy ending for Hwi and Hee Jae.
I'm so gutted.
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Episode 13 is out for me (Netflix Australia) now, but it only has Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese subtitles.
Netflix is just intentionally trolling me at this point.
Edit: Hurray, Netflix screwed up forgot to put English subs. Took it down and put it back up again and now it has English subs.
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Good news, just saw that episode 13 and 14 will be out on the 19th and 20th. Netflix (Australia).
THIS BETTER BE REAL.
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Jenga interview
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So I actually contacted Netflix live support. I'm watching from Netflix Australia, so things could possibly differ across regions, but customer support told me there 'is a possibility of a licensing issue' and there's really no telling when the rest of the episodes will be released or not.
Crossed fingers that their customer support doesn't know what's actually going on, but I'm pessimistic and I don't have high hopes.
Also, going by that release schedule on whats-on-netflix from that tweet, last weeks episodes should of also been delayed by a day, but it wasn't. So I'm not sure how credible it is to be honest.
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Wow, Netflix really did us dirty. I actually stayed up till very late to watch the episode, but it never came.
I remember all 16 episodes used to be listed on the mobile app with the release dates of each episode up until 23rd Nov, but it's been pulled down now
It makes absolutely zero sense to license 12 episodes out of a 16 episode series and leave their viewers hanging in limbo.
Seriously.
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10 hours ago, Prettysup said:
New stills for ep 13 tonight
Uh oh, Hee Jae is looking real distressed in that still. Writers, please. Don't touch the Hee Jaes. This shows already bleak and depressing enough :(.
Also, is it just me or is survey link not working?
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1 hour ago, liltash85 said:
Seon Ho, Hwi and Bng Won. These 3 characters are made not to die easily. WE know for sure Bang Won will lived till old and grey and become the king. Hwi survived 6 years with the venom from the most vernomous snake in his blood stream (the venom was never been able to be sucked out of his system). And of course Seon Ho won't die from the stab. Like you guys said, Seon ho body is full of muscles, those who have thick muscles, bleed less from stabs or cuts
SpoilerI need me some of Seon Ho's muscles.
Jokes aside, the problem with this is it that it takes all tension out of these battle scenes with our lead characters. The battle scenes would otherwise be so good, but it's unfortunately dragged down by the fact that we've been shown time and time again that slashes, stabs, or even getting impaled does not mean much at all in this show. What should've been an epic, climatic battle scene becomes a bit flat, because at the back of the mind you just know, there's still x amount of episodes to go, so he's just going to survive this.
We've had too many instances where people on the receiving end of what should be fatal injuries, shrug it off and miraculously live. Major consistent gripes with this on the show.
P.S Immortal body guard who has a personal vendetta against Hwi survived another stab in the chest from Chi-Do. I swear this guy should of died at least 3 times already in this show.
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Mixed thoughts about this episode.
I couldn't help but not notice Hui Jae & Hui Jae's bodyguard run up to help, but then shown to be chilling as Yeon takes the blade in the stomach. Yeons death could have been set up and executed a whole lot better. There was also the instance at the start of the episode where Bang Won's bodyguard 'slashes' Hwi and he falls to the ground--except no blood, no wound to show afterwards. I mean was it all theatrics and we're being shown that Seon Ho is just blind and blatantly can't see he's getting pranked or...?
Nothing has yet to top that immortal Liaodong death squad assassin getting rammed in the chest with a sword by Hwi and waking up the next morning good as new, but still it's immersion breaking.
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On 10/28/2019 at 9:23 PM, anony12345 said:
This show lost me after episode 5'ish, wasn't feeling the character development or the writing - how do people think it has gone?
I think the story definitely suffers from being bound by historical events, skipping through history a bit too quickly and thus withholding a great deal of valuable context. Essentially we got cliff notes from episode 3 to 5, where, really, a great deal of things happened: Invasion of Liaodong. Coup. Beginnings of friction between Bang Won and Yi Seong-gye and co.
The real meat of of the war and the coupe wasn't really shown to us, so it feels like our characters we knew from first two episodes took a massive leap through time, through these historical events--and the end result is a bit disorientating. Hwi's characterization is the biggest victim of this. Bang Won's contribution to overthrowing the previous rule, feelings of betrayal lacked exposition. Hee Jai's journey in becoming the Queen's most trusted subject... Personally, I think Seon Ho's character arc actually felt the most coherent to me out of them all.
As of now, the first two episodes still remain to be my favourite episodes. I think the series really did start strong in establishing our three fictional main characters of different backgrounds and viewpoints of what 'their country' should be, and the premise of showing their journey during the transitional period between Goreyon and Joseon was really compelling, but you can't fit that in 16 episodes. So, instead we're getting snapshots of these characters throughout these historical events.
That being said I still thoroughly enjoy it for what it is. I do agree with you that the character development does leave a lot to be desired, and there's also times where I feel like things have happened off-screen and I wasn't told about it lol, but overall I still do think all our characters are surprisingly charismatic and I don't find it hard getting invested in them.
The cinematography, the set, the acting, the soundtrack are definitely the stronger aspects of the series and the overall packaging and presentation is quite stellar imo. But yeah, what can ya do if the character development and writing is becoming a deal breaker for you.
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It's a bit disappointing to hear that this series was planned for 20 episodes, but has been cut down to 16. I feel like an extra 4 episodes would of greatly benefited the pacing issues.
An extra 4 episodes potentially would've given us: an extended arc of Hwi at Liaodong, Yi Seong-gye's coup and fleshing out of our trio's initial relationship dynamics--all which were glossed after and I feel like it would've been valuable as a foundation of the story. That would be my dream shopping list for this show, anyway.
And oh boy, Hwi has been just taking it, left right, and center since he's gotten back. "Hell was engraved all over Hwi's body". I'm all for a tragic protagonist, but sadly it all feels a bit contrived. I've echoed this before we're just missing the proper build up for his character to be at the point he is now. Yes, he got sent to war. Yes, Nam Jeon is threatening him with his sister. Yes, his sister also happened to get amnesia... However, all this happened in a span of one episode and a bit and it really needed some more time. Undoubtedly, Hwi's characterization suffered the most with the pacing.
All the criticisms aside, this series is actually the one I'm most excited about every week lol. The soundtracks a banger, the sets, the cinematography remain to be beautiful. All our main leads are equally likable and compelling. Seun-ho, high-born, but an illegitimate child with clear family issues, thirsty for power to be able to stand up for himself. Hwi, low-born, who just wants to live a peaceful normal life but is forced to take action, as him and his family has been getting politically hand-balled around. Hee Jae, resident political activist, raised in a kisaeng house (yet not a kisaeng) seeking reasons to why her family was persecuted, and also wanting power to be able to do more. It's compelling to see these characters, on different sides of the board, navigating in this heated political climate.
Personally, I'm all for team Hee Jae. She's intelligent, observant, has clear goals and gets things done, not afraid to throw some sick burns at Bang Won, but she's not without flaws. She has her moments of hubris she got burnt for it. She owns up to it to Seol too. All the boys be out for her too (well Seun-ho anyway), but she's LOYAL. I would've like to see an extended journey of her becoming the Queen's trusted subject, but it was not to be. I'm definitely interested to see how things play out with Hwi's inevitable allegiance with Bang Won, when she's sworn her loyalty with the Queen.
I really did wish this series was proper sageuk length. Even an additional 6 episodes to flesh out events that happened from Episode 2 until now and it would be happy days.
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I just finished Episode 4 and it's late. I have to say I liked this episode much more than the previous... other than the fact that the soldier in red, who was leading the death squad, took a cold blade straight in the chest from Hwi and just miraculously wakes up from it. To top it off he then later proceeds to takes two more arrows in the the torso from Hwi, rips it out and he's as good as new.
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This has been, by far, the weakest episode for me.
We've had a 3 month time skip and Hwi's in the midst of a battlefield and we're being shown the grittiness of war. The action sequences are well choreographed but it really does fall flat as it was just only the end of the last episode he was imprisoned, thrown into war and now he's quickly become a badass in battle. We've been given too little context of the war in Liaodong and I feel like the battle scenes just loses a lot of it's excitement. The stakes are unclear, the unjust war isn't really being shown.
What I would've liked was to see a more of Hwi's journey from being a talented fighter green with war, his struggles surviving, some close calls before becoming truely battle-tested. I think it would've also helped to spend a bit of time to flesh out some of the low-born characters alongside Hwi at Liaodong, who were thrown into a similar position and a bit of their story. It would've made the battle scenes much more impactful and death squad clean-up of the advancement party at the end of the episode much more gut wrenching. Instead, we have a band of no names that we don't care about and a terribly incompetent leading military officer as a plot device to give Hwi a bit of a hard time and to show Hwi's leadership prowess.
And on the other side, Nam Son now a high ranking military officer is also being sent to Liaodong for where he'll inevitably cross paths again with Hwi.. And he professes his love to our FL lead before his departure. I mean, sure, there were clear signs of attraction from him alongside Hwi, but it felt like we needed a bit more leading to this scene for it to work. Otherwise it's just a love triangle just for the sake of having a love triangle and to set up upcoming drama between our main characters. I had similar gripes with the fast development between Hwi and Hee-jae but that at least that had more weight to it and several scenes behind it. I think the only proper dialogue between Nam Sun-ho and Hee-jae we were given leading up to this confession was when Hee-jae was delivering the letter to Nam Jeon and they had a chat before going to see Hwi kick down the door of the military exam registration.
Overall, the pacing for this episode was way too fast for my liking. The world, the characters are not getting enough time to breath and it really did fall flat. It's a shame as production values are quite good. I really do hope that the rest of the series doesn't continue with this trend and that this episode's pacing is necessary to set up the real meat of the story. Im just a sucker for visually aesthetic period pieces and I want the writing to be good with it lol.
Also, is it just me or is the timings of the inserts songs been especially jarring this episode?
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[Drama 2019] My Country, 나의 나라
in k-dramas & movies
Posted
@luvtokki
Haha I've just spotted here and there on social media. The first two were from twitter and the last one was on AOA's Come See Me performance with dingo music on youtube. Hard to say if she wears it often or not, but she's worn it on three occasions now? My Country's wrap up party, when she got a friendship tattoo with Jimin and during the two Dingo music/AOA collab videos that were probably shot on the same day.