daunte29
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Posts posted by daunte29
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@DAUNTE29:
KBSWORLD is still broadcasting Gwanggaeto in my area, noticed on DRAMABEANS, she lists May 12-13 broadcasts as Gwanggaeto 95-96. Thought 92 was The End? Was this 'craptastic' series extended? Is there anyone left to kill off?
Rest easy .... ep 92 was the finale.
You'll know when Murong Un, formerly known as Ko Un & one-time brother in law of Damdeok, as the representative king of Houyan, kowtows together with jumbo-ears Fengba in submission to Damdeok.
Here's the irony created totally by our 2 KBS writers - had Murong UN remained in Damdeok's court as Ko Un, he'd probably disappear quietly like Yakyeon did. But he became a turncoat, joined the Houyan court, and eventually became Houyan king only to kowtow to his ex-brother in law Damdeok at the end.
Now if that isn't the bombastic mother of all craptastic sageuk dramas about great korean king Gwanggaeto, I dunno what is.
Hopefully in 2021, someone would do a remake of Gwanggaeto made entirely in digital animation in 3D with no human actors so we can actually see CGI version of his mighty 50,000 strong armored heavy cavalry that decimated his opponents like hungry piranhas high on steroids.
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KBSW E 89 .... finally the most useless member of DD's posse is killed by the KBS writers with the help of 20 Houyan elite soldiers.
How do we know HMJ was killed by elite Houyan soldiers? Well mainly because they were dressed in all-black and they wore black masks and hoods as well, the same standard party outfit worn by your city's police commandos or SWAT and some specialty ninja shops in Japan nowadays even provide 'family-sized' outfits so that your entire family can dress up and pretend to be ninjas, and sneak up on the old lady & her two pitbulls next door.
Of course the other reason we KNOW they're Houyan elite soldiers sent to terminate HMJ was because it said so in the subtitles.
DD & his posse begin today's comedy by reminding themselves (shame on you if you thought they were really grieving over the death of General Yeon Salta) to push on ahead despite Yeon's death and conquer Houyan.
What they couldn't hide was the fact DD & his posse failed to protect their beloved General Yeon and when you review last week's episode, you'd know there was only one person who KNEW by approving the mission, that HE would be sending Yeon to climb the stariway to heaven. Who was HE? Ha-ha Muji.
So this episode was actually our writers' way of saying.... Ha Muji ..... since you sent him to die thereby causing a spike in last week's ratings, now is our turn to join him.
But then as we know, how do we create a scenario where HMJ can be slaughtered because he's usually loitering around in the safe confines of Goguryeo's palace? Simple.
Apparently at this stage of Goguryeo vs Houyan wargames, there's an outpost near the border called Liuju, which used to be under the influence of Houyan. Liuju was the place where HMJ was born - his hometown - and out of nostalgia, HMJ asked DD to be sent to Liuju and oversee the current battle with Houyan from there.
Of course DD approves because after all, you are not supposed to say NO WAY JOSE to your one & only strategist.
Then while there, HMJ summons the overlord there and tells him a sad story which goes like this: 20 years ago, HMJ's mother died and HMJ wasn't around to be with her in her final days and so, 20 years on, HMJ has no idea where his mother was buried. So the Liuju's overlord mission, should he choose to accept it, is to locate where HMJ's mother was buried and once that info is confirmed, then bring HMJ to visit his mother's burial site.
Unknown to our great strategist in Goguryeo, this Liuju overlord is in cahoots with the Houyan assassins and so on the day HMJ happily hikes a mountain trail to visit his mother's gravesite, he is ambushed by MEN IN BLACK (no, not the Will Smith type) and after kneeling down and telling the birds flying overhead to make PEYHA Damdeok's conquests come true, HMJ is terminated with just slash of a Houyan sword.
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Meanwhile all is NOT going well (yet again) with Murong Xi and his merry men .... though they managed to kill Yeon at their fortress, that strategic fortress was lost to the Goguryeo. And so in rage at his long table, MX strips his merry men of their titles and positions - Murong Un & General Fengba included.
In other words, Murong Xi's posse is now being made to do their normal jobs of sitting & listening to their king at the long table, in between fighting with the Goguryeo soldiers at the battlefield, without pay.
So how izzit upon being stripped of their titles & positions by Murong Xi that nobody just walked out of MX's office and go back to their hometowns?
In frustration, Murong Un then shares with jumbo-ears Fengba a secret letter he received from the Beiwei - Beiwei is sending their army to help Houyan fight against Damdeok. Why the change of heart by Beiwei?
NOw here's what Murong Un says to Fengba, word for word:
IF A PERSON DOESN'T HAVE ANY LIPS, HIS TEETH WILL BE COLD. .... (note: he REALLY DID say this, not I).
Houyan is like the lips for Beiwei. If Houyan falls to Goguryeo, Beiwei will be next. So for Beiwei's own sake, Murong Un convinces Beiwei to send their army (once again) to help Houyan against DD's invasion forces.
Of course when news of Beiwei's army moving to help Houyan reaches DD's long table, his generals all look startled like puppydogs aroused by Lady Gaga's smooth armpits, and then they look even more morose because General Hwang tells DD's posse that many soldiers are dead and can no longer fight, in addition to many being wounded and also cannot pretend to fight because their recovery time is uncertain.
As for those Goguryeo soldiers who aren't dead or wounded, they are just exhausted from running around in circles at the battlefield and the only remedy for exhausted soldiers is to give them more time to catch up on their sleep, provide them with beautiful masseuses to heal whatever parts that need healing and feed them generously with tonic rejuvenating foods to build their strengths.
Put simply, DD hasn't got an effective army and so, if they want to fight against a combined Houyan-Beiwei army, then the posse better do it themselves.
In the eloquent words of General Hwang himself:
THE GENERALS ARE RESOLVED BUT THE SOLDIERS ARE WEAK..... doesn't that remind us of that thingy about mind & body, eh?
If you thought that was the end of their problems, lovely Seol Ji who's from the northern Mongolian steppes called Mohe, tells the posse that soon, approaching yellow dust storms are going to make their unwelcome choking blinding presence, which complicates battle conditions because since their enemy soldiers uniforms look so similar, poor visibility might result in soldiers accidentally killing fellow comrades.... just kidding!
Seriously - Seol Ji's weather forecast based on satellite imagery was just to say that when the yellow dust storms strike, all armies would be affected and be 'blinded' and so wise is the king to equip his soldiers with protective eye goggles. Now we know why cockroaches are such resilient all-weather creatures.
Anyway the episode ended with poor Ari returning to DD's long table to tell him that Ha Muji is now having hot showers with Yeon Salta, Damju, Doyoung up there somewhere in heaven's spa-land.
I guess none of DD's male generals were willing to face DD & deliver the bad news so it was up to cutie pie-faced Ari to break the news using halting tones and incomplete sentences.
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Been watching this every Mon-Fri on KBSWorld (eng subbed) and I must say this is one of the funniest shows in Korea in recent history. It's not slapstick humor but much of it is captured in verbal responses to a particular situation.
The Cha In-pyo effect is very much in control here but sadly, not all the main cast are funny or naturally funny as CIP & HWSH as Chae Hwa. I like the fact the the 2 PDs & 4 writers allow HWSH to ad-lib most of the time and she does a wonderful job, straying away from the raw script at times.
Since there are 4 writers, the potential for churning up new situations is made much more diverse and even without relying on the few idols to provide eye candy & draw in 'younger' viewers, the story-arc has been quite well-paced. The cliched stereotypes are all there, bimbos included, but thankfully, they're kept in the background which thus allows the main leads, including the Cha kids to show their 'thang'.
I can't say the same for the character depth especially for the one veteran who is still made to speaking in her deadpan monotone (HyeJin's deadpan monotone style sounds eerily similar to Jung Hyung Don's narrator in ROLLERCOASTER) because the writers perhaps need her as a counterpoint to Chae Hwa's bashful & youthful vigor. But while the Cha family has (been given by the writers) undergone progression in the way they act and behave since the two celestial beings moved in, mother is still anal-retentive which as we know by now is not really a character flaw but a defense mechanism to her own insecurity.
Her manner of speaking & rigid thinking has already quickly become stale pretty fast but the writers cleverly dilutes that by constantly using Chae Hwa's undying and unquestioning love as the ballast - love for mum regardless. Both of them do need each other to survive in this human world.
Of course mum being stupid (as in NOT streetsmart) is never a substitute for naivety and luckily for us the comedy still pops up unexpectedly & quietly furious so the fun factor is kept high. And when Cha In-pyo goes into his trademark hyper-acting mode, even the heavens above cannot help but laugh.
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KBSW Ep 87 & 88 ....we're still stuck in the post-Damju revenge invasion of Houyan, which resulted in Yeon Salta's termination in ep 88, a victim of Houyan's deception.
You could also say these two episodes were written by our two writers to kill off Yeon Salta - he appears again in ep 88 to help his dumb King capture another meaningless Houyan fortress and he promptly dies under a hail of Houyan arrows.
Obviously his armor or tortoise shells our generals wear are as porous as tissue paper when it comes to arrows so why wear them in the first place? Why not go sans armor like Mr Robin Hood (Kevin Costner?)?
So the next time you're preparing to watch these two episodes, I suggest you take your family out for shopping or a walk in the beautiful nearby park or join your friends for a get-together, rather than punish yourself watching these two time-filling episodes. Plot-wise, you won't miss much even with the demise of Yeon Salta.
But if the bad weather forces you to stay in, then what you will see is scene after boring scene of swords clanging on swords (like watching traffic at an intersection for hours) punctuated by scenes of one side running away because of the excuse "WE DON"T HAVE ENOUGH SOLDIERS" and so to save their PEYHA's richard simmons from being minced, they jog away.
Within that lull of fighting, there're more table-banging and 'debates' at long tables and accusations being hurled at why they couldn't capture DD when they had him surrounded or why there aren't any panda bears in Korea. You'll get more entertainment watching senior citizens perform synchronized swimming.
One point is clear though - our Dumb-Deok still has no brilliant military strategy since ep 1 in annihilating his Houyan enemies. His only strategy is hurl all his soldiers at the fortress and then once inside, clang swords with the enemy until one side appears with more reinforcements thereby signalling the other side to jog away.
Mind you, we are told that DD's army would be reinforced by the arrival of Gen Yeon Salta who's leading a combined force of Biryeo & Mohe troops but even when Yeon makes his appearance in ep88, all we see is him and maybe 9 faceless blokes behind him. Don't even think of seeing an army of thousands or hundreds which could easily be created by CGI.
Our two (female) writers get F-plus when it comes to creating an authentic military strategy because for both the Houyans & Damdeok himself, they have written in separate scenes of DD & Murong Xi having to retreat due to the unexpected arrival of more enemy forces. All generals at THAT time during the Warring States period would never find themselves 'caught in an ambush' as often as our two clown-kings here - have you ever seen NO ambushes in this drama series?
REAL generals do anticipate ambushes and that's why they NEVER send an entire army down one pathway - they'd separate their main forces and use different routes to confuse their enemies. Secondly, REAL generals would always bring up their reserves, (sometimes called rearguard) in case they do come under ambush attack and reserves are not what TV dramas sometimes depict them to be - second-rate soldiers or soldiers aged 50 & above.
Nope - reserve troops are as good as the main soldiers but they're trained differently - when called upon, the reserve troops have to face the onslaught and cover their retreating comrades, or else those retreating (running in the opposite direction) might be chased down by enemy cavalry and be minced to pieces. That's why soldiers chosen to be the rearguard contain good archers (effective against the charging enemy cavalry) and cavalry (nothing is more effective than cavalry dueling against cavalry).
Chinese military records depict detailed strategies on how thousands of men should be trained and organized into retreating orderly, and not run helter-skelter like our KBS dramas love to show. While the main force retreats, it's up to the smaller-sized rearguard to stand their ground, and buy as much time as possible by slowing down the enemy cavalry and if done properly, they could sometimes even get the upper hand if they hold the high ground against the charging enemy.
No general ever launches a major offensive without planning one or more exit routes, and involving reserve troops to cover their retreating forces.
That's why as long as lazy-to-research female writers, with very rare exceptions of course, are helming Korean historical dramas, we won't be able to expect authentic military moves & counter-moves except for the endless clanging of swords and soldiers dropping down after just one slash, two max. But then in the next camera angle, that's showing the same ongoing battle of soldiers swinging their swords against each other, there is NOT a single dead body on the ground, because it seems everybody is just too busy clanging each other's swords, they forgot that at least one or two amigos must pretend to fall to the ground and spit out bright red tomato sauce. Ai Yai Yai!
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I dropped this taiga at ep 5, something which I've never done since I started following taigas in 1990, then picked it up again because of Ai Kato & Kyoko Fukada & Emi Takei. And now at ep 17, the taiga has finally hooked me for the rest of the year.
The ratings didn't affect my decision to stop watching - I'm never affected by ratings.
It's just that the early parts were too stiff and boring (infusion of kabuki elements) and after the beautiful women in Gou, it takes quite a bit of adapting to this grimy-looking blurry-style of cinematography. From ep 3-5, the plot kept moving slower than a snail and so I gave it a rest until the introduction of the two women (Ai & Kyoko) who would later become his wives and the delectable Emi Takei who would be his concubine.
For sure, Emi would become any lord's concubine in a heartbeat if she was alive in that era.
Anyway apart from the women's looks, I was very surprised at the much-improved Kyoko Fukada who played mother to so many kids (contraception out of the window) - and a convincing one at that. True, she still shows her trademark pout and girly whining (part of the reasons I love watching her) but in the moments she had to stand her own ground and make her character come to the fore, Kyoko did so in her own unique way.
Earlier on, I was puzzled why the producers made Kyoko play his second wife and Ai Kato the first - I had thought it would have been a better casting choice to switch these two actresses.
Now I know why after seeing Kyoko interacting with Kiyomori since they got married and produced a litter of cute kids - she certainly has come of age to a certain degree. More than the ethereal beauty of Ai Kato, Kyoko is able to inject humor & compassion better with just a change of her facial expressions, and especially in ep17, there were two funny scenes involving Kyoko, one in the bedroom with Kiyomori.
Also in ep17, Kiyomori lashes out at Kyoko, after he accused her of making two blunders in succession, and if you're thinking of cliched reactions after being rebuked in front of the clan, watch how Kyoko handles the scene, and how she finds her own space & comfort in the aftermath. Indeed it was her 3 young kids who felt her pain the most but in true Japanese culture, you won't find tight arm hugs but a very indirect way of conveying those sentiments to their mother.
As for Kiyomori, one doesn't have to delve deep into what makes him Kiyomori. He's already seen Emi Takei & one reason why I'm standing by this drama is to see how fast or slow she becomes his consort.
Even when Emi is plastered with white pigment on her face, she still looks good enough for any cosmetics commercial - her face is just made for the camera and the camera loves her photogenic qualities. I'm liking her in M no Higeki so it'd be interesting how she'll play her concubine role for Kiyomori.
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KBSW Ep 85 & 86 .... when Damdeok sees his lifeless sister brought home on a horse cart after which he angrily declares he'll conquer Houyan for killing an endangered lifeform: Goguryeo's princesses are hereby protected by Damdeok's law that states I'm sick & tired of watching KBS showing flashbacks of how my arrow killed Doyoung, and how my mother & elder brother died and most of all, how my own sister Damju had 3 Houyan arrows sticking out from her back and I, the great lame king, couldn't do anything to change the script.
Since I've already commented on these 2 episodes and the horrible story-arc done by the writers a few posts back, nothing is worth repeating.
And now for the funny side of things:
HILARITY NUMBER ONE:
Don't you find it terribly amusing that Gen Hwang, Seok Jae & Seol Ji kept imploring PEYHA Damdeok to kill them for bringing back a lifeless Goguryeo princess, and she so happens to be the ONLY princess in Goguryeo? If Gen Hwang, being the rescue mission team leader entrusted by DD, so wants to die, then I should think a little DIY (do it yourself) isn't out of the question, right?
Why keep screaming at PEYHA to kill them when they can slit their own throats, and then die like slaughtered chickens?
If the sight of blood spurting from severed carotids is too messy, then how about the more bloodless option of drinking poison flavored with warm fresh honey for that smooth sliding down the throat sensation? Let's forget that the poison will make you feel your stomach is being roasted flaming hot from the insides and it feels like one hundred million fire ants are eating their way out from your stomach walls.
Of course Gen Hwang & his posse live to fight another day because our KBS version of Damdeok has no other senior commander he could effectively use.
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HILARITY NUMBER TWO
Murong Un advises Murong Xi to write a letter of apology to Damdeok for the death of Damju ... something so preposterous that even MX wanted to kill MU for suggesting it.
Clearly our two writers have run out of juice or are stretching their humor too much - to even suggest an enemy king to write a letter of apology for Damju's death?
GREETINGS YOUR MAJESTY DAMDEOK - WE'RE SORRY THAT YOUR BELOVED SISTER DAMJU WAS PENETRATED BY NO LESS THAN 3 MADE-IN-HOUYAN BRONZE-TIPPED ARROWS AND SINCE YOUR SOLDIER PIGGYBACKED HER TO A SAFER LOCATION, THE EXTREME PROLONGED INTENSE PAIN PLUS SEVERE INTERNAL BLEEDING SHE SUFFERED BEFORE SHE DIED WAS THEREFORE NOT OUR FAULT.
THEREFORE PLEASE DON'T ATTACK INNOCENT HOUYAN CIVILIANS TO VENT YOUR ANGER OR ELSE HOUYAN WOULD BE FORCED TO MAKE ALLIANCES WITH YOUR OTHER ENEMIES - BEIWEI, WAE, DARTH VADER - AND THEN KBS CAMERAS WOULD BE FORCED TO SHOW MORE SCENES OF MEANINGLESS BATTLES OF MEN WAVING FLAGS & RUNNING AIMLESSLY AROUND.
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HILARITY NUMBER THREE:
Due to their newfound alliance, Beiwei had to help Houyan who was under attack by overwhelming Goguryeo forces. On the other hand, Goguryeo didn't want to fight two enemies at the same time. So what did Gen Hwang do?
He made his posse all dress up as Houyan soldiers and then attack the Beiwei army camp at night. The Beiwei of course were very surprised at why their newfound allies were shooting fire arrows into their encampment and so after the attack was over, Beiwei are extremely furious.
So when the Beiwei met up with the Houyan army as planned, to launch a joint offensive against Goguryeo, the Beiwei immediately attacked a now-very surprised Houyan army, after which the Beiwei presumably went back to their homeland.
Our two female writers must have felt pretty proud for once again using the historical drama corny idea of wearing your enemy's uniforms and wreaking havoc. Does this ruse by Gen Hwang & the posse make anybody feel extremely proud of the Goguryeo army just because they were scared of fighting two enemies at once?
And weren't we given the impression 2-3 episodes ago that at the click of a mouse, upon receiving email from the great Damdeok, his drinking buddies from Mohe, Baekje, Shilla & Biryeo would come galloping with thunderous force to stand and fight with Damdeok side by side?
There were no such scenes of help arriving from the other nations, at least not yet. Maybe Damdeok's allies were not in the habit of checking their emails daily because they prefer sending messengers on horseback - it's more dramatic to see 4-6 guys riding furiously on their horses while holding one advertising banner each and the clickety-clack sound of hooves pounding the ground hard somehow creates more urgency & tension.
Fans who want more battle scenes of fortresses under attack by dozens & dozens of film extras won't be disappointed with ep 86. But it's nothing we've not seen before.
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Here're screencaps of the ending shot from ep 92 finale.
If picture doesn't autoload, place cursor over it then right click, select view picture.
Now tell me why Damdeok wants to be the Korean version of Mr Zorro?
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what??? it really ended at episode 92 and there was no glimpse of Yakyeon and the future King, Jangsu? that's really sad.
i guess the writers really ran out of ideas on how to write the storylines of the drama for the extension. thank you again daunte29 for giving us the summaries of the weekly episodes. i'm going to miss your posts. Haha viktoria, the series may have ended in Korea but it's still running on KBS World, which I'm still watching. So I'll definitely de-stress myself by commenting on the episodes being shown on KBSW. Cheers!
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The rumors proved true after all...Ep 92 was the finale.
It ended with Murong Un kowtowing to you-know-who and becoming a vassal state.
So with that, we are told peace 'finally' ruled over the realm, the citizens love their king, and though there were still much to be done, with the great leadership of yada, yada, blah, blah.... get the picture?
No Yakyeon, No Jangsu, No Asin, No Shilla, No Wae .... our KBS writers didn't rewrite history but they didn't give even a three-quarters picture, and that ends up distorting the real achievements of the real Gwanggaeto.
Pity those international viewers globally when they buy the DVD boxset of this drama expecting a mega-production of a historical legend and instead what they get are long tables and senseless battles and then more long tables.
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As far back as I can recall, Dammang (Damdeok's brother) still has the dubious distinction of being the only person in this drama so far who was felled by more than 10, less than 20 arrows.
Back in those early days, Damdeok was the target of assassination by his own palace factions, and when you rewind back to Ep23 when Dammang (pretending to be Damdeok) was cut down by a hail of arrows, and I do mean at least 30 or more steel-tipped beauties, among those foreign conspirators who killed Dammang, thinking he was Damdeok, was jumbo-ears Fengba, Seol Doan & tada! .... Seol Ji.
Of course we now know Seol Ji later became a turncoat against her own brother's wishes but when you look back at ep23, you'll see how close Seol Ji was in terminating the same man whom she'll later serve as his bodyguard.
Dammang was hit front and back by uncountable arrows and even after he collapsed on his back, (thereby squashing those arrows embedded in his back), the scriptwriters still gave him a few more lines to speak before he finally croaked.
And even then, his body was left to lie there in the forest, in pouring rain, until his daddy-king could come and see for himself the extra wooden antennas sticking out from his eldest son's chest and abdomen.
That's why I'm suddenly thinking ... did Damdeok later ever find out Seol Ji was one of his brother's assassins? Not that it matters because I'm sure our great king has tons of forgiving DNA within his blood ... just see how fast he got over the deaths of all those closest to him.
In those early days, the young teenaged Damdeok wore guyliner and if you ARE watching the current raw episodes on KBS, it does seem that Damdeok is back to wearing his guyliner once more. Why? I don't know.
(additional screencaps from ep91)
... now you know why the PD likes giving us so many boring shots of DD at his long table - dats becos Mr Lee Tae Gon is so blardy tall, he really looks like a tree when standing around his posse. Poor Seol Ji must sometimes be thinking - how on earth am I supposed to protect PeyHa when I can barely see past his towering shoulders?
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Breaking News.... if you look at the screencaps above for ep 91, you'll see Murong Xi with red tomato sauce on his lips. By now you'll know that's a historical drama trademark telling you another major character has been killed off by the writers as we now approach the end point.
I won't bother with the spoiler box so let's cut to the chase .... Murong Xi is overthrown for his ineptness in handling state affairs and you don't have to guess who're the usurpers, right? Do you wanna guess how MX was killed off by our writers? Hint: recall the recent past major characters who were retired from the series?
While our poor Damju took 3 arrows in her back and with the 3 feathery things still sticking out from her back, she was piggybacked to another location, where she gave a short speech before dying.
No such luck for Murong Xi ... jumbo-ears Fengba shot one arrow dead-center into his chest and he gave a short speech before flopping to the ground.
Yup, Murong Un is the new boss of Houyan and together with my man-of-the-drama Fengba, they will perhaps launch Houyan's final effort at sending Damdeok to the heavens. Or vice-versa.
I salute Fengba for having been given the privilege by our two writers to serve so many Houyan kings since this drama began, and he doesn't even look a day older than when we first saw Fengba in ep1.
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On the flipside, Damdeok's other female posse member, Ari & one young elite commander were caught in a skirmish with Houyan and the Goguryeo soldiers were dropping like flies, when the wounded commander ordered Ari to run, which she wisely did. Female warriors, of which there remains two, are becoming more endangered as we approach the end.
The good thing is this episode again gave lots of airtime to Seol Ji who of late since Damju died, is now usually again seen at the long table or standing just behind DD.
Remember that when Damju was about to die, she took both Seol Ji's hand and her son Huwang, and made Seol Ji promise to take care of him.
Maybe it's still too early to say this but we may never know what in blazes happened to Yakyeon and her supposed pregnancy but as of now, DD does have a Houyan prince Huwang who has Damju's bloodline, and if the writer finally kills off Damdeok, who will they use as his successor? A name change from Huwang to Jangsu is not impossible.
Here's another stretch of my imagination: since Seol Ji is now the closest female to Damdeok, don't be surprised one day, Seol Ji starts developing morning sickness, eh? Or is that too cheesy and far-fetched?
Dang! If my bodyguard looks like Seol Ji, I'd rather protect her & keep her safe beside me all the time 24/7. I might even abdicate my throne and gladly spend the rest of my life with Seol Ji without having to sit endlessly at the long table and wait for PEYHA WE'RE IN TROUBLE news.
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daunte29 you slay me about the kdrama cliches, as I read your posts scenes from past dramas flashed before my eyes
I have some questions for you, if you don't mind answering
how much do Korean dramas usually get sold for per episode, per series in Japan? To other countries? Do you know which Kdrama was the highest priced drama, ever sold to Japan, thanks.
Dramas are sold in its entire series and also broadcasting rights for the same drama vary from country to country depending on the estimated size of expected viewership. For example, it does not mean that if it's sold to a Chinese TV station, then it's gonna be the most expensive (due to China's urban population size and affluence) because market surveys will tell the Korean drama marketing departments the estimated viewership/fanbase of Korean dramas in each of China's major cities and which Chinese city has the largest korean drama fanbase.
On the other hand, that same drama sold to a Chinese TV station may cost much more when sold to a Southeast Asian country, Japan or the US (usually the cable channels) due to the immense popularity of certain Korean stars in those places. It's not an even playing field.
Similarly there is no fixed price for broadcasting rights. Some foreign stations state their price and bid for it while others simply are willing to pay whatever price the Korean broadcasters are asking. The more popular dramas with popular Hallyu stars would fetch higher prices.
The current record holder for most expensive broadcasting rights for a korean drama sold to Japan is the KBS drama IRIS which TBS (a major terrestrial channel in Japan) bought for ¥ 400,000,000 / ₩ 5,300,000,000 ($4.3 million USD).
By comparison in 2011 SBS Secret Garden was sold to 13 countries (including Japan & China) with a combined total of only US$3.5M. Why so low?
As mentioned above, many Hallyu stars are treated like bleh-bleh by most Japanese (usually the females, including married women and grandmas) while a certain few reach godlike status, for example Lee Byung Hun, Bae Yong Jun, JYJ's Yoochun, Park Yong Ha, Song Seung Heon, Won Bin, just to name a few - so any drama featuring these guys would certainly fetch insane prices among the Japanese broadcasters.
For example Yoochun's "Sungkyungkwan Scandal” hit a sales mark of 3 billion won (approximately $2.79 million USD), while his “Ripley” was reportedly sold for around 2.5 million won (approximately $2.32 million USD). I cannot remember exactly which Japanese broadcasters bought the above two drama series though.
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@Daunte29:
Episode 79 just aired, guess KBS World is a little behind in SoCal. Questions:
Why do the people in Wae (Japan, right?) speak Korean?
Why, after being stabbed, sliced, punctured, and rammed-through, do the victims say, "How could this happen?" If you play with sharp things, you will get cut, this is something every grade school child knows.
Why, do the ones on whom a 'trick' or deceit is perpetrated say to the perpetrator, "How could you trick us like this?" All is fair in war, n'est-ce pas?
Hehe, the bilingual fluency is just the drama's way of telling us to use our imagination & suspension of disbelief. To employ native actors speaking in their native tongue would necessitate subtitling the dialogue, thereby increasing production costs and time.
It's also occasionally seen in historical dramas produced in China, Hong Kong where scenes involving non-Chinese are not played by native actors in order to maintain the language consistency.
It extends to Hollywood as well, the originator one might say, of inventing the genre of native speakers not speaking their native language. For example, the real Alexander The Great (Colin Farrell) wouldn't have spoken English nor Achilles (Brad Pitt) in Troy.
There are only a few gutsy directors who'd insist on language authenticity as in Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. In these two aforementioned, some of the actors had to learn to speak an entirely new language and do it as if they were native speakers, imbuing the right diction, articulation and intonation.
Then of course there are a few films who adopt the 'half English-half native language" as in Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai. The only Japanese character who actually spoke English with Tom Cruise's character in feudal Japan was the one played by Ken Watanabe. Mind you, TC's character was employed by the Meiji govt to train their Japanese troops in western style tactics and weapons especially in the usage of muskets, cannons and the machine gun.
Hollywood has also created another variant of non-English speaking characters speaking English - I can remember a time when any Hollywood-produced TV series and sometimes even films set in World War 2 made the actors playing Germans or Italians or French be able to speak in heavily-accented English.
The most impressive of non-English characters being able to speak perfect North American-accented English was the Star Trek TV series and movies. Alien beings from other worlds have no problem chatting with Starship Enterprise Captain James T Kirk - earlier on in the series, we are told that the Starship has this nifty computer software called Universal Translator which has the ability to simultaneously translate almost all the known galactic languages.
So when an alien being appear on the Starship's main screen, and starts speaking in "its native language", what we & the Starships crew will hear will only be English - never mind the fact the alien being was in fact speaking English all the while. Suspension of disbelief, remember?
Indeed I think the Houyan shouldn't be speaking Korean but Chinese, although it's not too hard to imagine that perhaps bilingualism or even multilingualism was more common in their time than now.
And some Korean scholars believe that Goguryeo, Baekje & Silla people may have spoken an earlier dialect-form of the Korean language, based on the written script they used in their wall carvings & artifacts.
But the fact remains that the Gwanggaeto Stele, built by Damdeok's son Jangsu, was written exclusively in classical Chinese.
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As for those cliched parochial expressions found across many historical dramas, past & present, I think it's a by-product of theatrical acting. There is no 'originality' in historical dramas when it comes to using cliched situations and expressions partly because the drama scriptwriters themselves play safe by sticking to what's tried and tested.
For example, dying heroes/heroines are given lots of time to deliver a speech before they pretend to stop breathing whereas the minnow characters just get slashed and drop dead speechless.
The same goes for every death scene involving smearing concentrated tomato sauce around the mouth and when swords are drawn/unsheathed from the scabbard, there's always the same metallic clang - the reality is most scabbards (for Asian-made swords) are actually made from non-metallic coverings, so that when a sword is unsheathed, there's actually no metallic sound.
Those parochial expressions they utter upon being stabbed or discovering the traitor, are also included for solely 'dramatic' effect - just imagine the same scene where nothing is spoken or said and the actors merely wear a big-eyes I AM VERY SHOCKED/SURPRISED facial expression. Not quite so drama-tick isn't it?
Of course there are a few other cliched 'actions' used only in K-dramas that always make me chuckle - the one where a senior citizen receives bad/unhappy news and then she/he starts to sway and buckle as if to faint? And there's always, always-always, someone to grab hold of the about-to-faint senior citizen from falling down like a tree and crashing to the floor.
And how about the one in k-dramas where upon hearing upsetting news, the man/woman suddenly clutches the back of the head around the upper neck region, tilts head backwards and the eyes will close as if experiencing a sharp pain caused by the upsetting news.
And every k-drama must have at least one or two drunk scene where some important information or secret is 'accidentally' divulged and by the time the news has been tweeted all over the internet, the drunk person cannot remember ever spilling the beans by the next morning. A k-drama without a single drunken scene is by definition not a k-drama.
The other hilarious cliche scene that happens in bars is when two female 'rivals' meet and then when the argument gets heated, one will throw a glass of water at the other's face. Not beer, not soju, not soft drink, not hot coffee, but always a glass of water which by the way is always placed there just for such temper tantrums.
For variety why not put a big jug of iced water, with floating ice cubes, and then having the entire contents unloaded on the face of the victim? Refreshing, wouldn't you agree?
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KBSW ep 84 .... when Damdeok allows Fengba to assassinate him
Actually Ep84's key plot is the cornering of Damju by Fengba & Murong Xi, and she puts a dagger to her own neck. Since I've already made my opinions known in previous posts, I won't belabor the point.
Suffice to say that the writers this time did quite a good job building the 'double' chase scene with one laughable scene - upon discovering that Houyan soldiers had gotten wind of their escape and were in hot pursuit, Gen Hwang split his group into two: Seol Ji & Danbi (the lowly bodyguard who was soon killed by Fengba;s men) would lead Damju & her child into the forest (where the Houyan's pursuers on horseback can't follow) while Gen Hwang would try to lure the pursuers.
Unfortunately for Gen Hwang, his immediate pursuers happen to be Fengba & his men who were all on foot and after chasing Gen Hwang for a few metres, jumbo-ears Fengba sensed Hwang was only luring them away and that Damju must have taken the forest path towards the Goguryeo border.
So Fengba abruptly stops, turns around and went the opposite direction from Gen Hwang, who upon realising no one was chasing them also turned around and now started chasing Fengba instead - a case of the hunted becoming the hunter.
See how much humor our two writers can churn up out of the blue?
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You've gotta hand it to the man called Fengba - he's everywhere in this episode. First he & his men shot 3 arrows into Damdeok's chest as part of an assassination plot he conspired with a 'rebellious' Gorguryeo prime minister which turned out to be another failed mission in Fengba's long list of failures since Ep 1 - it was all a ploy by Goguryeo to expose Houyan';s true intentions.
As for Damdeok's 3 arrows sticking out from his chest, he was supposedly wearing a silvery 'arrow-proof vest" underneath his armor.
As I've lamented in my previous post, why the writers allowed Damdeok to allow Fengba, an enemy general from an enemy state, to move freely around his palace when he should have placed Fengba & his envoy delegation under arrest and then negotiate for Damju's release using a hostage exchange?
When Fengba realised he was played out, he started running for his life together with his men and guess what .... the Gorguryeo's pursers failed to catch him. Which explains why we soon saw him safely across the border and was now in the thick of chasing down Damju.
Never mind the fact that the writers keep making Fengba fail everytime, but you cannot help but notice Fengba is a very busy man, either conniving some dastardly plot with his beady eyes, or running through the forest like a hungry deer.
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KBSW Ep 83 .... when Damdeok is stopped by his own posse from leading the rescue Damju mission
Ep 83 basically sets up the rescue mission of Damju who is under house arrest in Houyan, and it began with Damdeok glaring at his posse and insisting that he will risk his life & limb to personally go to Houyan and save his sister. But there's a problem.
His entire posse (except Seol Ji who keeps quiet throughout) led by Gen Hwang protests and they all knelt down, shouts PEYHA YOU MUSTN'T GO, & they tell them Damdeok to kill them for insubordination. If you were in Damdeok's situation, what would you do? What can you do?
Me? I would glare at Gen Hwang & tell the posse that I AM STILL GOING TO LEAD THE RESCUE MISSION & IF THEY'RE SO PREPARED TO DIE FOR ME, I'LL KILL ALL OF THEM AFTER THE RESCUE MISSION.
I WILL TELL THEM I MADE A BROTHERLY PROMISE TO DAMJU BEFORE SHE WAS MARRIED OFF THAT I WOULD GET HER BACK IF THERE WAS TROUBLE (note: this emotional goodbye scene of the two of them crying before Damju was married off to Houyan was indeed shown in this ep 83).
LASTLY I WILL REMIND THEM THAT AS KING OF GOGURYEO, I DECIDE WHAT'S IMPORTANT, NOT MY GENERALS.
However because this drama was written by two women, they took a different stance. They made Damdeok stop shouting and glaring and instead, Damdeok puts his hand on Gen Hwang's shoulder and tells him to bring Damju back safely.
Well, well, as we all know now, Damju did come back on a horse cart, lifeless. Way to go, Gen Hwang.
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This ep 83 will also show you the most silliest piece of plot construction that this drama has thrown at us week after week.
In the midst of mounting the rescue mission, guess who comes into Damdeok's office to ask for Gorguryeo's military help against the Beiwei? None other than jumbo-ears Gen Fengba from Houyan.
Fengba even had the gall to remind DD that Goguryeo should help Houyan against the Beiwei because Damju is still in Houyan. The moment he said this, one of Damdeok's generals bangs the table and scolds Fengba for threatening the king of Goguryeo, to which Fengba cooly says, IT'S NOT A THREAT, IT'S TRUE.
Damdeok then orders Fengba to wait in the envoys' quarters until he makes his decision.
SO WHAT'S SO RIDICULOUSLY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
If the Houyan has placed Damju under house arrest, and Damdeok is sending his generals to rescue her at all costs, why is it he's treating a Houyan top general so nicely in his own palace? An enemy general is in Damdeok's office breathing the same air as DD and it doesn't occur to the writers that this scenario is totally ridiculous?
Moreover several episodes ago when Damdeok himself was sitting in Houyan's office, he saw this same Gen Fengba accuse his sister Damju of being a spy.
A REAL Damdeok would have immediately placed Fengba and his envoy delegation under arrest and send an email to Murong Xi telling him I have Houyan hostages and let's do a hostage exchange - your top general for my sister.
Don't even think of pulling even one strand of hair from Damju because if you hurt her in any way, I will unleash my combined Goguryeo-Mohe-Baekje-Silla-Biryeo forces on Houyan and since you're already being attacked by Beiwei, you know you don't stand a chance.
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In our present day, envoys and ambassadors have diplomatic immunity - they cannot be harmed or arrested in a foreign country. However this concept in diplomacy was not practiced in ancient times because it had not been conceived yet.
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For a Houyan general to move around at will within Damdeok's palace while his sister is being held hostage in Houyan is just plain stupidity on the part of the two writers.
If you review this scenario and take two steps back, it will still hit you just how politically immature & naive these two writers are in weaving a political hostage game. Totally inept.
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Speaking of ineptness, there was an earlier scene where Damdeok's ministers also implored him NOT to go personally to rescue Damju. Their reason?
Envoys from Beiwei & Houyan may drop by anytime and if Damdeok is not around to receive them, they would get suspicious.
So I'm thinking - so what? If Damdeok isn't in his office, they could very well just tell the envoys, he's gone off on an invasion or has gone to inspect his border fortresses. You mean to tell me a king has to sit there and greet visiting envoys all the time? If the king is off on vacation, then it's just too bad for any visitors, isn't it?
These two writers need to get out of their mountain tortoise shells.
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@daunte29
I finished watching Atsuhime, I know it won a lot of awards, but I actually prefer Gou. People complained about Gou being slow in the middle, but I thought Atsuhime was even slower. I liked the actress though and I liked learning more about the Shogun era. I find it funny that after the warriors during the warring period, the Edo period/peace era turned the samurais and warriors into somewhat petty politicians, and the Shogun was no longer the fiercest warrior like in the past.
Also what was up with the Sci-Fi outfits, the men wore this really interesting looking, space age outfits. I also liked getting more info about the inner workings of the Ooku. So much so that I am now watching Ooku Season 5: Han No Ran. Where there actually four other seasons, I can’t seem to find info on past seasons?
Information is somewhat sketchy on the earlier episodes mainly because the producers & their marketing efforts (short-sighted though they were) concentrated solely on domestic Japanese audiences, not realizing that a small international fan base might eventually emerge in later years.
This marketing attitude still exists today affecting many J-dramas (produced from 1980s-today) which when transcoded into DVD boxsets, have no English subs but Chinese instead. If you are lucky, some third-party overseas distributor might be interested enough to independently transcode Eng subs because these overseas distributors know that some J-dramas are hot-sellers outside of Japan, and therefore they take it upon themselves to include multiple-language subs in their DVDs.
If you haven't stumbled upon this link below, it may be the only guide about the previous OoKu series....
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Ooku
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You are right about the constant petty wars and politicking but that was the 'system' that kept the nation from degenerating into outright war everyday & every night, as was the reality before the Tokugawa shogunate. There were challenges to the Tokugawa, make no mistake, but they were either quickly put down or extinguished simply because the Tokugawa had many more allies than their would-be enemies.
The power of the Tokugawa shogunate did not just emanate from the shogun but from his dozens of warlords-relatives, close & distant, united by inter-marriages. The Tokugawa family tree was exactly like what it says, a tree with lots of branches, big and small.
This family tree network that spread all over Japan meant that the Tokugawa warlords furthest away from Edo could still keep tabs on those other warlords planning to mount a rebellion - no warlord in his right mind would ever dare strike at Tokugawa by himself - it'd be like a dog going up against a lion - so rebel warlords need to form alliances, fellow minded warlords with the same ambition for power.
However, adding to that Tokugawa family tree are also dozens more independent warlords who have sworn allegiance and loyalty to the Tokugawa Shogun. And that's why the Tokugawa Shogun has to be a man who is well-liked or at least trusted by these independent warlords. The Shogun himself is the one who constantly decides how to keep his legion of followers loyal by dispensing favorable trading rights and taxes, and if necessary, offer one of Tokugawa many princes & princesses (sons, daughters, nephews & nieces of the Shogun himself) in an alliance marriage.
One of the Ooku's purposes was therefore to enable the Shogun to sire as many children as possible - the more offspring he had, the more alliance marriages he could make. He could also draw on his scores of nephews and nieces, half-nephews and half-nieces as well as his cousins.
The word NO cannot be used on the Shogun if he orders the unfortunate child or teenager related to him by bloodline to get married to an old geezer warlord because one of two things can happen:
1) the shogun would order the father to commit seppuku;
2) the shogun would strip the rights & privileges of the family, in other words, make them become paupers overnight.
In the days of the samurai, one didn't get married for L_O_V_E but got married very young based on L_O_Y_A_L_T_Y for your lord (your father or if he's dead, whoever heads the family) or whoever the Shogun chooses to be your spouse.
So the Shogun may not need to have good fighting abilities but he would need to have good leadership and be a master strategist at forming alliances and show no mercy at removing traitors and rebels. Entire families including infants have to be killed if they are labelled as rebels or disloyal subjects.
The Shogun was the master of the land and the law.... there was no such thing as appeal. His word was final.
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Haha ..... as I predicted in my previous post, in ep 89 shown by KBS on Saturday, Damdeok's posse has been further reduced and this time, I'm happy.
Although I haven't watched the episode in its entirety, this raw clip BELOW from dramaKBS shows you how Ha Muji gets played (so much for being A Strategist) and pays the price for running around in the woods with a turncoat working for (who else) Houyan.
You'll notice that the Houyan soldier responsible for terminating Ha Muji is the same dude who chopped down Damdeok's lowly female bodyguard Danbi who tried her best to buy time for Seol Ji & Damju.
In this clip, notice that Ha MJ, for a old guy with a walking stick, can incredibly run faster than he can walk.
SPEEDY GONZALES...ARRIBA! ARRIBA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL8VDQ1nLfE
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Ha Muji was one character we could have done without and for me, he served no significant contribution to the plot. If the writers had wanted a sidekick, they should have picked a younger man who could hold his own in the battlefield and ride a horse at full gallop.
THe writers may have thought an older strategist represents wisdom & calmness but I doubt it - the first time we saw HMJ, he was a vagrant drunkard. Furthermore almost all the great conquerors like Alexander TG, Genghis Khan, Damdeok, etc began their killing spree as young men, and young men by nature wouldn't gel well with old men acting as their advisors & strategist.
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You'd think by now, Damdeok would be infuriated at the loss of his posse at the hands of Houyan, most of all his own sister, and should declare total war on Houyan - so why hasn't he?
Remember in a previous episode, DD boasted to Fengba & Murong Un how much and how fast he could muster up an overwhelming military force from his mini-United Nations and crush both Beiwei & Houyan if need be? So why are the writers still making DD ever so lame, just sitting there and watching one by one of his posse disappear from the long table?
Murong Xi chalks up another kill in his relatively short time as Houyan king - Damju, Yeon Salta & Ha Muji plus the lowly female bodyguard. So who's next?
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old news is no news.
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mzeiya ..... you are certainly right about the ratings.
First off, this drama, as with most past sageuks, attracts higher viewership nationwide than in Seoul itself, though not by much. But it does seem to suggest that the many more older folks and senior citizens living outside Seoul are more drawn to watching DD & his merry men weekend after weekend.
The average ratings for this drama Nationwide hovers around 4th-5th position and for Seoul 6th-8th, and has been steady since it began its run. Since Its direct competition has never been able to come close, you might say GTGC is the No. 1 sageuk currently, no thanks to its legion of dedicated followers living outside Seoul.
IN ep 85, when Damju was killed off, the ratings Nationwide spiked at 2nd position (from the previous week of 5th position) and for Seoul, the ratings went up to 3rd position (from the previous week of 6th)..
In ep 88 when Yeon Salta dies in battle, the ratings nationwide went up to 3rd position (from the previous evening's position of 4th) but for Seoul, the ratings went down to 7th (from the previous evening position of 4th).
Source: TNmS Media Korea & wiki.d-addicts.com http://wiki.d-addicts.com/King_Gwanggaeto_the_Great/Episode_Ratings
These ratings figures could tempt our writers to slowly think of who to kill next, without distorting the natural historical progression involving the warring kings in this drama series who are based on real individuals as is jumbo-ears Fengba. What I mean is the writers can more easily choose to kill off their 'fictional' characters (including the ones who have already left) like Seol Ji, Ari, Seok Jae (?), Yakyeon, and maybe a couple of the generals in DD's posse.
The writers have 12 episodes left to work their magic.... how to reduce Damdeok's posse in 6 weeks until the big man himself croaks.
But they cannot kill off everyone in the posse or else there'll be no one left to wail & cry PEYHA! DON'T DIE! multiple times as is required under the unwritten rules of sageuk king's death scenes - you must maintain (keep alive) a minimum number of familiar faces in the posse and then surround them with more unknown faces so that the group crying can be more 'drama-tick'.
The good thing is since the real dude got wasted at 39, they won't have to apply on Lee Tae Gon any false white hair, false snowy eyebrows and whitish beard and I'll bet the writers & PDs are scratching their heads who they'll cast to play Jangsu - should it be someone they randomly snatch from the streets (cheaper appearance fees) or should they pick a well-known face like Daniel Henney to do a 5-minute cameo (if the actor has no lines, then even cheaper appearance fees).
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For fans of Yeon Salta, I can confirm that he dies in Ep 88 after being struck by arrow after arrow since he didn't acquire the deft skill of deflecting arrows with his sword, a skill reserved apparently only to main heroes.
Yeon Salta and his men were storming & battling inside a Houyan-held fortress, & Murong Xi, Murong Un & Gen Fengba were defending furiously. Just outside the fortress, DD and his main forces were also slaughtering Houyans - make that DD was only sitting on his horse while his men did all the work, with Seol Ji & Ari also chalking up the death count.
Indeed it was MX again who ordered his archers to fire on Yeon Salta & his men who were fighting just inside the fortress, or should I say had just finished murdering most of the Houyan defenders, because MX archers had a clear unobstructed view of Yeon & his men who just stood rooted there eyeballing MX's archers.
If you're a soldier being confronted by 50 or so archers, do you:
A. Stand there and wait to die (preferred default option by KBS historical dramas)
B. Lie down flat on the ground and hope the arrows will fly over your back
C. Start tap dancing (or ballet) so you become a moving target rather than a stationary one
D. Run like hell away from the archers & hope your slower comrades behind you die first
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I'm getting quite impressed by Murong Xi's kill ratio since he took power. His death count involving Damdeok's posse has included:
1. A lowly female bodyguard
2. Princess Damju
3. Gen Yeon Salta, ex-commander of Damdeok's elite Cheongun unit.
In the time MX became king, he has lost none of his much smaller posse, and that to me, is a sign of a good leader. Let's not make a big deal that he hasn't been able to beat Damdeok so far, and many of his regular soldiers have been dropped regularly by DD's forces.
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Looks like another cast member has collected his paycheck. Actor Hong Kyoung In got married in Feb 2012 and so I suppose he would want to spend as much time with his wife as possible - rather than sit at DD's long table and once in a while, pretend to kill in battle.
We're beginning to see a pattern here about how the major support characters are killed off
1. Doyeong dies with an arrow to her abdomen
2. Damju dies after several arrows in her back
3. Yeon Salta dies after several arrows to his chest & abdomen
If you were Murong Xi, would you not consider increasing your complement of archers and upgrade their accuracy so that the next time you meet DD in the battleground, your archers can all aim at the big guy in yellow armor sitting on his painfully-looking horse?
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As mentioned in my previous post on ep 82, DD supposedly married a princess Xu from Beiwei to cement a 'blood alliance' between Goguryeo & Beiwei.
The quickie wedding had already taken place, confirmed by the posse, who was angered when Seok Jae reported that the Beiwei was preparing to attack Houyan again, in spite of the agreed terms with Beiwei.
KBS Korea has just aired ep 88 (which I haven't watched) but the screencaps show the return of Yeon Salta, who volunteered to oversee Goguryeo's occupation forces in Biryeo soon after he watched Doyeong die - the bad news is he's dripping lotsa tomato sauce from his mouth, and that's not a healthy sign.
I'm just wondering since Damdeok now has a new wife, where the heck is Yakyeon? I mean, don't the writers at some point, think of inserting her back into the storyline?
Or they don't have the budget to hire a B-grade actress to play Princess Xu? And that's why we will have to stretch our imagination and visualise DD with two wives, one on each side of him.
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KBSW ep 82 ... when Beiwei & Houyan each wants to hold hands with Damdeok and Damdeok ends up holding one leg of each.
This is one of those episodes which was purposely dragged because it took two-thirds of the episode's duration for DD to make his decision. Which was a no-brainer because to stop the current hostilities between Beiwei & Houyan, all DD has to do is to side with both, ensuring that the naughty children don't get naughtier and drag Goguryeo into an unnecessary war.
Envoy Murong Un reminds DD that Houyan & Goguryeo already has a marital alliance - yeah, just look at how many times they've fought since Damju was married off.
At one point Ha-Ha Muji started guffawing himself and said to both envoys:
YOU SOUND LIKE IGNORANT PUPPIES BARKING AWAY. LISTEN CAREFULLY TO WHAT I SAY.
Then Gen Hwang continues the morning lecture by bragging:
ONE WORD FROM HIS MAJESTY & BAEKJE COULD PROVIDE 50,000 SOLDIERS & 400 SHIPS. SILLA CAN PROVIDE 20000 SOLDIERS & 30000 SACKS OF RICE. MOHE CAN PROVIDE 50000 SOLDIERS AND 20000 HORSES. BIRYEO CAN PROVIDE 30000 SOLDIERS & 20000 HORSES.
To prove that it's not air-talk, DD shows the 4 royal writs (color coded no less) from each of the 4 annexed...err sorry...allies. DD even boasted he hasn't even yet mentioned how many troops, horses, tanks, artillery, and long range missiles Goguryeo has at their disposal.
Curious, are you? Gen Hwang, speaking and spitting saliva at the same time: Goguryeo can provide 200,000 soldiers from the Central Army, 70,000 special Cheongun soldiers and over 50,000 cavalry soldiers.
Upon hearing this, the camera shows both the Houyan & Beiwei delegations visibly feeling a strong tightening sensation in their nether regions. If that didn't do the trick, DD added:
THESE SOLDIERS ARE ON STANDBY TO GO TO BATTLE AT ANY TIME. THAT NUMBER EXCLUDES THE SOLDIERS DEFENDING OUR FORTRESSES, as well as indeterminate number of senior citizens & female warriors who are willing to sacrifice themselves the moment my thin sexy lips gives the command.
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Cut-scene to DD's long table where his commanders are gloating at how good their troop numbers were in frightening the living daylights of both envoys. While Gen Mo Duyeong preferred allying with Beiwei, Gen Hwang suggested siding with Houyan for the safety of Damju who's in Houyan, as well as the fact their nations shared the same border.
At this point this was beginning to sound like two cities competing with each other to host the next summer Olympics, and both are now dangling 'rewards' to the International Olympics Council that is, Damdeok himself.
Fengba suggested using Damju as a pawn to pressure DD into making an alliance with Houyan but MU over-ruled him and instead offered this to DD:
Houyan will give up a strategically placed fortress Liaoyangcheng plus its Goguryeo migrants there.
Beiwei on the other hand could only offer a Princess Xu as a marital alliance with Damdeok. Of course no one knows whether this Princess Xu looks like a Miss Korea or a professional female body builder with biceps, and legs the size of small tree trunks.
After making them wait for 24 hours, DD revealed his decision: he will have the best of BOTH WORLDS, LITERALLY, by forming alliances with both Houyan & Beiwei.
Jumbo-ears Fengba was the first to respond, speaking in a shrill girlish tone to signify his amazement:
PEYHA, ARE YOU KIDDING? HOW CAN YOU FORM ALLIANCE WITH TWO COUNTRIES THAT ARE ENEMIES?
Put simply, even if the two idiots had not offered rewards, DD would have chosen to remain neutral, and not get involved with either country. But DD will now take those two rewards and still remain neutral by signing alliances with both.
Now who says sitting on the fence isn't beneficial? In fact DD wants his marriage with Princess Xu as an excuse for Beiwei to stop their war against Houyan and celebrate the joyous occasion. If Beiwei disagrees to a ceasefire, DD will not marry their Princess Xu.
So while DD & his posse at the long table are self-praising themselves and patting each other's backs for a job they think was well-done.... Damju slides into her final endgame.
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You see, Houyan are infuriated with the outcome of the deal - having to give up their precious strategic fortress and no significant gains from DD.
Fengba expectedly tells MX to use the only thing left to pressure DD into changing his mind and ally himself with Houyan - Damju. So MX visits Damju's quarters, and tells Damju to write a letter to DD asking him to send help to Houyan should Beiwei attacks Houyan the next time.
Damju refuses to be involved and so MX takes Prince Huwang away from Damju and orders her confined within her quarters. MX also tells Damju he has no regard for the son of the former emperor whom he thinks might try to take the throne one day.
MX last directive to Damju - write that letter to DD and her son will be returned to her.
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Word of Damju's house arrest instantly reaches DD & his posse and furthermore Beiwei is preparing to attack in spite of the recent wedding to Princess Xu (not shown).
A few table banging and DD declares he himself is flying to Houyan to rescue his sister but all his posse shouted in protest and dissuaded him because if DD gets killed in Houyan, who's going to sign their paychecks?
So for all his brilliance at outsmarting both Heiwei & Houyan, in the end it's Houyan who has the upper hand because Damju will be used by the Houyans & our two female scriptwriters to make Damdeok an absolute wuss. And by extension, the very credibility of this drama.
How can a great king and conqueror not use this entire episode in pressing Houyan to allow Damju & her prince free passage back to Goguryeo? MX clearly says he considers Damju's child-prince to be a direct threat to his throne and Fengba was very angry at giving up a strategic fortress to DD.
Combine these two together and DD might have just forced MU to keep his strategic fortress and Goguryeo migrants and just give back Damju & her child, in exchange for Goguryeo's protection should Beiwei attacks them.
Because the moment MX heard that DD had outsmarted them, he & Fengba decided to put Damju & her child front & center to force DD to reconsider.
Yes, diplomacy can be very tough for a conqueror king who loves banging tables but being stupid and misguided are never good excuses. Is Damju & her child worth far less than a strategic fortresses and their Goguryeo migrants?
Doesn't DD realise he can always attack & seize that Houyan fortress later (just look at the way he brags about how easily he can muster superior forces from his allies) so why didn't he place Damju & child as his main diplomatic goals in the very first place? Gen Hwang had already warned DD in the previous episode about Damju's precarious situation but Ha Muji disagreed. And DD went with HMJ's thinking.
Damju will soon be killed by MX's arrow but for me, DD was responsible for not taking her safety as his top priority in this episode 82 when both Houyan & Beiwei came begging for an alliance with him. He missed the opportunity to secure safe passage for Damju & child and he surely missed the only good chance to change her destiny.
Grade F for a great conqueror who shot his own wife by mistake, and sheer carelessness on his part for not safeguarding his own sister. Grade B-plus for our two female writers for making DD look like... well ... anything but a leader.
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All KBS historical dramas featuring scenes of fortresses under attack or of soldiers carrying rainbow-colored flags and running round & round in circles are filmed on location at their sprawling historical drama set at Mungyeongsaejae KBS Drama Studio, which doubles up as a tourist attraction.
KTO's website on the attraction http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1059813
That means as a tourist you can drop in uninvited anytime within opening hours, exactly what the foreign envoys habitually do to Damdeok when they suddenly arrive unannounced.... but tourists must pay a modest admission fee and you don't have to sit at that long table
All of Gwanggaeto's outdoor battle scenes are filmed there, especially the frequent scenes of fortresses under attack. Actually it's the same fortress gate (any one of 5 gates) that's being hounded by scores of film extras and the well-trained stunt horses.
You've seen this familiar scene below, yeah? Take a closer look and notice the white paved span over the ditch?
If the screencap doesn't auto-display, place your cursor over the icon, then right-click to view picture.....
What's funny is how the attacking force already have a ready made paved bridge, so in reality they don't reaaly need to bring their own portable bridges to bridge and run across that ditch.
Mr Lee Tae Gon aiming at the horse because it's a bigger target... what he should be doing is order his archers to direct their arrows on the enemies crossing the bridge
See those slackers on the 'bridge' just busily waving their flags while their buddies are being viciously murdered...pssst the secret is the flag wavers almost NEVER get killed .... dunno why, though....
When PD says 'jump', I fly..... wait! how come I don't see any mattress? aarrrggh!!
To be fair, that concrete span across the ditch was built to enable only authorised vehicles to move across into the sprawling studio set within ..... but it does stick out like a white elephant when they didn't bother to use CGI and make it look like part of the ditch.
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KBSW Ep 81 ... When Murong Xi becomes new king & Damdeok is still not thinking about Damju whose husband has just bitten the dust.
Brothers killing each other to usurp the throne has been as common as the world's oldest profession and even Mr Shakespeare has used the same theme and made himself famous & immortal.So what so new and different about Murong Xi overcoming the weakling Murong Bao? MX actually looks shocked and looks like he's been peeling onions for hours.
MB in fact had ordered MX to head north to take charge of Houyan's defenses after 5 of their fortresses fell to their unfriendly neighbors Beiwei. Then before even that could happen, suddenly Fengba finds proof of MX's treasonous act - based on a tip-off (plotted by Ha Muji actually), Fengba & his men finds a newly made King's robe in a shop.
The yellow gown is shown to MB who now gets the proof that his brother has already made royal robes well in advance - he's even more incensed at discovering the ultra-smooth fabric came from Italy (just kidding).
Then in a deception plotted this time by Murong Un, Fengba next finds a letter written by MX asking Damdeok for help - MX will save Houyan, become the emperor and make peace with Goguryeo by joining Damdeok at the sauna, and enjoy hot showers together.
BOOM SHAKA LAKA, says Fengba and shows the letter to MB - predictably MB scowls and snarls and fumes with sizzling steam coming out from both flared nostrils just like a grasshopper in heat and ready to mate.
In the short fight between our two friendly Murong brothers, before MB finally lunged himself at MX's sword, MB did succeed in destroying two potted plants.
Then in true k-drama fashion, the victorious brother, after having got what he wanted, looks shocked and starts tearing up, watery eyes and all.
Poor jumbo-ears Fengba found himself on the wrong side, again, attempting to defend the beleagured MB right to the end. In fact MX earlier at the start issued orders for his black-suited assassins (don't assassins have any other color besides black?) to kill Fengba but to no avail....our KBS writers find Fengba's jumbo ears too cute to kill off.
And finally after MB expires, you'd think both Murong Un & MX would gladly chop Fengba's head and dry-freeze his jumbo ears as souvenirs but Murong Un sits Fengba down and tells him:
YOU AREN'T A SERVANT OF THE EMPEROR. YOU ARE A SERVANT OF HOUYAN.
AN EMPEROR CAN CHANGE AT ANY TIME. YOU SHOULD SERVE HOUYAN, NOT THE EMPEROR.
This politicking is so like what happened when Obama after becoming President, appointed a certain ex-opponent of his and made her his Secretary of State.
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After hearing the power transfer in Houyan, it still didn't occur to Damdeok or Gen Hwang to pull Damju out of that place since she is no longer 'protected' under MB. Damdeok & his posse were in fact gloating that Ha Muji's plan to disrupt the peace and create civil strife worked to perfection and they were now planning what to do with houyan since they're still weak & reeling from the power struggle.
In the middle of this, in walks a weasel envoy from Beiwei, the same country that has just taken 5 Houyan fortresses. His purpose - he wants DD to coordinate a joint attack on Houyan and destroy Houyan forever.
Ladies & gentlement, I'm the weasel from Beiwei....
Then in the middle of thinking about the proposal, Damdeok is visited by envoy delegation from Houyan, led by MU & Fengba.... just look at how surprised the Beiwei weasel is when he sees their enemy standing not more 2 metres away.
And if you're wondering why the Goguryeons are sitting so far away from either envoys? Most likely one group hasn't showered for days and is producing overpowering body odour which could knock out 2 camels.
Check out the high level of cartography (map making) skills of the Goguryeons... the color-coded boundaries, accurate detailing of the coastline, plus the river flows and mountain ranges would put future pioneers in cartography to shame.
[Drama 2011] Gwanggaeto, The Great Conqueror 광개토태왕
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Posted
Let me rephrase that to ".... by 2021". Hehe!
You're spot on about Fengba ... he actually first appears in Ep 1 and he appears in finale ep 92. Wouldn't be surprised maybe he's married to one of the two scriptwriters, or both, because the only other person who has so much screentime is Dumb-deok.
The man really had to work his buns off running around in the Korean forest, screaming like a scorned woman in the battlefield everytime DD & his merry men & women drop in uninvited, shouting "KILL THEM ALL" multiple times before slashing enemy soldiers like a combined harvester and then at the long table meetings, he had to show off a range of stock expressions, from startled puppies look to snarling evilly like tabby cat in heat and the man is a master at showing that dastardly evil scheming look where the eyes narrow to slits (easier to do when his eyes are already beady-small) and the corners of the mouth slide upwards.
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At least the PDs didn't waste extra money casting teenaged actor to play Damdeok from the very beginning, likewise they also saved money by not introducing prince Jangsu, the real son of the real DD.
For whatever reason they gave, this KBS sageuk was reduced from 100 to 92 episodes and when you look back at the 91 episodes, you should thank your lucky stars ep 92 ended everyone's misery once and for all - I am referring to the viewers' torture at being presented with bad scripting with virtually no plot arcs, boring battle scenes that showed no strategy, extreme close-ups and more extreme close-ups as if we're really turned on by all the fake hair, fake facial hair and white teeth.
Having watched many past sageuks, I think Gwanggaeto is the first and only sageuk to make a principal character, Yakyeon as Damdeok's second wife, suddenly disappear from the plot. More surprising was the fact she was supposedly pregnant with his child, but lo and behold ..... abracadabra .... she never appeared again after her last scene with Murong Un who was being held captive at DD's palace.
Do not be fooled by the fact actor Lee Tae Gon won an award for this role because the award was presented by none other than KBS (Keeping Bullcrap Smelly) - this is like your school principal giving you an award that says BEST STUDENT IN KOREA when all you did was top the senior class in your own school.
All the 3 major broadcasters indulge in this annual self-praising, self-backpatting exercise in their respective Drama Awards ceremonies held in Dec every year. Furthermore if anyone thought this drama was a KBS blockbuster, how come only one award to only one actor from this 'great' sageuk?
KBS could also have given another award to another 'deserving' actor from this series, yeah?
For example they could have given an award to Fengba for "Best Comedic Actor in a Non-Comedic Role" or to actress Kim Jung Hwa for "Most Beautiful Female Bodyguard in a Historical Drama".
Was this the worst sageuk ever? Only time can tell because new sageuks are pumped out every year. The next one from KBS might well turn out to be another horrific disaster.
But if you enjoy watching sageuks where men speak in deep throaty voices, where soldiers drop dead after only one slash, and generals looking like startled scared puppies whenever a messenger dashes in to say,
JANG KUN, WE ARE IN TROUBLE. KBS HAS ANNOUNCED BUDGET CUTS & SOON WE WILL HAVE TO LOOK FOR ANOTHER DRAMA BECAUSE THEY ARE REDUCING THE EPISODES FOR THIS ONE. DUE TO SAME BUDGET CUTS, THERE WILL BE NO MORE HORSES AND SO GENERALS WILL BE RIDING ON WOODEN HORSES WITH MECHANICAL HYDRAULICS.