[Drama 2011] Gwanggaeto, The Great Conqueror 광개토태왕

[daunte29]

^^ watchumlots... I see you're on a comedic roll today, eh? Hehe!

Gwanggaeto The Musical ought to be as successful as a group of heavyweight sumo wrestlers performing ballet .... not in tights but in their traditional mawashi attire.

The sight of masses of man-flesh jiggling and wobbling in your face will joggle and whip your brains faster than Will Smith's Gettin' Jiggy Wit It!

Speaking of korean men in tights, this comedy skit may be just what's needed in a hypothetical Gwanggaeto Musical: OR-TENSION! OR-TENSION!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HI2B85suys

[watchumlots]

 @Dante29: 

Speaking of korean men in tights, this comedy skit may be just what's needed in a hypothetical Gwanggaeto Musical: OR-TENSION! OR-TENSION!

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=2HI2B85suys

OMO!  Thank you.  That was one of the funniest things I have seen.  And it looks EXACTLY like the kind of thing Gwanggaeto:  The Musical will need to be true to the series.  Actually, it looks a lot like the series; those guys could be Damdoek's minions sans armor.  

[daunte29]

Heads up folks.... according to the KBS World TV schedule for this weekend, GTGC broadcast times have been moved to a much earlier time slot.

For those of us in East Asia, it will now be screened at 1500 hrs, Korea time, rather than after their KBS primetime news at night.

I've appended the link below so you folks can check the timings in your part of the world. CHeers!

KBS WORLD TV Schedule Sat 24 March

Click on the drop-down box to adjust the timezone and you can do the same to the date shown.

[daunte29]

KBSW Ep75.... I Spy, You Spy?, They Spy?, Who's the Spy?

The fun episode started with Murong Bao banging the table with BOTH hands and shouting:

MB: FENGBA! WHY ARE YOU RUINING EVERYTHING?

FENGBA speaking in meek pussycat voice: I'M SORREE.

MB: WHAT GOOD IS AN APOLOGY? NOTHING YOU DID EVER WENT WELL!

[ THREE Cheers for MB for finally realising what the senior citizens at the Houyan Home For The Aged already knew since ep 1.]

And that's when Fengba tells everyone the reason why he's failed again is due to a special species of termites living within their palace walls and ceilings called SPY.

And so to pacify his angry king, Fengba needs to catch the spy, and ep75 pretty much shows us how incompetent Houyan palace officials go about catching a spy, who we all know is the lovely babelicious Damju, with her awesome cheekbones.

Even jumbo-ears Fengba suspects it's her but his pea-brain just couldn't hatch a grade A plan; so he did the next best thing - capture Ha Muji part-time sidekick Changmyeong and in true Korean-style torture, burn the truth out of him by roasting his thighs.

Now you must understand that the happy-go-lucky staff at the top-secret Houyan Center For Pain & Information Extraction are superbly good at their job - they can make their victims scream in pain non-stop and yet there has not been an accidental death so far.

But even the hot ironbar and sizzling male flesh couldn't make Changmyeong talk so Fengba took it upon himself to beat the truth out of him - 5 lashes were all it took for Fengba to be told that the spy was Murong Un.

Fengba instantly got mad because he knew the chap was lying but a hearbeat later Fengba was walking briskly and then walking hurriedly and walking some more just to reach MU's hotel, arrest him and put a wooden chopping board around his neck.

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REALITY PAUSE: This is how badly deep and deeply bad our writers have sunk - all viewers know the real spy is Damju - heck, even Fengba himself knows it could only be her - but they had to make MU wear that wooden chopping board around his neck if only to hammer home the following:

1. Fengba is really dumber than any Houyan general who has lived or died since then.... the heavens gave him jumbo-ears to compensate for his tiny brain.

2. MU still doesn't realize that Houyans do not trust him nor his bedmate Batar. Houyans still believe MU wears two flags in his Calvin Klein underwear.

3. It's more fun to torture MU first because then we will truly see if he wears two flags in his shorts and anything else he keeps down there.

4. All that above only shows the regular KBS writers are on vacation in Bali and the scripting was done by a group of college students, but don't say you heard it from this thread.

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Meantime Seol Ji delivers a message from the office fax to Damdeok with the good news that Batar and the Biryeos are planning a rebellion. One glance at the above screencap will tell you Batar has major problems of his own and is far from playing rebel leader.

After banging the table and shouting "WTF IS YEON SALTA DOING IN BIRYEO? WHY MUST I ALWAYS JUMP ONTO MY HORSE AND RIDE FOR DAYS IN ORDER TO PROTECT WHAT'S NOT MY LAND IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

The Biryeo girl called ARI whom General Seok Jae wants to do naughty things with in her bedroom volunteers to go to Biryeo to find out the real situation but after days of waiting, actually only a few minutes had transpired, DD received no fax, no email or twitter from her, and so our Great King finally jumps on his horse and followed by his power rangers, giddy-ups to Biryeo.

This sideplot by our stand-in college scriptwriters was to give MU the chance to prove he's NOT THE SPY - he was the one who sent 'false' messages to lure Damdeok into thinking Yeon Salta has been having one too many orgies with the Biryeo sheep and goats, ad that Baltar is going to expel all Goguryeons from his land.

Additionally MU has also cut off all messengers' links between Goguryeo & Biryeo - hence DD has received no word from Ari.

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Even by college stage drama standards, it makes DD look like a total doofus:

1. DD knows and trusts Yeon Salta who IN REALITY would have a garrison of a few hundred men at least if not more. Don't you think YS would have despatched messengers to DD the moment they were under attack? Doesn't DD trust YS enough to know YS would have alerted DD long before trouble started?

2. Yes, the writers tell us MU has cut off all the messengers' traffic between Goguryeo & Biryeo.... and how many of you fell for that stupidity? Are you aware how long the border is between Biryeo & Goguryeo? Where has MU got the manpower to in effect seal off the long borders between the two lands? Messengers on horses do not need roads to go where they want.

3. Even General Hwang thinks it could be a Houyan ploy to lure DD out of Goguryeo and yet DD takes no precautions? Why can't DD send just Hwang and his few yes-men to Biryeo to check things out? Why must DD ALWAYS BE THE ONE to gallop over there and gallop over here to SET THINGS RIGHT?

Is that why the poor Great King died young - from physical exhaustion surely, at having to do everything, from exposing sex-crazed castle lords to unconfirmed reports of a rebellion and all the while he's not even planning to protect his only sister Damju or secretly smuggle her out from the Houyan palace, with or without her permission?

And can anyone, please tell me why the heck Ha Muji is still staying at the envoys' quarters in Houyan palace? Shouldn't he be at DD's side advising him to first pull Damju permanently out of the danger zone and then perhaps telling DD to adopt a wait-n-see attitude regarding Biryeo's situation?

Remember Ha MJ first came to Houyan palace to check on Damju and her invisible baby and then assess the brotherly ties between MB & MX before MC croaked.... but look at how long HMJ has since been enjoying the free good food and herbal body massage given by Houyan palace maidens?

Or more likely HMJ is enjoying daily private yoga lessons conducted by Houyan palace eunuchs in skintight spandex who are more graceful in doing the splits and bending over backwards and forwards at ease?

Speaking of spandex, has anyone ever wondered why DD & his entire posse insists on wearing full battle armor in every indoor scene? Do they really expect enemy commandos to come blasting in with their flashbangs while they're at the long table busily discussing the dinner menu items? Or izzit their armor is to fend off bloodthirsty Houyan mosquitos?

[Guest flydolesqueue]

This content has been removed by a moderator.

[viktoria]

KBSW Ep75.... I Spy, You Spy?, They Spy?, Who's the Spy?

The fun episode started with Murong Bao banging the table with BOTH hands and shouting:

MB: FENGBA! WHY ARE YOU RUINING EVERYTHING?

FENGBA speaking in meek pussycat voice: I'M SORREE.

MB: WHAT GOOD IS AN APOLOGY? NOTHING YOU DID EVER WENT WELL!

[ THREE Cheers for MB for finally realising what the senior citizens at the Houyan Home For The Aged already knew since ep 1.]

And that's when Fengba tells everyone the reason why he's failed again is due to a special species of termites living within their palace walls and ceilings called SPY.

And so to pacify his angry king, Fengba needs to catch the spy, and ep75 pretty much shows us how incompetent Houyan palace officials go about catching a spy, who we all know is the lovely babelicious Damju, with her awesome cheekbones.

Even jumbo-ears Fengba suspects it's her but his pea-brain just couldn't hatch a grade A plan; so he did the next best thing - capture Ha Muji part-time sidekick Changmyeong and in true Korean-style torture, burn the truth out of him by roasting his thighs.

Now you must understand that the happy-go-lucky staff at the top-secret Houyan Center For Pain & Information Extraction are superbly good at their job - they can make their victims scream in pain non-stop and yet there has not been an accidental death so far.

But even the hot ironbar and sizzling male flesh couldn't make Changmyeong talk so Fengba took it upon himself to beat the truth out of him - 5 lashes were all it took for Fengba to be told that the spy was Murong Un.

Fengba instantly got mad because he knew the chap was lying but a hearbeat later Fengba was walking briskly and then walking hurriedly and walking some more just to reach MU's hotel, arrest him and put a wooden chopping board around his neck.

I've heard of putting one's neck on the chopping block but they never said anything about being tied up as well.

Why izzit Batar's long hair is allowed to drape over his board while my hair is bunched up so tightly below my chin ?

*quoted image*

[ They say truth is stranger than fiction; obviously whoever penned those words do not know that KBS drama writers are true experts at making fiction ridiculously stranger than truth and that, my friends, is nothing else but the truth. ]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

REALITY PAUSE: This is how badly deep and deeply bad our writers have sunk - all viewers know the real spy is Damju - heck, even Fengba himself knows it could only be her - but they had to make MU wear that wooden chopping board around his neck if only to hammer home the following:

1. Fengba is really dumber than any Houyan general who has lived or died since then.... the heavens gave him jumbo-ears to compensate for his tiny brain.

2. MU still doesn't realize that Houyans do not trust him nor his bedmate Batar. Houyans still believe MU wears two flags in his Calvin Klein underwear.

3. It's more fun to torture MU first because then we will truly see if he wears two flags in his shorts and anything else he keeps down there.

4. All that above only shows the regular KBS writers are on vacation in Bali and the scripting was done by a group of college students, but don't say you heard it from this thread.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meantime Seol Ji delivers a message from the office fax to Damdeok with the good news that Batar and the Biryeos are planning a rebellion. One glance at the above screencap will tell you Batar has major problems of his own and is far from playing rebel leader.

After banging the table and shouting "WTF IS YEON SALTA DOING IN BIRYEO? WHY MUST I ALWAYS JUMP ONTO MY HORSE AND RIDE FOR DAYS IN ORDER TO PROTECT WHAT'S NOT MY LAND IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

The Biryeo girl called ARI whom General Seok Jae wants to do naughty things with in her bedroom volunteers to go to Biryeo to find out the real situation but after days of waiting, actually only a few minutes had transpired, DD received no fax, no email or twitter from her, and so our Great King finally jumps on his horse and followed by his power rangers, giddy-ups to Biryeo.

This sideplot by our stand-in college scriptwriters was to give MU the chance to prove he's NOT THE SPY - he was the one who sent 'false' messages to lure Damdeok into thinking Yeon Salta has been having one too many orgies with the Biryeo sheep and goats, ad that Baltar is going to expel all Goguryeons from his land.

Additionally MU has also cut off all messengers' links between Goguryeo & Biryeo - hence DD has received no word from Ari.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even by college stage drama standards, it makes DD look like a total doofus:

1. DD knows and trusts Yeon Salta who IN REALITY would have a garrison of a few hundred men at least if not more. Don't you think YS would have despatched messengers to DD the moment they were under attack? Doesn't DD trust YS enough to know YS would have alerted DD long before trouble started?

2. Yes, the writers tell us MU has cut off all the messengers' traffic between Goguryeo & Biryeo.... and how many of you fell for that stupidity? Are you aware how long the border is between Biryeo & Goguryeo? Where has MU got the manpower to in effect seal off the long borders between the two lands? Messengers on horses do not need roads to go where they want.

3. Even General Hwang thinks it could be a Houyan ploy to lure DD out of Goguryeo and yet DD takes no precautions? Why can't DD send just Hwang and his few yes-men to Biryeo to check things out? Why must DD ALWAYS BE THE ONE to gallop over there and gallop over here to SET THINGS RIGHT?

Is that why the poor Great King died young - from physical exhaustion surely, at having to do everything, from exposing sex-crazed castle lords to unconfirmed reports of a rebellion and all the while he's not even planning to protect his only sister Damju or secretly smuggle her out from the Houyan palace, with or without her permission?

And can anyone, please tell me why the heck Ha Muji is still staying at the envoys' quarters in Houyan palace? Shouldn't he be at DD's side advising him to first pull Damju permanently out of the danger zone and then perhaps telling DD to adopt a wait-n-see attitude regarding Biryeo's situation?

Remember Ha MJ first came to Houyan palace to check on Damju and her invisible baby and then assess the brotherly ties between MB & MX before MC croaked.... but look at how long HMJ has since been enjoying the free good food and herbal body massage given by Houyan palace maidens?

Or more likely HMJ is enjoying daily private yoga lessons conducted by Houyan palace eunuchs in skintight spandex who are more graceful in doing the splits and bending over backwards and forwards at ease?

Speaking of spandex, has anyone ever wondered why DD & his entire posse insists on wearing full battle armor in every indoor scene? Do they really expect enemy commandos to come blasting in with their flashbangs while they're at the long table busily discussing the dinner menu items? Or izzit their armor is to fend off bloodthirsty Houyan mosquitos?

i haven't seen the last four episodes of the drama. i used to wake up early just to watch the current episode. i'm just not very eager to watch it anymore but i enjoy reading your posts daunte29 and the other posters. they are more interesting.

[daunte29]

i haven't seen the last four episodes of the drama. i used to wake up early just to watch the current episode. i'm just not very eager to watch it anymore but i enjoy reading your posts daunte29 and the other posters. they are more interesting.

Thank you, viktoria.

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Ep 75 .... supplemental

As far as we can tell, Damdeok & his posse are still holed up in Magoseong (the Goguryeo migrants' enclave in Houyan) and what that means is this: his main army (plus his famed cavalry) is no where near.

Put simply, DD & his posse are still deep inside Houyan territory (which of course doesn't make logical sense since the real DD would have left Houyan after settling last week's case).

Now if you're Murong Bao or Murong Un or Batar or Lex Luthor with the lifelong ambition of killing DD, isn't now the best time to surround the Magoseong fortress with thousands of Houyan elite troops, fight your way in and then capture DD & his posse?

DD wouldn't even be able to despatch messengers because he'd already be surrounded unless he brought some homing pigeons to send back to Goguryeo's capital where his only wife Yakyeon might .... just might be able to mount a rescue force to fight their way into Houyan and then fight their remaining way, all the way to Magoseong.

If any surviving Goguryeo troops do reach Magoseong, DD & his posse would already be locked up somewhere else in the territory of Houyan, eating stale bread and fresh well-water as daily sustenance. If diarrhoea doesn't kill them, eventually, the mosquitos, rats and roaches would probably finish them off.

How is DD, his posse & whatever soldiers he has at his disposal in Magoseong gonna be able to fight off thousands of Houyans determined to tattoo their names on his body?

Then there's no need to lure DD away to Biryeo and have Batar & his merry-men stage an ambush because as we ll know by now after 75 episodes, out of the countless ambushes staged on DD, NOT A SINGLE ONE has even left a scar on him.

Just imagine DD wearing the wooden chopping block and he's stripped down to his swimming trunks and hanging from the ceiling while the happy-go-lucky staff at the Houyan Center for Pain & Information Extraction are busy giving DD full-body tattoos - etching all sorts of Houyan national slogans, logos, insignias and flags.... and plastered right across DD's forehead: I LOVE HOUYAN! FOREVER!

This alternate scenario just reiterates the point that a REAL DD would never consider going to Houyan in the first place as part of a condolence delegation because quite literally, he'd be walking into enemy homeland with no credible means of defending himself should the Houyans decide to give DD a one-way ticket to join the deceased Murong Chui. All thanks to our KBS writers for coming up with this ludicrous idea.

[Moosegender]

The other drama, Soldier, is getting really good.

[daunte29]

KBSW Ep 76..... when a non-spy admits to being THE SPY, to save a princess.

The story thus far had to resolve the unmasking of Damju as the real spy for Goguryeo, and ep 76 did it wonderfully!

For once I'm not being sarcastic when I say ep 76 is one damn good unravelling of the spy, and just when Damju was about to face the heavenly music in front of her husband, out steps the sacrificial lamb who declared himself to be THE SPY, and so Damju lives on for a few more episodes in the Houyan palace together with her invisible baby.

I must admit I did not see THAT coming - how the writers threw a curve-ball (finally) and gave everyone a HUGE SURPRISE - but the most surprised was Murong Ba, Murong Xi, Fengba & even Murong Un.

There was one outstanding scene in Damju's quarters (and that shocked me too because it was amazingly well-scripted and actress Jo An gave a sterling royal performance, especially the moment Murong Un & his asst Do Gwang left, and Damju dropped her mask and indeed showed cold fear at the prospect of being executed, in spite of the RAH_RAH speech she just gave). Here's the reason Damju gave Murong Un & Do Gwang as to why she did what she did:

DAMJU: THE PRIDE & HONOR OF BEING A GOGURYEO CITIZEN & THE FUTURE OF THE GOGURYEO PEOPLE. YOU ARE SUFFERING SINCE YOU ABANDONED THAT. I'M SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING.

MU: THAT'S NOT WORTH MORE THAN YOUR LIFE. IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, LIE. YOU SHOULD SPARE YOUR LIFE.

DAMJU: I.... I'M GOING TO PROTECT MY HONOR. I WON'T LIVE WITH REGRETS LIKE YOU.

While her words didn't affect MU, I think her words did strike a chord in MU's asst Do Gwang.... a relatively insignificant sidekick character so far but his unexpected valiant act did save Damju from joining Doyoung in the afterlife.

Damju's look of fear upon knowing her time's up is what reminds me that this drama, for all its silliness, is still damn entertaining and makes for delightful watching on weekends.

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Ep 76 did also give us many more scenes of unintended humor like more juicy close-ups of jumbo-ears Fengba who showed us his range of facial expressions:

1. puppy-dog eyes look when MB again shouts at him, followed by the fine mist of saliva spray hitting Fengba's facial pores;

2. horrified look of dismay when MB caves in again to DD'd bully tactics and demands;

3. creepy sly look when hatching or executing a dastardly plot;

4. squint-eyes look of supreme overconfidence, soon to be followed by,

5. jaw-dropping look of utter shock at being outplayed, again.

Even though he's in a supporting role, Fengba shows more range of emotions in an entertaining way than the other hero in the other sageuk, who's only capable of two expressions: serious and crying/wailing. Mind you, that chap was supposed to be an ex-monk but you wouldn't know that at the speed in which he starts to cry buckets, and man, if there's one thing I cannot stand is watching Korean male actors cry and cry, in every episode!

I believe many Korean male actors actually regard crying and wailing to be good acting, and that's why they practise very hard, but for me, it's the ability to hold back the tears, even as they keep welling up, and to refrain from fullblown crying and that resistance makes the facial muscles twitch ever so slightly and/or tremble - NOW THAT's good acting and Jo An gave us a glimpse of that in her pivotal scene with MU described above.

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In the end scene of Ep 76, as DD & his posse finally leaves Zhongsan, the Houyan capital, he actually delivers a speech which amounts to: I'LL BE BACK.... TO CONQUER HOUYAN TERRITORY WHICH DD SAYS BELONGS TO THEIR ANCESTORS.

This undisguised threat of future invasion is an offshoot of what he told his posse at the start of ep 75 yesterday - that DD finds the Houyan soil to be absolutely the best for farmland and if Goguryeo OWNS such fertile farmland in future, generations of Goguryeons would never face starvation.

Of course what DD and the writers didn't dare to say was 'WHAT ABOUT THE HOUYANS WHO CURRENTLY OWN THE LAND AND ARE ALSO DEPENDING ON THE SAME FARMLAND FOR SURVIVAL?

WHAT RIGHTS DO THE GOGURYEONS HAVE TO INVADE HOUYAN AND TAKE OVER THE LIVELIHOODS OF HOUYANS?

Is it legitimate enough in the olden times to just say 'HEY THIS LAND OF YOURS USED TO BELONG TO MY ANCESTORS AND SO NOW I'M JUST RETAKING BACK WHAT WAS ONCE MINE".

[Guest flydolesqueue]

This content has been removed by a moderator.

[daunte29]

If not for Murong Un's asst coming forward and basically giving up his life by falsely confessing to be the spy, instead of Damju, DD would have just sat there unable to do anything to save his own sister.

There he was making threats at Murong Bao about protecting hundreds (thousands?) of Goguryeo migrants in Houyan from being ethnically cleansed by the Houyans but he cannot even lift a finger to save Damju.

By all accounts he should try every trick in his trickbook to protect and save Damju from being charged with treason and being executed, if only for one reason: Damju is still more useful to him alive than dead for she's the only eyes and ears within the Houyan palace.

Of course some folks might say BUT THEN SHE WOULD HAVE DIED WITH HONOR. SHE KNEW THE RISKS.

But I'm more inclined to agree with Murong Un's logic (for once the man did talk sense) - NO LIFE IS WORTH JUST THROWING AWAY JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BE LOYAL FOR YOUR NATION.

Remember that MU is the same turncoat spy who sold Goguryeo military secrets to the Houyans and here he's THE ONLY PERSON trying to knock some sense into Damju's misguided patriotism.

NOT DD, not Ha Muji but the traitor MU who made the last minute attempt to show a way out for Damju.

This is the kind of surprising plot twists we don't see enough of in GTGC, but I'm glad the writers did do it here.

It made me feel good that our KBS writers had their heads screwed on properly for ep 76 but I'm not expecting them to continue with this sort of entertaining twists.

[watchumlots]

Dang!  Here in sunny So Cal where we are at the mercy of COX cable, we are apparently a few episodes behind Duante29's postings.  Will watch tonight's episode to determine  how far behind.  Here, Doyeong is still living and loving,  think maybe she will meet her end tonight.  

I was reading an archaeological article about the Gwanggaeto stele found in what is now China and how Chinese scholars are disputing the Koreans ever got that far north. Just because a monument to a Korean figure is found in their country doesn't mean Koreans put it there!  

Koreans everywhere should be blasting KBS for portraying a national, historic, heroic figure as such a freakin' dweeb!  And poor Lee Taegon.  This definitely won't enhance his prospects.  

[daunte29]

Interesting screencaps from GTGC latest ep 82 aired on 120325:

I think the writers have used the 'time leap forward' device because as you can see below:

1. their eyebrows are drawn thicker and false facial hair increased slightly in volume;

2. Damju's invisible baby is no more invisible and no more a baby (proving once again mother's milk can accelerate growth beyond your wildest imagination)

3. Damdeok's long table just got longer - can you imagine the last guy (closest to camera) raising his hand and asking:

PEY-HA, CAN YOU PLEASE SPEAK UP BECAUSE I CAN BARELY HEAR YOUR DEEP VOICE.

CAN I ALSO ASK WHEN IS OUR TEA BREAK? KAHM-SAMNIDA PEY-HA!

[viktoria]

Interesting screencaps from GTGC latest ep 82 aired on 120325:

I think the writers have used the 'time leap forward' device because as you can see below:

1. their eyebrows are drawn thicker and false facial hair increased slightly in volume;

2. Damju's invisible baby is no more invisible and no more a baby (proving once again mother's milk can accelerate growth beyond your wildest imagination)

3. Damdeok's long table just got longer - can you imagine the last guy (closest to camera) raising his hand and asking:

PEY-HA, CAN YOU PLEASE SPEAK UP BECAUSE I CAN BARELY HEAR YOUR DEEP VOICE.

CAN I ALSO ASK WHEN IS OUR TEA BREAK? KAHM-SAMNIDA PEY-HA!

*quoted image*

what about YY's baby? Damju's baby is already big so future King Jangsu should be big too already.

[daunte29]

what about YY's baby? Damju's baby is already big so future King Jangsu should be big too already.

Yup. that's one of the biggest mysteries since the disappearance of Atlantis.

Unlike the lost empire of Atlantis, we're pretty sure Yakyeon was last seen (if I remember correctly) talking to Murong Un in Gungnaseong when MU was being held and questioned for stealing Goguryo's military secrets, and in a later episode, she was seen at one long table meeting wth DD and posse.

I'm guessing that the writers are going to do the same 'time leap forward' device and suddenly show King Jangsu in one future remaining episode (100 - 82 = 18 left total), with or without Yakyeon.

Or when DD finally climbs the stairway to heaven to join his Goguryo alumni, a voiceover narration will simple tell us he was succeeded by his son (without even hiring an actor to represent Jangsu) who built a stele for him, and continued to have more long table meetings, blah, blah blah....

[daunte29]

Don't fall off your seat.... that's NOT Jangsu.

Actress Kim Jung Hwa a.k.a Seol Ji is the MC & ambassador for an MBC reality charity program called Hope Project Sharing Happiness - recently it was reported that since its broadcast which began in mid-2011, donations has exceeded expectations and surpassed the 100 million won mark (137.22M won).

The money is donated by MBC to an NGO - Food For The Hungry - to fund its ongoing food aid efforts globally.

The press release stated that most of the whopping donations response was due to Kim Jung Hwa's active participation in the project and also her charisma in hosting the program. It was also mentioned that Kim Jung Hwa is playing a female warrior in GTGC weekend drama, and any publicity is better than no publicity at all.

Perhaps this might deter the writers from killing her off prematurely & actually, KJH herself doesn't many lines to memorize other than 'YEA PEY HA'.

[watchumlots]

18 episodes remain?  That is 9 more weeks !  

It is like those interminable episodes of Wang Gunh, interminable.  

Yeah, whatever happened to Damdeok's queenie?  Where are the royal consorts?  

Damdoek told his sister when he sold her that he would bring her back.  Yes, she is worth more alive, he can use her son as a reason to legitimize whacking the Houyans, per the episode where Doyeong bites the dust.  

Daunte29 - off topic --->  WHAT IS UP WITH Kiyomori?  Why are all the samurais dirty and grungy and all the aristocrats rheumy?  The aristocrats have pasty skin and rheumy eyes, is it from a life of pampered excess?  Is there a Kiyomori site?  The entire setting is so much different from Gou, where is this one going?  UTB broadcast Episode 4 this weekend, how many episodes total?  The pacing seems to be similar to Gou's:  snails will pass it.  

[daunte29]

Daunte29 - off topic --->  WHAT IS UP WITH Kiyomori?  Why are all the samurais dirty and grungy and all the aristocrats rheumy?  The aristocrats have pasty skin and rheumy eyes, is it from a life of pampered excess?  Is there a Kiyomori site?  The entire setting is so much different from Gou, where is this one going?  UTB broadcast Episode 4 this weekend, how many episodes total?  The pacing seems to be similar to Gou's:  snails will pass it.  

This is in reply to watchumlots query about, and only, about the current NHK taiga (historical drama) and since it's off-topic, I've put the message in the spoiler box so I hope none of you would be distracted.

So please don't read if you're not interested. Thanks.

The grimy dusty environment turned off many Japanese viewers in the very first episode and many at that time wrongly assumed it was due to some 'technical' glitch - NHK did receive many complaints about the 'poor' 'low standard' cinematography but now we know this dusty scruffy look is indeed the main 'style' of this taiga.

I dropped this taiga after 6 episodes because there's hardly any big battle scenes or fight scenes (other than the very lame few) and the characters are indeed acting Kabuki-style with mostly everyone showing constipated expressions and they (the actors & writers) use this an an excuse to say DON'T JUDGE WHAT GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT BECAUSE NO ONE CAN BE TRUSTED.

Last year many slammed Gou for being too simplistic, the miscasting of Ueno Juri, predictable storyline (although I myself enjoyed every Gou episode) but I think Kiyomori has sunk itself even deeper.

To be fair, its ratings so far are only slightly lower (on average) than Gou's but given the many more superstars including the A-list stars making guest appearances in Kiyomori, one would have thought its ratings would be phenomenal. But the Japanese were not fooled by the complicated storyline and flat acting.

NHK taigas by tradition are shown only on Sundays every week until the last Sunday in December 2012 (assuming the ancient Mayans were wrong about their doomsday prediction in November 2012).

this is the official NHK site for Kiyomori but in Japanese only... a webpage translator can give you limited conversion to English.

http://www9.nhk.or.jp/kiyomori/

[viktoria]

Don't fall off your seat.... that's NOT Jangsu.

Actress Kim Jung Hwa a.k.a Seol Ji is the MC & ambassador for an MBC reality charity program called Hope Project Sharing Happiness - recently it was reported that since its broadcast which began in mid-2011, donations has exceeded expectations and surpassed the 100 million won mark (137.22M won).

The money is donated by MBC to an NGO - Food For The Hungry - to fund its ongoing food aid efforts globally.

Much of that whopping donations response was due to Kim Jung Hwa's active participation in the project and also her charisma in hosting the program. It was also mentioned that Kim Jung Hwa is playing a female warrior in GTGC weekend drama, and any publicity is better than no publicity at all.

Perhaps this might deter the writers from killing her off prematurely & actually, KJH herself doesn't many lines to memorize other than 'YEA PEY HA'.

*quoted image*

:lol: daunte29, that's really funny.

[Guest DJG]

Wait so Damju did end up sleeping with the Houyan prince. Well, I guess she had no choice.

I just started watching Gou, because I needed an historical drama fix, since GTGC sucks majorly. So far I am enjoying it, it is a bit slow, but I am just watching as this is my first historical Jdrama. I also don't watch a lot of Jdramas, the last one I watched to completion was Jotei. Watching the battle scenes from Gou, puts GTGC to shame big time.

Does anyone have recommendations for other good dramas.