kdrama review: hong gil dong
Apr. 22nd, 2008 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cb_backupI've been watching a lot of kdramas recently, and have mixed feelings about them. I like them more than jdramas because they seem more professional, from the picture quality to the writing to the acting, and for the most part the characterization doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out. But at the same time, the pacing and quality of kdramas is very uneven. I really liked both Hong Gil Dong and The Legend in the beginning, but in the second half, each episode they progressively got worse, and with The Legend, by the end even the characters I'd adored left me indifferent, and the storylines I'd found interesting had somehow turned so dull.
I'm currently watching Time of Dog & Wolf, which aside from the romance story I'm finding very interesting (and it totally doesn't hurt that the guy in the king & the clown is the lead - so much eye-candy XD). I can't really rec it, though, because I'm only up to episode seven, and who knows if it will degenerate the same way as the others have done.
Anyway, review.
Hong Gil Dong's somewhat of a Robin Hood tale (though, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tarigwaemir pointed out in the comments, isn't an adaptation of the story but is based on a Korean novel) set in an ancient korean period that reminds me of France before the revolution, where the nobles lived in luxury on the back of the peasants. Hong Gil Dong's the illegitimate son of a noble, but because of inheritance laws is regarded as little better than a slave. For most of the first episode he goes around wrecking havoc and generally acting as a frat boy on kung-fu steroids; then various stuff happens, such as him getting framed for robbery then murder then treason, and he undergoes a Joseph Campbell-type transformation and becomes a hero.
The thing that makes this drama great is how compelling and believable and non-cliche HGD's transformation is, how seamlessly the drama goes from moments of complete hilarity to heartbreak, and how clever the dialogue and writing is. The characterization, with one exception, is completely awesome. Aside from HGD there is also the prince trying to lead a revolution against his insane brother, and the story is as much about him becoming a king as about HGD becoming a hero, and the way these two interacted, how they prodded and pushed and challenged each other, was amazing. One of my favorite moments in the series is their first swordfight (you can find a screencap of it, as well as the prince, in this post) which is probably the best fight scene I've seen ever.
I said that the characterization, with one exception, was awesome. The exception was the female lead, Yi Nok. I liked her in the first couple of episodes, where with her grandfather she was trying to trick the townspeople into buying bogus medicine. But after that she become so extremely stupid, and I'm talking stupid in a 'think of all the blonde jokes you've ever heard and multiply them by a hundred' way. This is totally not an exaggeration, btw. As just one example, a scene where Yi Nok's rescuer is trying to keep his identity secret:
rescuer: Do not come any closer, young lass. Because of my circumstances, I cannot reveal my true identity.
Y Nok: Please tell me your name.
rescuer: In a fate as fleeting as the passing wind, what is the use of knowing each other’s names? Let us merely think of this encounter as briefly mingling our scents underneath the moonlight sky.
Y Nok [sniffing the air]: But I don’t smell anything.
rescuer: This is as close as we come. Do not come any nearer and alight my chest with flames.
Y Nok: But I don’t have any fire.
rescuer: Your gaze is like kindling that enflames a man’s heart. The fire has gone out, so like wisps of smoke, adieu.
Y Nok: Are you telling me to get lost, like smoke? Okay. I’ll leave.
...and that is not even the worst of it. I keyboard mash. A lot.
But, on the whole, in the beginning, I loved this drama, and was ready to rec it with glowy-eyed praise, until I stumbled over later developments, which made me hate it.
So my favorite character in this drama had been the prince. When he was really young, his brother the king had tried to kill him, thinking that he was a threat, and his mother had died saving him, and ever since he'd been hiding out and on the run, trying to plan a revolution to overthrow his brother, and he was rather ruthless about it too. The revolution almost succeeded, but then HGD came along and messed up his plans, and for a few episodes they were deadly enemies before the prince decided that hey, this guy could be pretty useful. And, like I said before, their whole enemies/friends relationship was a thing of beauty. The way they both challenged each other - HGD was the only person who ever asked the prince why he deserved to be the king, made him question his beliefs and ruthlessness, and the prince was the one who finally got HGD (through such clever, clever intrigue) to stop running away and face his father, and later on in the series the prince almost dies saving HGD's life, and HGD risked his for the sake of the prince, and it all alternately amusing and touching. Until the end, when we find out that once upon a time the king had also been a benevolent, reform-minded ruler, that he'd only turned into an insane tyrant after he'd found out that his father wanted the prince to be the king. And after the prince kills the king and becomes king himself, he finds out that HEY, his life had been based on a lie, their father hadn't wanted him to become king after all, it was all a hoax perpetuated by his mom. And he goes insane from insecurity, kills HGD off, and it's quite clear by the end that he's going to end up just like his brother, a crazy isolated tyrant. And, yeah, I know the whole power corrupts thing, but I do not want that to happen to my favorite character! It's like, pretend you were a kid and found out that guy dressed up as Santa Claus was actually a child-molesting axe-murderer. It's a bit too much depressing realism for me; would have preferred the prince to end up dead.
I'm currently watching Time of Dog & Wolf, which aside from the romance story I'm finding very interesting (and it totally doesn't hurt that the guy in the king & the clown is the lead - so much eye-candy XD). I can't really rec it, though, because I'm only up to episode seven, and who knows if it will degenerate the same way as the others have done.
Anyway, review.
Hong Gil Dong's somewhat of a Robin Hood tale (though, as
tarigwaemir pointed out in the comments, isn't an adaptation of the story but is based on a Korean novel) set in an ancient korean period that reminds me of France before the revolution, where the nobles lived in luxury on the back of the peasants. Hong Gil Dong's the illegitimate son of a noble, but because of inheritance laws is regarded as little better than a slave. For most of the first episode he goes around wrecking havoc and generally acting as a frat boy on kung-fu steroids; then various stuff happens, such as him getting framed for robbery then murder then treason, and he undergoes a Joseph Campbell-type transformation and becomes a hero. The thing that makes this drama great is how compelling and believable and non-cliche HGD's transformation is, how seamlessly the drama goes from moments of complete hilarity to heartbreak, and how clever the dialogue and writing is. The characterization, with one exception, is completely awesome. Aside from HGD there is also the prince trying to lead a revolution against his insane brother, and the story is as much about him becoming a king as about HGD becoming a hero, and the way these two interacted, how they prodded and pushed and challenged each other, was amazing. One of my favorite moments in the series is their first swordfight (you can find a screencap of it, as well as the prince, in this post) which is probably the best fight scene I've seen ever.
I said that the characterization, with one exception, was awesome. The exception was the female lead, Yi Nok. I liked her in the first couple of episodes, where with her grandfather she was trying to trick the townspeople into buying bogus medicine. But after that she become so extremely stupid, and I'm talking stupid in a 'think of all the blonde jokes you've ever heard and multiply them by a hundred' way. This is totally not an exaggeration, btw. As just one example, a scene where Yi Nok's rescuer is trying to keep his identity secret:
rescuer: Do not come any closer, young lass. Because of my circumstances, I cannot reveal my true identity.
Y Nok: Please tell me your name.
rescuer: In a fate as fleeting as the passing wind, what is the use of knowing each other’s names? Let us merely think of this encounter as briefly mingling our scents underneath the moonlight sky.
Y Nok [sniffing the air]: But I don’t smell anything.
rescuer: This is as close as we come. Do not come any nearer and alight my chest with flames.
Y Nok: But I don’t have any fire.
rescuer: Your gaze is like kindling that enflames a man’s heart. The fire has gone out, so like wisps of smoke, adieu.
Y Nok: Are you telling me to get lost, like smoke? Okay. I’ll leave.
...and that is not even the worst of it. I keyboard mash. A lot.
But, on the whole, in the beginning, I loved this drama, and was ready to rec it with glowy-eyed praise, until I stumbled over later developments, which made me hate it.
So my favorite character in this drama had been the prince. When he was really young, his brother the king had tried to kill him, thinking that he was a threat, and his mother had died saving him, and ever since he'd been hiding out and on the run, trying to plan a revolution to overthrow his brother, and he was rather ruthless about it too. The revolution almost succeeded, but then HGD came along and messed up his plans, and for a few episodes they were deadly enemies before the prince decided that hey, this guy could be pretty useful. And, like I said before, their whole enemies/friends relationship was a thing of beauty. The way they both challenged each other - HGD was the only person who ever asked the prince why he deserved to be the king, made him question his beliefs and ruthlessness, and the prince was the one who finally got HGD (through such clever, clever intrigue) to stop running away and face his father, and later on in the series the prince almost dies saving HGD's life, and HGD risked his for the sake of the prince, and it all alternately amusing and touching. Until the end, when we find out that once upon a time the king had also been a benevolent, reform-minded ruler, that he'd only turned into an insane tyrant after he'd found out that his father wanted the prince to be the king. And after the prince kills the king and becomes king himself, he finds out that HEY, his life had been based on a lie, their father hadn't wanted him to become king after all, it was all a hoax perpetuated by his mom. And he goes insane from insecurity, kills HGD off, and it's quite clear by the end that he's going to end up just like his brother, a crazy isolated tyrant. And, yeah, I know the whole power corrupts thing, but I do not want that to happen to my favorite character! It's like, pretend you were a kid and found out that guy dressed up as Santa Claus was actually a child-molesting axe-murderer. It's a bit too much depressing realism for me; would have preferred the prince to end up dead.
