The Paper Trail ¤ Blending 2·4·Oneness of Lines·Lacquer·Life·Liberty·Love °Outstanding°
Saimdang is a stunning piece of art imitating life.
Surprise! She's real. And the broad strokes regarding her family life are true. The show treats her with the utmost deference. While it has the present and the past mirroring e/o, they limited the dramatic liberties when it came to Saimdang's life. Don't touch that dial: That European medieval court IS the start of this feature. We're in italy. It's The Year of the Rabbit, 1519.
In a broadly sweeping statement, GRR Martin, GOT author, said: “There's only one thing worth writing about, and that's the human heart in conflict with itself.” This is largely true. Each worthy story brings us new people and the Saim-d@mn nonsense!😉
Ok, that isn't what the title means. Saimdang is a talented, brave, determined, resourceful, and dignified woman who lives in the Joseon era, and DANG! They put her through it. The story opens up in current day and the show toggles backward and forward in time by way of ancient documents and paintings which aid in telling the story of what happened then. The main players from Joseon are reincarnated into current day🇰🇷, but they're dealing with issues that never die: Jealousy, revenge, fear, corruption, and most of all, pride.
In contemporary 🇰🇷, Seo Ji Yoon has been working towards her PhD in art history. Her advisor (Choi Jong Hwan from My Dearest is prof Min Jung Hak) requests she authenticate a piece that he's already certified. He wants her to do the presentation. She is uncomfortable with this, though. She suspects the painting of the Kunlun Mountains could be a forgery. It's all true. Her professor has turned to the dark side and is using his position and power for money and more power. This starts an epic contest between them, and he plays dirty. Very dirty.
We'll follow the painting back in time to when Saimdang & Lee Gyeom, artists of extraordinary talent, are admiring it. They are teens and they've fallen in love. He's the king's favorite cousin. She's the granddaughter of a noble. Her grandfather has the painting kept in secret - just a byproduct of those times. The seeds of suspicion are sewn with the king, who moves to exert and maintain control over his cousin. He learns of their romance and opts to exercise his power to teach his cousin a lesson. He denies them marriage and marries Saimdang off to someone else - a lazy, fatuous idiot. She tries to make it work.
Counselor Min is the ancestor of Seo Ji Yoon's professor. They are both evil. Each is thoroughly enjoying (abusing) his power. Counselor Min (Choi Cheol-Ho from River Where the Moon Rises) is plotting against the country for more power, so we see where the professor gets it. Oh Yoon Ah from Salon De Nabi is wonderful as Choi Whieum Dang (Mrs Min). Her performance is top level, but she doesn't appear in the present day story. The Mins make nothing but trouble in the past, and Professor Min is doing the same in current day. They're dangerous. People are dying.
The past and the present have many of the same characters, but not across the board. Seo Ji Yoon and Saimdang are married, but their husbands aren't the same. The same actor plays professor Min and weirdly plays the King, not Counselor Min, his ancestor. Our FL has the same friend in the past and the present, played by the lively Park Jun-Myun (Under the Queen's Umbrella, God's Quiz). Song Seung Heon has a part in modern day but it's limited and he fades away - it's quite unexpected. This is something I've never said about a Kdrama before, as most of them should be shorter, but this one should have been an episode or two longer. The ending is not an ending, it just drifts off. Those are my main criticisms: There should have been more consistency of characters between the past and the present and the ending should have been more defined. Other than those issues, both the past and present involve complexity and intrigues and are quite exciting.
We spend more time in Joseon, and that's a good thing, because it is fabulous. Saimdang's husband never did provide, and he eventually stopped coming home. She needs to make a living. As an artist, she already has a love for paper. When she learns that the Chinese delegation came complaining about the declining paper quality, she decides to make high quality paper herself. This puts her in direct competition with the Mins, as they are the main paper suppliers for the government. The process of making paper is not only fascinating, but also staggeringly difficult. Goryeo paper actually refers to Hanji paper and was manufactured in the Goryeo period from ingredients including mulberry & other trees native to 🇰🇷. Emissaries from Qing (China) would travel all the way to Kcountry to buy it. A drop in quality becomes a huge issue in the show. As an aside, Goreyo is actually where the name Korea came from.
S gifts us with superb acting. Kim Mi Kyung, The Perpetual mom, gets to play a corporate marm in this one. A ruthless one in a sophisticated suit and updo - Director Seon. Once again, the child actors are amazing. The two leads are magnificent. Their faces convey longing, love, discipline, and determination; they show us are so many subtle expressions! Song Seung Heon (Player, Black-9) is our ML, Lee Gyeom. He's in the running for my favorite. In Black, which I loved, he has neatly cut brushed back hair and wears black suits with black shirts. It's just not possible for a man to look more delicious in a suit. He also spoke in a low voice that is quite sexy. In this show he's bearded he's got the old style hairdo, and he's talking with a higher pitched voice. He's got a winsome, have-I-been-a-good-boy look about him. It's too adorable. He's steaming hot no matter what he's doing even though I prefer him without a beard.
Lee Young Ae is our FL. I had just seen her in Inspector Koo-8.4 (she plays a slob who has been wallowing in misery but at the same time, she's a highly logical detective) and Maestra: Strings of Truth-6.8 as an authoritative orchestra conductor. These are completely different roles. The more I watch Asian programming, the more I realize that what we mostly have in Hollywood is personalities while they🇰🇷 have unbelievable actors. I'm in awe of how she handled this part because so much of it it was slight movements of the head displaying contemplation, discipline, control, and restraint. They are in love. After she was married off to someone else he left 🇰🇷 for years, but he came back to see that her husband doesn't deserve her. So they walk parallel paths while holding back longing and desire. Sometimes, her long pauses made me almost anxious, but her performance is marvelous.
The characters are complex. It's all varied motivations and struggles. His majesty is particularly complex and fascinating. We learn what an awful life he's had. He's been very alone. He does things that don't make sense. He's got bad people in his ear and seems to be listening to the wrong voices.
Saimdang‘s hubby is weak, lazy and incompetent, but worst of all, he's completely selfish. All those traits go together, don't they? Once children were involved there was no question about her path. Yet, the longing for the better man is portrayed quite well. Her husband felt inadequate - he WAS inadequate. Instead of trying harder, he went to a mistress who ‘made him feel like a man’. Hubbo & mistress deserve e/o. Each wants nice things with no effort. The mistress checks out the competition (Saimdang) and gets overwhelmed. Jealousy. Anger. Then hate. She wants to live in a nice house and boss people around, too. Not fair! Look how /she's/ living! Ms Mistress knows nothing of the danger, sacrifice, and effort that brought the respect that Saimdang finally gained. She wants results with no effort.
Lots of things happen and it's one scrape after another, but the most difficult scene might be when Saimdang apologizes to her worthless husband. She initially did not recognize how he might have felt, she admits. "Of course I am angry. However, I didn't allow for flaws, I also wasn't considerate, therefore you felt disrespected and became very lonely.' That is next level writing. The husband is a slug. So, she mostly treated him like a slug. He never lifted himself from his sluggishness but slithered down further. When it comes to apologies that are owed in the marriage the lion's share would be on him. 60%? 90%? Something in that zone. It wasn't her job to raise him, but that's what he required. He never apologized, but that just proves what a waste of a human he's chosen to be. Her apology was about her dignity. It's the most problematic yet poignant point in the show and I'm still mulling it over.
Corruption is front and center. Government corruption is never NOT a thing, but we also see corrupted goods in the past and corrupted education in current day. It seems obvious that we live in a time when our products, food supplies, government agencies, and who knows what else are corrupted. The food is making us sick and most products are made shabbily and will not last long. Everything seems like is disposable these days, so that theme is cogent. Consequently, we see depression of the poor. Those in power put efforts into more money and more power, not looking out for their fellow man. Weak rulers, who care more about holding on to power than morality, allow this to happen.
Our language has gotten muddled. We use the word “pride” when, quite often, we really mean “dignity”. Pride is about promoting oneself, while dignity is something that a person holds quietly; it's based on internal standards. A reversal of fortune cannot take a person's dignity. Joseon is a society designed to keep those with power in power, and those in power inflict misery on those who are weak. It's the same old story because people are the same in every era. George Lucas is a proponent of ring theory, which is why many patterns repeat in the Star Wars sagas. Life does mirror ring theory. Too often, life is a continuous cycle of abuse↔jealousy↔pride↔greed↔ruthlessness↔lust. Looks like we're dealing with the seven deadly sins. It's the same old thing, ➰ver and ➰ver and ➰ver again, yet we never learn. We think we're the ones who are going to do it right. I wonder if hitting bottom is the only way to see how blind we are to our own stuff, and how foolish we are?
The family scenes are CUTE. Her husband's a feckless, sniveling oaf, but she manages a smile once in a while, especially for her kids who are darling. She cracked a smile that didn't involve the children in ep23. It didn't look like it was going to happen, so it was a bit shocking.
When Lee Gyeom returns to 🇰🇷after years of self-imposed exile he sets up an art center. Some of the artists are pretty amusing (many are clearly gay). The scenes from The Art Center are a much welcome relief from the heavier and more distressing things going on. The pepper. My biggest takeaway is the pepper. Gyeom is going on about how delicious it is and how expensive, too. It was worth more than gold, by weight, at that time. Of course, somebody sneezes.
There's a seamless flow to this, almost like brush strokes across a looking glass. There's plenty of drama and anxious moments, the overall feeling is one of serenity. Saimdang kept her composure and found serenity wherever she could. When she found it, she shared it. There's a a fair amount of action, including a fantastic sword fight in ep12. The art, sets, and wardrobe are wonderful. Ms Min's gowns are gorgeous. The colors are what really stand out. She grew up in rags, but made up for her lack later.
To say that the ending is bittersweet doesn't quite cover it. It leaves us wanting. The story is beautiful but the sadness, though lovely, is what lingers. Like an ice cold IPA on a hot day, the bitterness is still refreshing because the story is just that good.
As always, he breathes out love, protection, and longing; she fills herself with him, and their spirits fly united as wings on a Jian bird, part of a whole that one day may come together: “Even if you and I are parallel lines that will never meet for the rest of our lives, it is My Wish to walk alongside that path with you forever.”
QUOTES🗣
Looking at a good painting can purify and cultivate the mind.
Appearance is just pretense.
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Our two Souls therefore, which are one, though I must go, endure not yet a breach, but an expansion like gold to airy thinness beat.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬85 🖊️〰85 🎭90 💓82 🦋67 🌞80 🎨84⚡80 😅50 (the Mr, fop-hubby, mostly. & the Jian crew) 🎵/🔊83 😅50 😭50 😱20 🤢3.4 🤔50 💤20 🔚67
Age 12+ a guy gets pierced with a sword and blood gushes,and there's a blood spray on the assailant's face.
Re-📺? ☑
Surprise! She's real. And the broad strokes regarding her family life are true. The show treats her with the utmost deference. While it has the present and the past mirroring e/o, they limited the dramatic liberties when it came to Saimdang's life. Don't touch that dial: That European medieval court IS the start of this feature. We're in italy. It's The Year of the Rabbit, 1519.
In a broadly sweeping statement, GRR Martin, GOT author, said: “There's only one thing worth writing about, and that's the human heart in conflict with itself.” This is largely true. Each worthy story brings us new people and the Saim-d@mn nonsense!😉
Ok, that isn't what the title means. Saimdang is a talented, brave, determined, resourceful, and dignified woman who lives in the Joseon era, and DANG! They put her through it. The story opens up in current day and the show toggles backward and forward in time by way of ancient documents and paintings which aid in telling the story of what happened then. The main players from Joseon are reincarnated into current day🇰🇷, but they're dealing with issues that never die: Jealousy, revenge, fear, corruption, and most of all, pride.
In contemporary 🇰🇷, Seo Ji Yoon has been working towards her PhD in art history. Her advisor (Choi Jong Hwan from My Dearest is prof Min Jung Hak) requests she authenticate a piece that he's already certified. He wants her to do the presentation. She is uncomfortable with this, though. She suspects the painting of the Kunlun Mountains could be a forgery. It's all true. Her professor has turned to the dark side and is using his position and power for money and more power. This starts an epic contest between them, and he plays dirty. Very dirty.
We'll follow the painting back in time to when Saimdang & Lee Gyeom, artists of extraordinary talent, are admiring it. They are teens and they've fallen in love. He's the king's favorite cousin. She's the granddaughter of a noble. Her grandfather has the painting kept in secret - just a byproduct of those times. The seeds of suspicion are sewn with the king, who moves to exert and maintain control over his cousin. He learns of their romance and opts to exercise his power to teach his cousin a lesson. He denies them marriage and marries Saimdang off to someone else - a lazy, fatuous idiot. She tries to make it work.
Counselor Min is the ancestor of Seo Ji Yoon's professor. They are both evil. Each is thoroughly enjoying (abusing) his power. Counselor Min (Choi Cheol-Ho from River Where the Moon Rises) is plotting against the country for more power, so we see where the professor gets it. Oh Yoon Ah from Salon De Nabi is wonderful as Choi Whieum Dang (Mrs Min). Her performance is top level, but she doesn't appear in the present day story. The Mins make nothing but trouble in the past, and Professor Min is doing the same in current day. They're dangerous. People are dying.
The past and the present have many of the same characters, but not across the board. Seo Ji Yoon and Saimdang are married, but their husbands aren't the same. The same actor plays professor Min and weirdly plays the King, not Counselor Min, his ancestor. Our FL has the same friend in the past and the present, played by the lively Park Jun-Myun (Under the Queen's Umbrella, God's Quiz). Song Seung Heon has a part in modern day but it's limited and he fades away - it's quite unexpected. This is something I've never said about a Kdrama before, as most of them should be shorter, but this one should have been an episode or two longer. The ending is not an ending, it just drifts off. Those are my main criticisms: There should have been more consistency of characters between the past and the present and the ending should have been more defined. Other than those issues, both the past and present involve complexity and intrigues and are quite exciting.
We spend more time in Joseon, and that's a good thing, because it is fabulous. Saimdang's husband never did provide, and he eventually stopped coming home. She needs to make a living. As an artist, she already has a love for paper. When she learns that the Chinese delegation came complaining about the declining paper quality, she decides to make high quality paper herself. This puts her in direct competition with the Mins, as they are the main paper suppliers for the government. The process of making paper is not only fascinating, but also staggeringly difficult. Goryeo paper actually refers to Hanji paper and was manufactured in the Goryeo period from ingredients including mulberry & other trees native to 🇰🇷. Emissaries from Qing (China) would travel all the way to Kcountry to buy it. A drop in quality becomes a huge issue in the show. As an aside, Goreyo is actually where the name Korea came from.
S gifts us with superb acting. Kim Mi Kyung, The Perpetual mom, gets to play a corporate marm in this one. A ruthless one in a sophisticated suit and updo - Director Seon. Once again, the child actors are amazing. The two leads are magnificent. Their faces convey longing, love, discipline, and determination; they show us are so many subtle expressions! Song Seung Heon (Player, Black-9) is our ML, Lee Gyeom. He's in the running for my favorite. In Black, which I loved, he has neatly cut brushed back hair and wears black suits with black shirts. It's just not possible for a man to look more delicious in a suit. He also spoke in a low voice that is quite sexy. In this show he's bearded he's got the old style hairdo, and he's talking with a higher pitched voice. He's got a winsome, have-I-been-a-good-boy look about him. It's too adorable. He's steaming hot no matter what he's doing even though I prefer him without a beard.
Lee Young Ae is our FL. I had just seen her in Inspector Koo-8.4 (she plays a slob who has been wallowing in misery but at the same time, she's a highly logical detective) and Maestra: Strings of Truth-6.8 as an authoritative orchestra conductor. These are completely different roles. The more I watch Asian programming, the more I realize that what we mostly have in Hollywood is personalities while they🇰🇷 have unbelievable actors. I'm in awe of how she handled this part because so much of it it was slight movements of the head displaying contemplation, discipline, control, and restraint. They are in love. After she was married off to someone else he left 🇰🇷 for years, but he came back to see that her husband doesn't deserve her. So they walk parallel paths while holding back longing and desire. Sometimes, her long pauses made me almost anxious, but her performance is marvelous.
The characters are complex. It's all varied motivations and struggles. His majesty is particularly complex and fascinating. We learn what an awful life he's had. He's been very alone. He does things that don't make sense. He's got bad people in his ear and seems to be listening to the wrong voices.
Saimdang‘s hubby is weak, lazy and incompetent, but worst of all, he's completely selfish. All those traits go together, don't they? Once children were involved there was no question about her path. Yet, the longing for the better man is portrayed quite well. Her husband felt inadequate - he WAS inadequate. Instead of trying harder, he went to a mistress who ‘made him feel like a man’. Hubbo & mistress deserve e/o. Each wants nice things with no effort. The mistress checks out the competition (Saimdang) and gets overwhelmed. Jealousy. Anger. Then hate. She wants to live in a nice house and boss people around, too. Not fair! Look how /she's/ living! Ms Mistress knows nothing of the danger, sacrifice, and effort that brought the respect that Saimdang finally gained. She wants results with no effort.
Lots of things happen and it's one scrape after another, but the most difficult scene might be when Saimdang apologizes to her worthless husband. She initially did not recognize how he might have felt, she admits. "Of course I am angry. However, I didn't allow for flaws, I also wasn't considerate, therefore you felt disrespected and became very lonely.' That is next level writing. The husband is a slug. So, she mostly treated him like a slug. He never lifted himself from his sluggishness but slithered down further. When it comes to apologies that are owed in the marriage the lion's share would be on him. 60%? 90%? Something in that zone. It wasn't her job to raise him, but that's what he required. He never apologized, but that just proves what a waste of a human he's chosen to be. Her apology was about her dignity. It's the most problematic yet poignant point in the show and I'm still mulling it over.
Corruption is front and center. Government corruption is never NOT a thing, but we also see corrupted goods in the past and corrupted education in current day. It seems obvious that we live in a time when our products, food supplies, government agencies, and who knows what else are corrupted. The food is making us sick and most products are made shabbily and will not last long. Everything seems like is disposable these days, so that theme is cogent. Consequently, we see depression of the poor. Those in power put efforts into more money and more power, not looking out for their fellow man. Weak rulers, who care more about holding on to power than morality, allow this to happen.
Our language has gotten muddled. We use the word “pride” when, quite often, we really mean “dignity”. Pride is about promoting oneself, while dignity is something that a person holds quietly; it's based on internal standards. A reversal of fortune cannot take a person's dignity. Joseon is a society designed to keep those with power in power, and those in power inflict misery on those who are weak. It's the same old story because people are the same in every era. George Lucas is a proponent of ring theory, which is why many patterns repeat in the Star Wars sagas. Life does mirror ring theory. Too often, life is a continuous cycle of abuse↔jealousy↔pride↔greed↔ruthlessness↔lust. Looks like we're dealing with the seven deadly sins. It's the same old thing, ➰ver and ➰ver and ➰ver again, yet we never learn. We think we're the ones who are going to do it right. I wonder if hitting bottom is the only way to see how blind we are to our own stuff, and how foolish we are?
The family scenes are CUTE. Her husband's a feckless, sniveling oaf, but she manages a smile once in a while, especially for her kids who are darling. She cracked a smile that didn't involve the children in ep23. It didn't look like it was going to happen, so it was a bit shocking.
When Lee Gyeom returns to 🇰🇷after years of self-imposed exile he sets up an art center. Some of the artists are pretty amusing (many are clearly gay). The scenes from The Art Center are a much welcome relief from the heavier and more distressing things going on. The pepper. My biggest takeaway is the pepper. Gyeom is going on about how delicious it is and how expensive, too. It was worth more than gold, by weight, at that time. Of course, somebody sneezes.
There's a seamless flow to this, almost like brush strokes across a looking glass. There's plenty of drama and anxious moments, the overall feeling is one of serenity. Saimdang kept her composure and found serenity wherever she could. When she found it, she shared it. There's a a fair amount of action, including a fantastic sword fight in ep12. The art, sets, and wardrobe are wonderful. Ms Min's gowns are gorgeous. The colors are what really stand out. She grew up in rags, but made up for her lack later.
To say that the ending is bittersweet doesn't quite cover it. It leaves us wanting. The story is beautiful but the sadness, though lovely, is what lingers. Like an ice cold IPA on a hot day, the bitterness is still refreshing because the story is just that good.
As always, he breathes out love, protection, and longing; she fills herself with him, and their spirits fly united as wings on a Jian bird, part of a whole that one day may come together: “Even if you and I are parallel lines that will never meet for the rest of our lives, it is My Wish to walk alongside that path with you forever.”
QUOTES🗣
Looking at a good painting can purify and cultivate the mind.
Appearance is just pretense.
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Our two Souls therefore, which are one, though I must go, endure not yet a breach, but an expansion like gold to airy thinness beat.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬85 🖊️〰85 🎭90 💓82 🦋67 🌞80 🎨84⚡80 😅50 (the Mr, fop-hubby, mostly. & the Jian crew) 🎵/🔊83 😅50 😭50 😱20 🤢3.4 🤔50 💤20 🔚67
Age 12+ a guy gets pierced with a sword and blood gushes,and there's a blood spray on the assailant's face.
Re-📺? ☑
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