Yllejord

An exercise in patience :(

If you have been wondering ''what would a wuxia directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos look like'' then here is your answer.

Jag med. Var Sverige en symbol för något, typ längtan till ett annat liv, vad var det frågan om.

Let me just keep it short by writing that this thing is almost perfect and watching it may make you want to try and become a better person.

Both Ji Sung *and* Jo Seung Woo together in a historical moovie.
I cried a little happy tear.

Is this a poor man's Spartacus Blood and Sand? Yes.
Is it still a pretty and actually totally enjoyable historical drama? AB-SO-LU-TE-LY

Please allow me to make one thing very clear: there is NOTHING happy in this movie.
If you don't count the happiness of witnessing extremely good cinema making. But the film itself, no, no happiness here.

Cheng Pei Pei is a Goddess in this one. The rest of the film is showing its age, but her scenes I can watch over and over again.

It's a lovely ensemble drama, but those parts in Jordan have nothing to do in it whatsoever.

They show operations, treatment of wounds, a lot of stuff like that.

I loved the lead actress in Painter of the Wind but in this one I thought she often acted very much like an actual child. It was disturbing.
The pottery related scenes were nice though.

I was expecting more courtroom drama, with the protagonist defending powerless people. There were a few cases but I thought there would be many more.
Anyway, the young king was pretty amazing and the queen mother too, I can't recall hating a villain as strongly as I hated her, great job.

Ah yes, I call that the ''whaaat!-filler''. When every single member of the cast has to go ''whaaat! This-and-that happened!'' every time something happens. Hate it. 50-episode sageuks tend to be full of it.

This is litterally the best thing in the history of things.

The first episode was very promising but the rest was just frustrating.
So Yong could be a great character but she was overly theatrical at times. Like that ''my tears are totally fake'' face she made. Yeah, we get it, you pretent to cry, ok.
Serious issues are never addressed. Like the love interest's mom being a total jerk towards So Yong. The head eunuch is horrible at his job. Always going on about working for the king's interests but the court he managed was a mess. Did he even think of suggesting some sort of mutual understanding and cooperation? No, because he is horrible at his job.
As is the king. A huge baby. The whole drama is about keeping a huge baby satisfied.
It had some good stuff in it too, but it was so long.

No more palace intrigue dramas for me, it just isn't my thing at all.

Chunhyang is the iconic personification of female virtue in korean folklore, just as Hong Gil Dong is the personification of male virtue. Both of them are illegitimate children of noble yangbans, interestingly enough.
Anyway, this is a marvelous film. A lot of pansori in it. Watching it before watching the Servant is probably a good idea.

This comes in a very nice wuxia/fantasy package but is alaso a pretty decent relationship drama. Enjoyed it a lot.

The sageuk part was a better Joseon vampire story than Scholar Who Walks the Night.

I watched it a couple of years ago on YouTube. I don't know if it's still there though. It's old and not easy to find, unfortunatelly.
Good luck!

It was wonderful watching Kim Myung Min playing it straight in a comedy after all his serious roles. Really funny. But I could do without the tired ''haha, the beautiful voice they heard actually belonged to a fat woman and it's funny because they expected a pretty girl but fat is ugly, see? It's funny, right?'' gag.