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Post by ajk on Mar 30, 2016 20:17:30 GMT -5
"I need to tell time in shorter intervals." Thank you, I was wondering about that. Seems like a big weakness of the new clock. Maybe it's precise, but if it only registers every two hours, that's not so useful.
Wow, Seokgu made JYS a bullet-proof vest! Or I guess it's the pre-bullet version, a blade-proof vest. Very cool.
Got a great look at the new background screen in this episode (at 7:20 in the YouTube video). It's an amazing piece of work. The style is very East Asian, but the colors are so intense...as with the other one it's remarkable for its time if it's authentic.
And at 16:55, there's another one! Looks like a nighttime scene...and you know what, it might be a picture of an eclipse because maybe that's the eclipse-red-tinted Moon in the sky. Which would explain why we're seeing it now.
And another one at 26:45 in Jo Gwang's house, a gray mountain scene that's very appropriate to the setting.
And at 29:05, look at the gorgeous flowered one in the queen's chambers. Geez did the producers go to Costco and get the volume discount?
Very nice that JYS expressed the same faith in Lee Sunji that Sejong expressed in the whole group of them in the previous episode....And now Sejong doing it again when he's confronted with the news about the incorrect time. Maybe it's just personal but I really like seeing that. You sure don't see that kind of leadership very much these days.
Other than the silly fight scene that was completely unnecessary, the buildup to the eclipse in this episode was very well done. It certainly held your attention, and as with everything else in the series the production quality was excellent.
But then, ugh another turbocharged eclipse. Please, producers, enough. We all understand that you can't show the thing in real time, but come up with something better okay? Especially when the moon just suddenly stops moving and sits there directly in the middle of the sun for a while like it's posing.
Sejong did make one big oversight: as soon as they announced the ritual was being postponed, he should have sealed the yard to keep anybody from entering or leaving.
Not to be too picky, and give them credit for trying to show the courtyard in the dimmed light of an eclipse...but if you look closely you can see the long shadows of either early morning or just before sunset. Oh well, not a big deal.
Hate to repeat myself, but just like this scene there was an eclipse scene in GKS when everybody turned and stared into the sun, and I have to say the same thing I said then: Didn't their moms ever tell them not to do that?
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Post by sageuk on Mar 30, 2016 20:43:08 GMT -5
I think one of the earlier episodes had Youngshil's father use some kind of lens. Wonder why they don't distribute those in these shows.
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Post by ajk on Mar 30, 2016 21:10:36 GMT -5
Okay, now to add some great astronomy stuff. Narration told us in this episode that Yi Cheon and the three Jeongs were real people, mentioned in history has having helped calculate eclipses with JYS. And Lee Sunji, too--we're told that he and someone named Kim Dam compiled a book called chiljeongsan. (We saw Sunji in GKS so no surprise that he was real.) So you Google chiljeongsan and all kinds of interesting things come up. First of all, Kim Dam was a real person too. Wikipedia has a stub page for him that lists other books he wrote: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_DamSecond, the chiljeongsan is actually two books. Obviously influential ones; they've been the subject of multiple academic research papers. Here's an abstract of one that gives some detail about the books' content: The Chiljeongsan Naepion (七政算內篇) and the Chiljeongsan Oepion (七政算外篇), landmark achievements in the field of astronomical calendars in Korea, were published in the 26th year (1444 A.D.) of the reign of King Sejong (世宗, 1418-1450 A.D.) of the Choseon(朝鮮) dynasty, firmly establishing the calendar making system of Choseon. The Chiljeongsan Naepion adopts the conventions of the Shoushi calendar (授時曆) of the Yuan (元) dynasty (1280-1367 A.D.) of China, but also consults the Datong calendar (大統曆) and the modified Datong-li Tongkue (大統曆通軌), published during the Ming(明) dynasty (1368-1643 A.D.) of China. Furthermore, the Chiljeongsan Naepion corrects errors in the referred Chinese calendars and adds calculations of sunrise and sunset at the latitude of Seoul. On the other hand, the Chiljeongsan Oepion adopts the conventions of the Huihui calendar (回回曆) of Arabia translated and edited by the Arabian astronomer Mashayihei (馬沙亦黑) [1] in China. The Huihui calendar uses an Islamic theory of epicycles for its treatment of lunar and planetary motions. This means that aspects of the Ptolemaic system had been introduced into the Korean astronomy in the 15th century The calendar of the Choseon dynasty was made by the method of Chiljeongsan Naepion, but the calculations of solar and lunar eclipses and five planet’s positions are compared to those of the Chiljeongsan Oepion. In this paper, we discussed mainly the differences of the calculation methods of the solar positions in both calendars.
Y.S. Ahn, E.H. Lee, "The Comparison between Calculation Methods on the Solar Position in the Chiljeongsan Naepion and Chiljeongsan Oepion ", Key Engineering Materials, Vols. 277-279 (2005), pp. 824-830.
It turns out that the three Jeongs wrote the Naepion and Yi and Kim wrote the Oepion. So the episode oversimplified it a bit. And now the best part. Lee Sunji has an asteroid named after him! Officially, it's minor planet number 72021, in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. A couple of Korean astronomers made the discovery in 2000 and named it after him. Here's a NASA page with everything you ever wanted to know about it: ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=72021And if you go to that page and click on "Orbit Diagram" you get a great 3-D tool that shows exactly where the asteroid is orbiting. Let the Java enable and run and you can manipulate the view to see the orbits from different angles. The only thing I couldn't find was a picture of the asteroid. I even tried to find contact information for the two astronomers who discovered it but no luck. Oh well...on to the next episode.
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Post by ajk on Mar 30, 2016 21:38:24 GMT -5
sageuk I went back and looked...Songhwi was using a piece of black cloth stretched between two sticks. Some of the officials in this episode's eclipse scene were using the same thing. I guess as a filter it would do okay; it just seems like your view of the eclipse wouldn't be very good through a piece of cloth.
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Post by ajk on Apr 1, 2016 0:45:36 GMT -5
Not that this is really relevant to this particular episode...but I was flipping channels just now and when I passed 13.2 I saw the guy who played Hwang Hui in GKS. Iris II is what's on now and he was in both of the Iris series. It's a darned shame he isn't in JYS! He was really good in GKS. Wasn't familiar with him before GKS but he's been in a zillion series, including a bunch of historicals. asianwiki.com/Kim_Kap-Soo
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Post by truth on Apr 1, 2016 1:26:19 GMT -5
Not that this is really relevant to this particular episode...but I was flipping channels just now and when I passed 13.2 I saw the guy who played Hwang Hui in GKS. Iris II is what's on now and he was in both of the Iris series. It's a darned shame he isn't in JYS! He was really good in GKS. Wasn't familiar with him before GKS but he's been in a zillion series, including a bunch of historicals. asianwiki.com/Kim_Kap-SooI first saw him as a villain in Emperor of the Sea. His most famous role in a historical drama has to be Emperor Yang of Sui in SBS Yeon Gaesomoon though. He won the SBS Grand Award for that role even though he was a villain and not the main character. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Yang_of_Sui
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Post by ajk on Apr 1, 2016 4:19:46 GMT -5
Hmmm, another reason to give EOS a try. As soon as I get through the last four JYS episodes I'll look into setting up a DF viewing here.
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Post by truth on Apr 1, 2016 4:42:19 GMT -5
Hmmm, another reason to give EOS a try. As soon as I get through the last four JYS episodes I'll look into setting up a DF viewing here. His role in EOS is a fictional character though.
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Post by ajk on Apr 1, 2016 15:59:53 GMT -5
Oh well...from what you've said about the series it would at least be better than nothing, especially if JYY continues to get pushed back.
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Post by truth on Apr 1, 2016 16:46:56 GMT -5
Oh well...from what you've said about the series it would at least be better than nothing, especially if JYY continues to get pushed back. Keep in mind that this is the series that started the repeated pattern of fusion historicals : slave to rich, becoming a gladiator in China, fantasy armor, love triangle etc I do give credit for the re-enactment of the political conflicts of later period in Shilla dynasty, which have never been done before this drama and has never been done since(except for the very end period depicted in Emperor Wang Guhn of course).
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Post by ajk on Apr 1, 2016 21:38:58 GMT -5
Yessir, I consider myself duly warned! lol Since you said it's better than JYS and has some real history in it, I don't mind giving it a shot if nothing else is going on. And 51 episodes, that's not a massive commitment. I'll just bring a parachute in case it goes sour on me, how's that.
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Post by truth on Apr 1, 2016 22:49:26 GMT -5
Yessir, I consider myself duly warned! lol Since you said it's better than JYS and has some real history in it, I don't mind giving it a shot if nothing else is going on. And 51 episodes, that's not a massive commitment. I'll just bring a parachute in case it goes sour on me, how's that. There is more history involved towards the end of the drama than the earlier parts. The early part, especially the story that takes place in China, is mostly fiction.
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Post by simisteve on Apr 2, 2016 0:33:08 GMT -5
Couple of Random Notes about this episode:
The soundtrack/background music in this series is REALLY good. I especially liked the track played during the eclipse (same music as when JHJ carried the unconscious JYS back to the observatory).
The entire eclipse scene was great, wonder why everyone didn't have the black mesh screens??? The cut-away scene of the people in the street, frozen, watching, was absolutely stunning. What a great visual, one of the best I've ever seen in a KHD.
IMO, this could have been the series finale. End it with Sejong walking off the platform, and then voice-over narration.
I am assuming the oft-mentioned "Royal Library" is what we knew as the "Hall of Worthies" in GKS? Wonder why they are using this name, if so?
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Post by ajk on Apr 2, 2016 1:06:45 GMT -5
Yessir, same thing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_of_WorthiesGKS didn't use the Korean title at all, from what I can remember. They're using it here but calling it a royal library...which seems odd because I thought it was more of a think tank. That actually is a very interesting Wikipedia page, especially the part where it talks about the high importance Sejong placed on Confucianism. That undermines the whole storyline turn we're seeing now about the Confucian scholars feeling so betrayed by the king.
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Post by sageuk on Apr 2, 2016 7:22:37 GMT -5
^Guuess I got even more reason to criticize the drama's decision to have overreacting scholars.
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