Post by ajk on Jul 22, 2017 11:55:09 GMT -5
Really good one this time. The increasing desperation as the situation got worse and worse, and then the final realization that surrender was the only apparent option, it made for a terrific episode.
And no Songi until 54:56, how about that. Even the one scene she was in, it was pretty much a carbon copy of their scene in the previous episode. Just as annoying and stupid too; Songi and Yakson being suspicious and not communicating. Even the same pink robe! Oh well, a small price to pay for the rest of the episode. Thought we might have a Songi-free episode, but it seems like the producers feel pressure to not ignore that storyline even for one episode.
"The overlord. Does he not see what's happening?" Yeah this sequence of events, it isn't Choe U's finest hour, is it. Yakson hasn't lit a fire under anybody and Choe U hasn't done anything about it...well you can understand that a little bit, with Yakson being the heir. But leaving Dae Jipsung in command of that big army after Dae bungled things so badly on his way north? And then Dae leads them into a ravine ambush, well surprise surprise, and Choe U just sits there with his eyes bugging out in frustration. And he wanted to squander manpower chasing after bureaucrats who fled the capital? At a time like this? It's all a little surprising considering the kind of person we came to know him as when his father was still alive. But at least we're getting an honest character and not something one-dimensional and made to look good for the sake of ratings.
Oh and that ravine ambush, looks like we're back to obscene misuse of fire arrows. The first one obviously was necessary to set off the explosion...but the rest of them were ridiculous. It did look good on TV, though. Gotta love TV.
A little bit of lip-curl showing from Choe U...Careful dude, we don't need any of that. Funny that Jung Bo Suk is playing the overlord who watched the Mongols overrun the country, and he also played one of the kings who had to deal with their control a century later. So far I think he was better as King Gongmin. But wow his suntan in this one is world class!
Two minor complaints. One, we're starting to get some evil laughs from the Mongol generals. Maybe sometimes more mocking laughs at the enemy rather than purely evil laughs...but whichever, we've had this happen before in historicals and it gets old real fast. Hope this goes away because it's cartoonish.
The other was those two small children in Pyongju crying over their dead mother. Did not like that at all. We were just told that the Mongols slaughtered every living thing in the place, so why put those kids there? It was a cheap, manipulative stunt. We saw the Mongols raiding the place and we got some narration about it; that got the point across perfectly well.
Speaking of which, here's the narration text:
On the plus side, two interesting characters emerging. One is Kim Kyongson. I had forgotten that he's Yakson's brother from earlier. At least in the series he's proven to be a very good leader. The other is Tanggu. The actor playing him is doing an excellent job. Tanggu is all business; very low-key and calculating, not loud like most of the other military leaders are, but he has a quiet charisma about him. And that glare. His boss Sartai is a little bit of a blowhard but with Tanggu there's sort of a what's-he-going-to-say anticipation in every scene he's in. Hope we see more of him as the invasion story continues.
I can see why people liked the invasion episodes in this series. They're telling the story very well and it seems like they're sticking pretty much to real history. Can't ask for more than that.
And no Songi until 54:56, how about that. Even the one scene she was in, it was pretty much a carbon copy of their scene in the previous episode. Just as annoying and stupid too; Songi and Yakson being suspicious and not communicating. Even the same pink robe! Oh well, a small price to pay for the rest of the episode. Thought we might have a Songi-free episode, but it seems like the producers feel pressure to not ignore that storyline even for one episode.
"The overlord. Does he not see what's happening?" Yeah this sequence of events, it isn't Choe U's finest hour, is it. Yakson hasn't lit a fire under anybody and Choe U hasn't done anything about it...well you can understand that a little bit, with Yakson being the heir. But leaving Dae Jipsung in command of that big army after Dae bungled things so badly on his way north? And then Dae leads them into a ravine ambush, well surprise surprise, and Choe U just sits there with his eyes bugging out in frustration. And he wanted to squander manpower chasing after bureaucrats who fled the capital? At a time like this? It's all a little surprising considering the kind of person we came to know him as when his father was still alive. But at least we're getting an honest character and not something one-dimensional and made to look good for the sake of ratings.
Oh and that ravine ambush, looks like we're back to obscene misuse of fire arrows. The first one obviously was necessary to set off the explosion...but the rest of them were ridiculous. It did look good on TV, though. Gotta love TV.
A little bit of lip-curl showing from Choe U...Careful dude, we don't need any of that. Funny that Jung Bo Suk is playing the overlord who watched the Mongols overrun the country, and he also played one of the kings who had to deal with their control a century later. So far I think he was better as King Gongmin. But wow his suntan in this one is world class!
Two minor complaints. One, we're starting to get some evil laughs from the Mongol generals. Maybe sometimes more mocking laughs at the enemy rather than purely evil laughs...but whichever, we've had this happen before in historicals and it gets old real fast. Hope this goes away because it's cartoonish.
The other was those two small children in Pyongju crying over their dead mother. Did not like that at all. We were just told that the Mongols slaughtered every living thing in the place, so why put those kids there? It was a cheap, manipulative stunt. We saw the Mongols raiding the place and we got some narration about it; that got the point across perfectly well.
Speaking of which, here's the narration text:
The razing of Pyongju, the massacre of its people. A day of unequaled brutality in the Annals of Koryo. People, chickens, dogs, cattle, every living thing, massacred. The year was 1231, the 18the year of Kojong's reign.Terribly sad stuff. We learn in history classes about great empires and how they conquered so much territory but their methods can get overlooked.
On the plus side, two interesting characters emerging. One is Kim Kyongson. I had forgotten that he's Yakson's brother from earlier. At least in the series he's proven to be a very good leader. The other is Tanggu. The actor playing him is doing an excellent job. Tanggu is all business; very low-key and calculating, not loud like most of the other military leaders are, but he has a quiet charisma about him. And that glare. His boss Sartai is a little bit of a blowhard but with Tanggu there's sort of a what's-he-going-to-say anticipation in every scene he's in. Hope we see more of him as the invasion story continues.
I can see why people liked the invasion episodes in this series. They're telling the story very well and it seems like they're sticking pretty much to real history. Can't ask for more than that.