Post by ajk on May 13, 2018 17:08:43 GMT -5
Hmm, well this certainly wasn’t as good as the first one. Most of it was pretty routine stuff for a historical. A few nice ideas in the writing; that was probably the best part. Some weak stuff in the execution, though, and some of the kind of sloppiness that I don’t like.
Ugh they didn’t subtitle the names this time, except for new characters when they first appeared. Come on, guys, take pity on us! Tough to recognize everybody by episode 2.
That stuff about the Seonang god that Yeohwa and her attendant were talking about, apparently that’s based in historical fact, although I couldn’t find any details in English on the Internet...
...but as for that whole sequence, wow what a groaner. We’re supposed to believe that the horse was about to do, exactly what to Yeohwa? Beat her up or jump on her or kick her? Well when Yeogu grabbed her and they did the double cliff-dive--hey cliff dive!--the horse wasn’t even in the picture. And it was very obvious that part of that sequence was shot in a studio and green-screened; looked way phony. And then why were all those people out in a boat searching for Yeohwa? She was only under the water for a minute at most; certainly her attendant would have looked over the cliff and seen her come up onto the shoreline. That’s what I mean by sloppiness. Come on, think this through, guys. And how did Jinseung know exactly where to be with his own boat? This stuff needs to be set up properly.
“At the first sign of ulterior motives, behead Buyeo Jun immediately.” Smart king, bringing the rival’s troops into the effort. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Liked that. And Buyeo Jun is pretty savvy too, calling the assassination plot. The tension between them, it has promise for a good story.
Speaking of which, here was the narrated text that explained their relationship:
That fight training sequence with the big ball weapons and the black marks, is that based on anything in history? Have never seen that before and it’s an interesting idea. Stay clean and you win.
Who was the little boy who saw King Biryu off? He called him “father” and apparently he’s a prince--we’re told that Yeosan is his brother--but who is he? Way younger than the other four princes.
Wow, the queen’s a bitch! Shame on her. Hope we get more out of the character than that; it would be a terrible waste of a terrific actress.
How did Yeohwa know that Yeogu would be eating at that particular place and go exactly there? Did I miss something?
That’s a good piece of writing, Yeogu realizing that he saw the Mohe chieftan being tortured and putting the pieces together.
Just to record it someplace, the subtitling mentioned five provinces of Baekje: Deukan (east), Doseon (west), Gujiha (south), Ungjin (north), and Gosa (central). Don’t know if that will ever come up again but if we need the names at some point, here they are.
The end sequence, geez a whole lot of work went into it and you have to respect the effort and the physical skills and stuntwork...but watching the thing, it just seemed like chaos. Couldn’t figure out who was killing who or what was going on other than that the king was in danger. Anybody else have the same reaction? And it went on and on and on...and THEN finally archers showed up, and only at point-blank range. There needs to be some kind of penalty imposed on these shows for archer misuse.
So in the first two episodes we’ve seen some very good stuff and some pretty bad stuff. It doesn't seem like the good stuff was an accident, so let's hope for the best.
Ugh they didn’t subtitle the names this time, except for new characters when they first appeared. Come on, guys, take pity on us! Tough to recognize everybody by episode 2.
That stuff about the Seonang god that Yeohwa and her attendant were talking about, apparently that’s based in historical fact, although I couldn’t find any details in English on the Internet...
...but as for that whole sequence, wow what a groaner. We’re supposed to believe that the horse was about to do, exactly what to Yeohwa? Beat her up or jump on her or kick her? Well when Yeogu grabbed her and they did the double cliff-dive--hey cliff dive!--the horse wasn’t even in the picture. And it was very obvious that part of that sequence was shot in a studio and green-screened; looked way phony. And then why were all those people out in a boat searching for Yeohwa? She was only under the water for a minute at most; certainly her attendant would have looked over the cliff and seen her come up onto the shoreline. That’s what I mean by sloppiness. Come on, think this through, guys. And how did Jinseung know exactly where to be with his own boat? This stuff needs to be set up properly.
“At the first sign of ulterior motives, behead Buyeo Jun immediately.” Smart king, bringing the rival’s troops into the effort. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Liked that. And Buyeo Jun is pretty savvy too, calling the assassination plot. The tension between them, it has promise for a good story.
Speaking of which, here was the narrated text that explained their relationship:
Fierce internal strife ravaged Baekje politics over the matter of succession rights. Ever since King Onjo’s reign, succession had been based on eldest sons, but the 8th ruler King Chogo’s younger brother Goyi usurped the throne. After his death, King Goyi’s rule was used as evidence by King Chaekgye and his fellow “Goyi Line” to contest the legitimacy of Onjo’s descendants. And since Biryu himself succeeded Buyeo Jun’s father Bunseo to the throne, it was inevitable that he and Buyeo Jun would become political rivals.”And a subtitle told us that (king) Goyi was the father of (king) Chaekgye, who was the father of (king) Bunseo, who was the father of BJ. So you can see why BJ is upset.
That fight training sequence with the big ball weapons and the black marks, is that based on anything in history? Have never seen that before and it’s an interesting idea. Stay clean and you win.
Who was the little boy who saw King Biryu off? He called him “father” and apparently he’s a prince--we’re told that Yeosan is his brother--but who is he? Way younger than the other four princes.
Wow, the queen’s a bitch! Shame on her. Hope we get more out of the character than that; it would be a terrible waste of a terrific actress.
How did Yeohwa know that Yeogu would be eating at that particular place and go exactly there? Did I miss something?
That’s a good piece of writing, Yeogu realizing that he saw the Mohe chieftan being tortured and putting the pieces together.
Just to record it someplace, the subtitling mentioned five provinces of Baekje: Deukan (east), Doseon (west), Gujiha (south), Ungjin (north), and Gosa (central). Don’t know if that will ever come up again but if we need the names at some point, here they are.
The end sequence, geez a whole lot of work went into it and you have to respect the effort and the physical skills and stuntwork...but watching the thing, it just seemed like chaos. Couldn’t figure out who was killing who or what was going on other than that the king was in danger. Anybody else have the same reaction? And it went on and on and on...and THEN finally archers showed up, and only at point-blank range. There needs to be some kind of penalty imposed on these shows for archer misuse.
So in the first two episodes we’ve seen some very good stuff and some pretty bad stuff. It doesn't seem like the good stuff was an accident, so let's hope for the best.