DJY soundtrack CD

[ajk]

I’ve been meaning to post this for quite a while.

Recently I managed to get a copy of the DYJ soundtrack CD. If you liked the series, or even had mixed feelings about it like I did, it’s a good CD to have and you’ll like it. It has 19 tracks, and most of them are quite good. A lot of terrific music—great writing for strings, especially—and most of it is stuff that was actually included in the series (as opposed to “music inspired by” silliness).

Five of the tracks, I’m sorry to say, are either pop songs or popped-up versions of traditional melodies. None of them were ever even included in the series and they’re a bad fit with the rest of the tracks. (They obviously put them in the CD to try to increase sales.) My only other complaint is the synthesized brass that was used on a few of the tracks. As a brass player myself I’m a little prejudiced, but the synthesized stuff sounds cheesy and phony and it definitely wasn’t worth whatever small amount they saved by not hiring some professional brass players for a day to play the stuff.

But otherwise there’s some very nice material on the CD. The music was one of the stronger parts of the series, so if you happen to come across an inexpensive copy of the CD someday, it’s worth buying.

[sageuk]

WHERE! WHERE! WHERE! My favorites have to be My Mother's land and Yang Manchun's Theme.

I only saw the first four episodes on youtube and the music was what I liked. How is this series, anyway? My grandparents tell me to watch it (the only way I can see it is that KBSestore, though I'm unable to purchase it at the moment). I'm going to guess one of the flaws is that it has a bad habit of being overboard, particularly the nationalism. And over the top acting?

[ajk]

Uh-oh, I'm supposed to disagree with somebody's grandparents? What an awful spot to be in....

There were a lot of differing views about DJY. Some people enjoyed it a lot; other people didn't like it at all. We had people here who are longtime K-drama fans (historicals in particular) who actually gave up on it and stopped watching because they got so annoyed with it. Personally, I'd only recommend watching it if you've seen all of the other, better series and are really itching for something to watch.

Parts of the series were excellent, especially in the first 50 episodes. But after that it got very spotty, and some of the later episodes were just awful. Part of the problem was that the ratings for the early episodes were good, so the programming executives got involved (NEVER a good thing) and lengthened the series from its planned 100 episodes to more than 130. But they didn't have enough good material to fill all of the extra episodes, so the storyline became repetitive at times and ridiculous at times. There were other problems, too--such as several episodes ending with cliffhangers that were completely blown off and never resolved, like they were just forgotten or discarded.

Personally, I didn't dislike it as much as some of the other members did (It still was better than most of what you find on TV) but it frustrated the heck out of me because it could have been much, much better. I can't speak for everybody, but from the comments that other members posted, most of them felt the same way I did. Maybe you'd like it more, but if you're going to spend money to buy a series from KBS then you're much better off buying Immortal Yi Soon-Shin or Great King Sejong.

[sageuk]

Sigh....executive meddling. That always comes along, doesn't it. Well, I may have a different opinion, so I'm gonna give it a try. First four episodes made me itch for more, though I'll keep in mind about the post 50 episodes.

I've always wanted to watch Sejong. Saw only a little of it, but was interested anyway (the episode I saw ended with Sejong confronting his older brother, saying he's going to compete for the throne)