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Post by ajk on May 8, 2016 13:04:27 GMT -5
Not bad of an episode, definitely an improvement over the first one. The escaped-prisoner twist made the storyline more interesting. And now knowing how the main character lost both his parents, we can start to see how it may have shaped him; always appreciate that kind of insight. Still not sold yet on the kid as a main character we should care about--look at all the trouble he caused his dad--but too early to judge.
The pirate attack, it was violent but if it fairly presented what was happening back then, I don't have a problem with it, as tough as it was to watch. Of course it was heavily staged and too one-sided, but that's TV.
The one thing I really did not like was the music. Only episode 2 and we're already getting sappy pop ballads. Actually some of the incidental music was very good, but resorting to pop ballads for emotional scenes in a historical...yes this bothers me a lot more than it does most people...we can talk about this more if people want.
I do hope they stop over-lighting the nighttime scenes. People running through woods or fields in the countryside in the middle of the night, and the whole place is floodlit. Blecch.
So do we get a cliff-dive every episode? Dang we're gonna have to hire judges to score all these dives. And why was the guy climbing up the sheer face of a gorge for no apparent reason? Really there wasn't anywhere in the whole area he could just go over and walk up a slope? Oh well, gotta love TV...And the head pirate, he assigns one person to scout and gather important information...and then tells him to go jump off a cliff...without getting the information from him! Not too bright.
Anybody recognize that temple the kids went to? Positive I've seen it before. Maybe in Shin Don, or QSD? Very pretty setting. For that matter, so far the location shots are turning out to be a real highlight. Gorgeous views of the shoreline especially.
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Post by sageuk on May 8, 2016 15:39:18 GMT -5
Wasn't the cliffjumping supposed to be punishment for killing a guy in daylight?
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Post by ajk on May 8, 2016 17:32:12 GMT -5
Yessir, absolutely. It just seemed silly that he couldn't find an easier way back up than a straight vertical climb, that's what bugged me.
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episode 2
May 8, 2016 18:33:28 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by truth on May 8, 2016 18:33:28 GMT -5
This has nothing to do with this episode, but is it ok to post historical spoilers on Spoilers thread as well? Not sure if I will ever post historical spoilers, but thought I'd ask just in case.
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Post by ajk on May 8, 2016 22:45:37 GMT -5
I'll start a historical spoiler thread just in case you ever want to use one. Not a problem at all.
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Post by jewel on May 9, 2016 10:52:25 GMT -5
I didn't think it was too bad either as far as the violence. I actually can take some violence in battle/attack scenes. I mean lots of scenes from let's say the Lord of the Rings are very violent but I can take them because I'm mentally ready. What I can't take are the unexpected violence from non-battle scenes. The reason I couldn't watch Jingbirok was not cuz of the battle scenes but because of that crazy Japanese prince. After he killed off those physicians I couldn't watch any parts with him in it without having a near heart attack. I was just so scared he would whip out a sword from a nearest soldier.
Ha ha, very funny!
I thought the same thing at the time! But the guy did come back so I guess the head pirate knew what he was doing... tho it was very chancy.
I found this episode more enjoyable too, and had more sympathy for the kid. And I thought he was awfully observant about the whole why the ship wasn't a merchant ship but a pirate one. I liked that.
One little thing I didn't like was when he was hiding with his father on the ship and they spot the weapons with blood on all the blades. I really wish these writers would stop with the cheap thrills. Ok it is more effective to see weapons with blood on them than to see them all clean and shiny, it true. But even I know (who knows next to nothing about pirates and hunters and weapons) that soldiers and hunters (and I'm sure pirates too!) would never put away their weapons without cleaning them first. It's like their second nature. Even the sloppiest person knows never to put away his weapon without cleaning it thoroughly after use. It would rust and not work well the next time. These little erroneous details really jar on my nerves.
Thank goodness we're done with the childhood now. Not too bad, was expecting a few more episodes of it.
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Post by truth on May 9, 2016 11:24:26 GMT -5
The reason I couldn't watch Jingbirok was not cuz of the battle scenes but because of that crazy Japanese prince. After he killed off those physicians I couldn't watch any parts with him in it without having a near heart attack. I was just so scared he would whip out a sword from a nearest soldier. Hideyoshi was not a prince. There were emperor and prince, which would be emperor's son, who were way above Hideyoshi in rank despite having zero power. Think Prime Minister of England or Japan today, but with absolute power, that's basically what Hideyoshi's role was.
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Post by jewel on May 10, 2016 8:33:17 GMT -5
Ah, okay. I knew he wasn't the king and then the way he carried on about his baby son taking over where he would leave off made me think he was next on the throne. I'm glad he wasn't of the royal blood.
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Post by bird11 on May 10, 2016 18:41:39 GMT -5
Had the day off, weather was rainy so I did a "drama marathon" and watched both episodes today. Just a couple of notes: I liked the way some of the warriors were hiding in the sand and then jumped out to fight in episode one-- pretty neat way to hide, but I wouldn't want to do it! I laughed a bit in the scene when they were playing "cards" and betting with sticks, I thought "Even way back then men played poker and placed bets! Does anyone know if the stick "cards" are real? I tried a quick Google and came up with nothing... I agree with Jewel about the blood on the blades-- seeing the pile of swords and the "treasure" chests would have been enough to say "Pirates!", but I liked it that Gung Bok said he figured it out by the size/shape of the ship and the color of the flags..... So far, liking this.......
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Post by ajk on May 11, 2016 1:58:12 GMT -5
bird that's a good question about the game. From what I've found, there was a game that came along a lot later in Korean history (like 800-900 years later) called tujeon, and it looks a lot like what we saw in this episode. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tujeonliteraryeyefordrama.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/daebak-extracurricular-tujeon/#more-382Apparently it really took Joseon by storm for a while...but that was long after the years of this series. Couldn't find anything in English about Shillan card games. The QSD series, set in Shilla and slightly before this one chronologically, had a dice game with 14-sided dice called juryeonggu. But I don't remember seeing any card games.
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Post by bird11 on May 11, 2016 12:55:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the information-- this is the kind of stuff I find really interesting when watching a historical drama-- the political stuff is good, but makes you wonder if any goverment can survive or do any good because it always seems like someone is waiting in the shadows to take over. I guess it is the "social" part of history that I like, how people interact, the way classes interact and the tools/games they use in their everyday life. Like seeing Gung Bok to use his brain to figure out about the pirate ships, not willing to just sit back and be a slave he is looking for a way to move up and challenge his life.....
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Post by mugwump on May 13, 2016 17:53:44 GMT -5
Well, this show will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about 9th century Sino-Korean trade and commerce, starting with the merchant ship they tried to stow away on.
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Post by MTR on May 23, 2016 14:01:23 GMT -5
If you can put aside the dopey pop songs , this drama has one of THE best soundtracks period , instrumental of cours
I noticed some plots and storylines would get the redux treatment in Dae Jo Young , watching this way back in 05 a lot of this stuff was new( to me) and not done to death as it is now of course ie cliff jumping .
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