Post by ajk on Sept 21, 2016 14:22:36 GMT -5
Yet another episode that started out badly but got better in the second half.
The first part drove me absolutely nuts...
--When JB sees Jung-hwa and starts to move towards her, five enemy soldiers step in front of him--one at a time, so he can kill each one with one blow. Oh and they conveniently fall out of the camera shot to die without piling up in front of him. Geez I hate nonsense like that. HATE it.
--Oh look, then another five after we see YM and Jung-hwa leave the camp. Same thing.
--And now YM is lucky enough to encounter a government army unit with no archers. So he can run at them and start killing them safely. There must have been thirty soldiers...and now he's galloping away after killing at least a dozen of them, and none of the others make any move to pursue him.
--And of course YM launches himself ten feet in the air with a forward flip with little or no running start.
This kind of stuff is garbage. Yeah I get the whole "fusion" thing but if you're going to have combat and battle scenes, there's no reason they can't be at least remotely believable. Instead of hiring five extras for one shot, hire two and at least let them get a few sword-swings in--they're experienced soldiers, for goodness sakes. Instead it all comes off like a bad comic book. Stop insulting the intelligence of your viewers.
Oh look, and now JB and YM are dueling again. Like there's any possibility that one of them will kill the other in Episode 25. Stop it already.
I'll give credit for one thing: bandits. We repeatedly see Jung-hwa walking around in dangerous situations, unprotected. Sooner or later that was bound to turn into a problem...and so it did. Entirely believable.
Dude you'd better get off that horse before you jump off that cliff...Good heavens! I question whether or not you could get a horse to do that, jump to its death...but either way there was no need for them to show an animal being treated that way. Did not like that at all. Would have been better if YM had dismounted and taken off his heavy battle armor before JB got to him (because wouldn't that weight you down in the water?). A terrible end to a weak first half of the episode.
Things got more interesting after the time jump. The storyline is certainly exploring the limits of The-heart-wants-what-it-wants. Not just how it's pulled YM in difficult directions but now with the rich daughter. She earned a ton of respect in this episode, how understanding she's being despite the hurt that it's putting on her. And JB was mature and proper about it too; went right to her and talked it out rather than staring into space for seventeen episodes. It's good stuff--makes the characters deeper and more complete. The series needs more of that. "I know only Lady Jung-hwa is in your heart, but you have made me, whose only interest was business, sew and make clothes." Nicely written.
Shockingly risky move by Master Jo, betting his whole business on the fate of one trade and one ship traveling a long way into foreign territory with no established trade routes or arrangements. Yeah he's a gambler but that was quite a risk for him to take.
Now wait just a darned minute here. Everything fell apart for Master Sul's trade business because his daughter got miserably seasick almost immediately after getting on that boat for a simple trip along the coastline. But now she's gone on a trade mission all the way to Japan and back and she's perfectly fine? Boo hiss!! Boooooo hisssssss!!! Okay so two years have passed and maybe it's possible she learned how to handle seasickness; I guess there are ways to cope with it. But you have to address that in the scene. You can't just put her out there in the middle of everything and pretend nothing ever happened before. This has to be one of the worst continuity mistakes ever in a historical. Something like that would never happen in a properly written series.
Once again, the simple honest scene with Yun and Ha-jin makes a mockery out of all the Eternal Triangle stuff we've had to sit through. It was very, very sweet.
What the heck is that thing on Madam Jami's head? Who's her hair stylist--Salvador Dali?
So the bonehead brother is now the governor. After he screwed up with Madam Jami's letter she spends two years trying to make him the governor? She's gonna be sorry in the end...although I do like the idea of him as a big-time government stooge. He's perfect for that. This should be entertaining going forward.
p.s. "Chun-tae, should we just run away?" Oh yes Joong-dal, yes please! I'll even buy you the running shoes.
The first part drove me absolutely nuts...
--When JB sees Jung-hwa and starts to move towards her, five enemy soldiers step in front of him--one at a time, so he can kill each one with one blow. Oh and they conveniently fall out of the camera shot to die without piling up in front of him. Geez I hate nonsense like that. HATE it.
--Oh look, then another five after we see YM and Jung-hwa leave the camp. Same thing.
--And now YM is lucky enough to encounter a government army unit with no archers. So he can run at them and start killing them safely. There must have been thirty soldiers...and now he's galloping away after killing at least a dozen of them, and none of the others make any move to pursue him.
--And of course YM launches himself ten feet in the air with a forward flip with little or no running start.
This kind of stuff is garbage. Yeah I get the whole "fusion" thing but if you're going to have combat and battle scenes, there's no reason they can't be at least remotely believable. Instead of hiring five extras for one shot, hire two and at least let them get a few sword-swings in--they're experienced soldiers, for goodness sakes. Instead it all comes off like a bad comic book. Stop insulting the intelligence of your viewers.
Oh look, and now JB and YM are dueling again. Like there's any possibility that one of them will kill the other in Episode 25. Stop it already.
I'll give credit for one thing: bandits. We repeatedly see Jung-hwa walking around in dangerous situations, unprotected. Sooner or later that was bound to turn into a problem...and so it did. Entirely believable.
Dude you'd better get off that horse before you jump off that cliff...Good heavens! I question whether or not you could get a horse to do that, jump to its death...but either way there was no need for them to show an animal being treated that way. Did not like that at all. Would have been better if YM had dismounted and taken off his heavy battle armor before JB got to him (because wouldn't that weight you down in the water?). A terrible end to a weak first half of the episode.
Things got more interesting after the time jump. The storyline is certainly exploring the limits of The-heart-wants-what-it-wants. Not just how it's pulled YM in difficult directions but now with the rich daughter. She earned a ton of respect in this episode, how understanding she's being despite the hurt that it's putting on her. And JB was mature and proper about it too; went right to her and talked it out rather than staring into space for seventeen episodes. It's good stuff--makes the characters deeper and more complete. The series needs more of that. "I know only Lady Jung-hwa is in your heart, but you have made me, whose only interest was business, sew and make clothes." Nicely written.
Shockingly risky move by Master Jo, betting his whole business on the fate of one trade and one ship traveling a long way into foreign territory with no established trade routes or arrangements. Yeah he's a gambler but that was quite a risk for him to take.
Now wait just a darned minute here. Everything fell apart for Master Sul's trade business because his daughter got miserably seasick almost immediately after getting on that boat for a simple trip along the coastline. But now she's gone on a trade mission all the way to Japan and back and she's perfectly fine? Boo hiss!! Boooooo hisssssss!!! Okay so two years have passed and maybe it's possible she learned how to handle seasickness; I guess there are ways to cope with it. But you have to address that in the scene. You can't just put her out there in the middle of everything and pretend nothing ever happened before. This has to be one of the worst continuity mistakes ever in a historical. Something like that would never happen in a properly written series.
Once again, the simple honest scene with Yun and Ha-jin makes a mockery out of all the Eternal Triangle stuff we've had to sit through. It was very, very sweet.
What the heck is that thing on Madam Jami's head? Who's her hair stylist--Salvador Dali?
So the bonehead brother is now the governor. After he screwed up with Madam Jami's letter she spends two years trying to make him the governor? She's gonna be sorry in the end...although I do like the idea of him as a big-time government stooge. He's perfect for that. This should be entertaining going forward.
p.s. "Chun-tae, should we just run away?" Oh yes Joong-dal, yes please! I'll even buy you the running shoes.