episode 75

[ajk]

So I'm still trying to catch up from family responsibilities and holiday chores. Sat down today to watch overdue-Episode 75, and GoodDrama is down for some unknown reason. Apparently it's not just this minute either; "GoodDrema not working" is a big search on YouTube right now.

I'll keep everybody posted. Darn, really looking forward to seeing Goongyae lay the smackdown on everybody.

[ajk]

Turns out that DailyMotion offers EWG episodes linked from GoodDrama and I've just started watching Ep75 through their site with no problem. So whatever is going on with GoodDrama, we should be okay as long as the episodes are still accessible through DailyMotion.


p.s. Correction, I watched it on DramaCool. Here:

dramacool.so/emperor-wang-gun-episode-75.html

And the entire episode ran as one instead of being cut up into three pieces. Hmm, that's an improvement.

[ajk]

What an impressive episode this was. Both of the battle scenes were first-rate, and everything before that had you hanging on every word. Great stuff.

Terrific opening. Smart thinking, having Jongkahn narrate the report as Goongyae was reading it. We got to hear exactly how Jongkahn was spinning it all, and so we knew exactly what Goongyae knew. Good idea by the writers.

And it sure didn’t go like I expected it to. No smackdown on Jongkahn, just “Deal with them accordingly.” Really? And in the middle of it all he suddenly whips off the eye patch...Apparently this is supposed to be the moment where he symbolically transforms from merciful Maitreya into out-of-control dictator. Okay, fair enough. Never occurred to me that the eye patch would ever come off, but it worked well enough. “As of this moment, the merciful Buddha is dead.” But nothing more comes of it? Hmm....

Jongkahn: “I am overwhelmed with honor that you acknowledge my true loyalty at last.” Thought about it and nope, not buying it. Goongyae cryptically saying “You are not excluded, Advisor” and then the little tear on Goongyae’s face when he said that “I must now walk alone”...Then he tells Jongkahn that he’ll preside over the public hearing himself, right after telling Jongkahn to handle it. And on top of that, saying to himself in the previous episode that Jongkahn fell for what clearly was a plot by a rival kingdom...No I think the public hearing is going to take a shocking turn and Goongyae’s got it all lined up in his head already.

“Something doesn’t feel right...They could have tricked us when their true target is Jukryung.” Yu Geumpil once again showing he’s a darned sharp guy. Impressed us in Shilla, and now was the only one to diagnose this situation correctly. We need less of that idiot Park Sulhee and more of this guy!

Yunhwa to her father: ”Cover your eyes and ears to the matters of the court. What more do you need when your daughter is an empress?” Recorded here in anticipation of the public hearing. It sure was a surprise to hear Jongkahn’s report include her father. (And for that matter Bok Jikyum in the report? He didn’t do anything himself, just received Lord Kang and then one of the prisoners tried to send him a letter. That’s no basis for implicating him in anything. Jongkahn totally overreached with this one.)

The ambush scene at Choryong was excellent. For once we got an ambush that wasn’t in a ravine! Yeah it was a mountainside and gravity did play a role, but we saw trench traps and a backside attack by the crown prince’s forces too so it wasn’t anything like the ravine ambush that’s become almost a cliché in these historicals.

And the attack on Jukryung was excellent too. Rampant overuse of flaming arrows, that was kind of a downer, but a lot of terrific stunt work and staging of sequences with stuff burning and collapsing. This is how you do it, no shortcuts or silliness. Spent some serious money shooting this scene but it was money well spent.

“What amazing sense of relief.” Exactly what you’d expect the real Kyun-hwon to say after how he got played and outwitted in lowing Geumsung.

Now presumably we get the public hearing in the next episode. Hope so; it could get wild. And way past time for a narrated text because I really want to know how much of everything lately is based in fact, and the text-less streak is up to eight episodes.