Post by ajk on Mar 20, 2022 7:29:15 GMT -5
You wouldn’t think an episode that was so light on historical events would be so enjoyable but this one was. The whole first half, with Kyungbo in the temple—it reminded me of the episode in IYSS that dealt entirely with an illness outbreak in the military camp. They just sort of sliced off a tiny, peripheral part of the story and devoted a surprising amount of time to it, and made it well worth watching.
The only negative about this one was the business about the monk sensing who was coming from a ridiculously long way away. I’ll even give Kyungbo the part about calling out Choi and the other guy for not being merchants. Merchants have a look to them and if he’d seen enough merchants he’d have reason to doubt those two. But the supposed omniscience, we already got that with Dosun and it was annoying then too.
Otherwise it was an excellent sequence. Very funny to watch Kyun-hwon bowing while all of the officials squirm behind him. All except for Choi, who understood—that was a nice touch. And Choi, that actor has done good work throughout the series, haven’t mentioned him before... here you could totally see the realization in his mind—he’s figured something out very important that both he and Kyungbo know shouldn’t be spoken for now. But we aren’t clued in on what it is, I liked the mystery there.
(BTW the flashback was from way back in episode 16 when we first met Choi, going to Oakryong Temple to get advice from Dosun. And Kyungbo was there in the room when they spoke, so big points to the writers for continuity across 123 episodes, well done. But what I didn’t remember until going back and looking is that our introduction to Choi was a carbon copy of the scene two weeks ago in episode 137 of Kyungbo returning to the peninsula. Been studying in Tang for a long time; comes home and finds things very different; guard doesn’t recognize who he is and gets chewed out for it; and they lose him despite him his having walked away within just the last minute or two. Apparently after 120 episodes pass you’re allowed to copy and paste!)
The reference to “Progenitor Tankun”, I don't recall this coming up before in any of the historicals we’ve done here. This is the mythological figure who supposedly founded the first kingdom on the peninsula. Interesting Wikipedia page on him:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangun
Oh dear, sounds like Mrs. Kyun-hwon is ready to take off the gloves...hope we don’t get another simmering catfight over princes like we’re getting in Koryo.
Park Yu: “They are fathers of the royal consorts and grandfathers of the princes. I submit the order may be harsh.” Yes it was! Thank you sir. WG said it’s a family matter, well they are family. Good for Park to speak up. And his reaction of concern was surprising when WG brushed him off—what’s he concerned about?
There are those monks again, giving Doyoung a musical accompaniment rather than praying with her. But are we supposed to take from this scene the idea that Doyoung has seen the light of humility just like all of the officials did in the previous scene? The prayer we heard in her head suggests she’s trying but is still too mired in self-interest to rise above it.
“Baby prince is gasping for air and running a high fever.” Oh it’ll be fine, he hasn’t coughed up any blood!
Watching these kids’ parents freak out an news of illness or whatever, it’s awful that their parents spend so little time with them that they have to be informed second-hand about this stuff. Apparently that’s really how it was with royal kids--you have to feel bad for them.
The poor physician...”I will have your neck if my son dies!”...yeah there ya go.
Wow the kid died! Right there in front of everybody. Sure did not see that coming, certainly not after devoting so much time to the crown-prince issue in the series. And died of measles at that. We forget how fortunate we are to live in a time when kids can get vaccines and don’t die of stuff like measles any more. Wikipedia has a reference to him too:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Tae
He didn't die as a baby--he was at least old enough to have been married--but it's assumed that he died young because younger brothers of his passed him up in succession matters with no mention of him. So there's some degree of fiction here (possibly to add more female presence for TV) but it does basically fit with real history.
The only negative about this one was the business about the monk sensing who was coming from a ridiculously long way away. I’ll even give Kyungbo the part about calling out Choi and the other guy for not being merchants. Merchants have a look to them and if he’d seen enough merchants he’d have reason to doubt those two. But the supposed omniscience, we already got that with Dosun and it was annoying then too.
Otherwise it was an excellent sequence. Very funny to watch Kyun-hwon bowing while all of the officials squirm behind him. All except for Choi, who understood—that was a nice touch. And Choi, that actor has done good work throughout the series, haven’t mentioned him before... here you could totally see the realization in his mind—he’s figured something out very important that both he and Kyungbo know shouldn’t be spoken for now. But we aren’t clued in on what it is, I liked the mystery there.
(BTW the flashback was from way back in episode 16 when we first met Choi, going to Oakryong Temple to get advice from Dosun. And Kyungbo was there in the room when they spoke, so big points to the writers for continuity across 123 episodes, well done. But what I didn’t remember until going back and looking is that our introduction to Choi was a carbon copy of the scene two weeks ago in episode 137 of Kyungbo returning to the peninsula. Been studying in Tang for a long time; comes home and finds things very different; guard doesn’t recognize who he is and gets chewed out for it; and they lose him despite him his having walked away within just the last minute or two. Apparently after 120 episodes pass you’re allowed to copy and paste!)
The reference to “Progenitor Tankun”, I don't recall this coming up before in any of the historicals we’ve done here. This is the mythological figure who supposedly founded the first kingdom on the peninsula. Interesting Wikipedia page on him:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangun
Oh dear, sounds like Mrs. Kyun-hwon is ready to take off the gloves...hope we don’t get another simmering catfight over princes like we’re getting in Koryo.
Park Yu: “They are fathers of the royal consorts and grandfathers of the princes. I submit the order may be harsh.” Yes it was! Thank you sir. WG said it’s a family matter, well they are family. Good for Park to speak up. And his reaction of concern was surprising when WG brushed him off—what’s he concerned about?
There are those monks again, giving Doyoung a musical accompaniment rather than praying with her. But are we supposed to take from this scene the idea that Doyoung has seen the light of humility just like all of the officials did in the previous scene? The prayer we heard in her head suggests she’s trying but is still too mired in self-interest to rise above it.
“Baby prince is gasping for air and running a high fever.” Oh it’ll be fine, he hasn’t coughed up any blood!
Watching these kids’ parents freak out an news of illness or whatever, it’s awful that their parents spend so little time with them that they have to be informed second-hand about this stuff. Apparently that’s really how it was with royal kids--you have to feel bad for them.
The poor physician...”I will have your neck if my son dies!”...yeah there ya go.
Wow the kid died! Right there in front of everybody. Sure did not see that coming, certainly not after devoting so much time to the crown-prince issue in the series. And died of measles at that. We forget how fortunate we are to live in a time when kids can get vaccines and don’t die of stuff like measles any more. Wikipedia has a reference to him too:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Tae
He didn't die as a baby--he was at least old enough to have been married--but it's assumed that he died young because younger brothers of his passed him up in succession matters with no mention of him. So there's some degree of fiction here (possibly to add more female presence for TV) but it does basically fit with real history.
