Baekmu

[zorro]

I'm going to miss her.

With her discipline for keeping her emotions in check, and adhering so strictly to the rules, I wonder what exactly put her over the edge to go off like that. Another powerful acting performance among so many.

It was somewhat satisfying to see her leave on her own terms instead of at the hands of that unmentionable Minister. The pullaway scene of her on top of the mountain dancing with her dress flowing in the sunlight was beautiful.

Ironically, I had tuned in a little early only to see two actresses on GAG Concert spoofing Baekmu, her assistant teacher, and Booyong. I couldn't understand a single word, but they both were hilarious.

[BAE]

I've stopped watching the show. But, what happened to Baek-mu exactly?

[zorro]

Bae, you missed two great episodes. Try to tape or watch the rerun today. (1 pm) If you can't then I'll explain what happened so I don't spoil it for you. It was moving and beautifully done.

[Albie]

I've missed the last 2 episodes while I was on vacation. What happened?

[teacher]

If anyone who missed it wants to see the death of Baekmu, I'll have a tape of it at the meeting tomorrow.

[gpaul]

Bae, how could you stop watching, it is so good. The death of Baekmu was sad but it was certainly in her character to kill herself rather than be flogged to death or let Jini become a concubine. Zorro I also watched Gag Concert and I was laughing like crazy even though I had no idea what they were saying. I wish there were subtitles for Gag Concert.

[BAE]

I don't know why really. Oh wait, it was the acting. I was getting tired of the Minister and Boo-young. I tend to give up easily on shows that seem uninteresting and then get back to watching them if I think things are becoming interesting. So, Baekmu kills herself? Yes, I can see how she would be able to do that to herself. I don't know the circumstances of course, but yes, she definitely seemed like the kind of person who would rather kill herself than face embarrassment in any sort of way. Jini nearly became a CONCUBINE? Darn, I have missed a lot. Maybe I'll watch the show next wednesday.

Zorro, no I couldn't see the rerun of the episode today. But, thanks for your offer. If it's not too much trouble, I'd WOULD like that recap.

[zorro]

It's a shame you missed it. I think it was the best since Maehyang was tutoring Myeongwol away from her troupe by the river.

For reasons I can't explain, Baekmu loses her cool when the AH Byeok orders her troupe to cease their performance and get busy with him and the other officials present. He may have done this out of frustration at Myeongwol (the wench) who told him she would hang herself rather than be his, and dropped a rope at his feet to show him she meant it.
BTW the performance was in celebration if Myeongwol leaving to go to the Capitol with Byeok if I remember right. That was part of the previous ep.


Anyway, back to Baekmu. She launches into a tirade and insists Byeok allow the dance to finish before the gaesings resume to comfort duty. The argument between Minister and Troupe Leader escalates to the point that Baekmu upends Byeok's table of drinks all over him. He goes into a rage and has her arrested, promising dire consequences for her insubordination.

That's the pretext. The troupe then uses what resources it has to try and save Baekmu from what they are sure is a beating rendering her never to dance again… a fate worse than death for Baekmu. Messengers are sent to the Capitol for Jungam, and Maehyang to ask for their assistance. Damshin visits Byeok to ask him to pardon Baekmu so she can tell her expected baby that the Father is a kind man. (insert laughter here) He rebuffs her. No surprise, but on her return, Damshin meets Myeongwol who tells her on her way, that she is about to offer herself as a concubiine to Byeok if he pardons Baekmu in her presence. Byeok agrees to this, and thinks he has finally won.

Meanwhile Baekmu seems accepting of her fate, and wants no help from anyone, especially Myeongwol. She insists on taking what's coming to her without interference from the troupe. However, later she does ask the Minister she's closest to (don't know his name) to let her go from her cell so she can spend her last night with the troupe.

Returning to her quarters, she has tears in her eyes as she looks over her Crane dance book of drawings and her white dress. Myeongwol finds her there and they squabble again. M leaves, but comes back after suspecting B may take her advice to destroy her life's work, namely her book of drawings recording the Crane dance movements over the last 30 years. M return to B's quarters to find a book, but it's inscribed with Hwang Jini's name, and contains nothing but blank pages. Baekmu has effectively erased her existance, and admitted to M that she is now the only one who can master and record the dance.

Next morning finds the troupe along with Maehyang and Jungam discovering that Baekmu's missing, so they begin an all out search. Meanwhile Baekmu has slipped away to a mountain overlooking the river. She's dressed in her Crane outfit complete with golden shoes. As she dances on the mountain top, she looks peaceful and content. When finished, she steps out of her shoes and approaches the cliff's edge. She looks down with a serene gaze and then lets herself fall.

The rest is sad aftermath. Most interesting was Maehyang's confession that life would no longer be worth living without her best friend and lifelong rival. Also notable was Byeok's rage that Myeongwol would now be able to retract her offer since Baekmu had paid the ultimate price. It was a moving episode, but I suppose neccessary since there are only 6 left.

I'm sure I forgot a lot, but someone else might be able to fill in. It just won't be the same now that she's gone.

[CaptainVideo]

Aigu, aigu Watching it this afternoon made me cry again. But allow me to try and shed a bit of light on to what brought about this behavior at the banquet which led to her final dance(at least from new information I learned about the culture).

So, the whole gisaeng system belongs to the government, that's where they get most of their funding and that's why you always see officials lurking about. That older gentleman that has the rigid, low crowned hat with the long red tassel is the resident government official and he was in love with Baekmu from the day he was assigned to that area. I also believe that he is the one that levied the flogging against Jini's mother early on......

Anyway, the gisaeng have four levels within the organization, with the top being the artisan, like Myongwal, while the other levels had less talents until the very last level which were essentially prostitutes. They all have to eventually have sexual relations upon command, but it all depends upon with what level of the aristocracy or lower class you'd have to service according to your level of talent at music or dance or poetry. Myongwal could do all of them very well so she was highly prized, but the gisaeng of Song-do are all high class artists. Therefore, it was extremely insulting for Byeok to stop the dance abruptly and order them all into their places to begin pleasing the lords.....remember, she kept insisting that they would attend those needs after, and only after, they finished the dance. So, she wasn't objecting to the fact that the women would have to do those other tasks, but as artists, it is most important to be true to your art.

What I wasn't too sure about was the ending when Myongwal is doing the "unfinished" dance, was that the dance that she only saw the first half over the wall as a young Buddhist or was she completing the dance the gisaeng were prevented from finishing at the banquet?

I just thought that Baekmu was so graceful on her descent and to the end, showed no fear.....wow.

[zorro]

Thanks, Captain. As usual, most informative.

The dance was the former. Baekmu was describing it to the young Jini, and said it was a sad dance, whose name had a connection to the river.

With that in mind, I took Jini's performance at the funeral to be an homage to her mentor, with the sad river dance as the appropriate choice to honor her. The idea that Baekmu's lessons on life were going through Jini's mind as she danced was also a nice touch.

[BAE]

zorro said:

It's a shame you missed it. I think it was the best since Maehyang was tutoring Myeongwol away from her troupe by the river.

For reasons I can't explain, Baekmu loses her cool when the AH Byeok orders her troupe to cease their performance and get busy with him and the other officials present. He may have done this out of frustration at Myeongwol (the wench) who told him she would hang herself rather than be his, and dropped a rope at his feet to show him she meant it.
BTW the performance was in celebration if Myeongwol leaving to go to the Capitol with Byeok if I remember right. That was part of the previous ep.


Anyway, back to Baekmu. She launches into a tirade and insists Byeok allow the dance to finish before the gaesings resume to comfort duty. The argument between Minister and Troupe Leader escalates to the point that Baekmu upends Byeok's table of drinks all over him. He goes into a rage and has her arrested, promising dire consequences for her insubordination.

That's the pretext. The troupe then uses what resources it has to try and save Baekmu from what they are sure is a beating rendering her never to dance again… a fate worse than death for Baekmu. Messengers are sent to the Capitol for Jungam, and Maehyang to ask for their assistance. Damshin visits Byeok to ask him to pardon Baekmu so she can tell her expected baby that the Father is a kind man. (insert laughter here) He rebuffs her. No surprise, but on her return, Damshin meets Myeongwol who tells her on her way, that she is about to offer herself as a concubiine to Byeok if he pardons Baekmu in her presence. Byeok agrees to this, and thinks he has finally won.

Meanwhile Baekmu seems accepting of her fate, and wants no help from anyone, especially Myeongwol. She insists on taking what's coming to her without interference from the troupe. However, later she does ask the Minister she's closest to (don't know his name) to let her go from her cell so she can spend her last night with the troupe.

Returning to her quarters, she has tears in her eyes as she looks over her Crane dance book of drawings and her white dress. Myeongwol finds her there and they squabble again. M leaves, but comes back after suspecting B may take her advice to destroy her life's work, namely her book of drawings recording the Crane dance movements over the last 30 years. M return to B's quarters to find a book, but it's inscribed with Hwang Jini's name, and contains nothing but blank pages. Baekmu has effectively erased her existance, and admitted to M that she is now the only one who can master and record the dance.

Next morning finds the troupe along with Maehyang and Jungam discovering that Baekmu's missing, so they begin an all out search. Meanwhile Baekmu has slipped away to a mountain overlooking the river. She's dressed in her Crane outfit complete with golden shoes. As she dances on the mountain top, she looks peaceful and content. When finished, she steps out of her shoes and approaches the cliff's edge. She looks down with a serene gaze and then lets herself fall.

The rest is sad aftermath. Most interesting was Maehyang's confession that life would no longer be worth living without her best friend and lifelong rival. Also notable was Byeok's rage that Myeongwol would now be able to retract her offer since Baekmu had paid the ultimate price. It was a moving episode, but I suppose neccessary since there are only 6 left.

I'm sure I forgot a lot, but someone else might be able to fill in. It just won't be the same now that she's gone.

Zorro, Thank You SOOO MUCH!

I can't believe I missed all this! It just got interesting too. I really liked the character of Baek-mu. There was a while when I used to think that she was possibly a horrible person because of all the "kisaeng have to do this and that" she tried instilling in Jini's mind, but that was what she was supposed to do, so can't really blame her there. But, she certainly loved the arts with a passion unmatched by any other. She tried to one-up Jini and that didn't work out to well. But, I sincerely believe that whatever she did, she meant well for Jini. She liked Jini the moment she saw her dancing outside of the troupe's quarters when Jini was a child. I'm sure that she's thought that whatever she's done during Eunho's time was to spare Jini possible heartache and to allow her to just concentrating on dancing.

I'm surprised that Maehyang felt that way, especially since she's always appeared to hate her. I'm sure she did, but now that she has no competition, I'm sure training her troupe extra hard and all of that other jazz will not bear much meaning to her anymore.

Jini dances at Baekmu's funeral? I wish I really saw that episode!

[BAE]

captainvideo said:

Anyway, the gisaeng have four levels within the organization, with the top being the artisan, like Myongwal, while the other levels had less talents until the very last level which were essentially prostitutes. They all have to eventually have sexual relations upon command, but it all depends upon with what level of the aristocracy or lower class you'd have to service according to your level of talent at music or dance or poetry. Myongwal could do all of them very well so she was highly prized, but the gisaeng of Song-do are all high class artists. Therefore, it was extremely insulting for Byeok to stop the dance abruptly and order them all into their places to begin pleasing the lords.....remember, she kept insisting that they would attend those needs after, and only after, they finished the dance. So, she wasn't objecting to the fact that the women would have to do those other tasks, but as artists, it is most important to be true to your art.

Thanks for your insight CaptainVideo. It really helped me understand Baekmu flipping out like that, which is so unlike her because she's always been calm and manages to smile even in the most difficult circumstances because "that's what kisaeng do." This is why Baek-mu was honorable in a way because she valued the arts more than anything. It's a shame to see her die because of Byeok's actions.

[ginnycat5]

Thank you, Captain Video and zorro - I understand it better now.

At the funeral, with all the gisaeng in their white mourning dresses, Jini comes fully made up and colorfully dressed. One of the girls picked up a rock and was going to kill her for disrespect (and for causing Baekmu's death), but the instrumentalist told them to stop and watch Jini. He had to repeat it a few times, but soon it was obvious that Jini was dancing. By the end all the women seemed to see the dance as a tribute.

[BungalowDweller]

This was one of my favorite episodes highlighting Baekmu, not only because it showed the actress's considerable talent but the richness of the character.

At one point at the party, the "lord" told her to get lost because no man would be interested in her! What an insult! What an outrageous remark to make toward a woman who had done so much to promote national culture! (And Baekmu is not an unattractive woman either!) I could not imagine him doing such a thing as bad as he is. He, the so-called gentleman, was an uncouth,uncivilized creep! He had been bested by a woman (Jini) and he hated her for it. When Baekmu made remarks which were an attempt to remind him to save face by controlling his smouldering anger, he blew his top!

Then he insulted the entire troupe by throwing his drinking cup at them and later on jeering at Baekmu by stating that the music and dance was not of any importance, that it was merely a tool "to capture the hearts of men".

He was taking away from Baekmu the respect that she and her troupe deserved. I liked it when she ordered her girls to leave the men, that they were not prostitutes.

Baekmu had swallowed insults her entire life at the hands of the men she served . She couldn't hold back! She was so disappointed by Jini's refusal to work on the crane dance, her realization of its artistic flaws, (pointed out by Jini), her feeling that perhaps she wasted 30 years of her life on a dance that wasn't truly good, etc. the fake veneer of civility (at all cost) she was required to assume simply cracked.

Her life was a series of disappointments as well. In love with the local official, she chose the artistic part of her profession over personal love and contentment. When the lord insulted the dancing and music and the troupe, as well as herself she felt the ground under her feet give way. She had nothing to live for, nothing to lose. Since she felt that she had nothing to lose she could speak her mind.

It was quite telling that none of the other "nobles" at the party attempted to control the haughty one's behavior. He was WAY out of line and yet after Baekmu was arrested, all we heard about were the possible punishments B. was to endure. Flogging. Breaking her legs so that she'd never dance again. What kind of fiends were these "nobles" anyway?

Remember when Jini went to Baekmu's rescue during her outburst in order to stop her? Baekmu was so angry when she pushed Jini away she knocked her to the ground!

She chose to die dancing, like she told her rival troupe leader friend that she'd do. She chose a death with dignity, on her own terms, rather than life in humiliation and a victim to the rages and caprice of the ruling class!

[zorro]

bungalowdweller said:

He, the so-called gentleman, was an uncouth,uncivilized creep!

And those are his good points… I hate him even more now, that "blasted bastard".

I really hope he gets what's coming to him one of these episodes.

Your post was excellent!