notes on #72 and #73

[ajk]

Just three quick things.

1. Anybody recognize Huang Zan, the Ming envoy in #73? That has to be Heuk Sedol from DJY! Even with my cluelessness in recognizing faces, his face is one that just can't be mistaken. Fun to see him again, and especially in such a completely different kind of role.

2. The water clock that we saw in #73 is historical fact; one of Jang Youngsil's inventions for Joseon. Here are links to the wikipedia entry for the clock, which provides some interesting background info, and to a page containing a photo of something looking very much like the clock we saw in the scene:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borugak_Jagyeongnu

www.ecplaza.net/news/0/7735/water_clock_royal_placenta.html

3. Okay, this is a G-rated forum so I'm going to be extra-delicate about this, but if you were wondering about the undressed young woman we saw in the crown princess' bed in #72...Earlier when I was researching something else I discovered that there was indeed a scandal in the royal court because the crown princess took a female lover. I haven't been able to find the source again, unfortunately, so I can't offer any more detail, but it did happen. (I didn't bookmark the source because I never expected something like that to show up in the series!)

[MTR]

All in all this is a historical drama that sticks to historical facts unlike DJY which did not even point out the Dae Family were Magals and only allies of Koguryo and probably were not even at Koguryo when it fell or that Gom Monjam was a Silla Noble and had nothing to do with Koguryo .moving on to the next drama we have an overweight libertine who thought the way to enlighten oneself was to gorge themselves on lifes pleasures to the max ,often at the expense of her own children and the country at large (female Henry 8th )who will be depicted as a Joan Of Arc Boadacia type of heroine .
So my point though taking a loooonnngg time to arrive is Sejong is pretty much accurate ,yes there are a few quibbles like Taejong was actually much nicer than depicted here and yes he did kill his wife's family but he also bought in all the Wang Family (those who made it out of the scuttled boat )and was very much a sage King like his son ,its never really shown how much the son was influenced by the father or that many of these Inventions and policy's were started under Taejong .
So compared to what we had before and what is coming next Sejong knocks it out of the ballpark for accuracy .

[ajk]

Yeah, it certainly outdoes DJY accuracy-wise by a million miles. I hope the next one is better than DJY was, but from what you and others have said I'm already a little concerned.