![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I hit one of my "Do not want subtitles! Too much work!" phases about 6 months ago and only really worked my way up to movies with subtitles in January. (The last time I hit a "Do not want subtitles! Too much work!" phase it lasted about twice as long. I was in the middle of shows then, too.) Thankfully, the break didn't make this show lose any steam for me.
I know a lot of people had issues with WBDS, especially regarding the pairings (I had the same preferences as most among the 4 main characters, but also grew rather attached to what the show went with) but I never had that problem, and this is definitely going to be on on my list of favorites if I ever do one again. I do think the extension was, in the long run, something of a mistake. Not because what they came up with was bad (though some things rather fell apart in the last episode) but because the writers were obviously basically done and finishing up with wrapping up most of the subplots and it was obvious they were scrambling to think things going. (Extensions can be good things, but give your writers advance notice!)
Thankfully, the fight scenes and characters and conversations were always the best parts, with the fact that the plot was also good more of a nice bonus. Speaking of fight scenes, I would not have believed Ji Chang Wook had a couple of the later scenes in him early in the series. Particularly "let me lure a dozen assassins who are after me into and alley and throw down my sword so I can see if I can handle a dozen armed men while unarmed myself JUST TO SEE IF I CAN DO IT" (Dong Soo, every time we thought you were finished growing up, you went and did things like that...) and "let me protect the king by fighting a hundred assassins in the courtyard, all alone, in the rain." (Dong Soo, I know you spent 3 years on a mountain with a dude who was considered Best. Warrior. Ever even before he spent 16 years living in China with warrior monks and doing things like initentionally dangling off a cliff doing one-armed pullups, and so can probably catch arrows with his toes, but you have limits.) This thing is seriously a traditional sageuk fused with wuxia, resulting in a "mostly good parts only" shounen manga.
( spoilers )
In other news...uhm...are sageuks being replaced by cute time travel stories this season or something? I know there are some longer traditional sageuks running on the weekends (Naturally, the only one that interests me is the one that isn't getting subbed, as far as I can tell.) but it seems there's usually at least one or two sageuks-regular or fusion-as weekly dramas too, but there aren't any right now that I can see, and the only upcoming one I've found is Arang and the Magistrate, which appears to be a fusion horror sageuk (which I am naturally all over).
kdrama: Warrior Baek Dong Soo eps 15-17
Oct. 31st, 2011 07:56 pmWBDS is one of those shows I absolutely adore but tend to put off actually watching because there's only a limited amount of material. (Well, and I watched certain characters' scenes raw through the mid-20s as the episodes aired.)
( spoilers )Right now, this is in the running for my favorite drama of the year, unless it takes the Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei and City Hunter route and starts really annoying me in the last third. (And here I was basically only going to check it out because it was a fusion sageuk when it started airing...)
( spoilers )Right now, this is in the running for my favorite drama of the year, unless it takes the Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei and City Hunter route and starts really annoying me in the last third. (And here I was basically only going to check it out because it was a fusion sageuk when it started airing...)
kdrama: Warrior Baek Dong Soo eps 13-14
Aug. 22nd, 2011 09:33 pmYou know, I really wish Warrior Baek Dong Soo didn’t use Chuno‘s music so much. I mean, it’s changed a bit (and it is quite good music) but that and the cast overlap just beg you to compasre the two, and there are some basic similarities in the plots.
I have to admit, though, while Chuno is the better series, I’m way more excited about WBDS eps than I was about Chuno, despite how much I like it. WBDS caters to a lot more of my narrative kinks and while there are only a few more women (not that they were lacking in Chuno) the women are more directly involved in the main plots, and have major plot points revolve around them. And they interact more, especially the last few episodes.
I admit, though, that I started composing my breakup letter when it looked like we might be headed to a double fridging to fuel a male rivalry, but we happily didn’t do that at all.
( And the Worst Day Ever Award goes to... )
I have to admit, though, while Chuno is the better series, I’m way more excited about WBDS eps than I was about Chuno, despite how much I like it. WBDS caters to a lot more of my narrative kinks and while there are only a few more women (not that they were lacking in Chuno) the women are more directly involved in the main plots, and have major plot points revolve around them. And they interact more, especially the last few episodes.
I admit, though, that I started composing my breakup letter when it looked like we might be headed to a double fridging to fuel a male rivalry, but we happily didn’t do that at all.
( And the Worst Day Ever Award goes to... )
kdrama: Warrior Baek Dong Soo eps 7-12
Aug. 20th, 2011 12:38 pmThis series is still kind of ridiculously awesome (with some of the best fight scenes I've seen in a kdrama) and absurdly addictive
( Again: Why doesn't everything have a 20+ year long as-yet-unresolved doomed romance between a hero and an assassin? )
( Again: Why doesn't everything have a 20+ year long as-yet-unresolved doomed romance between a hero and an assassin? )
kdrama: Warrior Baek Dong Soo eps 1-6
Jul. 22nd, 2011 12:20 amI have to wonder if kdramas are improving, or if my tastes are changing. (Or maybe it’s just my ability to attempt to watch things as they come out.) Until now, the only series I ever tried to follow as it came out was Chuno, and even that I ended up watching in chunks, and now I’m following 2 kdramas as they come out. (And am considering trying to follow The Princess’s Man and Lee Seo Jin’s new series, but 3 sageuks at once is probably beyond my abilities.)
Warrior Baek Dong Soo is a fusion sageuk centering around Prince Sado’s conspiracy. I believe the titular main character is also a historical figure, but I’m not sure. The main character, Dong Soo, is the son of a traitor who was executed shortly before Dong Soo’s birth, and his entire family was to be hunted down and executed too. (In Joseon Korea, they do not believe in leaving anyone behind who might want revenge.) As a result of his mother’s extreme methods in hiding him, Dong Soo was born with “bent” limbs that required him to spend his entire childhood literally living in a bamboo cage to straighten and strengthen his bones. As soon as he was out of the cage he and his rival/foster brother, Yeo Un (Who is actually a plant of the assassin’s guild) scampered off to join a secret camp devoted to training elite soldiers to serve Prince Sado.
This is the only series I’ve seen (and only series I’m aware of) that features Sado as a major character, as opposed to background drama for his son. (Sidenote: If you want a drama the explores the theories surrounding Sado’s death, track down 8 Days: Mystery of Jeong Jo Assassination. While also about Jeong Jo and not Sado, figuring out what really happened there is a key plot and the scenes about that are the best part, even if the resolution treaded a bit close to mansplainin’.) Of course, once we get to the part where his father has him locked in a rice chest and left outside to starve to death slowly over an eight day period, it’s going to be worse than usual because, you know, he’s an actual character you like here instead of a cameo with an awful fate. And this show is definitely going to go with the “Yeong Jo was convinced by a conspiracy of Sado’s enemies” route instead of “Sado went insane and started randomly killing and molesting people” one. Unless it’s a AU where he doesn’t die.
The series is very wuxia-like in its setup, and despite technically following the normal sageuk format, reminds me more of wuxia series than any other sageuk I’ve seen. Most sageuks really only have one central plot that other plots branch out of, and while it isn’t uncommon for the “older generation” of characters to be more interesting than the younger leads, they’re usually interesting in the context of the main plot. Here, like in wuxia, we have a number of plots that overlap (and a more ensemble feel as a result) and the stories of the older generation and flashbacks are largely the most interesting plot. Frankly, I could watch the backstory/childhood parts forever and ever. Or at least the full 24 episodes. My favorite part of the plot are the backstory (and upcoming drama) between the two main assassins, Cheon and Ji, and Gwang Taek, a friend of Dong Soo’s father. They are, apparently, the three best fighters in Joseon Korea and involved in a 20+ year triangle wherein Ji basically calls all the shots and the men respect her choices, even if they don’t like them. Gwang Taek, incidentally, is the kind of character who goes around taking on entire gangs of bandits and punk kids hit by a bout of hero worship using nothing but his identity tag as a weapon and is all “La! I am just a humble if slightly snarky medicine peddler with one hand, no need to pay attention to me!” and you are all “Dude, between losing your hand, getting rejected (to save you) by the love of your life and thinking your would-be foster son got eaten by wolves, you basically had the worst week ever and spent the last 20~ years dangling off a cliff doing one handed pullups while learning every form of fighting you can from warrior monks. After a brief stint as a bum. ‘Humble medicine peddler’ my behind.”
My second favorite is the plotline of one of the heroines, Ji Sun, whose family is the guardian of a super secret book the assassins are after (and which is now tattooed onto her back with her father’s blood mixed in with the ink). Shockingly to all, Mr. I Am A Secret Undercover Assassin is falling for her. Incidentally, after watching ep 6, I realized that the other heroine, Jin Joo, is played by Yoon So Yi from Arahan and Shadowless Sword. No wonder my (already quite strong) fondness for her skyrocketed once the leads were grown up.
The creators, incidentally, are clearly fans of Chuno. The most obvious bit is how most of the music is tweaked versions of Chuno’s music (it’s especially noticeable in the fight scenes) and also that someone apparently went “my, Yoon Ji Min is quite good here as a beautiful and mysterious assassin. I think she should be in our show as a beautiful and mysterious assassin with a completely different personality.” As niche roles go, I can’t disapprove. I prefer her Chuno look, but that wouldn’t really suit Ji. It also has the intersecting but separate plot thing (though moreso) and a big romantic plot where you can’t really tell how it’ll turn out. (I’ll operate under the assumption that another similarity will be that that turns out the way I wanted it to all along.) Mind you, if you want to be another sageuk when you grow up, you could do far worse than Chuno.
( spoilers-mostly for this week's episodes )
it's so very wuxia...
Jul. 15th, 2011 12:10 amI've been watching the new fusion sagek Warrior Baek Dong Soo, which is fun, but we're still in the stage where the main characters are kids (fun kids, but kids) and I'm waiting until I get to the main part of the story to really say much about it, but this bit deserves a special post of its own:
That is a man with one hand doing pullups. While dangling over a high cliff. On purpose.
It's that kind of show.
I offer up this IM conversation as proof that watching Asian TeeVee as it comes out and waiting for subtitles makes my sense of entitlement escalate. For prosperity.
( I am owed instant subtitles. No, really. )
Incidentally, the titular character of Warrior Baek Dong Soo when he's twelve basically has identical expressions, delivery and vocal tones as 20-something Yoon Sung in City Hunter any time they're sulking/annoyed/want something. I feel so much is explained.
