For Christmas I bought my wife the Emperor of the Sea DVD series that she had been hinting she wanted. It took me a while to find a copy of the movie because the usual online movie sites I go to were all sold out of this series. I actually had to get somebody I know in Korea to help me out. I bought my wife all 51 episodes of the series for $200. Kind of pricey, but it’s Christmas. Usually I don’t pay too much attention when my wife is watching Korean dramas. I sat through a few episodes of Winter Sonata, which I bought for my wife last Christmas, and that was enough for me.
However, watching the first five episodes of Emperor of the Sea, I have to say it is really quite good. Emperor of the Sea is based on a novel by Choi In-ho. His novel is loosely based on the real life exploits of Jang Bo-go (?~846), a famous figure in Korean history who dominated the seas of East Asia during the Unified Shilla Dynasty (676~935). Jang Bo-go also eliminated pirates in the Wando area, which was a geographically important sea route during the time. He also established sea trade across east Asia from Tang dynasty China to Japan. At least that is what the back cover of the DVD set says.
In the first few episodes I have watched it has focused on Jang Bo-go’s childhood growing up as a slave ship builder on Wando island and his determination to rise above being a lowly slave. He secretly studies martial arts and ends up being falsely accused of aiding pirates that raided Wando island by a yangban’s son who was jealous of Jang’s martial arts skills. He is pardoned from execution because he saved the yangban’s daughter during the pirate attack, but is instead exiled to work as a slave on a horse farm. There he continues to study martial arts and improve his skills. He hopes to escape slavery by competing in a martial arts tournament in Kwangju sponsored by a noblewoman who uses the tournament to hire new soldiers for her own personal security contingent.
The drama is beautifully shot, with well develop characters, and a engaging story line. The fighting scenes are similar to what you see in Hong Kong movies such as, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I know some people are annoyed by that kind of action scenes, but I found the scenes well done in this series so far. If you have ever wanted to watch a Korean drama stay away from the Winter Sonata clones and I recommend watching this one.
_______________________________________
UPDATE: Since writing this posting I have watched all the episodes of the drama and it was excellent. I have also since visited Wando Island and did my own Jang Bogo tour.
You can see pictures of Wando Island here and here.
Pictures of the movie sets on Wando Island can be view here.
Pictures of the real Cheonghaejin Island can be viewed here.
UPDATE: LOL, Nomad was thinking the same exact thing I was after reading the Paris Hilton article.
_______________________________________________________________________________
From the Chosun:
Paris Hilton, singer, actress and heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune, signed a modelling contract with Fila Korea, Fila said Thursday. The one-year contract, said to be worth W1-1.5 billion, begins in March. Shooting for the print and broadcast ads will take place this month in Los Angeles. A Fila staffer explained that Hilton was chosen because her sophisticated style matches Fila’s image and said the company plans to introduce a line of Paris-related products.
Is it just me or is "sophisticated" not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of adjectives for Paris Hilton?
If anyone is interested, Sandra Oh is back on the market after her divorce was finalized this week from director Alexander Payne.
Just when you thought Bae Yong-joon’s hair couldn’t get any worse it does:
This picture pretty much sums up his fan base:
Can anyone spot one hot woman in that whole mob?
The Marmot’s Hole is reporting that a Korean film about the events of the No Gun-ri tragedy has been completed:
After many news reports and documentaries about Nogeun-ri came out, director Lee Sang-woo felt obliged to make a fictional film to tell the story. He wanted to ask the U.S. government whether there was no other way than war, a question still relevant today.
“Writing the scenario, I asked myself what story I have to tell. This is not going to be about the incident, not the event, but it’s going to be about the people. It is going to tell the relationships that people had in the small community and how intimate and beautiful they were, and ask them (the U.S. military) if they knew what they were doing. They were destroying these beautiful human beings, Lee said after shooting the film’s last scene in Sunchang, South Jeolla Province, early this week.
Expect another anti-American hatefest film much like Welcome to Dongmakgol that drew record Korean audiences with it’s story of North and South Korean soldiers joining together to kill Americans in order to save a rural village during the Korean War.
Why do I think it will be an anti-American hatefest film? Just look at what the Yonhap article says about the No Gun-ri tragedy:
Cows plowing rice farms, children bathing in a nearby stream and elderly men playing chess on a lazy afternoon — this was life in Nogeun-ri, Yeongdong County, central South Korea, before a nightmarish event occurred in July, 1950.
The incident came without warning on the 31st day of the Korean War. The sky split open as U.S. warplanes appeared and strafed hundreds of villagers walking along a railroad track. They were leaving their homes under a directive from retreating U.S. soldiers in the advance of North Korean communists.
Survivors, cornered under a railroad bridge at Nogeun-ri, were indiscriminately machine-gunned. Out of about 500 villagers, only 25 remained, the witness and families of the victims say.
As usual the Korean media gets the whole incident wrong from the start. A theme in recent Korean movies is that life in rural villages was some kind of idealistic paradise until the big, bad Americans come and ruined it. If anyone wants a good cinematic example of what life before, during, and after the Korean War was like in rural Korean villages than I encourage you to see the excellent Korean movie The Taebak Mountains. Watch this movie and then compare it to the crap that is Dongmakgol. The people in these villages were dirt poor and life was hard which made many of these villages agreeable towards communism and uprise against the South Korean government including villages in the No Gun-ri area.
Also the villagers were not evacuated by US soldiers and without a doubt they were not strafed by US aircraft during the No Gun-ri timeframe as the Yonhap article claims. Finally 500 people did not die at No Gun-ri, maybe 50 at best. How do I know all of this? Read my series of postings that I did last year on this very subject. The evidence is overwhelming about what really happened at No Gun-ri but when Pulitzer Prizes and millions of dollars in compensation money are at stake, who cares about the truth?
The Chosun is proclaiming Lee Pani as Korea’s first Playboy Model, even though two years ago Lee Sabi was proclaimed as Playboy’s first Korean model as well by the Chosun.
In the article Lee Pani claims she has never had any cosmetic surgery:
Lee insists she has had no cosmetic surgery and doesn’t want to. I want to do many things, but I’ll focus on living up to my title for the time being, she adds. Later if I have a chance, I want to show another side of me.
Anyone believe her?
On another note who thinks Lee Pani or Lee Sabi is a better Playboy model. Judging by this photo I would have to say Lee Pani looks hotter than Lee Sabi. Any other opinions?
In an anticipated move, South Korea has agreed to reduce it’s movie quota system for foreign films:
Finance Minister Han Duck-soo said during a weekly briefing South Korea would halve the quota requiring cinemas to show local films for 146 days of the year to 73 days.
The United States, South Korea’s second-largest trading partner, has pressed Seoul to open the film market more, saying the quota system was a major impediment for negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement.
“The government has decided to take measures needed for the goal of reducing the screen quota to 73 days starting on July 1, after considering such quotas in other countries,” Han said.
Can we put a quota system on Hollywood films in America? Hollywood movies is recent years for the most part have sucked. If the Korean film industry continues to produce high quality domestic movies I see no reason why they should fear Hollywood.
I still can’t get over the money I wasted watching the Fantastic Four and other crap Hollywood movies this past summer.
Remember the good old days when Jackie Chan was considered pro-Korean? Well now even the guy that everyone loves to like is now feeling the heat disgruntled Korean pride as Chan is now accused of being anti-Korean:
Jackie Chan hit back at reports he is anti-South Korea, and accused the media of distorting his comments, according to reports.
Speaking at a promotional event in South Korea for his latest movie “The Myth,” Chan said remarks attributed to him about the country’s film industry were incorrect, the Apple Daily newspaper reported Saturday.
“I have lived in Korea for two years … here, no one would believe that I am anti-Korea,” Chan told the paper.
Chan denies he said South Korean stars were feted in the Chinese media, but the same could not be said for Chinese stars in South Korea. He also denies saying the success of South Korean productions was due less to their quality and more to their support from audiences at home.
Could it be that the Korean media fabricated a story to slime Jackie Chan? The Korean media would never do that would they?
Speculation is mounting that Nicolas Cage may have dumped Alice Kim and moved on to the next woman half his age:
On Wednesday, someone posted pictures of Cage on a date on a yacht with another young lady on an Internet site with the Korean portal site Daum. The picture was entitled, “Nicolas Cage’s New Girlfirend.”
The picture, which is drawing an explosive amount of Internet attention, has no further explanation other than its title, so there is debate as to the authenticity of the photo.
The woman in the photo however may belong to someone else on the boat though since there was other people present:
Besides the woman indicated as Cage’s new love, there are two boys also on board the boat; all are brightly smiling as they enjoy sun tanning and swimming.
Even if the photo does confirm that Cage has split from Kim, why is anybody surprised by this? Why is this making headlines in major South Korean newspapers? Who cares, we all knew this was coming sooner or later. Save it for the tabloids.
This just made my day seeing a headline that Chinese action movie star Zhang Zhi Yi will star in another Korean movie. She is best known in western cinema for her roles in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Rush Hour 2”, and “Hero”. All great movies. She first starred in a Korean movie as a Chinese princess in the movie “Musa” but her role did not feature her martial arts ability. She just played the damsel in distress. With her eyes and martial arts ability, that role just did not suit her well. Great movie anyway. She then made a cameo appearance at the end of “My Wife is a Gangster 2” as a rival mob boss. Now that she is set to star in “My Wife is a Gangster 3” I think it is safe to assume that she will probably continue her role as a rival mob boss.
With a big international film star like Zhang Zhi Yi starring once again in a Korean film, I think it shows the quality of Korean movies and the respect foreign actors are beginning to have for them. If you haven’t watched Korean movies, you should check them out because many of them are really good and equal to Hollywood standards. I wonder if any big name actors from Hollywood will ever star in a Korean movie? I bet if someone asked Nicholas Cage he probably would.
