Comments on: Chuno: Episode 9

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:44:29 +0000

I feel a tiny bit sorry for the two jumos, the artist & horse vet guy – nobody gives a fig about their story line.

It’s a pity we didn’t get to see more of the mysterious Lady Assassin. I half hope she will miraculously reappear later, but a knife to the gut like that >.<

The noble who loves a slave girl become ruthless slave hunter. The slave girl becomes a noble. The general becomes a slave. Who is the slave?
I see some interesting clashes of character coming…

By: song4u2

song4u2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:29:55 +0000

@ 47 Interesting prediction.

I think TH/HW will end up together and DG will die a runaway slave because the noble will make him one and he will eventually be killed by a bullet.

HW will think she is still in love with him but realize (albeit too late perhaps) that her true live is TH….I’m not sure if the two end up physically together though as she may die in the process with DG. I see TH predicament far worse than DG and his quest is more noble to me at this point, but I just finished epi 4 so things could go down hill with all kinds of twists and turns….Either way, I do not see a happy ending, but I hope writers prove me wrong and let someone be happy in the end.

By: poketboi

poketboi — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:07:39 +0000

i for one dont find seolhwa and chobok appealing at all
in fact i tend to tune out during their scenes
(especially chobok – her characteer is so typecast and unoriginal; im sure ive seen this kind of setup hundreds of times in other dramas, the unusually bright and capable girl surroundedby a bunch of moronic dundering men)
but thats probably because im a little emo and i love tragic characters
i love how tragic all three main characters are
although at the moment (especially in episodes 12, 13, 14) daegil is bordering more on pathetic than tragic
i love the tragic budding romance between taeha and hyewon
but im a litle alarmed that its developing so quickly, whereas the possible relationship of daegil and unnyun is becoming more and more remote a prospect
i mean, the guy has been looking for her for ten years, cut this guy some slack! it would be heartbreaking really if this OTP didnt get some closure
and while it would also be heartbreaking for taeha if it did, its fine, since taeha is already a pretty tragic character
i almost feel like hes destined to live a long, lonely life; since hes the only character who lives his ilfe solely for others
and he already lost his wife and kid, so it wouldnt be the first time
what im predicting is that in the end, daegil and unnyun will be reunited and in love; but obviously there is no way on earth their relationship wouldever have worked out, so theyll just both die together. and lonely taeha will go on to become some great general, etc

ps. im so sad they killed off yoonji. it was so interesting to watch her, even if it was just to wonder how awe-inspiringly out-of-place she looked in this sageuk

pps. can we just take a moment to spazz about the hotness that is lee jonghyuk
amen

By: song4u2

song4u2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:25:18 +0000

At this juncture, I am for HW and TH being together and starting anew, but this is a K-drama so I won’t hold my breathe….

By: song4u2

song4u2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:55:10 +0000

I was wondering about the slavery aspect of this drama thanks so much for the history lesson.

Since the male leads are so attractive in the storyline, I guess writers cannot get away from romanticizing the characters a little. If they all survive in the end that would be interesting to see how the writers justify it because their line of work does not inspire love from those being chased and beaten, but a whole lot of hatred; and jealousy from their competitors.

I still like the female lead up to this point (epi 4). I felt so sorry for the two of them and he was a mouse, but now a tiger. Ten years later and both still longing for someone who no longer exists except in their memories….

By: samsooki

samsooki — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:54:43 +0000

@41 Emma –

Lastly, while the crying out against de-humanization would be in every heart of those who are not free, whether it would be seen in reality is another thing altogether.

It isn’t like Korea’s no-bi (slavery) system lasted only a hundred years or two hundred years, where people might have remembered or heard of a time when there wasn’t slavery… The no-bi system lasted over 1,200 years, maybe even closer to 1,500 years. And so during the Chuno period, the existence of (and the justification for) slavery would have been as part of regular life as summer following spring, or as day follows night. It is so difficult to imagine, now, that kind of society, but Korea had it…

By: samsooki

samsooki — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:44:25 +0000

@41 Emma –

You make some good points. But to play devil’s advocate a little:

The portrayal of Un-Nyun (by Lee Da Hae), as the silently enduring, rather idealistically romantic, almost strangely alternating between impulsive and passive, but altogether rather helpless runaway slave who is now known as Hye-Won (her non-slave name) probably touches closer to reality than a firebrand who fights with humanistic and feministic energy.

What Chuno always falls back upon is the background of history. In other words, if you take a woman who was born a slave, knows nothing about anything except to being a slave, and who has loved only one person, to whom she has put all of her heart and soul and dreams of eventual love and freedom, then, whose life is shattered by violence and the abrupt apparent murder of her love (and her soul and her dreams) by her brother, then, what would that character look like? And, before you answer, you gotta place this character in the time period and location of an extremely fractured and brutal society, where men were dominant everywhere, where slaves were not human, and social castes were enforced as a part of a religious / moral belief system.

The character of Un-Nyun / Hye-Won is very, very complex. I don’t think this is wrong per se, except that given the constraints of a drama series, her character should have been simplified a great deal and type-cast MORE (not less) so that people can understand why she does what she does.

If Hye-Won ends up being with Song Tae-Ha, it is not necessarily by choice but by pragmatism, and that’s not the OTP but it is a necessity that only those with no options in life are forced to make.

By: song4u2

song4u2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:38:10 +0000

@41 wow!

From what I’ve seen so far, I did not get streetwise for the leading female character….she was a slave and protected/shielded by her bro so what could she learn on her own…now the young girl who was rescued without a father or brother should have some street smarts imo, but I have not run across her again just guessing though…now viewing epi 3.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:28:36 +0000

I’m rooting for Tae-Ha (OJH is just so magnetic that one cannot take one’s eyes off him) for the character could be potentially very interesting -if the writer did not stick with the rather hollow militaristic ideal of the ‘loyal general’- and I must admit the other guy does not interest me, either as a character or as an actor, in the least. I wish the writer spend more time and thought on the female lead. Her character is so underdeveloped, unconvincing and irritating, to the point of being offensive to women. It would be more interesting to show her as a more determined person, somebody who wishes to escape first slavery and then the threat of slavery for good, cannot be conceived as a passive, completely non street-wise, demure violet. And she should help in the fights too with the means at her disposal and according to her abilities. The character should display some profundity and complexity of feeling as she moves to a new, more rounded, more difficult, and hence more exciting,love. Her love for Tae Ha should be emphasised and underlined rather than be serve as a form of gratitude (and while the other one is not on the scene), since it is the love of a free person, or the love she feels as a free person (they should contrast that with her first love, the love of a dependent slave for her young master). Through that love -and similarly I’d like to see how the man, Tae-Ha, is transformed through his love for her. Tae Ha’s character too, the loyal general, should be given more to do than the display of military loyalty and chivalry- the writer has a unique chance to build up his main female character and give us an interesting character that shapes herself through her struggle with, and defence of, this new love, her coming to understand and wanting to experience this new love. However, I fear that the makers will simply fall back on the old, convenient and false saw, that we only love once, first love tramps all love blah, blah, blah, yawn, yawn, yawn (not to mention the fact that the form of love preferred would be that of a slave woman for her master. The writer is well advised to go and read Euripides’ tragedy Andromache . He will see how a slave woman rages against those who enslaved her, speaks of her dehumanisation, of her reduction to a res, a mere thing, and of the ordeal of the master’s bed, however young, charming, generous and loving the master).

By: song4u2

song4u2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:08:17 +0000

I just started this drama (on epi 2) and I like the leading character/actress’ acting a lot. The character shows got guts and courage to me so far…this is going to be good.

The leading man is conflicted for sure and I’m not sure why he wants her back as property or for love because of the ‘natural order of things’….I get the feeling he dies in the end though.