Damo, ep. 01-02

[oyceter]

shewhohashope pimped this as "like CSI: 16/17th Century Korea, mixed with some elements of wuxia, Sherlock Holmes-style deduction, a 'cop goes undercover' storyline, and possibly a star-crossed romance or two to come."

Then she went and posted a lot of pretty screencaps of the first episode.

Have I mentioned before that I used to watch historical dramas in Chinese back in Taiwan? I am addicted to anything with historical costumes and swordfighting, particularly when wuxia is in the mix. Or Qing Dynasty court drama.

So far, Damo reminds me why I loved them so much. Jang Chae-Ohk is a damo (tea server?) for the Left Police Bureau. Her commanding officer is Hwangbo Yoon. It is Chosun Dynasty Korea. So far, Chae-Ohk has solved a crime with her spiffy forensic skills, crossed swords with a lot of pepole, stoically defended her honor, attempted to stoically defend other people's honor, stoically faced her commanding officer, stoically killed some she likes for honor (not a spoiler; this is the first five minutes), and stoically dressed as a boy and wandered off.

I love her to pieces.

Her commanding officer has also honorably and stoically done many things, often with swords, and I love him too, but not as much as I love her. Part of this is because everyone wears very similar hats, clothes, and beards, and they are all roughly the same height, age, and build. I think I have managed to identify his eyebrows though, so all is well.

There is another curly-haired rogue type character who is clearly the other (other other) corner of the love whatever-shape, along with another woman who has yet to be identified. I am guessing some more complications will also come in.

I am not quite sure what the plot is about so far. Chae-Ohk and Yoon solve crimes, swordfight, honorably and stoically stare at each other, and honorably and stoically have heart-tugging flashbacks together. In historical costume! I love it! I am attempting to figure out the significance of assorted hats; some of them have peacock feathers and others have long strings of large brown beads, and yet others have wreaths around the top. I also need to read up on Chosun Dynasty history, because I think there is a whole lot going on with court politics that I do not know, and it is driving me nuts.

Also, Chae-Ohk and Yoon and curly-haired rogue fly around on concealed wires with swords!

I will try to have something more coherent later, but all I can say now is: Swords! Wuxia (um, at least I think it is taking off on Chinese wuxia tradition? is there Korean wuxia tradition?)! Stoic and honorable suffering! Historical costumes! Girl-dressing-as-boy! Stoic and honorable heroine! Flashbacks!

For anyone interested in watching, try to at least get to episode 2, which has the flashbacks of extreme cuteness and swordfighting in the rain, as it is excellent.

Comments

Re: Swordfighting in the rain!

[oyceter]

I know! They have piggy-backing! It is clearly a sign.