Legend, ep. 01-08
Sat, Jun. 14th, 2008 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSo you know how some sageuk start out with the protagonist's parents' story, or with multiple episodes of the protagonist as a ten-year-old? (Or, uh, possibly I extrapolate from having seen the beginnings of four sageuk.) Legend takes this a bit to the extreme and starts out with its protagonists' past past past past past for two thousand years' incarnations.
Note: all romanization is completely screwy, as I've been watching with Chinese subtitles and various internet sites have various romanizations. Also, I think my episode numberings are wonky, as they don't seem to correspond to episode write-ups I've seen online.
Basically, we have the beloved son of god, Hwanung, who decides to have a heavenly kingdom on earth (I can't figure out of the echoes of Christianity are just because creation myths tend to have many similar elements or if it's deliberate). Alas, the Tiger tribe doens't particularly want to join said kingdom and fights back. Their leader, Kajin, has the power of a fire goddess, and she runs around in animal skins and looks fierce and shoots people with arrows. I think she is awesome. Also, I feel rather sympathetic toward the Tiger tribe's skepticism toward Hwanung and his heavenly kingdom. Sadly, Kajin falls for Hwanung, but she can't get her people to stop fighting his.
Meanwhile, one of the tribes that joined with Hwanung, the Bear tribe, has a lovely girl named Seoh. She runs around in animal skins and shoots people with arrows but then weeps over all the death, and I do not find her nearly as cool as Hwanung and the narrative do. Of course, she ends up with everything.
Tragic things happen to set up conflicts that our current protagonists must overcome, and Hwanung eventually says that there will be a king of Jushin (the area roughly covering the Korean peninsula, even though most of what happens is in Goguryeo) descended from him, who will be born under a particular star. Fast-forward to our present day (374 CE), and we have the bright star in the sky, only not one, but two boys are born under it. One's born to a politicking couple just as the star is about to fade out (I am not quite sure how the astrophysics of this works), but one is secretly born ... in amanger stable! Hogae (the first) and Damdeuk (the second) are cousins and grow up as friends, as no one knows about Damdeuk's birth circumstances.
Kajin is reincarnated as Kiha, who is kidnapped by the leader of the Hwacheon (descendents of the Tiger tribe), and Seoh is reincarnated as her younger sister Sujini, who is raised by a much kindlier set of people. Sadly, Kiha doesn't get to be as fur-wearing, arrow-shooting, and fiercely-glaring as Kajin, but I root for her all the same! Plus, she has kickass martial arts and is cute and solemn as a kid. Sujini ends up being a charismatic troublemaker, and while she is fun, so far, I am not as interested in her because I'm pretty sure she will end up getting The Guy and the Magic Amulet. By the way, spoil me and die! This includes any hints whatsoever for future episodes.
I'm also secretly rooting for Hogae, whom I feel gets the short end of the stick through no fault of his own. Actually, he reminds me a bit of Karna from the Mahabharata, though sadly, no living armor. I am hoping he at least gets to retain honor and not be evil, as history tells us Damdeuk is going to ascend the throne no matter what.
Oh! Kiha has a mysterious servant, Saryang, who looks like an anime character (he's the one with the silver hair). I feel he should have a giant tragic backstory, as clearly I have been conditioned to react this way to his scar and possible missing eye (tell-tale hairstyle!) from manga.
Continuing watching in the vain hope that the writers will change something up in the reincarnations' relationships (again, NO SPOILERS!).
Note: all romanization is completely screwy, as I've been watching with Chinese subtitles and various internet sites have various romanizations. Also, I think my episode numberings are wonky, as they don't seem to correspond to episode write-ups I've seen online.
Basically, we have the beloved son of god, Hwanung, who decides to have a heavenly kingdom on earth (I can't figure out of the echoes of Christianity are just because creation myths tend to have many similar elements or if it's deliberate). Alas, the Tiger tribe doens't particularly want to join said kingdom and fights back. Their leader, Kajin, has the power of a fire goddess, and she runs around in animal skins and looks fierce and shoots people with arrows. I think she is awesome. Also, I feel rather sympathetic toward the Tiger tribe's skepticism toward Hwanung and his heavenly kingdom. Sadly, Kajin falls for Hwanung, but she can't get her people to stop fighting his.
Meanwhile, one of the tribes that joined with Hwanung, the Bear tribe, has a lovely girl named Seoh. She runs around in animal skins and shoots people with arrows but then weeps over all the death, and I do not find her nearly as cool as Hwanung and the narrative do. Of course, she ends up with everything.
Tragic things happen to set up conflicts that our current protagonists must overcome, and Hwanung eventually says that there will be a king of Jushin (the area roughly covering the Korean peninsula, even though most of what happens is in Goguryeo) descended from him, who will be born under a particular star. Fast-forward to our present day (374 CE), and we have the bright star in the sky, only not one, but two boys are born under it. One's born to a politicking couple just as the star is about to fade out (I am not quite sure how the astrophysics of this works), but one is secretly born ... in a
Kajin is reincarnated as Kiha, who is kidnapped by the leader of the Hwacheon (descendents of the Tiger tribe), and Seoh is reincarnated as her younger sister Sujini, who is raised by a much kindlier set of people. Sadly, Kiha doesn't get to be as fur-wearing, arrow-shooting, and fiercely-glaring as Kajin, but I root for her all the same! Plus, she has kickass martial arts and is cute and solemn as a kid. Sujini ends up being a charismatic troublemaker, and while she is fun, so far, I am not as interested in her because I'm pretty sure she will end up getting The Guy and the Magic Amulet. By the way, spoil me and die! This includes any hints whatsoever for future episodes.
I'm also secretly rooting for Hogae, whom I feel gets the short end of the stick through no fault of his own. Actually, he reminds me a bit of Karna from the Mahabharata, though sadly, no living armor. I am hoping he at least gets to retain honor and not be evil, as history tells us Damdeuk is going to ascend the throne no matter what.
Oh! Kiha has a mysterious servant, Saryang, who looks like an anime character (he's the one with the silver hair). I feel he should have a giant tragic backstory, as clearly I have been conditioned to react this way to his scar and possible missing eye (tell-tale hairstyle!) from manga.
Continuing watching in the vain hope that the writers will change something up in the reincarnations' relationships (again, NO SPOILERS!).
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(no subject)
Sat, Jun. 14th, 2008 05:28 pm (UTC)In the end, I liked it a lot, but not as much as the other sageuks I've seen, though I would have liked it more if they'd developed and delved into the subplot I was most interested in at all, but they never really did anything with it. (The subplot is already there, but I'm not sure how much of a spoiler "they don't do much with it" is.)
(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 15th, 2008 03:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 15th, 2008 03:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 15th, 2008 04:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 15th, 2008 04:27 am (UTC)Hmm, I should check Netflix and see if they have this.
(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 15th, 2008 04:58 am (UTC)Nice to know re: Hwanung... I think the Christianity bit wouldn't have resonated with me as much if it hadn't been for the whole born under a star thing! I'm still trying to figure out if that's out of Korean mythology or just made up.
(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 15th, 2008 05:06 am (UTC)I think the star thing is also in the mythology, though I didn't bookmark where I read that and I wouldn't trust the accuracy of wikipedia.