Pirates and Gladiators

[dangermousie]

I have just watched the first episode of the epic Korean drama Emperor of the Sea, set in 9th century and full of battles, pirates, gorgeous women, angsty men, doomed love, swords, horses, etc.

Even one ep in, I know I am going to love this:

* Movie-quality production values and cinematography

* My favorite way to start: in the middle of the story, with the two male leads leading armies against each other, and we don't know why or who is right, but I know they used to be best friends (one of them is the one who taught the other how to swordfight), and now are on different political sides, and I love. Especially when the battle and their eyes is intercut by gorgeous fragmented images of the past

* Comments about the injustice and brutality of the feudal system: our protagonist might be a general now, but he started out as a slave, in a society that sees the life of a hunting bird as more valued than his own. To this we must add angst.

* Male lead who is burning at the injustice of the world and his own powerlessness as a child slave

* Swordfights of awesomeness

* A hint of a future slave/aristocrat lady OTP.

* Pirates.

And it's also incredibly pretty! I tried to cap, but while my DVDs are super-crisp, the dl version is low quality so caps aren't cute...

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

HAHA!!! Man, that promo pic of Bogo and Madam Jami always cracks me up. You'll understand why once you see what their relationship is. (Note: Not something that results in her being cheery and his doing almost protective leaning.)

Bogo and Yum Moon weren't really best friends, though in a lot of ways, Bogo was the only real friend Yum Moon ever had.

I've been meaning to find good pics of this for iconing forever.

Did you notice that young Bogo(called Goong-Bok[or Gong-Bak, depending on the subs] for a good while) is also young Hwangbo Yoon?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I was going to cap but pic quality online is so low, grrrrrrr.

Yeah, I noticed the Hwangbo Yoon thing :)

[angerfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, she's beautiful too! Where does one download this?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

SilentRegrets.com has it, but the quality isn't great. Let me look around and see if there is a crisper quality version somewhere. SR is probably good to check out if it's your thing, though.

Sorry to jump in but

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

Idols Unlimited has the links but I don't know about the quality. Also one of the links is expired.

http://idols-unlimited.com/kdrama-emperor-of-the-sea

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to watch this but the 51 episodes sort of scared me away.
God it looks pretty!
Dammit why do low quality dls always cockblocking my fun?!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

:(

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

eeee! Am currently watching this too! =)

All for SIG!!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[roseblessing.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have this drama, and it is a great one. I say, the more episodes the better! (: The "villain" is intriguing in this one, and is multidimensional.

For a very wild, semi-historical, fantasy laden and character driven drama that you will love, I would like to recommend to you Laughing in the Wind, a Chinese drama which is available through Netflix. It is an absolutely over the top drama. with great beauty, music, and story-telling.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec, will totally check it out!