dangermousie | Jumong and ROCH: strong women, handsome men, and swords swords swords

Jumong telling Sosunho 'Please let me serve you. You won't regret it.' is made of win.

Also, while I know he means as a servant, my mind just went to the gutter. (Though a series of delicious events, he ended up being rescued by her and now she is going to sell him as a slave. Heh). yeah, he is still at the tripping over his feet puppy stage, but he is learning, and SIG can't conceal the hotness and I've seen the future clips where he is the badass archer.

Mmmm. Jumong continues to be awesome, four eps in. You know, for a monster (this is 60 (!!!) eps long and if I finish it, will be the longest drama I’ve seen by 20 episodes, and the 40-ep Chinese series are only 40 minutes per ep, not 1:10!) this moves incredibly fast. No drag at all.

This actually might be the historical drama I enjoy the most of the ones I’ve seen (once again, so far). Damo was excellent but I was incredibly tired while watching it, and some of the subplots lost my interest a bit. Return of the Condor Heroes has the OTP and visuals to die for, but for first twenty eps, I watched the version with crappy subs until I switched to a different version (not its fault, but talking about enjoyment here), and first couple of eps were draggy. Handsome Siblings, unlike Damo and ROCH was actually honest-to-goodness flawed: Nicholas Tse’s story was awesome but the bulk was taken by Dicky Cheung and that made me want to strangle someone.

Also, oh man. Did they pour money into this or what? These are movie-level production values. High, big-budget Hollywood epic level.

Btw, as I know some people are into it, there is apparently a canon slash couple in this one, later on.

Three and a half eps in, such a delight. OMG.

Also, this has got to be the best, most amusing OTP meeting ever. Sosunho rescues Jumong who has fallen into a sinkhole. When he comes to, he is weak but arrogant (‘cause he is a Prince and not used to being nice), and she totally hands his ass to him, tells him he is useless (which is, at that moment in time, true). And has him tied up so he can’t escape and tells him (after he’s learned some manners) that she deserves payment for rescuing him and when he says he has no payment (he is under strictures to not reveal he is a Prince), she says she’ll just sell him into slavery instead. Awesome.

I find every single character interesting. I love three, so far:

1. Haemosu. My favorite so far, Jumong’s Dad was made of pure awesome (needed a haircut, but still). A pity he is out of the picture, at least for now, as Kumwa’s rescue attempt did go wrong, and Haemosu ended up being shot full of arrows and falling off a cliff into a river. I admit to being a bit…upset.

2. Lady Yuhwa. Talk about someone made of steel. Mere days after childbirth, she takes her son and runs away into the mountains, as opposed to accepting Kumwa’s offer to acknowledge the child as his to raise him as Prince. Because she wants the kid tough and officially Haemosu’s son. She only comes back with the baby once she finds out that it was the nobles who betrayed Haemosu to his death, because then having his child as Prince is the best victory and revenge.

3. Not sure of the name, but Sosunho’s second in command. I love the scene where Sosunho orders him to execute the soldiers they defeated (the soldiers came to trade but were unwilling to pay) and he refuses, and says if she wants to, she should do it herself. Awesome. He can take orders from a woman, no problem. But he is no weakling.

I like Sosunho (strong, plucky, pragmatic, and awesome) but haven’t seen enough of her to move to ‘love.’

Jumong amuses me immensely, but he is too weak now, to be a loved character. The son of the great folk hero has grown into a pathetic whiny weakling, chasing after palace maids and literally unable to use a sword (he is terrified and useless in his first battle and Daeso has to save him). I suppose it’s because Kumwa spoiled him because of Haemosu, and ditto for his mother. The thought of Jumong transforming into an iron-jawed, intense and grown-up warrior? Is delicious. I can’t wait to see the change. (Oh, the awesomeness, when after the scene where Jumong almost gets punished and is weeping and being weak, the Prime Minister who schemed to get rid of Haemosu is all ‘no way is he Haemosu’s son, I must have been mistaken.’ Yeah.)

The process of Jumong growing up has already began, as on the trip to see the sacred bow, Daeso and Yongpo (two sons of Kumwa) abandoned him to die (but he’s been rescued by Sosunho). He’s about to learn life can be rough and unforgiving, and go through some grueling training, emotional and physical, and hopefully achieve shirtless angst :P

For now, he is at cute puppy stage.

Also, I just wanted to mention a scene I loved. As Kumwa’s father is dying, Kumwa (who has found out that his father was the one who betrayed Haemosu) goes in and whispers to the dying man, that he’s taken in Haemosu’s son as his own and will bring him up as a Royal Prince. Buuuuuurn.

In other news, Return of the Condor Heroes!!!! Gosh, so much love.

You know what I love? How strong XLN is. This is a story where yes, the heroine is raped, but it neither defines her, makes her a victim, or tarnishes her (of course, it’s rape by trick, not force, but it’s still rape). I love that when she finds out (years later), she chases after the man and kills him. And that is the end of the business. She is not made ‘unwhole’ by not being a virgin for Yang Guo (who I love so freakin’ much!).

You know, it takes a really strong man to love a really strong woman. Yang Guo is GUUUUUUH. He has no problem acknowledging her as his master, of being apprentice to her (this is a very feminist story, isn’t it? Not only is XLN Yang Guo’s master, but if we look at the older couple of the story, Guo Jing and Huang Rong, it’s Huang Rong who has the brains in the family). And I love love love LOVE their wedding. He has found her after she just killed the rapist, and she is dying (long story) and OMG, he wants to marry her and he asks her (he has before, as well) and they walk into the temple and even though it’s forbidden (as they are master and apprentice), the monks know they are no match, and OMG OMG, she tells him she is not a virgin and is dying and you know? I love how he doesn’t even pause and acknowledge the virgin issue but addresses her dying one and says however little time they have left they should spend it together and…guuuuuh.

There is a scene where she is weak and he holds her up and tells her, gently, they have two more ritual bows left and aaaaah. Ahhh. So awesome.

Btw, I hate the weak whiny Guo Fu. She lopped off Yang Guo’s arm! But she really doesn’t see anything wrong in doing it to a man who saved her family repeatedly, just because he was cranky at her? She plays the victim, argh. I wish Guo Jing did chop off his stupid daughter’s arm in payment (I am pissed off at Huang Rong for protecting the whiny *****. Huang Rong is someone I appreciate but do not like).

I tried to go cap some favorite scenes from ROCH 2006 and it’s hard! The drama likes a lot of fast, spinny shots, and extreme close-ups, which looks gorgeous but makes caps hard. Still, I managed. Here are some awesome OTP moments (XLN/Yang Guo are the most star-crossed drama couple ever). Check them out even if you don’t intend to watch the dramas, as so beautiful.

So beautiful:

OMG. Love this. Bad guy defeated them by evil trickery and now Yang Guo is tied up and poisoned and will die and Bad Guy is telling XLN that he will give YG the antidote if XLN will go through with marrying the bad guy and being his:

And Yang Guo is begging her not to:

OMG. *love* She decides that if he is in pain and poisoned, she must be too, and rushes to hug him so the poisoned thorns of the flowers also wound her. Mind you, she will still go through with the wedding and trading herself for Yang Guo, she just needs to share his pain no matter what. To say Yang Guo is not happy about her poisoning herself like this is an understatement:

Early on in the series. Is it Cirque de Soleil? Interpretive ballet? Something PG-13? Nah. They are literally practicing a special kind of kung fu. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.

Disturbed in the exercise with severe consequences:

Being cured because her OTP cuts open his vein as she need blood (don’t ask):

Arguably my favorite sequence, precursor to the above ‘bad guy/poison’ thing. They are reunited after a long time in the middle of some horrible circs and they are about and fight a battle to the death with the baddie, but they are so giddy to be together again, they feel nothing but joy and he spins her about and…*dies* (guuuh, taking spinny caps is really hard!)