dangermousie | Pirates and Gladiators

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...