Damo: Strong women, conflicted men...
I think it's about time for me to rewatch Damo.
A 14-episode drama, Damo was one of my earliest Korean dramas, and all these dramas later, remains one of my favorites (I don't love it as much as Legend, and probably not as much as Hong Gil Dong, but it is still psychotically good).
Filmed like a movie and written better than most movies ever get (and, at 14 eps, with no slow spots or pacing problems), Damo possesses not only a complicated story, amazing battles, and characters I grew to love madly, it also boasts the strongest female character I have came across in dramas: the protagonist Chae-Ok, after whom the drama is named. A Damo is a tea-servant in Korea of a Joseon period, and Chae-Ok is, ostensibly, a tea-servant at a police precinct, a slave of Commander Hwangbo Yoon, the 'boss' of the division. She is also an investigator for the department and one of its best fighters. She can do this as she grew up with Yoon, and the Commander, an outsider himself (he is a bastard child of a nobleman, not a truly 'proper noble' by birth), treats her as a sister or maybe more...
The story is about a counterfeiting ring that might be the cover for a rebellion, about Chae-Ok's method of coping with living in a society that is almost unbearably rigid, and her emotional involvement with two very different yet oddly similar men: Hwangbo Yoon and the charismatic rebel leader Sung-Baek.
Damo is one of the most gorgeously filmed, emotionally devastating, incredible dramas out there. All three of the main characters are outsiders trying to cope with the system that does not allow deviations, and their emotional struggles to define themselves are even more interesting than the overarching plot.
Also, "Then I will humble myself" has got to be one of the most swoon-worthy things ever said in a drama, in context.
Here is a rare non-spoilery vid to lure you:
A 14-episode drama, Damo was one of my earliest Korean dramas, and all these dramas later, remains one of my favorites (I don't love it as much as Legend, and probably not as much as Hong Gil Dong, but it is still psychotically good).
Filmed like a movie and written better than most movies ever get (and, at 14 eps, with no slow spots or pacing problems), Damo possesses not only a complicated story, amazing battles, and characters I grew to love madly, it also boasts the strongest female character I have came across in dramas: the protagonist Chae-Ok, after whom the drama is named. A Damo is a tea-servant in Korea of a Joseon period, and Chae-Ok is, ostensibly, a tea-servant at a police precinct, a slave of Commander Hwangbo Yoon, the 'boss' of the division. She is also an investigator for the department and one of its best fighters. She can do this as she grew up with Yoon, and the Commander, an outsider himself (he is a bastard child of a nobleman, not a truly 'proper noble' by birth), treats her as a sister or maybe more...
The story is about a counterfeiting ring that might be the cover for a rebellion, about Chae-Ok's method of coping with living in a society that is almost unbearably rigid, and her emotional involvement with two very different yet oddly similar men: Hwangbo Yoon and the charismatic rebel leader Sung-Baek.
Damo is one of the most gorgeously filmed, emotionally devastating, incredible dramas out there. All three of the main characters are outsiders trying to cope with the system that does not allow deviations, and their emotional struggles to define themselves are even more interesting than the overarching plot.
Also, "Then I will humble myself" has got to be one of the most swoon-worthy things ever said in a drama, in context.
Here is a rare non-spoilery vid to lure you:
Click to view