kdrama; Gye baek eps 3-11

[meganbmoore]

This post would be full of intelligent observations and commentary on a complex plot, excellent acting, and interesting characters, but Lee Seo Jin running around in various states of dress with a sword is quite distracting, and what parts of the brain aren't distracted by that are busy appreciating awesome ladies plotting to take over the country

Comments

[dangermousie]

I kinda skimmed it so as not to spoil myself too much but I know I must have this now now now even more after what I did glimpse.

I really think SJH is suited to sageuks. I think sageuks are wonderful if an actress has chops and has a strong aura because there is plenty of room for her to exercise it but you need to have both to have any hope not to be swallowed by the plot, outfits etc (same goes for male actors).

[meganbmoore]

She really is. The Lady role sageuks like so much is, I think, hard to pull off, because they call for an actress to be passionate while also conveying a lot of self-control and reserve, and a lot of characterization tends to be in what isn't said. (This is why I think the only problem with the actress playing Ji Sun is in eperience...in terms of style and general presence, she's etremely well suited, she just doesn't have the eperience for some of the subtleties.)

[dangermousie]

That's a very good point - I think (ironically) sageuks have the meatiest roles for actresses in kdramas but they do demand a certain skill set - i.e. if you are an actress who is very good at bubbly and loveable and that is your strength, most sageus outside of fusion ones, will not jive well with you.

And yes, I like the character of JS as written but I can't help but wish that they got e.g. Wang Ji Hye to play her. (WBDS is very fusion but JS's character is very traditional-sageuk). Btw, soompiers seem to uniformly hate JS and that is something I don't get, just like I didn't get the hate for Yeon in Kingdom of the Winds. Restrained and ladylike doesn't mean font of all evil.

[meganbmoore]

I checked out the WBDS forum at soompi and saw all the people wishing she'd died at the end of ep 13 (whereas I watched the scene where she might die raw and started drafting a break up letter if there was double fridging to fuel male rivalry...Yi Zhi Mei only skirts by with that for me because it's the backstory, and not the main story) and remembered why i don't go to soompi much. I can't remember if it was there or d-addicts where I saw people hating on Ga-Ok/Ji for being "unnecessriy cruel" to Cheon over something in the late teens (I do agree that what she does is wrong, but I also believe that she thought-and was probably right-that it was the only way to get Jin Joo to safety, and while he was upset, he understood and didn't hold it against her, so...), but that turned me off forums for a bit. tumblr seems pretty decent with kdrama posts, but tumblr's interface makes it hard for much interaction

[gwinna487]

I'm glad I found this post - I wasn't thinking of watching Gyebaek since I didn't know anything about it, but from your write-up it sounds really awesome, especially the powerful, manipulative ladies. *ponders whether to start watching now, or do the smart thing and wait till more episodes are out*

[meganbmoore]

I think the only place Gye Baek is being talked about AT ALL is soompi, and I have mixed experiences there.

All I really knew going in was that it's a sageuk with Lee Seo Jin, but it's pretty good, even though my only familiarity with the relative period is Emperor of the Sea, and I'm sure both only vaguely resemble the actual historical events outside of the big stuff.

dark smurf is subbing 12-18 right now, and I figure Gye Baek subs will speed up once Warrior Baek Dong Soo and Princess Man finish. (I hope all attentions don't immediately switch to tree With Deep Roots, because what i've heard doesn't particularly interest me. (ok, mostly that it seems to be light on women in general, and the female lead is mute for part of it.)