#Chuno: Slave Hunters

[dangermousie]

It is now to make time for a pusher post for my favorite Korean period drama of all time - Chuno/The Slave Hunters.

The story revolves around three main characters (though supporting characters are many, complex, and incredible) - Dae Gil, a fallen noble who has long become a feared slave hunter of escaped slaves, Hye Won, a former slave girl who has long lived under a false identity of a noble lady, and Tae Ha, a formerly very high aristocrat and right hand of now-dead Crown Prince So Hyeon who has been punished and made a military slave.

The story proper starts when Tae Ha seemingly suddenly goes on the run and the government for reasons that won’t be explained until later issues a mad bounty on him dead or alive and Dae Gil joins the chase, without knowing that Tae Ha and his long-lost love Hye Won, who he has been searching for a decade for, have crossed paths and are traveling together.

So, why Chuno? It has amazing visuals, great fights, incredible performances and an intriguing plot, not to mention the sole love triangle I’ve ever loved in a kdrama (watching it live was agony!)

But it’s not any of that. It’s the fact that it’s the sole sageuk that really focuses on class and plight of the dispossessed - not even The Rebel does it as well and with such a focus. The Rebel is wish fulfillment but this is not. One of the other plots running almost parallel is a doomed slave rebellion - no Hong Gil Dong shows up to save anyone. The most you can manage is to try to carve out some obscurity of peace and even that is almost impossible. There is a reason that Tae Ha's grand mission, the best outcome is not something like restoring So Hyeon's last remaining living son to his position or the throne or anything, it is merely saving the child's life to live in obscurity and even that is barely achieved.

Almost every character, and certainly every major one is on the margins of society - slaves, peasants, and other lower classes. And the drama tackles not only what it does to live on the bottom of the social pyramid but also with innate prejudices which even the dispossessed possess. It really does tackle class structure in a way I don't see in other sageuks, even the small number that do not focus on royals and court. What I think really makes it possible is the fact that all three mains exist in the in-between space, neither permanently this nor that and it shows the artificiality of distinctions. Dae Gil is a former noble who is now barely better than the slaves he hunts. He's free, yes, but he exists on the margins and upper class is as closed to him as the moon. Hye Won used to be Un Nyun, a slave woman who almost died for the sin of going "above her station" in love but now she is upper class lady Hye Won with a fictitious background. Tae Ha was incredibly high up (back in the past, Dae Gil's family would have probably preened at the unimaginable honor of being invited to his house or similar) but now he is a branded military slave. If people can pass between classes like this - due to luck (good or bad), loss or gain of money, politics etc, the class distinction is shown as absurd. There is nothing visible that distinguishes present day Dae Gil from a man who was born in the gutter or Hye Won from a lady noble by birth. And yet, and yet - I love how the class prejudice is shown to be embedded in its very victims. One of my favorite story beats is Tae Ha's instinctive initial recoil on discovering Hye Won is originally a slave. He's a man who was made a slave on the most unjust grounds, he has to know how meaningless this distinction is, how cruel and pointless. But yet his first reaction is horror because even as a victim of the system he has bought into it - his status is a terrible injustice, he gets that. But to get that the system itself is awful is another step. I love that this does not come easy to him.

Anyway, this is a great drama with complex characters and complex narratives. It was a mad hit back when it came out but like a lot of "older" dramas is less talked about/watched today and I am trying to remedy it :)

PS If you shipped Dae Gil x Hye Won instead of Tae Ha x Hye Won like me (and I totally get why, they were also epic), you can always then watch Robber, which is a modern drama in which Jang Hyuk and Lee Da Hae starred as the OTP of a desperate conman preying on lonely women and a grieving widow. You can always, like me, view it as their happy ending AU.

[gizkasparadise]

throwback shitty powerpoints

to bring back some old favorites, i gonna make some throwback PPTs for dramas that are at least 5 years old or older. which one should i do next?

[nomiyakazehaya]

not me getting into the historical korean drama/movies again… i had a random itch to watch chuno (or the slave hunters), and now i'm sitting here watching uprising…… 🥲

on the other hand, hello mr kang dong-won, holy shit haven't seen him in a movie in so fucking long, omggg 😭

[koreagirlsmodel]

Lee Da Hae

Un Nyun / Hye Won – Chuno, Slave Hunters

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Seramik Boyama

Annette Bening

Annette Bening

Annette Bening

Annette Bening

Annette Bening

Annette Bening

American Beauty

American Beauty

Please Come Back, Mister

Please Come Back, Mister

Lee Da Hae-Un Nyun / Hye Won Chuno, Slave Hunters Lee Da Hae Un Nyun / Hye Won - Chuno, Slave Hunters

[binging-asian-dramas]

Chuno / Slave Hunters 9-10

Story: 9

Acting: 10

Chemistry: 10

Comparable to: Damo (kdrama) ; My Country: the New Age (kdrama)

This is one of those highly emotional binge’able phenomenal historical kdramas that I torture myself to rewatch over and again because I love it so much. Between the acting, scenery, fighting sequences, chemistry, well basically everything, this drama for me is near perfect, (some episodes yes were draggy) and the last few episodes killed me to watch, hence my next warning. Bring tissues.

[bending-sickle]

Lee Dae-gil (Jang Hyuk) being sassy in The Slave Hunters (Chuno 추노, 2010)

[sarangkstars]

Panther Gaze 🆚 Deep Impression 😍

[dailyjanghyuk]

Jang Hyuk in Slave Hunter Chuno, drama from 2010

[moviefoodbloggg]

[swordsandparasols]

This might be my favorite accidental casting joke for sageuks, given that 7 years after this scene in Chuno (Airing at the same time slot, even, though on different channels!), Kim Ji Suk would play the tyrant king obsessed with doing just that in Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People.

It also makes his scenes with Kim Ha Eun, who played a gisaeng (who sadly randomly disappeared) in earlier parts of Rebel funny on a casting level, though the way Wangson treats Sul Hwa is gross.

I remembered really disliking Wangson and finding him annoying when I watched Chuno back in 2010, and was wondering going in for this rewatch if 8 years and having liked Kim Ji Sook in a couple of recent roles would make Wangson more tolerable to me.  Alas, while liking the actor does reduce the “ugh, get off my screen” aspect, the character is still insufferably annoying in most scenes, and the only character on the show I can’t at least appreciate as a character, regardless of whether or not I like he character.  (Knowing that he hangs around till the end hile other characters I like will get phased out or rarely appear not far from where I am in the rewatch doesn’t help either.)

[tomorrowsdrama]

What is your top 10 hotties from dramaland?

Oh you know I will take any chance to thirst over dramaland hotties. Actually ranking them is so hard though. This is one situation where I would want to give participation prizes for everyone. Everyone is a winner because they're so hot hahaha. But if I really HAD to rank them...

Zhou Yiwei as Xiao Qi in The Rebel Princess

Omg the thirst WAS REAL early 2021 when I first laid eyes on Zhou Yiwei in The Rebel Princess. Wheeeew, there was no shame at all. It's not just the way he looks but also the character himself that makes him my number 1 hottie. Ugh, the way he wielded all his big weapons and his long locks flowing in the wind as he rode in on his horse to save the day. How calm he was in handling everything except whenever it came to Awu or his men. OMG and his chemistry with Awu was just outrageous. It felt voyeuristic watching those two fall in love. I can go on and on and on.

2. Jang Hyuk as Dae Gil in Chuno

Omg Dae Gil, Dae Gil, Dae Gil. Naïve noble young lord who fell in love with a slave turned jaded fucked up slave hunter with amazing pecs and abs obsessively looking for the girl he fell in love with when he was 16. I mean, what's not to love?! That intensity that Jang Hyuk brings to all his characters is especially delicious here. Ahh and all the angst and pain and sacrifice ILOVEHIMILOVEHIMILOVEHIM.

3. Darren Wang as Wolf Boy/Prince Bo in The Wolf

SEX ON LEGS. THE END. I may have been even more shameless in thirsting over Wolf Boy than I was with Xiao Qi. Why isn't he number 1 then? Well, whereas Xiao Qi is wonderful husband material while still being a competent as hell general/murder machine, Wolf Boy is the hot bastard you meet at a sketchy dive bar who you take home for an ill-advised night of great fun. I don't know if being husband material makes you hotter but I guess for this list it does. I don't know!

Cut to save you from all the gifs. More thirst awaits behind the cut!

4. Chen Kun as Ning Yi in The Rise of the Phoenixes

THIS MAN IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND SMOLDERS ONSCREEN LIKE HIS LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.  So brilliant, so ruthless, so tragic.  And when he lets his hair down?!  Ugh, I can’t.  The only reason why he isn’t higher is because he’s TOO BEAUTIFUL in a very untouchable way.

5. Kimura Takuya as Haru in Pride

Teenage me took one look at Kimura Takuya as Haru and went YES.  He’s probably only this high because of nostalgia but WHATEVER. It doesn’t matter that Kimura Takuya is maybe 130 pounds max at any given moment.  The jdrama told me he was an ace hockey player and I went “Yes he is!”  This was peak jdrama romance for me. I mean a playboy who doesn’t believe in love falling in love with a traditional woman while fake dating according to the rules of his own game? Yes please!

6. Kim Moo Yeol as Hot Banker in My Beautiful Bride

I’m sure he has an actual name but I don’t know it because he’s always been Hot Banker to me.  I’ve been to many banks, seen many bankers, and never in my life have I ever seen one as hot as Hot Banker. Talk about setting unrealistic expectations. Ooooof I love his one track mindedness in his love for his bride and never stopping until he gets her back...IT FEEDS MY SOUL.  He also works out a lot and the drama makers were kind enough to show us his work out routine onscreen and bless them for that.

7. Ji Sung as Kang Yohan in The Devil Judge

Gay daddy Rochester does modern vengeance kdrama all while looking fucking hot and brooding in suits and loose blouses. Ji Sung is so daddy in this role, the state is looking for him to pay child support.

8. William Chan as hot masochist shifu in novoland pearl eclipse

Hot masochist shifu with a toxic homoerotic relationship with a psycho emperor whom you want to fuck. He’s THE hot shifu you want to fuck to top all hot shifus (or maybe in his case, bottom?).  His character was as hot as the drama was messy/bad.  OOF.

9. Jin Han as Feng Xi in Twisted Fate of Love

Hot bastard you want to fuck who only melts for his otp. My attraction to Jin Han is irrational and 100% hormone driven.  I have watched so many crap/questionable dramas for this man. SO MANY.

10. Kim Nam Gil as Bi Dam in Queen Seondeok

Kim Nam Gil on any given day is worth thirsting over but especially with that long hair as Bi Dam. I mean come on, abandoned son of the antagonist queen who falls for the new queen/rightful ruler? The dangerous and cutthroat man with questionable morals who throws it all away for his otp and literally fights through an entire army just to see her again?! His character was totally made to turn me on! I couldn’t find any gifs to do him justice so please enjoy this clip of his last scene where he cuts through an army to reach his lover and falls just short of touching her before he dies.

10. Yoon Sang Hyun as Oska in Secret Garden

OG kdrama himbo with a heart of gold who turns out to be the best bro ever.  He was such a hot dummy, even Lee Jong Suk’s snooty hipster songwriter couldn’t help but fall for him.  Yoon Sang Hyun is such an underrated hottie, it’s a crime.

10. Cha Seung Won as Jo Kook in City Hall

Hot bastard you want to fuck who reforms himself for his otp and tries to be a better man for her. Cha Seung Won is already naturally so hot to me but add onto that his crazy hot chemistry with Kim Sun Ah? 🥵 They were so adult and it was so great. Special shout out to his role in Athena: Goddess of War for being the hottest evil bastard in that mess of a drama.

10. Jung Kyung Ho as Dr’s Son in Cruel City

Look, Jung Kyung Ho is as skinny as a bean pole but he was just so sexy and dangerous in this drama! Wheeeew and that love scene with Nam Gyuri.

Special Category: hottie not from an Asian drama - Uraz Kaygilaroglu as Kartal in Uc Kurus

Pictures don’t do him justice, his entire vibe as this character is so hot to me. You know you’re hot when you can make this monstrous bleach blond look sexy. I think Uc Kurus was my first foray into Turkish shows (it’s either this or Destan) and it was all because of Kartal. What’s not to like about a Romani mafioso who is perhaps on the wrong side of the law but is also someone who does everything he can to protect his loved ones and his community and is a bit damaged? He makes a very good case for slumming it!

Some special mentions that didn’t quite make the top 10:

Joo Won’s insane abs in Alice

Lee Dong Wook in anything and everything

Lee Soo Hyuk’s frequent flyer abs in The Scholar Who Walks the Night

Nam Goong Min’s everything in the first episode of The Veil

[dangermousie]

Honestly I think you're one of my favourite kdrama bloggers on here and I'm curious: what are the kdramas you consider to be perfect? Like top to bottom not a single flaw seen. What's the best of dramaland for you?

Awww thank you! I love this type of ask too!

Any list of mine is gonna be of course vvv subjective (I am not a romcom lover for example) and I can guarantee you that the moment I hit post, I am gonna lose my mind because I will remember I forgot something.

Also, no flaw by definition excludes some of my faves where there are a few minor flaws but the rest is so amazing it doesn't matter (The Legend First King's Four Gods comes to mind - the first ep ie prologue set 1k years before the main story - is a lil cheesy. But the rest is so good I don't even care and same for My Dearest where I'd perhaps remove the final amnesia bit but it's a perfect drama otherwise with the rest so good I don't even care. So perhaps they should be listed.)

But anyway here are are some dramas where I have not seen a single flaw, perfect dramas.

Mawang (also known as The Devil or Lucifer) - probably the best kdrama dealing with revenge ever made - the damage, the driving need, the destruction of self and yet destruction of self without it. To really explain anything about it would be spoilery so all I am going to say is it revolves around an icy lawyer with a secret, a hot headed cop chasing a string of murders, and a librarian who can read past events by touching objects or people. The way I cried. The way I stared in shock as it ended. The sheer perfection of it all - the acting, the relationships, the writing. I get emotional just thinking of it.

IRIS - yup, an action drama. I am not much of a fan of various sequels/spin-offs (involving different characters, you do not need to watch anything else if you watched IRIS or to watch IRIS to watch the others) but the original is amazing. Sure, it's an actioner. It's also an amazing character study of a person taken apart and trying to put himself together, of past tangling, of people passing or failing tests set by life. It's just - AAAAAAAAA also yet another drama I bawled for hours over.

Train - Yoon Si Yoon is a cop slipping between alternate universes in search of a killer seems like a procedural with a side of scifi but it's more of a meditation on love and loss and what drives us to keep living (or not.)

Someday - hands down the most obscure kdrama on this list, this is a tale of four people whose lives intersect - a mangaka seeking inspiration, a sort of private detective hiding unimaginable trauma under his sunny demeanor, a manipulative yet childlike psychologist and a business minded friend of the last one, the sanest of them all. When people discuss healing dramas, this is the one that comes to mind. My favorite is the detective's arc because it's one of those trauma sunshine things where he's coping, coping, coping and then...stops.

Empress Ki and 6 Flying Dragons - if you watch only two long sageuks, make it these ones. They are smart (esp 6FD), and they are such amazing complex character studies of people being hollowed out by power. The OTPs are amazing and what I love but the character study is even better. And both are epic in all senses of the world.

Speaking of sageuks, Slave Hunters (also known as Chuno) about a former nobleman who's a slave hunter now, an escape slave who used to be a general, and a slave woman masquerading as an aristocrat is my favorite sageuk of all time - a love story, a character story, and a story of the dispossessed, this is smart and grim and hopeful and just - if there was ever a perfect sageuk, this is it.

The Princess' Man and Flower of Evil - ie Moon Chae Won loves a feral mess and goes MINE! TPM is a smart emotional sageuk, one of the best out there and FoE is a study of love and trauma.

Something Happened in Bali, Padam Padam, A Love to Kill, Spring Waltz, Thank You, Snow Queen, That Winter the Wind Blows - old school melodramas (perhaps not TY so much, it's more complicated in genre) that push people to the limits to expose their deepest selves.

My Country the New Age, Hong Gil Dong, Rebel the Thief Who Stole the People, The Crowned Clown, Return of Iljimae - they focus on class in period setting (just as Chuno did) and make me care and think.

Worlds Within - seemingly about lives of studio workers, this is a rare drama where you feel you are peeking at real people.

Gloria and Family Honor - 50 ep drama where I'd remove nothing and that feels so intimate.

W Two Worlds, Extraordinary You, The Moon in the Day, Live Up to Your Name, Queen In Hyun's Man - high concepts that improbably work and make you think and feel.

Secret Garden, City Hunter, Healer, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Faith, Tale of the Nine Tailed, I Hear Your Voice - just a wonderful good time.

Gaksital - take a bad guy, make him your protag, slowly redeem him and put him through hell.

Bad Guys - a bleak take on revenge and truth but also a damn good time at the same time somehow.

Beyond Evil and Cruel City - about cops but not really. About forgiveness, love and limits.

Come and Hug Me - brought me back to kdramas. A love story and trauma story and a bit of a thriller. It's everything.

Beauty Inside, Last Scandal, City Hall, My Girl, Delightful Girl Chunhyang and Hometown Cha Cha Cha - it is very rare for me to love romcoms. These few make the list. They also made me cry so make of it what you will.

Shut Up Flower Boy Band - the only time I liked a teen drama.

Capital Scandal and Chicago Typewriter - masterpieces dealing with the 1930s revolutionaries.

Que Sera Sera - if you love dysfunction and intense shipping, oh boy!

I am sure the moment I hit post, I will remember something else, but this will do for now.

ETA: aaaaaa Damo!!! My very first sageuk and what a way to start!!! Perfection.

ETA2: Arang and the Magistrate! OK Shin Min Ah is in an awful lot of these...

[gizkasparadise]

as far as kdrama/sageuk wanted posters go, these are pretty fucking fabulous.

never forget:

[dramasandactors]

Favorite couple that not was a couple K-DRAMA (3 / 3)

[texaxwib]

KOREAN DRAMA TV SERIES: Under the Queen's Umbrella Netflix just added another original K-drama series. I only watched one episode to get the idea of what the plot is all about. I'll come back to it later. That's the good thing about it being an original series. Netflix won't take it out of the database so I don't have to rush to watch it.

Meanwhile, there are some other K-dramas that I did not finish watching and before I knew it they had been deleted. They are not on Netflix OR Viki. Now I have to search everywhere to see if I can find a site that streams them.

Maybe I can ask this community. These are the series and movies I'm looking for.

Do y'all know where I can find:

Joseon Survival

Chuno (Slave Hunter)

Il Ji Mae

Return of Il Ji Mae

All of the Detective K movies

[bending-sickle]

end of the year asks (not that this year is real): 12, 14, 15,

12. What was your favorite movie of the year?

thankfully, i have kept a list! and i’ve only just recently updated it, so ah! i don’t have to rely on my shitty memory. *puruses list* *does not remember watching half of the movies* hmm.

y’know what? Train to Busan (부산행, Busanhaeng) (2016) is the clear winner. it was an amazing zombie movie and an amazing “people are, ultimately, good” movie, and just a damned good movie in general.

14. Favorite new TV show?

this year was the year of kdrama, so let’s not act surprised when it’s a kdrama. although i’m having more trouble picking a favourite here, because there were a bunch i thoroughly enjoyed and that have stuck with me.

okay so My Country: The New Age (나의 나라, Naui Nara) (2019) left a deep mark in the old little brain, although while watching it (the first time because, yes, i rewatched it), I’d get lost in the convoluted backstabbing and plotting, and a bit bored. so i can’t say i loved it with every fibre of my being. and yet i love it. (also, *coughcough* bang-won is just hnggg.)

but Fated to Love You a.k.a. You Are My Destiny (운명처럼 널 사랑해, Unmyeongcheoreom Neol Saranghae (2014). omg. i just. i adored this show. adored it. it made me so happy. it was funny and ridiculous and over-the-top and then my emotions but it was such a wonderful soft, comforting thing to watch, and i needed that.

but then The Slave Hunters (추노; Chuno) (2010).sweet lord. it just destroyed my emotions. i was shipping like i haven’t shipped in years. i was invested. and then the sad bits? i still cannot.

but y’know? also? Ozark (2017-present)? it was a daily date with my mom. it was enjoyable. good memories of us both being all “ozark time? ozark time!”

and you know what else? Russian Doll (2019)? fucking amazing.i loved every single second of it. it felt so refreshing.

but you know what else? Watcher: Puppet History (2020) is a joy and a delight and it has a little blue puppet professor and yes, i have the songs on my ipod.

but there’s also Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略) (2018) which i’m still working through but i look forward to every episode.

and i’ve recently started Shine or Go Crazy (빛나거나 미치거나, Binnageona Michigeona) (2015) and the latest episode had me in stitches laughing and i love it for that. (Favourite Actor who appears in three other shows in this list is a goddamned joy and delight when he does physical comedy. And then the drama bits are just *chef’s kiss*) so i forsee myself enjoying this show greatly.

honourable mention: The Friends (THE 프렌즈) In Croatia (2015), even though i could only watch the one episode on YouTube. i watched it smack in the summer, when i needed comfort, and it had Favourite Actor and Locations I’ve Been In, so it was doubly comforting, because i could point at the screen and go “i’ve been there! i had coffee just across the street!” and it was all very familiar, and then the people in the reality show were so friendly to each other, that my poor little socially-starved brain just ate that up vicariously.

in conclusion: my heart says fated to love you but Evidence Exhibit A through C says my country.

15. Which new ship/fandom has taken over a lot of your time, attention, and tears?

i rooted so hard for Yoon Se-ri and Ri Jeong-hyeok in Crash Landing On You and i was even rooting for the second lead couple and i sobbed through the entire final episode (okay, i might have been...going through unrelated things as well).

but fucking Lee Dae-gil and Un-nyun (a.k.a. Hye-won) from The Slave Hunters goddamned pining for each other for years and Dae-gil just trying so hard to find her for years and years and them almost spotting each other and then him finally finding her but thinking it’s too late, she’s married and happy (she’s neither), so he fucking breaks down sobbing in the street like a broken child hurt me in so many ways, god, i’m not okay. i even had to text-flail at @seschat at one point because i. could. not. handle this shit. and then and then the man just fucking joins up with his not-enemy-anymore because they both want to keep the same girl safe even though she’s falling in love with not-enemy-anymore and i just. *insert gif* you know what that is? growth. and as you can tell from that run on mess of an answer, i am still not okay. also? i fucking learned how to make gifs for this show.

but i think the winner is My Country because it has given my little brain so much fodder for the daydream machine that has been going strong for literally a year now. oh, and, um. 68,515 words or 174 pages (and still going strong) are nothing to sneeze at. it, um. it’s a lot. there is a lot. it definitely wins the “most time and attention” prize.