#the love of chunhyang

[dangermousie]

Seeing your glee over When the Phone rings and (way back) Flower of evil makes me wonder what your top 10 Kdramas are (or top 100, if that would make it easier XD )

I love this ask but it took me a while. I am sure I am forgetting some but (no order)

The Legend First King's Four Gods

Flower of Evil

Damo

The King Loves

Healer

City Hunter

City Hall

Come and Hug Me

The Red Sleeve

Jumong

My Country

Empress Ki

Robber

Gloria

Family Honor

Three Musketeers

My Dearest

Are You Human Too

Love Rain

Mask

Cruel City

Strong Girl Bong Soon

Goblin

Faith

The King 2 Hearts

Brilliant Legacy

Arang and the Magistrate

Hello My Teacher

Moon Lovers

Train

Padam Padam

The Rebel

It's OK That's Love

It's OK not to be OK

Gaksital

New Tales of the Gisaeng

I Miss You

Hometown Cha Cha Cha

While You Were Sleeping

Whisper

I Can Hear Your Voice

Save the Last Dance

Thank You

Can You Hear My Heart

A Gentleman's Dignity

Time Between Dog and Wolf

Secret Garden

Secret Love Affair

Live Up to Your Name

My Country

Chuno

Friend Our Legend

Capital Scandal

Spring Waltz

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Delightful Girl Chunhyang

Kingdom of the Winds

A Love to Kill

Lovers

Last Scandal

IRIS

This Winter the Wind Blows

Something Happened in Bali

Beautiful Days

Worlds Within

Que Sera Sera

Snow Queen

Bad Guys

Haechi

The Crowned Clown

The Legend of the Blue Sea

The Princess' Man

Chicago Typerwriter

Tale of the Nine Tailed

Shut Up Flower Boy Band

My Beautiful Bride

Beyond Evil

When the Phone Rings

Lovely Runner

Mawang

Moon in the Day

Six Flying Dragons

My Country

Doom at Your Service

Alchemy of Souls

Extraordinary You

My Girl

W Two Worlds

Hong Gil Dong

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 8: Legend of Chunhyang

Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)| Part 10 (Rayearth)| Part 11 (The One I Love)

The RG Veda historical epic that never was, or better off cancelled? While X is widely cited as CLAMP's first unfinished work, there is actually another 1992 stillborn CLAMP work, before we can finally move onto 1993 in the CLAMP timeline. To be a broken record, I had no idea this existed! It’s unsurprising: only 3 chapters were ever published (plus 1 drama CD), before the magazine folded and CLAMP decided to cancel the project (yeah yeah they said they’d love to finish it. They’re liars).

Unlike many of their other discontinued early works, this one actually got a tankoban release, and Tokyopop did the now out-of-print English translation in a single volume with no extra art. Plus, I was hesitant about approaching a work of Korean folklore written by 4 Japanese women, given the history, and my fears were not unfounded. So I’m content that I put off getting the physical release for my collection. Spoilers (?) ahead.

Synopsis: In Ancient Korea, a brave young maiden called Chunhyang, opposes the injustices of the corrupt governing Yangbans. When her mother, a magic-wielding mudang, is kidnapped by their town's Yangban, Chunhyang is aided by the lecherous Mongryong, the Amhaeng’eosa, a secret government agent. Together, the two set off on adventure that will take them across Korea to liberate towns and discover the truth of Chunhyang's father.

The Story: I wrote all of that out, but the reality is what actually exists of Legend of Chunhyang is two chapters and a flashback. It's very hard to judge a story that hasn't settled in or moved further than the set up for the adventure. What we got is entertaining enough - chapter 1 is the inciting incident where Chunhyang’s mother dies and she teams up with Mongryong, 2 has them liberate a mystical flower village with the help of a rain god and twin mudang, and 3 is a flashback that reveals Chunhyang’s dead father was important and killed for defying the Yangban. It’s very Robin Hood, and moves at a good pace despite being pretty standard YA fantasy. Speaking of, I don’t think CLAMP realises most Korean towns back then would have been agricultural. Why does Chunhyang live in a huge villa doing nothing all day? I want my peasant hero, not a disgruntled pseudo noble.

The skeleton for the entire story is pretty obvious (bring revolution to Korea) and I’d definitely be curious to see more of it. But I’m also not sad we got nothing more. It’s a pleasant afternoon distraction.

The Themes: Don’t be a bully and tyrannical governments are bad and must be resisted - as long as they’re Korean (side-eyes that Rising Sun flag in CLAMP Campus Detectives. Ah, Japanese nationalism). It’s 3 chapters, that’s all I can glean.

The Characters: Chunhyang fits heavily into the CLAMP stock heroine: young, spunky, strong, pure-hearted, and athletic, shojo ingenue. Still, while she’s nothing new, I enjoyed Chunhyang. CLAMP has the formula for the fun, palatable heroine we love to see win, and I’m hardly immune. Mongryong was more bland to me, falling hard into that 90s era shojo hero who gets comically beaten up by his love interest, but always suavely swoops in to save her. It’s nostalgic, he’s hot, but that’s it. Maybe with time they would have defined themselves like RG Veda’s cast did (also archetypes), but there’s just so little!

The crumbs of minor characters are equally stock - one dimensional cackling villains, and pure beyond belief good guys. Mongryong’s tiger spirit was my favourite because I love all cats. It’s really the charm of Chunhyang that carries us above - she’s a good balance of fierce and endearing.

The Art: Legend of Chunhyang is interesting in that chapter 1 was brush inked due to their experience on Shirahime, but the remaining art was done with marker pen. The result is chapter 1 feels a bit unpolished, with backgrounds being mostly chunky blobs and quick lines in a way I found distracting. 2 and 3 work much better, with thick swirls of soft magic and flowers, giving Chunhyang a slight distinction from their other early 90s work. The panel work is quite conservative unlike RG Veda, very rarely having dynamic spreads, but satisfactory and readable. Chapter 2 is a standout of circling dragons and flowers. Everyone is gorgeously dressed and pretty. It’s not the best of CLAMP, but it’s nice and elevates the material.

Questionable Elements: While certain CLAMP podcasts have praised CLAMP for essentially rewriting the folktale to make Chunhyang more active - why would you even choose to adapt that Korean folklore then, if your intention is to make a generic Robin Hood sword and fantasy series that has zero to do with the original culture? You could just set it in feudal Japan! It feels very distasteful to deliberately choose Korea as a setting of barbaric unending tyranny that needs correcting. Especially given Japan’s history in “modernising” Korea.

On top of that, there’s a clear lack of research done - a lot of the outfits and hair accessories are inaccurate. Chunhyang’s mother’s decision to kill herself than risk dishonour is also incredibly Japanese (and notably doesn’t exist in the original). I have to cry foul because if you’re going to actually set this in a real ancient Korea, you should do your research. I’m not saying CLAMP are anti-Korean but they show a disappointing lack of care and bias.

Also. How old is Mongryong if Chunhyang is 14. Answer quickly, CLAMP.

Overall: Listen, RG Veda 2.0 this is not. Rather than an imaginative, fantastical, sweeping epic, Legend of Chunhyang is built on very familiar tropes and stock characters with a dose of cultural insensitivity and bias. It doesn’t even have a proper narrative arc, existing more as a “what if” than an almost masterpiece. It’s alleviated by the sheer charm of Chunhyang herself, its brisk, entertaining pace, and the enjoyable art. But it’s no great literary tragedy that it was never finished, and I’d really only recommend it to diehard CLAMP fans who want a quick, pleasant escape on a fantasy adventure.

[moehistory]

The nobleman's son from the capital. He followed his father the district governor to Namwon. He fell in love with Chunhyang at first sight. He has all the potential to successful, but has been slacking off on his studies.

Chunhyangjeon

[pionia-milly]

Watch "[Eng Sub] Pansori 'Sarang-ga' (Love Song) from the Story of Chunhyang | Korean Traditional Music 101" on YouTube

[trcquotes]

Chunhyang: Good luck comes from being especially loved by one of the gods! I wonder if you were always like that. Sakura: I don’t know. All I remember is my name and some people from a desert town. That’s all.

[swanlake1998]

youhee son photographed as chunhyang in brian yoo and evgeny neff's the love of chunhyang by kyoungjin kim

[jinyoungot7]

my love, jinyoung-ah bonus:

[commajade]

I had a question about fusion music in Korea and I thought you may know - does Korea not have a strong presence of fusion music? I mean something that marries traditional types of music with modern instruments/styles. I have been listening to OSTs for a few historical dramas and it struck me that they sound quite modern, no different from other genres. I

I’m sure it exists but is it popular? I have heard a few modern renditions of pansori (I had just watched Pansori Boxer and liked the style) but I was wondering if you had any more information/recommendations for other sorts of folk songs/fusion genres.

i would say it's popular, moreso recently! it's always been a niche everyone knows exists and there's a lot of varying opinions about it. it's a growing genre i love but it's hit and miss for me as well because there's a lot of ways it can go wrong and be cheesy or unpleasant or too much of a gimmick. retro korea has been the trend so people are using a lot more traditional imagery like even building more commercial areas in a traditional aesthetic which i honestly love i think it's so cool. there's a big difference between traditional korean musicians that make fusion music and nontraditional artists that want to use certain sounds and there's a ton of variation in style and quality, there's so many parts u can mix and match and the biggest choice is whether the vocalist is traditionally trained or going to try to sing traditionally at all.

for historical dramas it's because the point is the mood rather than authenticity to time period. they want it to feel dramatic and until recently traditional music has an immediate association with old timey rustic quaint things and boring historical texts and people's gradnmas and it didn't fit the grand royal mood they wanted.

i've shared this playlist before and it's just a small assortment of the fusion stuff i've heard, it should be a good starter. the songs from phantom singer aren't playable but i recommend looking them up on youtube it's classically trained vocalists and very good. for pansori i usually prefer the traditional versions but there's a fusion version of sarangga here (also not playable) from chunhyangga/the chunhyang story it's one of the most famous pansori songs there's several fusion versions of it.

[amythesailor]

Since the new delivery came I wanted to do this with the historical Korean clothes. You may not know but I am #shawol and I love love love #shinee. When I first got into kpop #hellobabyshinee was on air. And #thetaleofchunhyang was their parody story for baby Yoogeun. Ahhh pure nostalgia... Anyway I miss old days and decided to make this hope you love my version of Minho and Taemin as a Mongryong and Chunhyang...

[dangermousie]

Two eps in, Love Your Enemy is fine but it confirms to me that romcom is so very much not my genre.

All the romcom dramas I’ve ever loved turned into another genre eventually - melodrama or slice of life or w/e. I think that is why I used to love 00s kdrama romcoms - they always went into hardcore angst in the second half; in retrospect I would tolerate the fluffy first half anticipating the melo to come, treating the romcom part as the tolerable appetizer before the proper and excellent meal.

And eventually kdrama romcoms ceased to do that and ended up being “proper” romcoms all the way through and that’s when I lost any interest. I mean, if I only like the genre when it leaves the genre, I am probably not a fan of the genre to begin with. When I think a favorite romcom what comes to mind is Delightful Girl Chunhyang and the second half of it is nonstop angst - I still remember sobbing, destroyed ML or FL having to leave him to protect him from going to jail. Or Capital Scandal which started with a bet that a playboy can seduce an uptight patriot lady and proceeding to horrifying physical torture, mental breakdowns and a dead secondary OTP.

(The last kdrama romcom I loved was HCCC and it’s actually not really a pure romcom at all - it’s a slice of life/character study and its ML is traumatized as fuck. And before that it was Secretary Kim which I only got truly into when we got to kidnapping and horrific trauma. Those are the two most recent ones - and they aren’t recent at all tbh, and the rest are older.)

So here I am watching LYE and it’s well acted and well written but all I want is Jung Yumi in another QSS or JJH back in Mawang.

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 10: Magic Knight Rayearth

Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 8 (Chunhyang)|Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)| Part 11 (The One I Love)

In 1991, Sailor Moon was launched in the magazine Nakayoshi, aimed at younger girls. It kicked off an era of fantasy and magical girl-oriented manga, and CLAMP were scouted to publish their own in Nakayoshi. Rayearth is very dear to me as my very first CLAMP story, as the anime aired in my country in my kindergarten years. Released in two parts, Part 1 ran from 1993 to 1995 in 3 volumes, followed by Part 2 from 1995 to 1996, again in 3 volumes. It spawned a two season anime, an OVA, multiple video games, a forthcoming new anime, and countless merch. I purchased the 25th anniversary release, a lovely hardcover version that allowed me to appreciate and reflect on a childhood love as an adult.

I've discussed how X ended CLAMP's 90s run, both in art style and thematic content, but I do think Magic Knight Rayearth was the beginning of that end. The mega-hit cemented their rising star, and proved that CLAMP's favourite themes could be meaningfully applied to a younger audience they'd never reached before. While Rayearth does not entirely stick the landing, it cannot be overstated its impact on the magical girl genre as it deconstructs and reconstructs ideas of girlish purity, innocence, and power systems in a thematically brilliant combination of philosophy, fantasy, and video game tropes. Some imagery from Rayearth has remained with me forever, a testament to its emotional impact. Heavy spoilers!

Synopsis: Three colour-coded Tokyo middle schoolers are summoned to the world of Cefiro, where the strength of your heart's will can shape yourself and the world. Princess Emeraude is Cefiro's Pillar, spending all her days praying for Cefiro's peace. But the priest Zagato has kidnapped Emeraude, and Cefiro is crumbling. The trio, revealed to be the Magic Knights of legend, must journey and level-up, video-game style, to unlock the mashin and save Cefiro. But all is not as it seems about Emeraude's kidnapping - and should the happiness of a world rely on the prayers of one single girl? Who will pray for that girl's happiness? Can such a world be truly beautiful?

The Story: Initially, Magic Knight Rayearth feels charming but a bit rote - especially in 2024, with a glut of bad isekai out there. Cefiro isn't a terribly fully-realised world and we never meet its ordinary citizens - though the pace means we don't really notice. Hikaru and Emeraude embody the classic pure-hearted shojo, who valiantly fight against the evil adult sexuality the likes of Alcyone and Zagato. Yet, the rote nature of the girls' fantasy video-game quest is precisely part of Part 1's entire deception: Princess Emeraude is not a child, but an adult woman trapped in the confines of the Pillar System that demands she remain a sexless little girl and pray for the happiness of others, instead of her own. The Magic Knights exist to kill the Pillar, following their pre-scripted roles to the one of the most haunting moments in manga where they have no choice but to kill Emeraude.

Its such a brilliant deconstruction of magical girl tropes that usually valorize girlish innocence, where everything can be overcome by the purity of one's heart, and fantasy RPGs, of a perfect princess and an evil dragon. The Magic Knights never consider Emeraude's humanity or free will, only her relation to her society, playing the video game only to realise the entire system is broken and at its heart, Omelas-style, lies a suffering child. Its bone-chilling as the girls celebrate that they've saved Cefiro by killing Zagato, unaware Emeraude is losing her mind. Its not to say Part 1 doesn't have some structural narrative issues: its pacing, while relentless (I could not stop reading Vol 3 in particular) can feel uneven (the Forest drags, while Ascot's turn is too fast and cheesy), the prat falls get tedious as an adult reader, and its meta-narrative of formula to critique formula is better understood on second readings. Still, I loved so much of what Part 1 ambitiously tries to do on a thematic and structural level and it is a gripping read.

Part 2, CLAMP admits, was written very quickly because it was not expected to happen - and personally, I think Part 1 is much stronger than Part 2. Part 2 tries to meaningfully address the trauma the girls have experienced ("the weapons I made became instruments for your suffering" from Presea was one I had to write down), but it does gloss over the culpability and tragedy of Part 1 - I hated that Emeraude was happy in death to placate the girls. A lot of stuff feels retconned in, and the lack of driving narrative means the story treads water in unnecessarily long bits with Fahren and Chizeta and the Magic Knights are mostly reactive. I also cannot take god Mokona seriously.

Still, I enjoyed Part 2 for the strong arcs of characters like Eagle, Hikaru, and Umi, and the conversations about whether a world built on the suffering of another can really be beautiful. Despite how silly god Mokona is, I do think the ending is a fantastic answer to Part 1: the only way to save Cefiro is to break the entire system and rebuild it again where everyone must, together, make society worth living in. Hikaru becomes the new Pillar not because of her purity - indeed that self-sacrificing Christ-like behaviour is what gets Emeraude in trouble in the first place - but because of her earthly refusal to accept anyone else sacrificing themselves for others AND her belief that we have to trust and try to make society better. It's a very mature look at empathy and compassion and individual vs. collective happiness, handled for children to understand, and its lush, badass, and emotional to watch Hikaru save Eagle in the process. Yes, its cheesy and sloppily paced (it is for 12 year olds and I do have to remind myself of that), but damn if it didn't move me. As I keep saying, CLAMP has never written a character I've loathed!

Despite its inconsistent quality, I do think it is good to read both Parts 1 and 2 for how they overall deconstruct and reconstruct magical girl manga in a way that moves away from rote roles of purity and self-sacrifice that bog down the genre, in a story that is overall fun and deeply emotional.

The Themes: I can absolutely see how Rayearth was written concurrently with X (Mokona tossing aside Earth for its corruption). But these same themes of what makes life, and the world, worth living, are taken in fascinating new ways. Here, CLAMP's favourite concept of "destiny vs. free will" explores destiny not as a divine system but a societal enforced structure. Emeraude believes she's fated to only pray and thus her loving Zagato destroys everything, but this is the result of her accepting that the system is infallible and unchangeable. She is the Christ-figure maiden trapped in the world tree to support it, but who needs redemption not from the divine Eagle, but the earthly Hikaru, who teaches self-love. Nobody in Cefiro (or beyond) can conceptualize a Pillar-less world. The people of Cefiro accept the game's logic and play it, but - as CLAMP loves to remind - we are individuals and our choices have meaning and power.

And this leads to a really interesting theme of whether peace bought too dearly is even worth it - is collective happiness more important than individual happiness? Happiness, CLAMP does remind us, is different for every person, but comes out on the side that individual suffering suffuses the whole system. Self-sacrifice - like in X! - does nothing but lead to suffering from the people who love you and holds no glory. And who can't love a story that tells little children that we have to find a way to live that allows us all to be happy?

There's also a really interesting gender dynamic that I rarely see discussed by fans that I find fascinating. Shojo is infused with pure-hearted innocent heroines who face off against "phallic mothers", that is, adult women who embody sexuality and power in contrast to acceptable female roles (there's a lot of very interesting discussion on whether shojo is actually feminist that I feel bypasses Western audiences). At first, Rayearth seems to follow these tropes - the girls and Emeraude are shojos, while characters like Alcyone (a sexually mature woman who is characterized as evil for loving Zagato when he doesn't love her) are phallic mothers.

Yet the finale twists this - Emeraude is another phallic mother whose "selfish" love for Zagato has transformed her into an adult woman that must be killed. And killed she is, as shojo tropes demand, but no happy ending comes. Emeraude was not selfish, but human, and failed by a system that demanded this of her. Part 2 never lives up to the potential set up by Part 1 - Hikaru remains a shojo who can't recognize Lantis is confessing to her - but it was something I really enjoyed chewing over in Part 1.

The Characters: While the girls might seem typical at the start, CLAMP has a real charm for making cliche work for them. Fuu is much quirkier than the shy meganekko trope, and Umi. Umi was the stand-out for me as the most dynamic of the bunch, with such a wonderful character arc across all 6 volumes from bratty rich girl to compassionate, brave warrior. It is she who recognizes the world isn't beautiful and her own naivete, she who finds inspiration from her friends to like herself more, she who grows up! The supporting cast is equally charming, and I loved the tragedy of Emeraude and Zagato.

While Lantis is a fine Yasha-style giant guy, I really adored Eagle by the end and his relation to Hikaru and Emeraude. Hikaru is s a highly static character, but her deep self-love and determination are impossible not to love. There's something just so compelling about his mirror of Emeraude and especially Hikaru, who frees them both by absolving them of their self-denying divinity. Their entire arc is a beautiful reaffirmation that we are humans who deserve to live and find meaning in that. I would say the character I cared for the least was probably Ferio, who never shows either comedic charm (Caldina, Ascot) or inner depth. But he appears so minimally that I can wave aside that he's a boring, paper-thin love interest.

The Art: I'm in two minds when it comes to Rayearth. There are some truly stunning moments in the artwork and visual motifs. The very idea of making an Art Nouveau magical girls in a fantasy RPG world led to so many incredible creative design choices (though Hikaru's skirt in her final armour bothers me. Metal and fabric don't fall like that). The silent two page spread where the girls murder Emeraude will likely haunt me for the rest of my life. Emeraude's hair pearls transforming into her crystallized tears is such a brilliant twist on the established visual motif. There's a lot of highly inventive panelwork that lushly moves between the real world and contemplative spaces.

On the other hand, because Cefiro is not the real world, CLAMP could not use their trick of scanned photo backgrounds. The result is a distinctive lack of backgrounds that were especially frustrating because I felt like I had no idea what these fantasy spaces look like - and RG Veda never had this problem! There's one particular hand-drawn Tokyo background that looks horrendous in how sketchy it is. Rayearth definitely reflects CLAMP's burnout period in that there are definitely more corners cut, like with the constant chibi scenes (very classically 90s, but not something I've ever enjoyed) and heavy use of screentone to mask lack of background. It's still visually stunning, but it's definitely not their drawing peak. Would I still frame some of these pages? Absolutely.

Questionable Elements: Presea makes an off-colour Native American joke. The designs of the Chizeta and Fahren characters lean heavily into cultural stereotyping of the "Orient" - they at least are real characters in the story, but they really irritated me for quite a long time in the story because of how glaring this is. Especially when Aska says white-ish, blue eyed blonde Emeraude is a "true princess". It makes the epilogue's (very good) moral of "we were all made different so we can learn from one another" fall a bit flat if CLAMP themselves made no effort to actually learn from people unlike them.

Overall: While Part 2 of Rayearth never quite lives up to the potential set by Part 1, the entire series overall is such a refreshing take on the magical girl genre, even 30 years on. Its meta-narrative and postmodern reflections on the genre and its blend of magical girl tropes, philosophy, fantasy and JRPGs, and unique and timeless visual influences has led to a series that has withstood the test of time - and many of its peers that similarly attempted to be the "next Sailor Moon". I think, unlike them, Magic Knight Rayearth has such a strong CLAMP fingerprint upon it - it is their humanist and occult-flavoured take upon the genre, and for that it affirms the value of individual human life, each one, and our choices, in being necessary to create a society that will last, not divine action.

It is a story about stories, making it fascinatingly ahead of the curve. And while its child audience means that it lacks subtlety and nuance in many ways (and frankly Nanase Ohkawa has the subtlety of a brick in her writing in general), I can't deny how much it has remained with me all these years and I find something new to love in it each time. It warrants being one of CLAMP's hits for these reasons, by taking apart the genre set up by Sailor Moon to say it is not pure-hearted divine princesses who will save the world, but our selfish human love that will fight off entropy, every time.

[virghogh]

💝🙇🏻‍♀️😶‍🌫️ september is my birth month too!!!

another September baby yess <3

Pull:

Justice; represented by "Amhaeng-eosa" a Korean Legend.

This legend tells the story of an Amhaengosa ("secret royal inspector") during the Joseon period. This story is about a man named Yi Mongryong who fell in love with a beautiful and highly sought after woman named Chunhyang. When he left for Seoul to become a amhaengosa, he left his wife and she gave him a ring to remember each other. When he left, a new government official took over the area and not only was it poorly managed but he also wanted to pursue Chunhyang, and took her as a prisoner. While that happened, Yi Mongryong completed his training and returned to the town undercover to learn about all of the new rulers wrongdoings. He was able to confront the new ruler and punish him as an Amhaengosa. After that, he tried to approach his wife but she barely recognized him and refused to believe who he was. Until he showed her the ring he kept after all this time, then she realized who he was. And they lived happily ever after!

[koreanfilminsight]

Chunhyang // 충향뎐 (2000) Directed by Im Kwon-taek // 임권택

Based on the Pansori folk song of the same title, Chunhyang tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers who consummate their love after overcoming various obstacles. Mongryong, the son of a nobleman, falls in love with a beautiful maiden on a swing. He learns that she is Chunhyang, the daughter of a retired kisaeng (equiv.to geisha)named Wolmae, but he pursues her despite her lower social status.Mongryong succeeds in winning the heart of Chunhyang and Wolmae and pledges Chunhyang as his life-long companion. Unfortunately Mongryong is forced to leave the side of his beloved when his father is summoned by the king's court. Sadly he leaves for the city with the promise to return as a court official. One day a new governor, BYUN Hakdo arrives in Namwon, the hometown of Chunhyang. Notorious for his insatiable desire for women, he orders Chunhyang to serve him after hearing of her beauty. When she refuses, BYUN tortures Chunhyang and throws her in jail. Meanwhile Mongryong passes the state exam with the highest distinction, whereby the king makes him his personal emissary, a post which grants him the authority to punish corrupt officials. Disguised as a vagrant and accompanied by his envoy, Mongryong heads toward Namwon with a vengeance... (Synopsis by KOFIC)

[yello-nailpolish]

I’m not usually one for rewatching dramas I’ve already seen but there are these three that I’ve noticed I could rewatch and rewatch. 

1. Delightful Girl Chunhyang 

2. Startling By Each Step

3. Yanxi Palace

I almost rewatched Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace. I think I have a thing for Qing dynasty dramas. which is weird because I’m not really into their clothing. I like the flowy stuff more but I have only ever rewatched Qing dynasty dramas LMAOO 

[swanlake1998]

minwoo kang photographed as mongryong in brian yoo and evgeny neff's the love of chunhyang by kyoungjin kim

[thetavworld]

Penulis Drama & Pendapatku ^^ part 2

ngetiknya diiringi lagu A Million Dreams - OST The Greatest Showman (nglanjutin ngetik part 1 aja siih) ^^

Si Penulis Lee Woojung ini nampaknya baru punya karya 4 doang. Tapi yakiin deh, bagus semuaaa... Aku nonton semua... Meskipun Hospital Playlist ini masih ongoing di ep 3. Dan keliatan banget kalo Lee Woojung ini punya ciri khas dalam setiap kisah drama yang dia tulis. Tema persahabatan selalu ada, dengan jumlah pemeran utama wanita yang lebih sedikit dan dikelilingi sahabat lelaki. Selalu ada pesan dalam setiap kisah yang Lee Woojung tulis. Ciri khas persahabatan, kisah cinta yang manis, juga potongan kehidupan akan perjuangan. Apik pokokke..

Diantara 4 diatas masih suka Reply 1997, kita liat bagaimana Hospital Playlist ini. Karena cuma tayang seminggu sekali doaang...

Hong Sisters ini niiih yang sering disebut namanya sama kakak-kakak di Gank 579.. 

Aku pernah nonton My Girl, tapi nggak selesai dan entah kenapa nggak begitu like. hehehee.. Kalo Hotel del Luna juga belum pernah nonton. Soalnya hantu-hantu gitu siiih... Cuma one day akan nonton. Bisa nonton Master’s Sun, brarti bisa nonton Hotel del Luna. haha..

Kalo yang lain siih udah kutonton, meskipun Hwayugi endingnya kurang mantep. Semacam cliff hanging gitu lhooo... 

Kalo disuruh milih mana paling suka bingung juga.. haha... Suka The Greatest Love, ada mbak Hyo Jin yang kisahnya juga aku suka. Sassy Girl Chunhyang juga berkesan, soalnya menemani masa-masa SMP ku dulu di asrama. 

Yaa Pokoknya gitu deeh.. 

Mau drama genre apa aja kalo menurutku bagus ya kutonton.. hahahaha...

Mau ngomong sesuatu yang nggak nyambung aah... Semoga corona segera berlalu, yang sakit segera pulih, kondisi ekonomi semakin membaik. Aamiin.. ^_^

listening to Maroon 5 - Girls Like You