Traditional Korean Dramas....

A little post for updates on some of the dramas I've been watching recently. I haven't really taken the time to write drama reviews so far, as I admit I've been more into things I've actually physically done, but well, I think what makes a blog worth reading is not necessarily to do the same story telling updates on and on, but to vary. Maybe it's to get myself entertained as well, since to be honest, it takes wayyy too much time to write entries about trips and experiences. Expecially if I want to make them interesting to read, at least for myself. People rarely comment, so I have no clue who's reading that, but I know I do :P Cuz why not. 

So if I myself can't find it interesting.....

Jung Yi - Goddess of Fire

Jung Yi - Goddess of Fire Ep: 32 + 2 extra (only 32 ep out so far)

Interesting story about Joseon ceramics. I knew nothing about ceramics, save the part that it's really really fun to do (I made a cup when I went to Japan with my brother last year and the feeling you get when you do that is amazing). Ironically, when my parents came to Korea a month ago, they went to Heyri, a small village near the North Korean border that is renowned for their ceramics, and I could answer a lot of their questions about ceramics thanks to that drama. I am always a bit reticent of relating all the information I get from dramas, as they probably are not 100% accurate, but I watch enough of them to do some give and take. 

Anyways, I usually start watching dramas when I know they are finished airing, as it really pisses me off to have to wait before watching the next of a serie. I mean, I obviously won't watch a whole 20 hours TV show in one go (well... rarely) but I like to be the one who decides when I stop and when I keep watching. 

And that's impossible when the TV show is still airing...

Well I got tricked while watching that one. I thought there were 26 episodes when I started watching and then, as I watched the 25th episode, I realized that there was NO WAY the drama could unfold in a single hour. Then I searched on "dramaWIKI" (My drama best friend) and saw.....32 episode + 2 extras. FML.

Anyways. I love the show. It's weird, because the main actress, both young and old, has a really weird air to her, that is rare in Korean dramas nowadays. Maybe she has less plastic surgery than usual actresses, but her eyes are so close to each other that I can't really say she is pretty. 

Man. Korea is making me so judgmental. 

But then, I am still watching... so maybe I can be saved?

.... the main actor is hot though. So maybe that's why I'm still watching?

Ceramics.

I am obviously watching because it's really interesting to learn about ceramics. Yes. Ceramics....

... Lee Sang Yoon... I mean, ceramics...

Jang Ok Jung

This drama was mainly popular among older ladies and never really made it big even if Kim Tae Hee was the main actress, and just having her on a drama would make a lot of people watch a show that'd have the most meaningless and annoying plot (see "My Princess", that annoyed me so much I haven't gone past episode 5: 5 hours of my life I will never get back...).

The reason I ended up watching it, is because I work exclusively with Korean "ladies" of that age where they like traditional stories and cute young boys like the main lead In Yoo Ha.

Jang Ok Jung - Live in Love Ep: 24

What got me hooked, personally, was the very first episode, when Jang Ok Jung is a no name that focuses on Korean fashion, clothe designing and accessories. While a lot of the things they showed in that drama looked like modernized flower patterns and accessories, I really like that they put a real focus on the clothes of that era <3

Jang Ok Jung's infamous story has been visited and revisited countless times in Korean traditional dramas, and there is a new series that pops up about her or in which she shows up, every few years, so that is why the show was not such a big thing in Korea. Jang Ok Jung is a renowned concubine of Joseon who'd have manipulated the court, framed the queen and took her place for a time, before being discovered and forced to take poison. Sad messed up storie. In The Moon that Embraces the Sun, Jang Ok Jung shows up, as the bad girl, and in other dramas as well. This one, however had her as the main character so we ended up seeing the world through her eyes that got rotten by the mess around her... In any case, I liked to have the story in another point of view. I think they knitted a pretty interesting story while sticking to the main facts and making her look a bit less shrewed than that of the history records. 

Korean Traditional Dramas?

I have always liked Korean Traditional dramas. They are so much more intense and so many people die that we come to think of death lightly, as they did when revenge meant killing each other's family til no one was left... and that's just wrong. So I will just say, I watch it for the costumes. I just love Korean traditional costumes, what went with what titles, how they wore it and how the standard of both feminine and masculine beauty was different. I love the movements of the clothes, the preciousness of the jewels and accessories they use, the blinding contrasts of colors and amazing wigs women wore.

Korean - Binyeo

Binyeo are long stick-like hair ornaments that used to hold Korean married women's hair (unless I am mistaken, my understanding is that unmarried (the idea here by unmarried implies that the girl is still a virgin) women wore their hair down in a long braid (cutting your hair, according to the confucian thought, amounts to spit on your ancestors, as you are changing the body that was given to you .... now let us think about modern Korea and plastic surgery.... but I am diverging, some things really don't need to be elaborated upon) with a ribbon tied either at the beginning of end of the braid. When they got married, maybe for reasons as practical as symbolic (think of cooking and doing shores with a long braid moving left and right) they "put up their hair" in a know and held it with what is called a Binyeo. Gisaengs (Korean equivalent of Geishas, women working on many kind of art skills, but also women who entertained men and had a hand in politics  - politics and dirty money.....), also had the same pattern, but as they were not really getting "married", they put their hair up when they had their baptism with a man (usually, the best for a gisaeng was to get a very high ranked man to take her first, so he would give her riches before the act, and she'd be renowned for her good "first").

Binyeo with a princess outfit. You can tell easily when it's a princess
outfit, with the 4 royal golden circles of embroidery on each arms, back
and front, but also with the lenght of the front part of the blouse: the hands
of princesses were not to be shown to people easily so they would walk with
the hands hidden under the blouse and keep the sight for special people.

Just like Geishas can get "danna", a sponsor, that is the closest equivalent to a husband for people of that field, Gisaengs could get "married" with a rich sponsor who'd provide for her, without having her completely become his. That wedding ceremony was called "the raising of the hair"... possibly referring to the Binyeo...

Now obviously, Binyeo were not all glamorous accessories. If you talk rich merchants and royalty they could get ridiculously elaborated, but it could be a simple metallic piece of 'jewelry'.  Impressive ones would usually have some piece of green jade on it, as it was a prized material throughout Asia in general.

Another royal Binyeo from The moon that embraces
the sun,  of which I talked about in a previous blog....

Modernized Binyeo... I don't know how much of those patterned flowers are
authentic, but they looked pretty.... so here we are. I prefer gold tho. Really.

Amazing looking Binyeo and hair accessories from the drama Jang Ok Jung

... And I haven't started on the other hair and clothes accessories....

I'm done rambling on that for today tho. 

...this blog was never meant to be that long....