Episode 40 opens with the scene at Angang Fortress when Princess Deokman executed the village leaders for running away with the harvest and the farm equipment. In a parallel with a scene in which Mishil executes a couple of palace guard for not following her orders (when Sohwha managed to flee with baby Deokman), some drops of blood splash onto Deokman's face. On the way back to Sorabol, we are shown Princess Deokman in her paladin wringing her hands as she is wont to do when apprehensive. Yu Shin walks next to Deokman's paladin saying that she must believe in what she set out to do, that if she does not believe, she will not be able to accomplish what she wants to.
Back at Sorabol, Mishil hears the news of the executions and muses that Deokman must be troubled much as she was when younger and had to kill deserters from the army during a war, crying particularly after killing a nandong who had helped her.
Upon returning to Sorabol, Princess Deokman is greeted by Bidam who tells her that she does not have to be Mishil, that Princess Deokman will always be stronger. He tells her that watching her as she is moves him, and that she will move the people to be better. (On a historical sidenote, it's interesting to note how difficult it was to transition out of a feudal governance system to one based on individual possessions).
The next scene shows the king in bed with a doctor by his bedside. It turns out that the king has early symptoms of a heart condition, meaning that Princess Deokman must marry so that the king can name her husband the heir and pass on the crown. All factions start to move to find the husband best suited for their intents.
On the side, Lord Misang brings up marriage to Prince Chunchu as well, hoping to marry Prince Chunchu into Mishil's family.
Princess Deokman stands outside in a palace courtyard talking with Sowha when Bidam stops to talk to Deokman. General Seolwon sees them and sees Bidam taking Deokman's hand. He suggests to Mishil that Bidam be married to Deokman. Somehow, I missed something in a previous episode as I assumed that Mishil did not know that Bidam is the son she threw away from her marriage to the previous king. However, it turns out that Mishil does know but that she has not made it clear she knows who Bidam is. As she tells Seolwon, Bidam is a child she threw away and she cannot embrace him back into the fold now.
All members of the Mishil faction moves to ensure that the right people will stay loyal to their cause, including Yu Shin. It turns out that Yu Shin's wife is pregnant (poor Deokman!). The Mishil faction wants Deokman to marry Archeol as his family is weak and cannot harm Mishil nor add additional support to the royal family.
However, at the next meeting of the advisors, Princess Deokman announces she will not marry, that she will succeed to the throne! Mishil begins to understand what Princess Deokman's intent has been and how short her own ambition was compared to Deokman's: she only ever dreamed of being a queen, never the king. This is hammered further when Mishil runs into Bidam who tells her that even before Deokman entered the palace, she announced she would be king. Bidam tells her that it is Deokman ("my Princess Deokman" as he says) that he will follow. What a bitter pill for Mishil to swallow -- to realize that Princess Deokman has the larger ambition plus realizing she threw away a clever son to the enemy! Oh, it's tough to be Mishil this moment.
Surprisingly, the king supports Princess Deokman succeeding him. He tells his advisers that Shilla is a nation built on a hierarchy of royalty and that Deokman is of true bone (meaning that she comes from 100% royal lineage on both matrimonial and patrimonial sides).
When Prince Chunchu hears the news...well, he feels a bit differently than the king. He decides that he will win Bidam over to his cause to succeed the throne, and if failing that, kill Bidam. Believe it or not, things heat up even more as Prince Chunchu sides up with Mishil in order to gain the throne!
Showing posts with label Queen Seon Deok. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Queen Seon Deok. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Queen Seon Deok, Episode 39 and taxation
In Episode 38, Mishil's faction had cornered the staple items on the market, inflating prices in the hopes of impoverishing the small farmers. Princess Deokman released some of the military provisions, and started the rumor mill that more grains would flood the market, lowering the prices again. Mishil's faction, in hopes of cutting their losses, start selling back the grains, losing out to Princess Deokman.
Princess Deokman buys back the grains for the military provisions at half the price, having made a good profit which she invests in well made farming equipment. At this point, Deokman and Mishil have their regular repartee during which Mishil says that Deokman's unconventional strategies can't be used continuously. Deokman tells Mishil that there is something she doesn't understand: Mishil is outstandingly perceptive, a cunning thinker, and skilled in all the ways a leader should be, yet in all the time that Mishil has led Shilla, why hasn't Shilla progressed?
Although they've lost one round, Mishil and her family are determined not to lose the next one. An opportunity comes up during the harvest season when taxes are the heaviest, particularly near Angang Fortress where insects have blighted the harvest. Despite the millet harvest only being half the usual amount, Hojong (Mishil's son) taxes the same amount, triggering a riot. Princess Deokman goes to Angang to broker a compromise in which she would return the taxes along with wasteland and equipment as a low-interest loan if the people will cultivate the wasteland. The people agree.
Princess Deokman thinks that all has gone well and returns to Sorabol...where she is greeted by Sowha with the bad use that the people around Angang Fortress has fled with the farming equipment. Yu Shin rounds up the people, and Deokman returns to Angang to question the people as to why they fled when she had given them land and good equipment. The people reply that they don't know good steel from bad steel in farming equipment, that all they want is to live and that they don't care if they own the land or not. Deokman kills the village leaders.
This episode is much heavier on political strategies than most with little personal interaction except for that between Mishil and Deokman. The ending of the episode reflects the hard decisions a national leader must make. There's an interesting speech near the end by Deokman (another exchange with Mishil) in which she says that Mishil was never able to lead Shilla because she was a false mother taking care of someone else's baby, that any true leader of a nation would take care of the people, would explain to the people until they understood and would do everything for the people.
It should be mentioned that there are very few facts that are truly represented in Queen Seon Deok the drama. While there is talk that verges on democratic thoughts in this drama, I wonder if the historical Queen Seon Deok actually thought that way.
Princess Deokman buys back the grains for the military provisions at half the price, having made a good profit which she invests in well made farming equipment. At this point, Deokman and Mishil have their regular repartee during which Mishil says that Deokman's unconventional strategies can't be used continuously. Deokman tells Mishil that there is something she doesn't understand: Mishil is outstandingly perceptive, a cunning thinker, and skilled in all the ways a leader should be, yet in all the time that Mishil has led Shilla, why hasn't Shilla progressed?
Although they've lost one round, Mishil and her family are determined not to lose the next one. An opportunity comes up during the harvest season when taxes are the heaviest, particularly near Angang Fortress where insects have blighted the harvest. Despite the millet harvest only being half the usual amount, Hojong (Mishil's son) taxes the same amount, triggering a riot. Princess Deokman goes to Angang to broker a compromise in which she would return the taxes along with wasteland and equipment as a low-interest loan if the people will cultivate the wasteland. The people agree.
Princess Deokman thinks that all has gone well and returns to Sorabol...where she is greeted by Sowha with the bad use that the people around Angang Fortress has fled with the farming equipment. Yu Shin rounds up the people, and Deokman returns to Angang to question the people as to why they fled when she had given them land and good equipment. The people reply that they don't know good steel from bad steel in farming equipment, that all they want is to live and that they don't care if they own the land or not. Deokman kills the village leaders.
This episode is much heavier on political strategies than most with little personal interaction except for that between Mishil and Deokman. The ending of the episode reflects the hard decisions a national leader must make. There's an interesting speech near the end by Deokman (another exchange with Mishil) in which she says that Mishil was never able to lead Shilla because she was a false mother taking care of someone else's baby, that any true leader of a nation would take care of the people, would explain to the people until they understood and would do everything for the people.
It should be mentioned that there are very few facts that are truly represented in Queen Seon Deok the drama. While there is talk that verges on democratic thoughts in this drama, I wonder if the historical Queen Seon Deok actually thought that way.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Terrific Korean drama collages
Bibimbap has terrific collages of Korean dramas on their flickr site.
I particularly like this one of Munno's death scene from Queen Seon Deok:
I particularly like this one of Munno's death scene from Queen Seon Deok:
Queen Seon Deok, Episode 38 or what does the French revolution have to do with Mishil?
Episode 37 ended with Bidam finding Prince Chun Chu making origami out of the Book of the Three Kingdoms (kinda sounds like something one might find in Harry Pottery). Not realizing Chun Chu is a prince, Bidam rolls him up in a quilt and beats him with his sword. The next scene shows Prince Chun Chu with a bloody nose and unfolding all the origami. When Bidam asks Prince Chun Chu what's he going to do about the order of the pages, Prince Chun Chu replies that the pages are in perfect order. Well, what d'ya know? Prince Chun Chu has photographic memory.
A new plot strain begins with a move by Mishil's faction to corner the grain market. One thing I learned about monarchies in reading up on the French revolution is that the price of the staple food is central to a nation. If the price of wheat, and consequently bread, hadn't risen in France, the French Revolution might not have happened.
In Queen Seon Deok, the nobles are cornering the grain market to gain new land. The way it works is this: the nobles practice usury on the side, with many borrowers among small farmers and shareholders whose lives are more difficult. When the price of staple food items goes up, the smaller farmers and shareholders are forced to spend more money on food, meaning that they will have to borrow more just to eat while being unable to pay their debts. Since the smaller farmers' land is used as collateral, the nobles gain more land. Additionally, since shareholders only have their lives as assets, they are forced to become slaves to nobles if they can't pay back the money.
There's a terrific scene where Deokman confronts Mishil about the nobles cornering the grain market. Mishil tells Deokman "You are a shameless person." Deokman counters, "Yes, there has always been that quality about me." Terrific dialogue.
Deokman, using trade knowledge gained growing up on the Silk Road, counters trade manipulation with more trade manipulation. She floods the market with staples from the royal stock, forcing the price to go down. While some of the nobles are wealthy enough to withstand the prices going down, the nobles with less wealth are afraid to lose everything and rush to sell what they bought at inflated prices at lower prices.
Now, I am reminded of the sad state of economics in the U.S.? Watching that manipulation of the market, I couldn't help but think of the housing bubble and the consequent rush to sell stocks by traders as soon as they realized that their own actions had caused an artificially inflated value of U.S. wealth:
I will end my political asides there.
On a lighter note, although Chun Chu is wove lightly throughout this episode, I would like to mention him as he will most likely grow to be an important character. Yu Shin steps down as Chun Chu's martial arts instructor and hands him over to Bidam. It's perfect! The two are well-matched in cunning and manipulation. Prince Chun Chu pretends he can't remember anything while remembering every single thing; he pretends to be only interested in being a playboy while observing all actions around him. Bidam also is more than he appears: an excellent swordsman who dresses and acts nonchalantly; a son of Mishil who hides his lineage even from Mishil who doesn't what happened to the child she threw away. Both encourage people around them to underestimate them.
A new plot strain begins with a move by Mishil's faction to corner the grain market. One thing I learned about monarchies in reading up on the French revolution is that the price of the staple food is central to a nation. If the price of wheat, and consequently bread, hadn't risen in France, the French Revolution might not have happened.
In Queen Seon Deok, the nobles are cornering the grain market to gain new land. The way it works is this: the nobles practice usury on the side, with many borrowers among small farmers and shareholders whose lives are more difficult. When the price of staple food items goes up, the smaller farmers and shareholders are forced to spend more money on food, meaning that they will have to borrow more just to eat while being unable to pay their debts. Since the smaller farmers' land is used as collateral, the nobles gain more land. Additionally, since shareholders only have their lives as assets, they are forced to become slaves to nobles if they can't pay back the money.
There's a terrific scene where Deokman confronts Mishil about the nobles cornering the grain market. Mishil tells Deokman "You are a shameless person." Deokman counters, "Yes, there has always been that quality about me." Terrific dialogue.
Deokman, using trade knowledge gained growing up on the Silk Road, counters trade manipulation with more trade manipulation. She floods the market with staples from the royal stock, forcing the price to go down. While some of the nobles are wealthy enough to withstand the prices going down, the nobles with less wealth are afraid to lose everything and rush to sell what they bought at inflated prices at lower prices.
Now, I am reminded of the sad state of economics in the U.S.? Watching that manipulation of the market, I couldn't help but think of the housing bubble and the consequent rush to sell stocks by traders as soon as they realized that their own actions had caused an artificially inflated value of U.S. wealth:
I will end my political asides there.
On a lighter note, although Chun Chu is wove lightly throughout this episode, I would like to mention him as he will most likely grow to be an important character. Yu Shin steps down as Chun Chu's martial arts instructor and hands him over to Bidam. It's perfect! The two are well-matched in cunning and manipulation. Prince Chun Chu pretends he can't remember anything while remembering every single thing; he pretends to be only interested in being a playboy while observing all actions around him. Bidam also is more than he appears: an excellent swordsman who dresses and acts nonchalantly; a son of Mishil who hides his lineage even from Mishil who doesn't what happened to the child she threw away. Both encourage people around them to underestimate them.
Queen Seon Deok, Episode 37 with a couple of surprises
So, going into Episode 37 when Episode 36 had ended with Yu Shin's decision to enter Mishil's family with a marriage to save the Kaya people, I thought that certainly Episode 37 would be woefully filled with scenes of Deokman crying her eyes out and a grand marriage ceremony. Boy, was I wrong! (Yes, there are scenes of Deokman crying with a particularly good scene when Jukbong and Godo give Deokman a wooden carved doll of a Man of the West from China. The doll looks just like Cartan Ahjussi! So, Seowha holds the doll and talks with Deokman, mimicking Cartan Ahjussi's voice.)
As with so many episodes of Queen Seon Deok, the plot moves rapidly with little slowdown for romance or sentimentality. The marriage between Yu Shin and the girl from Mishil's family takes place in less than 5 minutes. Instead, the real action of this episode has to do with Bidam and Munno.
In Episode 36, Bidam overheard Munno talking with a man in a room inside the gambling house; Munno said that he planned to give the books to Yu Shin. As we learned in earlier episodes, the books contain maps and information about the two other kingdoms. Munno wrote the books to help the right person unify all three kingdoms. Now, after hearing Yu Shin say that he will go into Mishil's family to save the Kaya people, Munno has decided that the books should be given to Yu Shin.
Bidam confronts Munno outside a temple where Munno will complete the books. Bidam justifies murdering the bandit community as a child by saying that he had been told by Munno that the books were important, that he believed the books must be protected at all costs and that he only wanted Munno's approval. Munno replies that Bidam is right; that the murders for the sake of getting approval showed Bidam's true heart.
Munno finishes the books and is walking with the books when Bidam again confronts him. The two have a sword fight...when Munno is struck down with poisoned darts! Bidam puts his master on his back and starts running away, leaving the books behind. And here, we have a true formulaic in every Korean drama: no one is allowed to die without the heart-wringing last words. Munno asks Bidam why he carried his master and left the books behind. Then, Munno says he was wrong to not know Bidam better, to not see his real heart. He instructs Bidam to return to Seoralbol, become a Hwarang and help Yu Shin and Princess Deokman unify the kingdoms.
Near the end of the episode, Prince Chun Chu shows up in the most surprising manner. Bidam goes to find the books left behind when Munno died. He confronts the owner of the gambling house who says he will show Bidam where the books are. As the gambling house owner and Bidam get closer to the room with the books, Bidam sees little origami balls on the paper. Prince Chun Chu has been making origami with pages from the book!
I can't wait to see the next episode!
As with so many episodes of Queen Seon Deok, the plot moves rapidly with little slowdown for romance or sentimentality. The marriage between Yu Shin and the girl from Mishil's family takes place in less than 5 minutes. Instead, the real action of this episode has to do with Bidam and Munno.
In Episode 36, Bidam overheard Munno talking with a man in a room inside the gambling house; Munno said that he planned to give the books to Yu Shin. As we learned in earlier episodes, the books contain maps and information about the two other kingdoms. Munno wrote the books to help the right person unify all three kingdoms. Now, after hearing Yu Shin say that he will go into Mishil's family to save the Kaya people, Munno has decided that the books should be given to Yu Shin.
Bidam confronts Munno outside a temple where Munno will complete the books. Bidam justifies murdering the bandit community as a child by saying that he had been told by Munno that the books were important, that he believed the books must be protected at all costs and that he only wanted Munno's approval. Munno replies that Bidam is right; that the murders for the sake of getting approval showed Bidam's true heart.
Munno finishes the books and is walking with the books when Bidam again confronts him. The two have a sword fight...when Munno is struck down with poisoned darts! Bidam puts his master on his back and starts running away, leaving the books behind. And here, we have a true formulaic in every Korean drama: no one is allowed to die without the heart-wringing last words. Munno asks Bidam why he carried his master and left the books behind. Then, Munno says he was wrong to not know Bidam better, to not see his real heart. He instructs Bidam to return to Seoralbol, become a Hwarang and help Yu Shin and Princess Deokman unify the kingdoms.
Near the end of the episode, Prince Chun Chu shows up in the most surprising manner. Bidam goes to find the books left behind when Munno died. He confronts the owner of the gambling house who says he will show Bidam where the books are. As the gambling house owner and Bidam get closer to the room with the books, Bidam sees little origami balls on the paper. Prince Chun Chu has been making origami with pages from the book!
I can't wait to see the next episode!
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