Wow, it's been ages since I've posted.  I've just conducted nine interviews for my research in the past week which have rather worn me out, but we've also been working our way through two most horrendously addictive k-dramas which have tied up the remaining free time.  As a consequence, Livejournal has had to take a backseat (poor little journal, I'll treat you a bit better this week).

First off, I must proclaim my mad passionate love for Hong Gil Dong.  It was so damn good, and I kind of want to re-watch the whole thing right now.  For the two people out there who don't know, it's the Korean equivalent of the Robin Hood story, with a rebel leader rising from humble beginnings, stealing from the rich to give to the poor [speaking of which, I so have to re-watch Robin of Sherwood in my non-existent free time this year!  I haven't watched it for ages, and to me it's the quintessential version of Robin Hood].  It was smart and funny and moving, and it spun out its mysteries nicely, moving the story to its inevitable conclusion.  It was great to watch Gil Dong mature, as he finally found an outlet for all that thwarted talent and passion - while never loosing that brashness and humour that defined him from the start.  Yi Nok joins the very small ranks of dorama women lacking somewhat in brains and competence (let me qualify that: she's got great competence in certain areas, just not in others) that I can not only tolerate, I actively like.  And the Hot Prince (it took ages to hear his name, so he gets called that by default) is ... hot.   And what a beautiful speaking voice, which offset the ultra-girliness of his face.  Perhaps the only thing wrong with the dorama was a dearth of shirtless scenes (but then again, I've never seen so much steaming breath in a dorama!  It's no wonder they didn't want to doff their clothing *grin*).  Even though we had to battle faulty discs, rotating them among various players in order to get them to mostly work
(even then, we haven't managed to see parts of various episodes; not buying from *that* supplier again!), it was still a fantastic experience.

And then on Friday evening, we started Legend, the story of the foretold second coming of the legendary Joo Shin king to ancient Korean.  Wow.  Just wow.  This is the level high fantasy should always achieve, and seldom manages to.  It's not just the high production values (I shudder to think what the budget for this was!); it's that it manages to hit all the right notes and maintain its gravitas, lightly and gracefully skirting around potential cheesiness.  If the first episode was all about the epic backstory (fully aware of how EPIC it was), subsequent episodes have been about bringing it down to a more human focus.  The central three, Dam Duk, Sujini, and Kiha, are all sympathetically drawn (and hello to the second hot dorama prince of the week!).  The antagonists are mostly not as subtly portrayed, but I can tolerate a moustache-twirling villain in a high fantasy and probably nowhere else, so that's okay.  I don't love it as much as Hong Gil Dong, with its real sense of social justice and all the rough-edged humanity on display, but we've just watched 12 episodes of Legend in the space of a day, so obviously it's doing something right :-).

As an aside: I've been glancing at Western TV every now and then, but I think Asian TV may have ruined me.  I look at the Western programs and I find myself thinking "what a bunch of mutts!" about the guys in them.  Not a healthy way to be thinking; obviously I need razor-sharp cheekbones, narrow eyes and full lips now in my TV men.  I guess doramas it is for the foreseeable future!