Alexandra Leaving

I have caught up on this, just to decide I am going to drop it, or may be will quickly fast forward at the end.). The drama is a bit of a mess:

- Lee Min Ho's angst is beautiful, and this about it. This drama would have been a 3% ratings flop if he wasn't in it.

- The main lady is fine with me, but she is such a cop out from "Hotaru no Hikari", minus Amemiya's success at work. Her house is also a cop out from "Hotaru no Hikari", complete with the porch

- All Secondaries are most annoyingly boring. In particular, avoid this drama if you liked Wang Son in "Chuno". I will never be able to see Wang Son in the same way ever again.

- The gay theme is dealt with too heavy-handedly for my taste. Jin Ho's pretending to be gay in the front of the gay manger, because "the manager's eyes were so sad" , consequently deceiving everyone, making the gay manager to re-include Ji Ho's bid, which will be leading to big problems (for the gay manager and himself) at the moment of future discovery of the truth – there must be some logic here, but I don't see any that is not offensive to gay people. I personally don't think that culturally Korean dramas have reached the point of being able to deal with gay themes successfully.

The subs for the episode 21 of "Chuno" are out!!!!! I have watched the episode yesterday, as well as a bit of "Conspiracy in the Court" . "Conspiracy in the Court" is catching up with me, it took me a while to get into the story (a bit too complex for 8 episodes) but now I am enjoying the drama immensely, especially the "Chuno" vibe I am getting from it. The protagonists seem to be so similar to the protagonists in "Chuno" , only Dae Gil (tragically broken and cynical) has changed his gender and became female assassin Na Young. And Sang Kyu is so much like a younger version of Tae Ha : idealistic and full of dimples. He even refuses to employ his weapon into killing people!!! So yay! I have got my Dae Gil + Tae Ha.

The cinematography is even better than in "Chuno". I have screencapped the scene that undoubtedly, as far as cinematography goes, is the best scene I have even seen in any drama or TV show (and may be in any film as well) : unsuccessful assassination attempt on the King's life. It is perfect: Sang Kyu shields the King from an attack by some disgruntled guy. Everything gives you complete feeling of reality: the scene starts very quickly, with the assassin appearing completely out of the blue and making his way to the throne in a matter of seconds, but as the scene progresses, the time slows down, to almost complete stop. All the government officials stand around like dummies, Sang Kyu is the only thing between the assassin and the King, but the King sits absolutely still, all the way through the scene. His nerves are made of steel. Just as it becomes clear that the assassination is not going to be successful, the palace guards appear from out of nowhere and literally make a kebab out of the assassin, and as if this was not enough, one of the ministers (who stood completely motionless just a minute ago) cuts the assassin's head off. Blood splatters everywhere like a red rain. Just as Sang Kyu is ready to pass out from his wound (he was sliced previously), the last thing he sees is the dead head of the assassin , very close. The head is crying.

It has been a while since I have seen something so brutally perfect:


( Screencaps of the assassination scene )

Chuno (Slave Hunter) will be over on Thursday – it almost feels too soon. I have never expected to get so obsessed with this drama, but again – I haven't watched any of my favourite dramas in "real time" before and this must have been a contributing factor. Yes, I am one of those people who usually check the ending of the book before they even contemplate the reading, because – who knows? There have been few very distressing life-changing bad ending experiences in my life , for example I became physically ill (fever and nightmares) upon reading "Little Mermaid" at the age of 8 (up until that time I thought all fairy tales MUST end well by definition). Or the ending of "Idiot" – when I read the book I already knew that in Russian literature you are in for a bad ending 50% of the time, but still, I have only managed to make myself read the ending once (although I must have read this book about 20 times), squinting and skipping the lines and now I always miss the ending upon any re-reads, pretending it doesn't happen AT ALL.

Now I don't like putting myself through the same experiences ever again. I avoid bad endings where possible, I love spoilers and I shamelessly check book endings even before I start reading them.

So my plan is – ask Thursday for a day off (yes, I am a total chicken, but I also have some holidays left) and hide at home, weeping unseen tears if necessary :D

But in any case, with the ending I like or the ending I don't – this was one wonderful drama. Below is a collection of my favourite moments of the drama, in screencaps, and this one has to be the favouritest one:



( Screencaps )

This episode has definitely reached Pullo/Vorenus (from "Rome") level, the guys just took to each other like ducks to water. I just wish we had more episodes of this instead of IMPENDING DOOM.



( Spoilers for the episode 22 )

Episode 21 seem to be all about male bonding:



( Spoilers for the episode 21 )

Just four episodes of Chuno left – and I am still largely obsessed. The last time I was so obsessed definitely happened long time ago, during my watching of HBO series Rome. Rome was a little easier, though, at least we knew what is going to happen to the many historical figures and only the fates of Pullo and Vorenus were unclear. Chuno – I think the Little Prince is safe because the history tells me so, but the rest of the characters ? Anything can happen, anything. Korean period dramas are something of a combo between Greek tragedies , Shakesperian tragedies .. and .. any other forms of tragedies you know. Usually everyone dies at the end, but Chuno's director said that the ending is hopeful, so this most likely means that not everyone will die.

I have even started to post all over the place on soompi forums, which I have never done before. I am usually torn between two views on soompi forums: 1) soompi is a very good resource; 2) soompi is full of strange people making strange posts of the kind "I love you OPPA" or "I hate that girl he is standing next to" with whom any direct contact should be avoided. But truth to be told, soompi forum-posting experience has been very positive so far , "Chuno" thread seem to be populated by numerous intelligent folks with various opinions and interesting discussion. So YAY!

I decided to record my latest predictions for the ending of Chuno and solemnly declare not to change them from this point onwards:
1. Un Nyun is alive, 99% probability
2. One guy out of the Dae Gil / Tae Ha pair is alive, 95% probability. Out of this, 80% probability that Dae Gil will survive and 20% probability that TH will survive (surprise me, mr.Kwak, please!)
3. Both Tae Ha and Dae Gil are alive : 10% probability.
4. Both Tae Ha and Dae Gil are dead : 5% probability.



( For your delectation, the latest pictures of Jang Hyuk, credit: soompi forums.  )

Update: some discussion in comments which can contain soft spoilers (speculations only), but the pictures themselves are not spoilery.

This was another awesome episode.

( Episode 20 recap in pictures )

Just about to go to a lengthy work meeting:

( Chuno episode 20 spoilers )