There is a historical drama to begin soon in Korea. I wish I was in Korea to watch this and that my Korean was good enough to enjoy it:
“The 40 episodes cover the period from the morning of president Park Chung-hee’s assassination to the handover of power from Chun Doo-hwan to Roh Tae-woo.” But the first nine episodes concentrate on the last months of 1979, from Park’s assassination on Oct. 26, 1979 to the Dec. 12 putsch. The 1980 Gwangju Uprising gets four episodes to itself. “We will focus on the New Military Group’s preparations and decision-making process in brutally putting down the uprising.”One or two episodes each will deal with other incidents like various financial scandals, the shooting down of a KAL airliner over Soviet airspace, the Rangoon bombing, occupation by demonstrators of the U.S. Cultural Center in Seoul, sexual torture inflicted on female protestors by police in Bucheon in 1986, Geumgang Dam, the torture and killing of collegian Park Jong-chol in 1987 and the June 29 Declaration of the same year that forced democratic change.
◆ The characters
The “hero” is Chun Doo-hwan, played by Lee Deok-hwa. “His negative side is well known, but he had a charm about him, like a boss who takes money from this person and that person to buy booze for his underlings in order to keep those around him happy,” Lee said. “We will show this as central to his attraction.” Roh Tae-woo (played by Seo In-seok), on the other hand, is depicted as an introverted, calculating fellow. “There is evidence if you look at Chun’s autobiography, where he says whatever he starts, Roh finishes,” Im said.
I would be very interested to see how the drama juggles accuracy, popular impressions of the recent past, and the views of the writers themselves. I’m sure there will be lots of interesting commentary floating around about this. I hope I can live to see the day when China permits the showing of a historical drama giving 4 episodes to Tiananmen in 1989.
I cant wait for you to understand korean better. You seem to glorify korea a bit. Usually, people like you think that japan and china are overstudied. You guys think that korea is this undiscoverd place full of beauity and purness that japan and china lost. Well keep at it my friend. I wish I can be there when you find out the truth.
I dont mean to be negative, just trying to tell the truth.
Thanks for your comment :-) I can only hope others haven’t also gotten the impression that I “glorify” Korea and believe it to be a home of purity.
I thought, for example, my mildly mocking tone when discussing the nationalist historiography of Korea in postings such as here (http://muninn.net/blog/2005/04/nobi-rescuing-the-nation-from-slavery.html) and here (http://www.froginawell.net/japan/index.php?p=28) and here (http://muninn.net/blog/2004/10/the-character.html) and here (http://muninn.net/blog/2004/10/koreans-in-korean-textbooks.html) might give a very different impression. I don’t think I have any major illusions about Korea, although I’m excited about giving it some serious study after having neglected it throughout my East Asian related reading and research.
I should say someday there will be a drama in Taiwan talking about our martial law past
I thinks it will be the time when our public have the courage to face our embarraseing past and look over with justice
I guess you might have heard it somewhere, but I happened to see a movie (“그때 그사람들”)about Park’s assasination when I was in Seoul. It was kind of fun mainly due to an amazing lack of seriousness with which the director(maybe 임상수) deals with probably the most critical political event ever in contemporary korean history. Although criticized by some “serious” critics, I basically see something positive in this trend of de-mystifying Park.
Before watching dramas, I hope you see this movie first.
He Sechiong – I actually do think that something like that is possible in Taiwan now, especially given the textbook changes I have seen there.
Jae, I saw a website about that movie and all the criticism it got (wasn’t it sued by Park family members or something?) so I look forward to seeing it!
Portraying these things in a lighthearted or cynical manner is one sign that the event is, as you say, being “de-mystified” The comedy TV series M.A.S.H arguably indicates that for the Korean war (although the war never figures prominently) in the US.
Do u know if there is any place i can buy the whole series?
No, I wish I knew….
i just wanna ask, is Yang Mi Kyeong of Jewel in the Palace or Dae Jang Geum in this series?
Again, I haven’t seen it, sorry but I don’t know!