Historical Drama ~ Taiga vs Saeguk
Oct. 14th, 2016 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spsnWhile I don't always watch historical drama, I realize that I do have some share of both Taiga and Saeguk (more saeguk though). Though both are featuring historical figures, the approach taken by both Taiga and Saeguk are very different, which makes it very interesting.
Let's start with Taiga drama. It can be the NHK taiga drama, which runs for the whole year so naturally there'll be at least 50 episodes, or it can be SP. I don't include NHK asadora in this because the only asadora that I watched is Oshin. The reason why I'm not into asadora is because most of the time it's more of a family drama theme, light and heartwarming. I'm more into the traditional taiga drama type, especially the sengoku jidai, because it's darker, full of history and intriguing at the same time. The flow of NHK taiga drama is on point with the history and there'll be lots of narration in accordance to the history, and what I like the best is at the end of each episode, there'll be reference of what the location for the particular scene look like now, or where the tomb is located now etc. The drama itself will have politics, betrayal, more betrayal, a test of loyalty combined together. Friends today may become foe in the future, and regardless on which historical figure being featured, all these aspects are there. It's like looking at history repeats at itself, and human nature's desire and greed is very similar regardless which era you're in. The love story is secondary here. It's more there as a bridge to make the history continue, eg. since it's basically a featured historical figure biography, the drama has to add on when the figure got married and have a family, but love is not necessary the trigger for this. Jealousy is not so much emphasized as the catalyst for a historical event. However, envy or greed are.
How about the villain? From the taiga drama that I watched so far, there's no clear line of who's the bad guys. There's always something which drive people to do certain thing. For example, in Ryomaden, difference in belief of what should be the right approach towards globalization led to bloodshed (I still can't get over the scene where they tortured Izo, he's not really guilty, just believed to follow the wrong dude). In Gunshii Kanbe, fear of a different religion led to massacares. It's bloody, brutal and cruel (the scene where they executed Lady Dashi just broke my heart), but that's history, something that we should learn from but unfortunately it always turn to full cycle and repeats by itself. One historical figure in 1 drama can be portrayed as good, but can be seen as a ruthless figure. The very obvious example is Oda Nobunaga, sometimes he's portrayed as a benevolent lord, and in other drama he's the cruel lord who burnt the whole mountain and killed the civillians along the way.
My list of taiga drama: Ryomaden, Gunshi Kanbee, Yoshitsune, Yae no Sakura
Asadora: Oshin, Gegege no Nyobo
Contemporary taiga drama: JIN
SP: Nohime, Onna Nounaga, Oie-san, Musashi
A badass Okada as Gunshii Kanbe!
Or the badass but prettier than you Matsuda Shota in Musashi
Meanwhile, in saegukland, it's not all cheery, lovey dovey as well, most of them count with body count bagage. Just like the taiga counterpart, saeguk also retells history though not as precise to the T as taiga. Definitely major historical event is followed, minus those contemporary saeguk, which more of folklore or fantasy. The emphasize of the drama itself is different. While taiga main purpose is to retell the history of a historical figure, saeguk put the drama itself as the priority, not to retell the history in exact manner. This maybe a reason why saeguk drama has similar pattern, not all, but at least most that I watched follow this pattern. It all starts from the previous generation's injustice. The family murdered due to trivial treason trap, or the child is hidden and raised by some commoners due to fear of him/her getting murdered are the common starting point. Then we have the main character suffers injustice multiple times by the villains, perseveres to the point of being pitiful aka ordered to be slaves or went to prison and got tortured (there must always this type of scene in every saeguk drama, it's like a staple). The romance also makes up a large portion of what motivates the characters to act in a certain way and then history was made. Empress Ki is one of the example. The love triangle between 2 kings over 1 lady is what drives the story (besides the cruel scheming of ONE powerful old geezer and the politics) almost the first half of the drama. It's even more apparent in the contemporare one. Example, Hong Gil Dong, the King's jealousy (coz he's the second lead) turned Hong Gil Dong from friend to foe and lead to the massacare towards the end. Politics and scheming between clan, households, parties etc are about the same as in Taiga, however, there's a clear line on who're the bad guys and the good guys. In some of them, the villain seems to be obsessed with the main character in terms of how to destroy or make the main character suffer more, example for this is in Joseon Gunman. How many episodes are used to illustrate the merchant aka the assassin plan to hurt/destroy/kill the main character, especially after the main character rejected his daughter. Joseon Gunman is actually one of the few exceptions where they illustrate the background story of the villain so that we kind of hate him less (come on, who won't feel a tiny bit of pitty when a man lost the wife and had her daughter raped in front of him? despite him trading slaves and killing people left and right). Lots of other drama don't even bother to explain a little bit behind the villains' motives, hence they end up as the greedy sleazy old scumbags. Example? The greedy minister in Scholar who Walks the Night. His character is just plain greedy. Even for the main villain, Gwi (one of the fascinating villain characters), doesn't have lots of background story eg. how did he become a vampire?
One saeguk drama that I know where the good and bad guys sort of blurred out is Scarlet Heart Ryeo. The villains are still clear, but their motivation and drive to do what they did are explored, similar to Taiga drama's approach, and it's fascinating to watch, however heart breaking it is. The villain obsessing to make the main character suffers still prevails hence it's heart breaking when Wook and Yo kept on targetting the precious pup So (I have my bias, yes I do).
Remember that in taiga drama we can't really tell from looks which one is the bad guy? Well, saegukland beg to differ, villains must have 'villains' face written all over it. As mention earlier, most of the time, our villains are the sleazy greasy old geezers.
Example, this is the standard.
However, what if the drama is full of dreamy and good looking people, you can say it as mini harem or mega harem drama. How to tell the difference? In saegukland, we have eyeliners as unique identifier.
Badass, evil vampire? Not a problem, slap some eyeshadow and eyeliner and tadaa, you're ready for the killing spree.
What if you're an evil character, but throughout the drama your evil power level kept on increasing, not to worry, saegukland has the answer too.
We have evolution from a simple eyeliner to a smokey wing style plus a seemingly growing earings too.
Not enough?
Not to worry, we can ditch the eyeliner for awhile and add a goatee, let the hair down, or put back the eyeliner and grow the earings.
What about when the good guy turn evil? Saegukland has the simple solution
Change the clothing to black and slap on more eyeliner and tadaa, you're evil!
Even previous pup got the makeover too. The contrast is chilling here though. We can't change the history but I still don't want precious pup to become evil (I permit badassery, but please stay precious!)
My list of saeguk drama: Dae Jang Geum, Dong Yi, Jung Yi, Hwang Jin Yi, Empress Ki
Contemporer saeguk drama: Hong Gil Dong, Iljimae, Arang & Magistrate, Joseon Gunman, Scholar who Walks The Night, Queen Inhyeon's Man, Warrior Baek Dong Soo, The Legend, and the current harem drama.
... HELL, I watched a lot of historical stuff, never really thought about it until now... Thanks to the harem drama.
Ah, and we still have weekend for Monday to come... no matter heartbreaking it'll be... sigh....
Nevertheless, history is fascinating and maybe I should pick up Shinsengumi (another history portion that I'm interested in).
Let's start with Taiga drama. It can be the NHK taiga drama, which runs for the whole year so naturally there'll be at least 50 episodes, or it can be SP. I don't include NHK asadora in this because the only asadora that I watched is Oshin. The reason why I'm not into asadora is because most of the time it's more of a family drama theme, light and heartwarming. I'm more into the traditional taiga drama type, especially the sengoku jidai, because it's darker, full of history and intriguing at the same time. The flow of NHK taiga drama is on point with the history and there'll be lots of narration in accordance to the history, and what I like the best is at the end of each episode, there'll be reference of what the location for the particular scene look like now, or where the tomb is located now etc. The drama itself will have politics, betrayal, more betrayal, a test of loyalty combined together. Friends today may become foe in the future, and regardless on which historical figure being featured, all these aspects are there. It's like looking at history repeats at itself, and human nature's desire and greed is very similar regardless which era you're in. The love story is secondary here. It's more there as a bridge to make the history continue, eg. since it's basically a featured historical figure biography, the drama has to add on when the figure got married and have a family, but love is not necessary the trigger for this. Jealousy is not so much emphasized as the catalyst for a historical event. However, envy or greed are.
How about the villain? From the taiga drama that I watched so far, there's no clear line of who's the bad guys. There's always something which drive people to do certain thing. For example, in Ryomaden, difference in belief of what should be the right approach towards globalization led to bloodshed (I still can't get over the scene where they tortured Izo, he's not really guilty, just believed to follow the wrong dude). In Gunshii Kanbe, fear of a different religion led to massacares. It's bloody, brutal and cruel (the scene where they executed Lady Dashi just broke my heart), but that's history, something that we should learn from but unfortunately it always turn to full cycle and repeats by itself. One historical figure in 1 drama can be portrayed as good, but can be seen as a ruthless figure. The very obvious example is Oda Nobunaga, sometimes he's portrayed as a benevolent lord, and in other drama he's the cruel lord who burnt the whole mountain and killed the civillians along the way.
My list of taiga drama: Ryomaden, Gunshi Kanbee, Yoshitsune, Yae no Sakura
Asadora: Oshin, Gegege no Nyobo
Contemporary taiga drama: JIN
SP: Nohime, Onna Nounaga, Oie-san, Musashi
A badass Okada as Gunshii Kanbe!
Or the badass but prettier than you Matsuda Shota in Musashi
Meanwhile, in saegukland, it's not all cheery, lovey dovey as well, most of them count with body count bagage. Just like the taiga counterpart, saeguk also retells history though not as precise to the T as taiga. Definitely major historical event is followed, minus those contemporary saeguk, which more of folklore or fantasy. The emphasize of the drama itself is different. While taiga main purpose is to retell the history of a historical figure, saeguk put the drama itself as the priority, not to retell the history in exact manner. This maybe a reason why saeguk drama has similar pattern, not all, but at least most that I watched follow this pattern. It all starts from the previous generation's injustice. The family murdered due to trivial treason trap, or the child is hidden and raised by some commoners due to fear of him/her getting murdered are the common starting point. Then we have the main character suffers injustice multiple times by the villains, perseveres to the point of being pitiful aka ordered to be slaves or went to prison and got tortured (there must always this type of scene in every saeguk drama, it's like a staple). The romance also makes up a large portion of what motivates the characters to act in a certain way and then history was made. Empress Ki is one of the example. The love triangle between 2 kings over 1 lady is what drives the story (besides the cruel scheming of ONE powerful old geezer and the politics) almost the first half of the drama. It's even more apparent in the contemporare one. Example, Hong Gil Dong, the King's jealousy (coz he's the second lead) turned Hong Gil Dong from friend to foe and lead to the massacare towards the end. Politics and scheming between clan, households, parties etc are about the same as in Taiga, however, there's a clear line on who're the bad guys and the good guys. In some of them, the villain seems to be obsessed with the main character in terms of how to destroy or make the main character suffer more, example for this is in Joseon Gunman. How many episodes are used to illustrate the merchant aka the assassin plan to hurt/destroy/kill the main character, especially after the main character rejected his daughter. Joseon Gunman is actually one of the few exceptions where they illustrate the background story of the villain so that we kind of hate him less (come on, who won't feel a tiny bit of pitty when a man lost the wife and had her daughter raped in front of him? despite him trading slaves and killing people left and right). Lots of other drama don't even bother to explain a little bit behind the villains' motives, hence they end up as the greedy sleazy old scumbags. Example? The greedy minister in Scholar who Walks the Night. His character is just plain greedy. Even for the main villain, Gwi (one of the fascinating villain characters), doesn't have lots of background story eg. how did he become a vampire?
One saeguk drama that I know where the good and bad guys sort of blurred out is Scarlet Heart Ryeo. The villains are still clear, but their motivation and drive to do what they did are explored, similar to Taiga drama's approach, and it's fascinating to watch, however heart breaking it is. The villain obsessing to make the main character suffers still prevails hence it's heart breaking when Wook and Yo kept on targetting the precious pup So (I have my bias, yes I do).
Remember that in taiga drama we can't really tell from looks which one is the bad guy? Well, saegukland beg to differ, villains must have 'villains' face written all over it. As mention earlier, most of the time, our villains are the sleazy greasy old geezers.
Example, this is the standard.
However, what if the drama is full of dreamy and good looking people, you can say it as mini harem or mega harem drama. How to tell the difference? In saegukland, we have eyeliners as unique identifier.
Badass, evil vampire? Not a problem, slap some eyeshadow and eyeliner and tadaa, you're ready for the killing spree.
What if you're an evil character, but throughout the drama your evil power level kept on increasing, not to worry, saegukland has the answer too.
We have evolution from a simple eyeliner to a smokey wing style plus a seemingly growing earings too.
Not enough?
Not to worry, we can ditch the eyeliner for awhile and add a goatee, let the hair down, or put back the eyeliner and grow the earings.
What about when the good guy turn evil? Saegukland has the simple solution
Change the clothing to black and slap on more eyeliner and tadaa, you're evil!
Even previous pup got the makeover too. The contrast is chilling here though. We can't change the history but I still don't want precious pup to become evil (I permit badassery, but please stay precious!)
My list of saeguk drama: Dae Jang Geum, Dong Yi, Jung Yi, Hwang Jin Yi, Empress Ki
Contemporer saeguk drama: Hong Gil Dong, Iljimae, Arang & Magistrate, Joseon Gunman, Scholar who Walks The Night, Queen Inhyeon's Man, Warrior Baek Dong Soo, The Legend, and the current harem drama.
... HELL, I watched a lot of historical stuff, never really thought about it until now... Thanks to the harem drama.
Ah, and we still have weekend for Monday to come... no matter heartbreaking it'll be... sigh....
Nevertheless, history is fascinating and maybe I should pick up Shinsengumi (another history portion that I'm interested in).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-10-17 02:19 pm (UTC)JIN is a love or hate I guess. I'd admit that the middle part of the drama is a it meh, but I cried so hard towards the end of the series, damn that was a good ending (albeit the love line is very questionable).