Historical Dramas Club

 Badass Bunny:

Not kidding, when I went to Korea I spent 85 percent of my time in palaces and museums.

Me too. I spent almost a day exploring Gyeongbukgung and Deoksugung Palace. I wish I could go to Yongin Daejanggeum Park, which is the main filming location for some popular historical dramas like Dae Jang Geum, but the place is quite far. 

 Badass Bunny:

I like romance heavy historical dramas, with little to no humor.

You can also search for Thai historical dramas. Some are quite good. Here are a few I can recommend:

• Royal Doctor
• Wanthong
• The Kinnaree Conspiracy
• Wimarn Sai

 Badass Bunny:

Hi, thanks for the warm welcome :)

Sadly, I have seen almost all of the dramas you have mentioned.

Does Ashes of love really have such strong romance? 

I tried Ashes of love, but to be honest I can’t seem to invest in the main couple. I don’t know why.( No offense to the fans!)

IMHO It was quite fun at first, but the story made me empathized more on the second male lead. Runyu’s story is so pitiful. Maybe I’m biased, but I ended up dropping the drama on episode 48. I might pick it up again just to skim through the last few episodes. Maybe.

I’ve seen a lot of people recommended it though, so you could give it a try..

If you’re looking for slow burn romance, I’d recommend Love Like The Galaxy, if you haven’t seen it. It’s a really beautiful piece. I love it!

Hello!

I have finished a little personal project and want to share it with you! For those who liked only the historical bits from Moon in the day and want to rewatch only those parts I have made a complete compilation of the sageuk part! 

For those who have not seen this drama you don't have to worry! The historical part makes complete sense and can be watched alone, without prior knowledge of the whole drama - I created it in a chronological order. 

PART1 -  https://youtu.be/q2zvbHVSCHU

PART 2 -  https://youtu.be/gI3HP2Ifqfw

PART 3 - https://youtu.be/6vELxwe_E5Y

Note: Sometimes there is buffering, but only for few seconds. 

I recorded it at highest quality, but somehow the conversion to smaller file took a toll on the quality a bit, so excuse that, please. 

Synopsis:

Kim Do Ha is a general of the Silla kingdom that one day invades the kingdom of Gaya causing the collapse of the smaller kingdom. Afterwards he meets Han Ri Ta, the daughter of the general of Gaya who Do Ha has killed in the battle. Ri Ta seeks revenge, but she faces many obstacles on her deadly mission - one of them being falling in love with the said general. 

The king's affection 8/10

 kYuBin:

I guess you're okay with the cross-dressing trope in sageuk. ^^
It's personally a pet peeve, as it ruins the whole story most of the time. For me, it's (almost) always totally impossible to be really believable, and when it comes to sageuk I highly evaluate the accuracy of the reconstitution of the past. It cannot be perfectly realistic, of course, but it must be as close as possible to be good.
The day they stop casting very feminime and pretty actresses to play a travestite young man, maybe it will work, but so far it's a total fail, it makes no sense. It was passable in older sageuk, for some reason, but now I really can't watch seriously a sageuk that uses that as a center trope of the story, like the currently airing "Captivating the King", which could have been great without it but is a failure for me.

I feel if I were to hyper-analyse everything I'd lose the enjoyment I get out of dramas and novels because after all they are a form of escapism and I'm not looking for absolute realism, if I were I'd go watch a documentary or read a non-fiction book (which is the only time I look for 100% accuracy). Also, with the cross-dressing, whether it's convincing or not it plays a relatively small part of why I enjoy said dramas.

But that's just me.

 kYuBin:

I agree, and actually it's not that I hyper-analyse or want absolute realism, like you wrote they are not documentaries and we watch them to enjoy the creativity and liberation it provides as fictions. But when it comes to cross-dressing it's too big to be ignored unfortunately, especially when it is at the center of the story like these sageuk. I wish I could ignore it but that's impossible for me unfortunately. ^^

What you mean is that you do not believe that women back than dressed as a man? Because they did. With the way Confucianism treated women it wasnt a suprise.  It didnt happen often, but it still did happen. 

 Badass Bunny:

What you mean is that you do not believe that women back than dressed as a man? Because they did. With the way Confucianism treated women it wasnt a suprise.  It didnt happen often, but it still did happen. 

Yes and no. As I wrote it just totally look fake when it comes to sageuk, and that's because of the stardom system.
There is a difference between something realistic and something historically accurate. When you put a dragon in a movie, it's not historically accurate (or is it ? ^^), but good CGIs will make it realistic. There are a lot of historical productions, all over the world, where cross-dressing (wether men or women), can pass as realistic. But I have never seen one in a sageuk. If at least they really tried to pass them for young men, but they only put a sangtu with a manggeon, a gat and a man hanbok on them, while they remain pretty with make-up, very feminine, with women voice, so I don't see how anybody can believe they pass as men, even androgynous. Thus it makes everything false apart, because the other characters look very dumb believing they really are men.

As for the authenticity of cross-dressing women during Joseon, I never read any scientifical paper about that proving it (if you have references please let me know), and it's actually hardly believable, especially because of Confucianism and the society of Joseon era. Dressing as a man to travel, why not, but in everyday life, while having a work or official status like they do in sageuk ? Nope, I don't buy that unless proven. I think it's just a convenient trope sageuk writers found to not lock female characters in queens, concubines, court ladies, wives, etc roles.