You gotta give this to the Sankei Shimbun — apparently nothing’s taboo, and they know how to press those buttons:
Neither does the show seriously consider why the foolish scholarly elites ignore Yi Yul-gok’s advice to train a 100,000-man army, or why Yi Sun-shin met his death while ???needlessly pursuing retreating Japanese troops.” Then comes the clincher: “Perhaps to a people who have had a warped understanding of Korea’s history with Japan, these points may be difficult to understand.”
Frankly, I think Koreans understand those points perfectly well. It’s things like this they have trouble understanding.
Speaking of the Imjinwaeran, ospreysamurai.com has a piece by Stephen Turnbull on knights and samurai, which is interesting from our perspective in its descriptions of samurai conduct during the Korean campaign of 1592-98. There’s also a small piece on Japanese castles and the Korean campaigns, for those interested.
36 Comments
Actually, I’m an avid viewer of this drama in its VOD format from the KBS site. Not to mention the fantastic quality of the VOD system (the over 300K versions) which turns my 19′ Dell flat panel screen into a streaming digital TV, the cinomatic quality of the show is just fantastic. It’s full of colour and excellent shots.
Sankei Shimbun does have a point though, about the caricatures of the Japanese Samurai laughing like maniacs. It does take away from the power of this show when you see the Samurais lauging like mad scientists who created Igor. And it probably does show Koreans’ traditional prejudices that Japanese are evil satans. But that’s about it.
as for this part:
“While most of the troops dispatched to Korea by Hideyoshi were from Nagoya in Saga Prefecture, another Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture, keeps being shown. Artistic license or not, Kuroda says, a historical drama should be based on proper historical research.”
Well, the show is not really 100% history. It’s based on a novel. It’s half fiction. And there are other historical problems with the show. For instance, in the drama, Yi Soon Shin’s turtle ship sank just before it was put into action - not true. Other problems include poor descriptions of weaponry (eg. Portugese muskets fired by the Japanese seems to be like M-16 rifles).
“why the foolish scholarly elites ignore Yi Yul-gok’s advice to train a 100,000-man army”
I guess the writer of the article didn’t watch the entire show from the beginning of the scenes where the foolish Korean king and his court refused to hear the warnings by his diplomats. There were only about 10 episodes that describes this, what was he watching?
“Yi Sun-shin met his death while ??needlessly pursuing retreating Japanese troops.”
Yi didn’t ‘needlessly pursue retreating Japanese troops’. After all, Hideyoshi invaded Korea not once, but twice. It was perfectly understandable that Yi wanted to destroy the Japanese navy once and for all so that they don’t do another third invasion.
“”Perhaps to a people who have had a warped understanding of Korea’s history with Japan, these points may be difficult to understand.”
Uh yeah. And I guess Japanese don’t have the same ‘warped understanding” of history.. I guess Hideyoshi just wanted to unite all of Asia so that they can be prosperous and thwart the mennacing white men, and wanted to help out the poor Chosun people.
I also want to add, nobody comes off looking good in this show.
Japanese are shown as cruel mad dog invaders.
Chinese are shown as arrogant, lazy, and no help.
Koreans are shown as ignorant, corrupt, power hungry, and foolish.
The only people who comes off looking good is Yi Soon Shin and his merry men.
Korean “campaign(s).”
Sounds like “textbook” material.
Actually I have to agree with Katsuhiro Kuroda on his assessment that the Japanese are comic villains. You know, I was actually really really hyped up about this show, I really wanted to see it for a long time. But you have to hand it to KBS to screw it up. It’s just common knowledge that KBS is just boring for any sort of shows for entertainment value–government meddling? I donno. Entertainment value of KBS is starting to approach the entertainment value of ArirangTV.
I don’t care if it’s historically accurate or not, (Huh Joon, Sangdo, Yuh-in-Chun-Ha, Wangun, are not either) but for the love of God, they should learn something by watch Star Wars. Darth Vader was a great villain, because he was not a flippin’ two dimensional villain. They might as well made the show in black and white and the Japanese general would kidnap a Korean woman and tie her down on a railway, only to have LeeSoonShin to come to her rescue.
And for the love of God, can’t they give the Japanese Samurais some more bald heads? Please, I beg KBS. Please. Don’t skimp on things like Samurais with shiny heads.
LOL. yeah I agree. Take away the villain comic characters (which is dissapointing), the show is still highly watchable. Especially the latest episodes, it’s very gripping. I highly recommend it.
Perhaps someone will create an on-line game based on Imjin Waeran and then Korean, Japanese, and Chinese can battle it out on on-line. 1000 Japanese on-line gamers launch an attack on Korean on-line gamers, the Chinese on-line gamers come to the aid of the Korean on-line gamers. Meanwhile, we have a naval battle going on while the Japanese ground troops controlled by Japanese on-liners push northward toward Pyongyang. Cyber on-line gaming pushed to the next level. It’s war!
Kimbob:
Can you actually view VOD from Korean TV network websites!? My wife and I have tried *everything*, in both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, and there seems to be a problem with all of the networks, with the customized web software each network uses…that’s assuming we’ve even got to the point of successfully signing up before actually being able to try downloading anything!
Tips would be appreciated….
1) Are you registered with the site? If you were born in Korea, like I was, you still can use your old citizen number. If you’re not, there should be links for English language registers.
2) Is your Windows Media up to date?
3) You have to use Windows Explorer. Anything else (like Firefox, Netscape), it may not work or may need tweaking.
4) These sites require Active-X popups. Is there anything that is blocking these, like your security settings in Windows Explorer?
5) Some VOD’s are free (like Yi Soon Shin), but others you need to pay for.
6) How good is your internet connection? If you’re trying to watch it with dial up, forget about it.
7) If all fails, upgrade to XP. You will have no problems.
for those interested, there’s talk of putting this series out with english subtitles. don’t know when but in the meantime, here’s two series put out in english that may interest you:
1. jewel in the palace aka daejanggum: this was the first korean drama i ever took time to watch. i thought it was great tho boring in some spots. those interested in korean culture ought to watch. check out http://www.yesasia.com if you need/want the subtitled series.
2. emporor of the sea: another great historical drama that i highly recommend.
lastly, perhaps someone should inform the japanese guy that the stuff is based on a NOVEL. and what peoples don’t do what the koreans are doing? remember bruckheimer’s ‘pearl harbor’? how about rambo, the movie in which america won the vietnam war? perhaps the japanese should make their own series about the imjin wars. they could call it ‘misery for korea, made in japan’.
Kimbob, i always assumed you were a KA male, but you wrote, “If you were born in Korea, like I was, you still can use your old citizen number.”
I noticed mine didnt’ work. So I nefariously use my sister’s. I assumed that ROK government probably scratched out my numbers when I got my US citizenship to prevent any future misshaps by drafting my pudgy buns should I take a vacation there. It’s kinda neato. PDbox is better than emule for me. hu hu hu… That is to legally download non-copyrighted works, of course! A lot of people say that there are places you can download a hack software that generates Korean SS#s. But never worked for me. I tried this, of course, purely as an educational activity, not for any illicit purposes.
Kimbob:
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Ah-hah, this is probably the problem. I have a built-in distrust of websites that require Active-X, and it’s probably disabled, though I’ll have to double-check on that.
5) No problem
6) ADSL
7) If worst comes to worst, I’ll consider that, though if it works in XP, it should work in 2000.
Thanks.
Curious,
Upgrade to XP. You can even run several operating systems in XP. Ergo, you will retain your ability to run windows98 and 2000.
Upgrade to XP first. Then, try KBS site. “Kayomudae”comes in pretty good as well, that is good if you are my generation.
You’ve got to trust an advice from Bill Gates.
XP also has restore points where you can restore the operating system to a prior state. This is useful if the operating system gets corrupted for some reason, and you want to restore the operating system to a prior state before any changes were made to it. Windows 2000 doesn’t have this feature.
I’ve had couple of incidences where the XP restore came in handy for me, which saved me from formatting and reinstalling everything over again.
Baduk and Kimbob, thanks for the tips. From Windows 2000, though, you can also run multiple operating systems. XP is a revised version of 2000, which was a revised version of NT, which is a completely different platform from Windows 95/98.
By the way, Baduk, I like ????? ??? (Kayo Mudae) too, and I’m at least a generation younger than you…but I guess I’m not typical for my generation (mid 30s), much less a non-Korean (!), to like that kind of music! One of my favourite songs is one I first heard on ????? ???, ??? ??????? ?????? (Pi Naerinn Komoryng). I also enjoy the ?????/?????? music they sometimes do on ????? ?????? (Open Concert).
Sorry, that should be ???? ???????.
Curious,
You amaze me. A foreigner liking ????/??????. A Korean adjussi will be shocked. He may even throw up his Ramen.
You are just an incredible Renessance man.
Re: Post #6. Actually, KBS has been the top channel for dramas (ratings-wise) for a year or so now. It’s been a surprising comeback for the station.
Regarding Microsoft-driven sites, I wish Bill Gates were Japanese so anything Microsoft might not so popular in Korea. Their version of javascript is a menace.
“A Korean adjussi will be shocked. He may even throw up his Ramen.”
“Regarding Microsoft-driven sites, I wish Bill Gates were Japanese so anything Microsoft might not so popular in Korea.”
Nulji: perhaps the japanese should make their own series about the imjin wars. they could call it ???misery for korea, made in japan??.
Actually, I’m curious whether they already have. I mean, you’d think they’d have done a drama or movie on the subject. I know NHK was running a drama on Toyotomi Hideyoshi a couple of years back, but I didn’t watch it (and wouldn’t have been able to understand even if I did), so I have no idea how much it went into the Imjin War.
Kimbob: Perhaps someone will create an on-line game based on Imjin Waeran and then Korean, Japanese, and Chinese can battle it out on on-line.
Well, Joyon already has. Don’t think a lot of folk outside Korea play it, though. Actually, I liked Joyon’s ???????? RTS series — pretty good games for their time.
Of course, those looking to thwart the evil Wae enemy from the safety of their home PCs are highly encouraged to pick up Empires: Dawn of the Modern World. The Yi Sun-shin campaign is really, REALLY well done, and the game is just a joy to look at.
I wish Bill Gates were Japanese so anything Microsoft might not so popular in Korea.
I wonder why, in a country so prone to crazed nationalistic outbursts and boasts about its IT prowess, why there has never been any collective soul searching on the country’s total surrender to the directives of an American software company, and a widely unpopular American software company at that. I have been unable at times to open even the sites of government ministries in Firefox or Safari on either platform.
If you are Bill Gates, you need your own separate thread. A thought about the occasional single-mindedness of Koreans: critical thought is still young in Korea. The Japanese reporter’s comment regarding the drama also show that critical thought is still young in Korea. Well, one-third of Americans still believe Sadam Hussein had active ties to Al Queda. So critical thinking is in short supply everywhere.
But you can see the evidence of it growing particularly in Korea. Recent dramas and many of the recent theatrical releases demonstrate a lot of sophisticated emotion and psychology, as well as technical mastery. The result may be due to the mass infusion of cash by the Korean Ministry of Culture (or something by the similar name). The other reason is that with increased experience, one’s (and the local industry’s) skills also increase.
I haven’t watched Yi Sun Shin yet but my eight year old son who has watched it at his friend’s house loves it. I may still not watch it as I am not into Korean dramas (too long, too simplistic narrative). I haven’t been absorbed in a Korean drama since MoRaeShige (Hour Glass?) over ten years ago. For now, I’ll stick with the occasional blockbuster coming out of Korea.
I want to thank marmot for this post on the ears and noses. I learn something new every day. For the Japan bashers out there, if you follow the link to ospreysamuarai.com you read Stephen Turnbull point out that they resorted to ears and noses because it was so burndensome to be sending back heads, which was a custom in Japan during the warring dymio period. He also points out that the Venetians also paid by the head. Kristoff in the above article (thanks wangkon936) reports that upwards of a million Koreans may have been killed. So are there about two million ears and a million Korean noses in Japan. It is reported elsewhere that about 38,000 noses and ears are buried at Mimizuka. Where are the rest?
Lastly, the ears and noses reminded me of scalping. I always thought “American Indian” scalping was a gruesome practice. Apparently, scalping originated in England and the custom was extended in the colonies. The colonial governments paid European frontiersmen bounty for each Indian scalp brought in. Just as with ears and noses, the frontiersmen did not discriminate between warrior scalps, women scalps, or children’s scalps. The colonia government couldn’t tell the difference or didn’t care. The Indians in turn resorted to scalping to show that they could be just as brutal as the Europeans. We’ve been taught all along that this was an Indian practice. What about the distorted history textbooks in the US?
Marmot himself wrote:Actually, I??m curious whether they already have. I mean, you??d think they??d have done a drama or movie on the subject. I know NHK was running a drama on Toyotomi Hideyoshi a couple of years back, but I didn??t watch it (and wouldn??t have been able to understand even if I did), so I have no idea how much it went into the Imjin War.There was a film called Owl’s Castle (link also here) that dealt with Ninjas trying to assassinate Hideyoshi (played by Mako). I honestly don’t remember very well, but I think part of the movie took place in Korea. I’m not sure, but I think I also saw this on Korean cable. Maybe I was drunk.
JYC (#24), there have been occasional outcries against Microsoft, especially when there were things specifically targeting Korean products. While the company that made HWP, for example, was decimated by the fact that so few users actually paid for the program, lots of people complained that MS, if it went ahead with its plans to buy out HangulComputer (HWP’s maker), would destroy the nature of the program and its incredible depth when it came to rendering Korean as a word processor. The deal went south based on that. MS turned around and started giving away its MS Office for someting like 20,000 won, an absolute steal by global MS pricing standards, in what some saw as an attempt to wash away HWP usage in a flood of MS Word usage.
I may be getting some of the details wrong, but my points is that the love of MS is not complete and unquestioned.
If Apple had paid more attention to its Korea market sooner (instead of handing responsibilities over to the godawful Elex Computer) then it might have been able to garner a higher share, like it has (had?) in Japan.
If Apple had paid more attention to its Korea market sooner (instead of handing responsibilities over to the godawful Elex Computer) then it might have been able to garner a higher share, like it has (had?) in Japan.
I don’t have any inside information about Apple and Elex, but as a lawyer I do note that long-term master distributorship agreements (like 5-10-20 years) are not uncommon. If Apple signed a deal with Elex that could only be terminated for default by Elex, the simple fact that Elex was incompetent and greedy would not have been enough for Apple to get rid of them.
I believe that MS Korea has refused to license .hwp to Apple, which has not helped Apple at all.
I’m not sure about that, haisan (#29). MS ended not buying out HWP.
But with Apple’s OS market share in the low single digits, and with serious printers who would use Macintoshes using word processors other than HWP, HangulComputer has not felt the need to update its latest version of HWP for Apple, which is the ‘97 or ‘96 version (which works on OS9). This is why we ended up buying at least one Korean-language Windows system for the office, even though virtually all of us have and prefer Macs.
However, according to my sources at Apple Korea, there is supposed to be a version sometime this year that will work on Macintosh OSX.
I heard that a HWP patch (fix, whatever) was on its way, too… but I don’t know what happened to it.
You could use HWP with OS9? I don’t recall that at all. I know Apple Korea wanted to make its current stuff HWP-compatible, but were not able to. Apple may be miniscule in Korea, but virtually all the newspapers and magazines use it in their design departments. Not being able to access HWP files can be a major pain in the butt sometimes (especially when you are on deadline).
I tried a version of HWP with System 8 (!) which was an extremely terrible port of a Windows program which was pretty mediocre to begin with. HWP had and still has terrible font rendering on any platform.
Anyway, the major issue for me right now though is non compliance by Korean web sites with basic standards, and way too much flash and Internet Explorer exclusive add ons (and no alternative page display). The flash often crashes my crappy aging PC. One would think that Korean nationalism might incline them more towards public domain standards rather than exclusive reliance on an American software company that is not much loved even in its homeland.
JYC - Bugs me, too. I do believe that the Ministry of Information and Communications has figured out that this is a problem and is trying to get businesses to move toward open standards, but it is slow going. I wish Korean nationalism extended to hating MS domination. You’d think this Koreans’ love of cute mascots that the Linux penguin would get some love.
To be fair, this is not just a Korean problem. For much of the world, standards = MS standards. Very annoying, and it almost makes me glad my girlfriend has a crappy PC, just so I can check out the many sites my poor Mac cannot handle.
Also agreed on the overly busy Korean Web sites. I often have 4-5 tabs open at a time, and if they are American news sites, generally my CPU monitor stays in the 20-40% range, depending on the ads on those sites. But very often all it takes is one Korean site to push my CPU up to 80-100%.
CharlesPark. Your source for scalping in England is mistaken. Amerindians were wearing scalp locks when they first met the French, English, and Dutch. Reminds me of other revisionist theories about such practices as native American ritual cannibalism and human sacrifice, which have since been disprove. Or my favorite, that cannibalism was unknown in the Congo until Christian missionaries started preaching the gospel. Interestingly enough, Turnbull references the Korean taking of heads to show the King that his subordinates had waged a successful campaign. Except in this latter case, the heads were taken by Admiral Yi’s rival, and cut from the heads of Japanese that Yi’s troops had killed, to be sent back to Seoul as proof of the rival’s “victories”. Yi comes off quite well in Turnbull’s book “Samurai Invasion”. The pity is that so few English literate Koreans will read it. Many assume that it is “pro-Japanese” by the inclusion of the term “Samurai” in the title.
Thanks Lirelou. Just goes to show that you can’t trust everything on the internet. I’ve now found more academic sources saying that there is evidence for American scalping going back 2500 to 500 b.c. from the skulls of that period.
As for head cutting, that seems to be a common practice throughout the world. Turnbull does mention that the Japanese resorted to cutting noses and ears
Chopping off noses and ears, not necessarily for any special hatred of the Koreans but because with about a million casulaties (Kristoff above and with Yi Sun Shin running their transport convoys under water?) there were great logistical problems.
But, considering the scale of the wanton destruction, warfare practiced by the Sarmurais against the Koreans appear to be genocidal considering that in many cases (I think Turnbull also points this out), daimyos incorporated the peasants and other less minions of their defeated competitors. Then of course, there were great language and cultural barriers at work. And after a while, with supplies running low and Korean guerilla attacks, it must have been like Vietnam for the invaders.
I actually do have a problem when Turnbull says, “The behaviour of Japanese forces abroad during the 20th century is then seen as an aberration of the samurai tradition, and not in any way as its consequence.”
Rather, I see Japanese militarism of the 20th century in part as a product of a deeply ingrained war culture developed during the Warring States (or Warring Daimyo) period and idealized during the Tokugawa period. For example, in incorporating the Confucisn class structure, Japan is unique in giving a special place for the samuarai/warrior.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Konishi Yukinaga are rendered cartoon-style
that the period is the late Sengoku Period, in back of Hideyoshi’s throne is a ukiyo-e (a genre of the later Edo Period) by Katsushika Hokusai
dispatched to Korea by Hideyoshi were from Nagoya in Saga Prefecture, another Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture, keeps being shown
Korean government will demand Japan to rewrite history textbooks in Korean way such as “Ukiyo-e was Sengoku period!!”
Haisan,
! Didn’t realize that KBS was actually getting entertaining again. My sources tell me that KBSII, before it was called KBSII and was a private television network, used to be good. But the era of “Marine Boy” and “Future boy Conan” is before my time. BTW, are you the same Haisan at Koreanfilm.org?