There hasn’t been a sageuk on my radar in awhile, and I’m not really counting upcoming Arthdal Chronicles since it’s mining pre-written history and has fantasy elements. I’m jonesing for a classic Joseon-era sageuk with romance and the requisite amounts of period conflict. I’m warming up to summer MBC sageuk Rookie Historial Goo Hae Ryung for that reason, a craving for the sageuk fix and also liking how leads Shin Se Kyung and Cha Eun Woo are literally pretty as a picture in the first stills from the drama. There’s also the feminist empowerment angle where she’s a super nerd who wants to become the first woman to be an official historian and write down what happened, because goodness that would certainly lend a different angle to what we know of history if that job in any civilization had both men and women doing it lol.
I feel like a lot of females in saguek, unless the plot is truly led by the lead actress’ character, will always fall by the wayside despite their strengths and qualities. Because male lead (even when it’s not in the initial plot summary or teaser) always end up having a backstory and mission to accomplish that takes up most of the screentime and has the female just move in as a sidekick in the pursuit of his goals. Anyway, pretty stills and pretty actors with lots of hype is never enough to make me tune in. It’ll probably be hyped to the heavens anyway just based on the visuals.
That is not true because personally when writers bother to write their female characters properly they outshine even in male heavy dramas. The problem is that most kdrama writers never risk giving their female characters more meat than their male characters. This drama is definitely not hyped but I welcome this promising new feminist premise which itself is a rarity in kdrama. I’m glad it went to an experienced actress who excels in sageuk.
By your admission, it is true the falling by the wayside and its because of writing, directing, and editing, even if the actress is great they aren’t given much to do. Ha Ji Won consistently led some great sageuks before they dropped the ball, so I hope it trends back.
The majority of drama writers are women so it’s just kind of an interesting thing isn’t it? There are dramas that are female centric but they don’t always get a lot of international buzz. Children of Nobody was outstanding and it had a devoted following but not necessarily huge. There are others like this as well.
@Kat Isn’t it depressing that female writers don’t give us good female characters? The irony is that this drama is about a woman fighting for her right to record history. I don’t know if this writer is male or female but I’m rooting for this drama to do well and give us an amazing female character instead of focusing the majority of the story on the many male characters. On the other hand they’ve already nailed the visuals for this drama.
I think writers are starting to write stronger female characters, not always in terms of martial prowess and career, but I feel like most heroines are lately much more emotionally mature and assertive and capable in managing their lives.
Yes, there are still female writers who don’t believe that female characters who could be in “traditional male-dominated” plots (*cough* script writer of Memories of Alhambra), but I’ve seen more females in thrillers and crime procedurals, and they are actors in their own right, if not at par with their male counterparts.
The problem with sageuks is that writers think that heroines always have to be untimely to their era and even so, it always have to be about their tomboyish conduct and aspirations. Having aspirations is not bad, but the writers seem to be more “tell, not show” so female characterizations fail in a way we don’t get to witness their strengths and qualities. And strong female characters do not always mean women with education or martial prowess, they could be those who are strong emotionally and improve.
Furthermore, I think Shin Sekyung is much better in choosing sageuk roles than her modern ones because her characters in the former are much more well-written and she shines in them.
I’m going to be watching this for SSK because she always shines in historical dramas. I don’t know what problem people have with her acting because I think she actually challenges herself as an actress by trying out various different roles and characters. The problem is weak writing dominates in dramas these days but actresses always end up taking the blame more than actors when the writing is poor.
The visuals are the best!❤️
SSK is made for historical dramas. Her visuals are Daebak!!!!
I hope the story of this drama is as good as the visuals, so good luck!!
those are very pretty hanbok!