no one expects the chinese illuminati

[kaigou]

I finally tracked down a copy of Legend, aka The Story of the First King's Four Gods, aka The Great King and the Four Guardians. It's got every button I want pushed: major themes, intricate relationships, major politics, a solid dose of the fantastical, a little bit of humor, continuous character development, and life and death on the line. With punk rockers. (No, really. There's fusion and then there's fusion.)

It also has Ming the Merciless!

When trying to find a copy (and subs, don't forget the subs), I came across a mention somewhere that this series was banned in the PRC. Something about it had the PRC completely bonkers-mad. After the first few episodes, my theory's that it's because the PRC's argument for taking over Tibet was on the basis of some vassalage treaty from four hundred years ago (which may be an extreme gloss, as it's been awhile since I've reviewed the details). To have Korea come out with a series that reminds all viewers that once upon a time (and we're talking like 400 CE, here, so think King Arthur and you're in the same kind of legendary status), Korea controlled not just its current peninsula (of North and South), but a massive stretch of territory reaching into Mongolia and Manchuria, and I think a chunk of what's currently the northern parts of China. In other words: China's basis per Tibet could easily be Korea's basis per China.

Or maybe it's just the annoying and stereotypical assumption that China = Ming the Merciless.

No, really. Here I thought the Hollywood Fu Manchu/M. Merciless farce was, well, just Hollywood. But I swear, the guy playing Fu Manchu the Hwachun Big Bad was lifted straight out of Saturday afternoon re-runs of 30's era Flash Gordon serials. The collar! The long coats with trains! The excessive and unrelenting use of red! The long mustache and the pointy goatee! The forked eyebrows! The hair pulled back in a long braid! (And in case you miss the 'long braid' distinction -- compared to the Korean characters who wear their hair half-down, half-pulled into a top knot, the braid is always pulled around to the front to rest on the actor's chest just so you know: look! braid! chinese! bad guy!) The hands always held like claws! (No, really: the actor never holds his hands in any other position.) The slow, deliberate moves that are supposed to look sinister! The constant glaring from under the bushy eyebrows! (After hour four, all I could think was: man, he's got to have the neck-ache from hell.)



Stills don't do the character's... uhm... badness -- and I don't mean 'bad' in the sense of "ooh, that character is a scary Big Bad", I mean in the sense of "omg, the suckage, it burnsssss usssss". It's not just Ming the Merciless. It's Ming the Merciless as portrayed by a wax museum animatronic display with dying batteries. You practically expect to hear the whirring sound as the actor gears up (pun intended) for his next, too-slow, way-too-deliberate move. Whirrrrrr, whirrrrrr, whirrrrr.

If the other characters had any genre-savvy about them, they'd be all: no way are we hanging with this guy! He's totally sinister! Obviously up to no good! This can only end in tears!

(Well, of course, since it is a kdrama. Kdramas can do tears and action, or tears and rhetoric, but it can't do action and rhetoric without the tears. Tears are mandatory.)

But then the plot would probably be pretty short. And very easily solved. Possibly, however, slightly more compelling though, for not having to waste screen time on a Ming the Merciless arthritic redux.

The final capper for me was when Ming the Merciless Fu Manchu Hwachun Big Bad declares that not only is the 'Later Yan' (a Chinese state) under Hwachun rule, but that the Baekje king is on the throne due to Hwachun interference, and various other names and places I didn't catch. It's all due to Hwachun pulling strings for two thousand years and poking fingers into every pie. Hwachun is everywhere, and it is always watching you.

Me: Holy crap! It's the Chinese Illuminati!

Comments

[hollyberries]

I remember that! (Mainly because I watch kdrama with csubs since they're almost instantaneous.) I think the official party line was that Damdeok had a map that showed territory belonging to Goguryeo which the PRC had claimed was part of China at the time, and the expected apeshit hit the fan.

I don't know which version is true, and I don't particularly care, because Bad Dude's guyliner? EPIC.

[aldanise]

You're watching Legend? Cool. And, yes, Hwachun Big Bad made me cringe every time he appeared onscreen. *cringe* Which is unfortunate because I liked every other major Hwachun and Hwachun-connected character, so I was basically trying to watching them through my fingers. :(

And thank you for putting your finger on one of the major things that bugged me. It's like the clever political moves (and there are a lot of them) are played for emotional stakes rather than political consequences, which I totally couldn't put a name to.

[troisroyaumes]

...wow, I completely missed out on the idea that that the Hwacheon-hwe was supposed to stand in for China. OO; I thought they were just supposed to be remnants of the Tiger Clan that survived since Dangun. But that would explain why the actor for Daejangro put on such a strange accent.

The thing about Goguryeo's occupation of Manchuria and Northern China is very much debated. I'm not sure which account is more accurate, since there are nationalist historians on both sides to obscure the issue.