SEA OR TEA?

The thing about addiction is, I guess, there's a point where you find you just want more, want it again, can't get enough.

So last night, when my latest swordplay acquisition arrived in the mail, it didn't take me long to get hooked. The Korean TV drama from 2004 , Emperor of the Sea, also stars the highly addictive Song Il-Guk, this time in a role that promises to be less benevolent and magnanimous than his performance as Jumong. But already, the first three episodes, where he has

yet to appear, have set up the background, two young kids, ( SIG as an already accomplished pirate, and his protege and rival, a gladiator-to-be), and the inevitable tragic love triangle (two sides of which shown here.) It's Pirates of the Yellow Sea, with a Korean playing Johnny Depp, without the childish Disney-esque wit. It's bloody serious, and based on some real history.

In the tortured English of the DVD description,"Drama 'Emperor of the Sea' will show historical figure Jang Bo-go's growth, the emerging as Emperor of the Sea and love, and add artificial figures madam Jami and Jeong-hwa to add more spices." The historical Jang Bo-go is not Song Il-Guk's role: the former Jumong is an "artificial figure" and pretty spicy really.

Also in the mail was something from my Amazon wish list, Condor Hero, based on a Louis Cha novel. Hard to choose. I have a sort of warm feeling about Louis Cha, pen-named Jin Yong, a highly popular wuxia novelist from Hong Kong, shown at left, drinking Longjin (Dragon Well) tea in Hangzhou. When I saw this photo at the tea plantation we visited in May (where other notables were also memorialized sampling the famous cha, including Zhou Enlai and Li Peng, I think) I felt a connection while developing a bit of an addiction to the qing ming-picked green tea. I really want to make a joke about doing the "cha cha." But it's not coming to me.

Probably some pesky Freudian among my readers will wonder, "What's with this old woman and her preoccupation with Asian swordplay?" (Let's not go there.) In any case, Emperor of the Sea opens with a flashback, not on the sea, but in the desert, in scenes reminiscent of Tsui Hark's Seven Swords TV Drama (also based on a wuxia novel, not written by Mr. Cha). Song Il-Guk is the most attractive man to sit on a horse in the middle of the desert, even in Emperor of the Sea, since Richard Boone as Paladin (not quite have sword will travel). And SIG gives serious competition to my other obsession, Vincent Zhao, who also looks damn good on horseback, although his specialty is serious kicking martial arts, not really archery and swordplay; not sure this clip shows him on a horse, but it is romantic.

Some time-manager among my readers will also wonder, "Where does she find the hours to watch these long extravagant soap operas?" In my defense, I would point out that I never watch real commercial television; this is intimate engagement with DVDs on my laptop, fortune cookie-style, in bed. And I do read, quite a lot really (you can review my reading list on the Yang Side), usually in the morning, unless I'm writing. This video entertainment is a night-time (down, silly Freudian) thing and serves to populate my dreams with things far more interesting than the spreadsheets and proposals which occupy me during my day job. Who wants to dream in Excel anyway?