Tuesday, September 28, 2010

ASTRAY WITHOUT TRANSLATION
Finished the second half of The Divine Hero, with Korean audio and Chinese subtitles, neither of which I have any fluency -- and here I stumble in my own language--the conservative English speaker in me doesn't quite know how to say that:

"in which neither of which I have fluency"...? Neither of which I understand much of? Editorial nightmare. Suffice it to say I can't understand spoken Korean and can't read Chinese characters. English is challenging enough.

But back to Korean drama. Was mesmerized through episodes 13-24, I was even dreaming in Korean, or dreaming I could comprehend Korean. Though there are a couple of loose ends in the plot, that's probably because I don't have the script. There was some strange business dealing going on, with short-selling and investments and partners that helped to bring down the financial empires of the bad guys. It was pretty easy to figure out what was going on; it's mostly action and character anyway. Or mostly this extremely beautiful man behaving decisively and honorably--his mantra, "I never hurt innocent people," a counterpoint to House, M.D.'s "Everybody lies." And his poignant emotionalism: the scenes where his sister (whom he thought had been killed with his parents) and his gorgeous doppelganger assistant die in his arms are just heartrending. There's something about a serious icy cool martial/action hero who can cry real tears--copious spontaneous tears, sometimes with running noses, seem to be a requirement for all these Korean actors. Even the bad guys tear up.

In the end, the woman who loves him (but who he used to bring her father down) and the woman he loves escape. And he apparently survives the finale explosion in a car, giving hope that he reunites with one of them (or both, why not) having ruthlessly, successfully avenged his family's death. Have heard nothing about a follow-on series, but I would watch it, even in Korean!



Can you figure out who's the bad guy?

4 comments:

The Crow said...

In neither of which, I have any fluency.

The Crow said...

But back to Korean drama...

I often watch movies with the sound off. It becomes strangely surreal, when all that action has absolutely no context.

And for the Doctor's information:
Not everybody lies.
I don't.
Ever.

So there.

baroness radon said...

Thank you for the editorial assist; it just wasn't coming to me!

And my husband watches movies in planes without the earphones; he says when he has subsequently seen the movie with soundtrack, his surmised plot was better.

May I assume, since you never lie however, you also never hurt innocent people, being more like The Divine Hero than House.

The Crow said...

You may assume that, with this qualification:
I never intentionally hurt innocent people.
Being honest carries with it some major drawbacks. Since almost everybody else lies, I am usually assumed to be lying, although I never am. For instance, I was recently refused entry into the USA, basically for being completely honest.
I answered all their carefully-crafted questions in a way that obviously dumbfounded them, and seemed to send their whole computer system into reset-mode.
I was there for two hours, while they fingerprinted and photographed me, refused to let me use the washroom, and tried to decide whether or not to shoot me.
Fortunately they merely sent me back to Canada.
Lucky me :)