02 March 2010

Painter of the Wind

I need to admit, this is my third saeguk (historical) drama of Korea I watched this year after Book of Three Han and Queen Seon Duk. Spare Legend of Four Gods, Iljimae and Hong Gil Dong aside, I watched them years ago. Thank God, this time it is only 20 episodes.

I'm sorry I wrote this first before Queen Seon Duk (QSD). I knew people out there keep spamming my shoutbox for QSD review. But I left Deokman a long time ago which I can barely remember the story. Saeguk drama can be too long. QSD itself has 62 episodes. Book of Three Han has 81 episodes. Each episode is 1 hour long. (Calculate how much hours I spent for watching dramas instead of studying Pathology, XD). It's interesting to follow through every episodes, but sometimes you'll just forget all the past events after a while.


Just finished Painter of the Wind last week, I know it's kind of late because it's 2008 drama but no one I knew is downloading PotW so I had to download it myself with my crappy internet connection. Eh wait, suddenly last 2 weeks the internet went crazy and the download was quite decent. Triple my usual download rate, it's a happy news when our house still doesnt pay the internet since December last year. I wonder when the ISP will stop our account, XD.

It's weird to write in English. I got 5D in GCE 'O' so I thought writing in English will make Teacher Salmi happy. I miss her a lot. Or maybe a re-read after writing will spot a lot of grammar mistakes and somehow I feel good to re-edit this entry. You can't edit your SPM papers after you submit them, that's why someone got 5D in GCE 'O' on 2005's SPM T___T.

Okay, enough rambling.

This drama is about painters named Shin Yun-bok (Hyewon) and his mentor, Kim Hong-do (Danwon). The story is about their paintings; where, when, why and how they got the idea to draw. It's like watching a documentary in a story. Except that it's a fiction. If you ever read HM Tuah Iskandar's novel, that's the feeling I got. Not like "Original", but as in "Hearts to Whom" (Hatimu untuk Siapa), "Freezing Rainbow" (Pelangi Membeku), "I'm in Your Heart" (Aku di Hatimu) etc. That story-facts-story-facts-story feeling. I didnt recommend this drama if you're not very fond with paintings XD. It'll just makes you feel bored.

One reason that makes saeguk interesting is that you'll always found about it in Wiki, XD. Maybe there'll be some alteration to the drama version compared to real version but I wonder why I didnt use Wiki when I watched "1957: Malaya's Heart" (1957: Hati Malaya). Ever thought about it? XD. History never change. It's just how you wrote an adaptation that matters.

That's why when Hyewon is potrayed as woman in this drama, there're some different opinions about it. Although the real life Hyewon is man, but comments from Art researcher said that his painting of woman was really detailed as if Hyewon is really a woman. It's actually interesting how drama influence people and stimulate discussions. It's the same with Queen Seon Duk. The discussion was heated with whether Mishil is really exist or not because she was never mentioned in Samguk Yusa and Samguk Sagi (Samguk Yusa/Sagi is Korean version of "Malay Annals" (Sejarah Melayu) compiled by Tun Sri Lanang). Most interesting part is the forum was filled with facts and references to support their opinion. Do that in Malaysia's forum and it'll fill up with rubbish spam and Yahoo Messenger-styled replies, XD.

Back to Painter of the Wind.

The timeline is Joseon period. At first I thought it is before Goguryeo was established, but actually it's after the Three Kingdom period. Now that was a study. See how I studied the history by myself? I'll not doing it for Mat Salleh, I swear, XD.

I had three reasons to watch this drama till the end.

ONE: Paintings.

It's interesting to see how some paintings from the past is mixed up together to make a story. I mean; how in the hell did they come up with the idea to write Danwon's "Bbalrae-teo" is actually painted from the same place as Hyewon's "Gyebeon-gahwa" with just a slightly different perspective. It's creative, and creativity attracts me.

We might be used to anime-styled drawing that we thought their paintings was some kind of "ugly". There was a person who asked me, "Who drew that? Kid?" Believe me, Danwon and Hyewon was described as renowned figure in painting during Joseon period. Dont underestimate their painting. Sometimes the value is not on how cute your character is, but the story it represents. If not, how in the world Shin-chan becomes popular?

As the saying says, a picture can describe a thousands words. You can learn how to draw anime-styled with round eyes and slender figure with Goku's hair but honestly I admired those who can describe the whole scene in just one pictures. A picture that tells a story. Moreover, it's historical artifacts as their paintings depicts some facts about Joseon period lifestyle including activities, jobs, cloth, etc.

TWO: Love.

Korean drama will never lose this point.

The only difference is Painter of the Wind has some weird love story. You'll think that their love was some sort of homosexual. I'll explain below.

Hyewon is a woman. She disguised as man. (I'll refer to Hyewon as man after this line). Hyewon likes a woman named Jeong Hyang. That woman likes him back thinking he's a man. So she's normal. But Hyewon? XD. His mentor, Danwon is a man. I dont know if he likes Hyewon from the start but he doesnt know Hyewon is a girl. It's like sort of Hana-kimi feeling. Homo? XD. In the end, both knew Hyewon is a girl. So, normal relationships began.

Actually it's really unique. It made me realize love doesnt have limits. If your friend asks you, just tell him you love him. What's wrong with love? Love is just a word. Saying says, man put their friends above their woman. Easy to say, that means man loves man than woman, doesnt it? XD.

But a warning, please dont be a homo. Girls nowadays need to compete with gays. It's 500 woman compete for 1 man. If you also become a gay, they'll lose one chance to be with man. Pity them. I'm relieved I am a man. At least I dont have to compete with others, XD. Let's just enjoy life for the meantime.

And just for your information, Hyewon-Jeonghyang couple won an award as the best couple. Cool huh? WOman-woman couple. XD

Lastly, first line on this subtopic was wrong. I think Spotlight does, it doesnt have any love story at all. That's why the rating is so bad, XD.

THREE: Soundtracks.

Being a video geek, I love soundtracks. Creating a video needs soundtracks. Although I'm actually really sucks at choosing the right one for my video. Okay. I admit that.

Everyone loves music, but I'm more into soundtrack. In a video, soundtracks main role is to give the scene a feeling. Fear, happiness, suspense, sad. In home-made video, we're interrupted with surrounding's sound in noise pattern, but watch a movie in theater. The only sound you'll heard is the dialogue, sound effects, important surrounding sounds (rain, cars) and soundtracks. This somehow made me love soundtracks more than other genre. My computer only has soundtracks, of course with exception of Girl's Generation, XD.

Listening to soundtracks, be it with or without vocals, made me visualizes the scene in my head. I still can see how Mishil plays that glass-filled-with-water instrument everytime I listen to "Crystal Glasses". I can feel the feeling of Danwon towards Hyewon everytime "Song of the Wind - Jo Sung Mo" plays. It has disadvantages though. Whenever "Into the New World - Girls Generation" plays, their on-stage performance visualized in my head. Maybe I can make some videos with drugs footage and put a song as the background. In the exam, just sing the song and all the drugs will come up into my mind. Need to try it after this. XD


Suddenly I learned about Korean history more than my country's, XD. It's a bad habit actually. Please rise up your nationalism level! I still got Chuno and Jejungwon. Jejungwon is not a saeguk one, but it's still a historical one.

Malaysia, please make a pendekar drama. I miss "Strong Heart" (Hati Waja). I think why old history doesnt written as detailed as possible is to let people being creative to write their own version. If Ramlee Awang Murshid succeed with his Laksamana Sunan story intermingled with Hang Tuah timeline, why not other people?

Last minute addition: For young creative writers out there, check out this blog (Alaf15).

p/s: Why did I feel this entry was full of "XD"? XD


__^*Song of the Wind - Jo Sung Mo*^__



Download:
MP3 | MediaFire



File Info:
General
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 27.9 MiB
Duration : 4mn 11s
Overall bit rate : 930 Kbps
Director : Muhammad Hafiz Adam
Encoded by : Muhammad Hafiz Adam
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release
Copyright : Creative Designer
Comment : http://akudarahanakmalaysia.blogspot.com

Video
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 4mn 11s
Bit rate : 790 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.086
Stream size : 23.7 MiB (85%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 4mn 11s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 3.83 MiB (14%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 33 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms


14 penghinaan diterima:

anor said...

OMG!! You are so much into this, aren't you? XD

Your review really reveals another side of you.. i must say that i'm impressed.. i always believe that Korean drama is richer in emotional contents, but i've never seen any Korean historicals (unless if you count 'Goong/ princess hours' in.. :P).. maybe i'll start with this PotW sometime soon.. we'll see.. we'll see..

HafizAdam on March 3, 2010 at 2:08 PM said...

I suggests you start with Iljimae or Hong Gil Dong. I preferred Iljimae because the ending's not as bad as Hong Gil Dong and Lee Jun-ki was so handsome as me. Woman will like him =P

Saeguk drama always has bad ending. Take Legend of Four Gods for example. The ending was so abrupt. But considering Bae Young-jun condition (he was injured badly), I think it's a relief that LoFG managed to have an ending.

People said PotW is a little bit boring because the story focused more on paintings. Every episode introduce some of the Hyewon paintings, and so on until all 20 episodes finished. By the end of the drama, you can proudly announce to the world you have mastered Hyewon's painting. XD

The weird thing is I didnt feel bored at all. Maybe it's because I'm crazy about Arts. Human's taste.

I dont think Goong is considered historicals because it's a fiction "if Royal family still exist in Korea". But it's a nice one to know about Korean Royal tradition and how they address others.

p/s: I love how they pronounce -Mama. XD

anor said...

Ok then, i'll take your advice and start with Iljimae (eventhough LoFG is more appealing - bae yong jun is definitely more handsome than lee jun ki.. haha).. i guess i would have to continue with my 'abandoned project' of korean downloading.. get tired already with english historicals hours and hours of non-stop downloading.. :P

Now, where do i get to download this saeguk drama from? I don't suppose you have any link in your download list, do you? Any suggestion? XD

HafizAdam on March 4, 2010 at 4:16 PM said...

torrent? XD

I planned to direct people to download sites in my Completed Download post but never have time for editing. maybe some time later in Summer holiday. =P

anor said...

summer holiday indeed.. huhu..

i hv started downloadin iljimae ep. 1 and only realised later that it was without subs.. owhh! felt like the sky ws collapsin on me.. XD

HafizAdam on March 5, 2010 at 8:01 AM said...

softsubs was provided here in D-Addicts
and make sure you didnt get confused with Return of Iljimae. XD

anor said...

yeay! awesome! much much THANKS! i'm done with the subs download, now getting very very BUSY with downloading 20 episodes x 8 parts, each part takes approx 1 hour to download.. i must be very very CRAZY.. :P

p/s yeah i figured out return of iljimae is different.. :)

HafizAdam on March 5, 2010 at 3:17 PM said...

heh, Korea and CHina have too much Legend they can produce 4 remake of the same title. I wonder if Hang Tuah can be made like that XD

fortune-ate said...

amazing..

i've already watch this drama end of last yr,but your entry refresh me the memory watching it with full of emotion especially sadness,and anxious .

the OST sang by J0 sun9 m0 seems like a haunted song.

anyway thanks for the karaoke-alike vid you uploaded in youtube.

i had downloaded it via realplayer SP.

anor said...

well, i'm half way downloading iljimae (not even close to half, in truth - now just at ep.5 XD..) but i'm already eager to download this PotW.. owh but there are HGD n LoFG too.. as well as BoTH n QSD.. i wonder how good can these drama be.. hmm greed.. greed.. curiosity surely can kill the cat.. :P

so far iljimae has been captivating.. the storyline is what i would look for in a drama, mybe aftr wtchng the full episodes, i'll want to write my own account of the whole story ;).. btw, eun chae is so beautiful n i guess, that cute little eun chae also appears in PotW, i cldnt help but notice from the OST vid..

shairah aka itu_aku on March 9, 2010 at 6:50 AM said...

request from me dinmat: how bout review on chuno? havent watch it yet, but the hype of chuno is all over the place. owh btw, all hail Mishil! haha it's weird that i like Mishil more than Queen Seon Deok haha

HafizAdam on March 9, 2010 at 7:19 AM said...

Chuno?
my friend currently downloading the episodes.

yeah, I like Mishil more than Deokman =P
and the fact that the ratings dropped from 40% to 30% after Mishil's dead really made her the heroin. XD

shairah aka itu_aku on March 9, 2010 at 10:11 PM said...

QSD fun facts:
1) it made the audiences loved the villains more than the heroes (i.e. Mishil and Bidam)
2) It made us despised the person whom we suppose to admire (i.e. Kim ChunChu. damn i hate him to bits =P)
3) It made us think "it's ok to kill hundred of people, he's not to blame coz he's a poor soul who needs love n attention." (i.e. Bidam) =P

Anonymous said...

haha..me too..i love saeguk and it is because of QSD...now i'm looking forward to watch this painter of the wind waaaaaaa!!!...i really need this but i don't know where i can watch this now because it seems videos in youtube were deleted

..can you give me a link to watch/download its complete episodes..
jindeok18@yahoo.com<--this is my e-add..thanks

 

License

This blog by Muhammad Hafiz Adam is official website of Creative Designer and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Malaysia License.

You're free to Share (copying, distributing and transmitting) and to Remix (adapting the work) under the following conditions:
a) Attribution;
You must attribute the work by linking back to this blog pr anything similar (but not in any way that suggests that I endorse you or your use of the work).
b) Noncommercial;
You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

Categories

~AkuDarahAnakMalaysia~ Copyright © 2009 Community is Designed by Bie Blogger Template