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*^__



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Comment : http://akudarahanakmalaysia.blogspot.com

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