The drum was one of the national treasures along with a flute that blew itself for country named Nakrang (China) in year 32.  Goguryeo wanted to take over the country but it prepared so well because of the drum and flute.

There was a Goguryeo’s prince named Hodong who fell in love with Nakrang princess and they got married in Nakrang.  They had the newlywed’s sweet days for some days and Hodong wanted to go back to his country alone to tell his king to accept her as his wife.  She waited for his courtiers every day and night after he had left.

Finally it came but she found out that her husband wanted to meet her after she destroyed the drum and flute.  She chose his love and destroyed them secretly and sent a confidential letter to him.  Next thing happened was Goguryeo ran across the border line and defeated Nakrang.  Her father found out what had happened and killed his daughter before he surrendered.

Hodong also didn’t last too long after he realized what he did to his love.  He got wrongfully accused by the queen because he wasn’t her son and he was actually better than his son.  He killed himself without trying to clear his charges.  It was only a few months after her death.

I kind of want to share the history background and the famous folktale that everyone knows in Korea before you enjoy this drama.  But in this drama, Jamyunggo is not the drum but a princess, who does fortune telling, to make it more mysterious and attractive.

Jeong Ryeo-won plays Jamyung.  Her somewhat mysterious image matches well with her Jamyung role, I think.  She has got the big position to make this drama successful or not.  I would love to watch how well she handles it.

Another pretty star, Park Min-young takes the Princess Nakrang.  She is the one who destroyed the drum and the flute.  She has to destroy Jamyung in this new setting.  You will watch some good fights between these two pretty women.

Jeong Kyung-ho takes the Prince Hodong.  I am worried about how well he will do his role just because it is his first time to do the historical drama along with Jeong Ryeo-won and Park Min-young.  I think man’s role is usually much more difficult than woman’s role in historical dramas because it requires different tones of voice, attitudes, and war scenes than modern Korean male’s soft tones and attitudes.

It costs almost US $6.6 million to make this drama.  I hope that is well spent and makes a huge success in historical drama genre.

Take a good look at this Jamyunggo special clip- It explains the background of the folktale and the historical settings.

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Baram ui Hwawon is a historical drama that tries to show two of the most famous painters, Kim Hong-do and Shin Yoon-bok, in 1750s, Josun era.  Geun-young took the Shin Yoon-bok’s role although he is not a woman.  She had to disguise as a man and act like one but that is not true as far as real history concerns.  There are many people still think that he might be a woman but it doesn’t look that way, I think.  Just think as the drama producer wanted to make something more interesting than plain historical facts.

Geun-young fell through 3m down the well while shooting the scene.  She wore the wire but it was loosened and fell straight into the well.  It was a really dangerous moment for her but managed it well and got the minor injury on her feet and ankles because she fell on a rock and slipped.  She was moved to a hospital and got X-rayed right after the incident but couldn’t find anything serious on her legs.

Park Shin-yang starred as the Kim Hong-do role and went though a difficult day himself.  He had to piggyback the injured Geun-young and run and fall many times because of the many rocks.  He was lucky to not get hurt but I think it should be a serious matter that all the drama and film makers need to think about actors and actresses safety.  Fans wouldn’t want their stars get hurt especially under the poor quality of working environment such as at the shooting sets or on the road.

Baram ui Hwawon OST Baram ui Norae (Wind Song)????? by Jo Sung Mo (??????)

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As she mentioned she did go though plastic surgery to make herself prettier for her passion in TV screen.  It worked out well for her, not for everyone though, and she started working at TV dramas.

One of the most famous dramas she worked on is, of course, Boys over Flowers, Oh Minji role.  This role let everyone remember her how pretty she looked and how well she acted.  The other one I picked was Baram ui Nara (The Country of Wind).  Her role was the female servant, Yeon-wha, of the Yeojin prince.

It wasn’t very significant role of the drama but there were some people noticed her and tried to find out who she was.  There were almost no information on the web at that time on Oct. 2008.  She continued to work hard and waited for her moment to come, and it finally came this year.  She doesn’t work on the BOF but people still talked about her and she has been casting on the variety show, We are Married, as Jun Jin’s partner.  Now her popularity has gone up the highest point and it looks like it will go on for a while.

This was her first drama on Sky Wave in Korea.  She acted fairly well for the rookie.  She looks really like Son Tae-young.  I wonder why many viewers were seaching for her information.  She was the prince’s servant but also his lover.  Her image was a pure and innocent girl  She cried a lot and had many hidden dating scenes with her prince.

Her love story didn’t go to the happy ending.  He was on a rescue mission to save Yuri but got wounded but died later for that.  It shouldn’t be easy for her to bear.  Her act on the scene gave many viewers also in sorrow.

Look at her face up here.  She didn’t want to live after he left.  Her pure and innocent image changed a sick person who waited her death.

There was another man approached.  She might think she found her salvation with him, Maro.  He was good enough reason for her to start her new life.  It looked getting better for her.

It was a time of war between Buyeo and Goguryeo.  Her Maro had to go fight with Buyeo.  She gave her accessory that was given from him previously and asked him to give her back when he came back.  He never did.  She found out about it and said in front of a river,”You promised me.  You said that you will come back for me.  Couldn’t you just come back for me alive?”  She walked in the river and never walked back.  It was really a sad role and I thought she handled it very well.

Baram ui Nara (The Kingdom of the Winds) OST- Sala seo do Jooguh seo do- by Whi Sung

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Australia / Brunei / Canada / Egypt / India / Indonesia / Iran / Israel / Japan / Jordan / Kenya/Mainland China (plus Hong Kong) / Malaysia / Nigeria / Philippines / Russia / Singapore / Taiwan / Thailand / Turkey / United States

So what made the drama so popular around the world? Of course, the success story of the heroine, Dae Jang Geum who worked hard to turn herself from a low position apprentice in the royal kitchen to a royal physician.

Now naturally a question can be raised as we are watching a historical drama here. How much of this is true or really happened?

First, Dae Jang Geum was a real person that we can find related records in Annals of Joseon Dynasty.

March 21, year 10 of the reign of the king,  Joong Jong (1515)

Dae Jang Geum appears for the first time in the historical record. Jang Geum took care of the second queen of the king, Joong Jong while she was pregnant. The queen bore a prince who will later become King In Jong. For Joong Jong, the birth was a cause for a big celebration as he had the first son. However, the queen died soon not overcoming aftermath of difficult childbirth.

Now, there was a question of responsibility of the medical persons who attended the queen. Saheonbu – Board of Audit – submitted a petition to the king that Jang Geum who was in charge of assisting the birth should be punished.

To this, the kins sent a reply like this. “Jang Geum, the female physician, did a sucessful job of attending the birth. She deserves a big prize. However, she did not receive any reward because of the queen’s death. Now the least we can do is to relieve her from punishment though we did not reward her. Punishment demanded by Saheonbu cannot be allowed. This is my decision based on balanced consideration of her contribution and mistake.”

Later, Saheonbu again request to the king to allow punishment on Dae Jang Geum but the king did not change his mind.

This record shows us a number of facts.

First, she was a physician from the beginning. She was not a court maid and never sent to Jeju Island in exile as in the drama. Dae Jang Geum served as a physician in the days of the queen Jang Gyung which was before the queen Moon Jeong who appears in the drama.

Second, the incident that Dae Jang Geum originally had a last name Seo but received new last name Dae – meaning “great” due to her contribtuion is a fiction. Her last name was always Dae.

September 5, year 17 of the reign of Joong Jong (1522)

Dae Jang Geum shows up again 10 years later in the Annals. On that day, Ja Soon Daebi, King Joong Jong’s mother, recovered from long illness and rewarded those who took care of her. Dae Jang Geum was one of the people who received the reward.

Year 39 of the reign of Joong Jong (1544)

Around this time, Dae Jang Geum appears several times in history .

Dae Jang Geum already earned a special trust from Joong Jong by taking good care of the king. The old and weak king needed her service more than before.

Then, two male physicians and two female physicians including Dae Jang Geum were taking care of the King.

In January, Joong Jong stayed long in bed for a terrible cold. In February, he fully recovered and rewarded physicians.

In October, Joon Jong’s condition got worse and even became critical. The king could not even defecate properly, and ministers were curious to know how bad he really was.

The person that explained the king’s condition to ministers were none other than Dae Jang Geum herself.

The next day, Joong Jong get a little better, ministers visited the king. when they asked him how he was, the king said, “the female physician knows what my condition is”.

The female physician that Joong Jong mentioned was Dae Jang Geum. This shows that Dae Jang Geum was the pyhsicain in charge for the King at that time. This also lends credibility to the drama’s argument that Dae Jang Geum was the first femaly royal physician.

It is unclear what disease Joong Jong was suffering from. But given that he had difficult in defecating, it may have been rectum cancer.

Dae Jang Geum lessened the sever pain of the King and succeeded in helping him gain some strength. However, the king’s condition was already at the fatal stage. Therefore, Dae Jang Geum’s job was not curing the disease but lessening the pain.

On 14 November, the king gave the throne to In Jong and died the next day. Dae Jang Geum did her best to take care of the king until he passed away.

After this, we find no more record about Dae Jang Geum in the Annals. So, we do not know what happened to her. We can only guess that it must have been difficult for her to stay in the palace as the king under her care died.

Apart from the above, all the other story in the drama is fiction. But this does not make the drama less meaningful or less interesing.

What is real is that there was an excellent woman who had a good professional skill in the history of Chosun and she excelled among male physicians in the male-domainated Chosun dynasty. At least on this point, the drama is not far from the history. The drama is also about the success of a woman that did her best to overcome obstacles and reached a top position in her field.

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According to a famous middle class writer, Jo Su-sam, at that time, Iljimae moved so fast to run along the walls and fly over the roofs that he looked like a ghost.  He always left a branch of ume flowers to let others know that he was responsible for robbing, not other poor people.  He was afraid that other innocent people got in trouble for his work.  That’s how he got his name, Iljimae.

The opening of The Return of Iljimae

Iljimae 1 with Lee Jun-ki was a big hit.  The return of Iljimae with Jeong Il-woo just released this year.  Is it going to be another hit?  I would say another handsome look can be easily found from Jeong Il-woo.  Now, It is matter of how well he handles his role and the nice scenes.

Click here to download more wallpaper pictures.

Source: MBC

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Dae Jang Geum gets so famous when it was aired in MBC, 2003.  Most Koreans didn’t even know this remarkable woman existed to take care of King Jeong-jong’s health and food in Chosun Dynasty in 1500s.  Of course we knew there must had been some people in charge for food and medicine but we didn’t know that was a woman.

Lee Young-ae took the main character role and did magnificent job as usual.  You will find out that she will give you much more than you expect.  Her beautiful appearance with Hanbok (Korean traditional clothes) and her realistic acts have made this drama even better.

The original soundtrack, Onara (Please come), also gets well-known.  The rhythm must be very new to not Koreans.  Please enjoy some Korean traditional tunes here.

Onara (Lyric)

Onara Onara Ajuona~ 

(Do you think he will come even if I ask him to)

Ganara Ganara Ajugana~

(Do you think he will go even if I ask him to)

Nanani Daryeodo

(I won’t be with him regardless of how much I wait)

Motnoniri Aniri Aniri Aninone~

(He is not, he  is not, Indeed he is not coming)

Ae~ya De-ya Aeya Nana nino~

(Acclamatory Sounds)

Ojido Mothana Daryeo Gama~

(He won’t come anyway, please take me with you)

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A historical drama made the first sensation throughout Korean Peninsula in 2003.

The impact of Damo was so huge that there were so many people stopped living their personal lives and watched this drama over and over again.  It may be hard to believe what kind of people can do that for their lives but I personally had the same experience.  It’s ok to laugh at me but just remember this.  You may have the same problem for yourself someday if you have come all the way here to reading my blog. 

There were many beautiful scenes that I couldn’t take my eyes off.  I would like to introduce a scene that I like. 

Chae-oak got shot and fell from her horse.  She was surrounded by the soldiers who had shot and followed her.  Jang Sung-baek had a same experience to lose his younger sister long ago.  He saw her as his own sister and went back to save her life through the extremely dangerous situation.

Biga (A sad song) is one of the original sound tracks of Damo.  You can visit the below link and enjoy.

http://blog.naver.com/araria319?Redirect=Log&logNo=30041082114

There are some clips of Damo below.

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