#jumong

Okaaay then

Oops! I think I may’ve found the singular flaw in the otherwise greatest KDrama ever made 😆😅

- Historical/Romance/Fantasy/Modern -

This Thriving Land 🇨🇳

City of the City (2024) 🇨🇳

Jumong (2006) 🇰🇷

A Life for a Life 🇨🇳

The Prisoner of Beauty 🇨🇳

Footprints of Change 🇨🇳

Silent Honor 🇨🇳

- BL/GL/Queer -

Sleuth of Ming Dynasty 🇨🇳

The Dauntless Youths 🇨🇳

The Two Of Them (Myanmar)🇲🇲

ABO Desire 🇨🇳

Revenged Love 🇨🇳

Realm’s Night Rain Dreamlike

Be Her Resilience 🇨🇳

Bishonen (1998) 🇨🇳

Blazing Elegance 🇨🇳

My Sweet Brother in Law (Viet) 🇻🇳

Stand By Me (2023) 🇨🇳

- Uncompleted Titles I Recommend Starting -

Lurk (2009) 🇨🇳

All Quiet In Peking (2014) 🇨🇳

Endless Protection 🇨🇳

The Mirage 🇨🇳

Mad Unicorn 🇹🇭

The Long Way Back 🇨🇳

The Advisors Alliance (2017) 🇨🇳

The Iron King / Kim Su Ro (2010) 🇰🇷

The Romance of our Parents (2020) 🇨🇳

The Secret Of Girls (GL) 🇨🇳

To raise some revolutionary optimism here’s a list of in-love, anti-imperial, revolutionary, feminist queers using brawn and brains to achieve not just individual but COLLECTIVE GRATIFICATION ❤️.

- Nirvana In Fire -

They start out as the most important in each other’s world, separated by tyranny, 13 years and hidden identity

One must deceive the other, the second must fight even his Royal father, bringing down the government to get justice for 70K of the impugned Chiyan Army

- Killer And Healer -

Amidst war and chaos the country is not yet rid of corrupt fascists of the Kuomintang regime or the scar opium has etched deeply into the body politic

Enter two communist gays who heal each other’s souls, overcoming tragedy and creating a new City of Light

- Jumong -

Just another day on the job of resisting the Han Empire and building a new nation of Goguryeo is a perfect time to meet the love of your life

HyeopBo and SaYong are indispensable to their respective military and titan leaders but become even more essential together

- The Devil Judge -

What starts as personal revenge for both men ends up subverting systemic injustice among South Korean political elites who’re in cahoots with billionaire capitalists and their paid thugs

#LawfulHusbands ❤️story also deals with depression; child abuse; disability

- War Of Faith 2024 -

My mini review here.

- The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty 2020 -

The Message 2020

- The Dauntless Youths 2025 -

- A Couple of Mirrors 2021 -

- Till Death Tear Us Apart -

Exceptionally romantic Republican Era BL drama of coming to consciousness as a member of the capitalist elite; watch in conjunction with the Danmei novel Till Death Do Us Part, and use the “uncut” version of the fan-subbed episodes which is linked in the MDL Discussions segment for maximum impact.

--I loved it! It didn't get me in the gut like a QSD or a SFD or even The Legend, but it really kept up my interest across 81 episodes, with a great mixture of action, intrigue, melodrama, and silliness (there was the intentional silliness like my man Mo Pal Mo, but also stuff like the oracle being struck by lightning when she tried to curse Jumong, which made me howl with laughter). I really wish we still got sagueks like this--long, deliberate, with no interest in being cool or youthful, give or take a backflip (though the fact that I now get to start Goryeo-Khitan War really does make me happy and excited).

--I started watching kdramas seriously in 2014. At that time, I was familiar with Song Il Gook--but only because I couldn't avoid endless gifs of him and his patriotically-named triplets. I vaguely understood that he had been a big-deal actor, but his main dramas were older and less accessible (and when he did Jang Yeong Shil in 2016 it wasn't available to stream legally anywhere), so I had never seen him in anything until this. And now... I would very much like for him to come back to dramas! He is honestly incredible here: so charismatic, so compelling to watch, SO handsome, and most importantly he really nails the incredibly long journey Jumong goes on, from callow loser to impetuous guy figuring it out to determined general to gravitas-laden king. Every step of the way I was with him, and though the show boasts a huge cast, he really was the reason for the season; the show isn't called Jumong for nothing. There are two episodes he isn't in when everyone thinks Jumong is dead, and it's like a punch to the viewer's gut as well, you just can't imagine this world without him in it! And did I mention that he's handsome?

--Speaking of handsome, shoutout to the 3-year time-jump around episode 50 when all of a sudden it seemed like all the men of the show had spent the weeks leading up to that growing out their hair and all their manes of glory were flowing in the breeze. Your efforts did not go unappreciated, gentlemen! (Also 2006 lace-front wigs are rough to watch in HD!)

--Speaking of compelling journeys, even though this was the Jumong show (literally!) Soseono also really went through it, and Han Hye Jin made every stage of her transformation from bold, overconfident young woman to burdened mother and queen believable and interesting. And these parallel journeys of the leads really do provide the emotional heart of the show: as they grow up and make difficult decisions and go down paths they never anticipated (particularly their marriages to different people), on the one hand they are fulfilling their dreams and destinies, but on the other they are basically guaranteeing that the beautiful time of their youth, when they were in love and saw a whole life together unfolding before them, could never be recaptured. Even when Soseono and Jumong finally marry, it is out of duty and obligation--not that there isn't a part of them that still loves the other, but that part has been entirely subordinated to the other projects that they dedicated their lives to. Soseono leaving does make sense (though Biryu's rebellion was so dumb that it made it impossible for me to have sympathy for him), but it was genuinely sad to see both her and Jumong realize that the thing they lost all those years ago could never be returned, not even by 15 years of marriage.

--And speaking of marriage... I feel really bad for Yesoya, a character who basically exists to abnegate herself and also give Jumong a baby. But I found their relationship weirdly fascinating (and though sageuks like Jumong have a reputation for being stodgy, I do want to highlight that both leads in this drama marry people they explicitly don't romantically love and almost immediately get pregnant. Sexuality exists in stodgy sageuks! (also Jumong got very frisky with those tavern girls after Haemosoo died)). By the end, when Yesoya comes back, Jumong looks at her with such warmth, it's as though feeling really really guilty ended up making him actually fall in love with her.

--Shout out to the casting director, Yuri really did look like he was Jumong's son.

--Imagine my surprise and delight that there is an honest-to-God gay couple in this 81-long episode sageuk from 2006 that is obvious, unambiguous, and deeply deeply sweet. Though my inability to makes heads or tails of Bae Soo Bin as an actor continues. I have seen him be very good (as he is here)! I have seen him be VERY bad. Where is the truth?????

My quick thoughts:

Han Hye Jin is gorgeous and needs to be in more things. I love So Seo No and the fact that her weapon of choice is a leather whip.

Hae Mo Soo. Hae Mo Soo. Hae Mo Soo. That’s pretty much 50% of the dialogue in the first 2 episodes lol.

Song Il Gook is so big. Mmm. He looks so young in this.

Speaking of Song Il Gook, aside from him and maybe Bae Soo Bin, all the men in this are so dowdy 😂 . Such a difference from the drama landscape these days. All these men look like hairy middle aged uncles hahaha.

I remember the second Prince being compared to Shrek back in the day because of all the bright green he wore and that comparison still stands. 😂

It’s fun seeing who I recognize in the cast now. What a trip that Jumong’s mom is played by the same actress who played Kim Nam Gil’s stepsister with whom he had inappropriately hot chemistry in Bad Guy.

It’s hilarious seeing all the different long haired wigs they tried out for Sumong/Bae Soo Bin in the early episodes. I’m glad they finally found a wig that worked in the end.

Someone pls talk me out of rewatching Jumong. It’s madness!

But then Jumong is THE sageuk. 81 episodes, insane ratings (it ended its run with 52% ratings which even in those older days was psychotic), the best gradual character development - when we first meet our ML he’s a total pathetic waste of space and then to watch him slowly transform is glorious, and man they really spent as much time on iron works and salt trade as they did battles.

Also Seosono was such an awesome FL and the rest of the cast was A+. It starts slow and then picks up so much steam!

When I say they don’t make them like this any more, I mean it!