Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 3 of Season 1 of Kingdom, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Ju Ji-hoon as Crown Prince Yi Chang, Bae Doona as Seo-bi, Ryu Seung-ryong as Cho Hak ju, Kim Sang-ho as Mou Young, Kim Sung-kyu as Yeong shin, and Kim Hye-jun as the Queen Consort. We discuss:
The Seo In Guk Meet and Greet in Washington, DC that Joanna attended! It was amazing!
The enduring appeal of zombies!
How the opening sequence of the show describes exactly how the king was revived using the resurrection plant, as described in Lee Seung Hui’s medical journal. Although this scene is quite horrific, it is beautifully filmed!
How Cho Hak Ju and the Queen Consort keep the king chained and how they feed him unwitting court ladies. Who are the real monsters in the palace?
The head scholar and Minister of War are suspicious about all the dead bodies in the palace. They want Lord Ahn Hyeon to ally with them, but Cho Hak Ju is confident that Lord Ahn will never oppose the Cho clan.
How Youngshin is doing everything he can to save people from the zombies and Seo bi comes to his defense when Cho Beom Pal and the head clerk accused him of crimes.
How we are seeing a different Crown Prince in this episode. HE tried to climb the barracks wall, and he took charge at the magistrate’s office when Cho Beom Pal and the head clerk came up with a ridiculous plan re: the zombie bodies.
We now know of a few ways to stop the zombies: burn them, cut off their heads, drown them.
Cho Beom Pal is clearly the comic relief in the show, especially in this episode when Seo bi diagnosed him as having gonorrhea.
The Crown Prince now knows what happened to the king, how he died, and was brought back to life by Lee Seung Hui using the resurrection plan. He is now mourning the death of his father.
How the king somehow foresaw that his son would be in danger. The king urged his son to stay alive!
The officials, nobles and soldiers use the one remaining ship to sail to Sangju, stranding all the villagers on the dock.
How Joseon was a tremendously classist society. Although society has flattened a great deal today, you can still see the emphasis on hierarchy in modern day language and culture.
We wonder what happened three years ago that clearly involved Cho Hak Ju, Lord Ahn Hyeon, and Lee Seung Hui.
The amazing and beautiful Bae Doona, the actress who plays Seo bi.
References
Well, that certainly was a lot of zombies. Guess episode four is making up for the low body count in the previous episode.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know what’s more amusing, you guys once again debating the science behind zombiefication, or pretending you don’t know what’s coming next!
So we know that chopping the heads off the zombies stops them. I don’t understand why the survivors were not immediately chopping the head off every zombie body the next day! And I get the cultural taboo against burning the dead, but more significantly, it takes a lot of heat to burn a human body. Cremation furnaces are well over 2,000 Fahrenheit (I had to google how much heat it takes to burn a human body. Now I just need to remember to clear my browser history).
Did Seo-bi really diagnose the magistrate with syphilis?! Or was that just her clever way of letting him know she wasn’t interested in him!
Luckily, the zombies can’t swim. Seems like a pretty good strategy to just relocate to Korea’s nearly 4,000 islands. Just be careful what you pack! Also, aren’t they in what is now Busan? You’d think there would be a few more boats around.
Seems like the Cho Clan has a lot riding on the Queen having a boy! Although will there even be a baby?! I’m not so sure… I’m guessing they have a plan B for that as well.
Love Joanna’s description of The Silent Sea – “It’s set in space. I don’t even think there’s an umbrella scene!”
Still no beef pancakes!
Malcolm, you are hilarious, as usual! Thank you for your comments! I hope you're appreciating this show! My husband is not a zombie fan, but now he can't get enough of it! He can't stop watching!
DeleteI think Seo-bi was being earnest when she diagnosed the magistrate with gonnorhea (at least that's my translation said). And yes, hilarious that he's the actor who is co-CEO in Love Next Door. I guess he's always the goofy, comic relief guy!
Sorry about my terrible description of The Silent Sea. Haha! It's actually quite a serious movie about earth running out of water!
And yes, still no beef pancakes! Will the Crown Prince and Mu Young ever make it back to the palace for beef pancakes?
Bellflower is used medicinally for scrofula, a neck infection related to tuberculosis. It is historically known king's evil. It is also used for respiratory stuff, as is borage, which has a similar five-petal shape (the color tends to be more blue though). There are other medicinal plants that look similar: hyssop (five petals), used for digestive and respiratory issues and spiderwort (three petals, used for the same, as well as wound healing. Spiderwort actually is a native plant here. I have seeds for at least two of the others.
ReplyDeleteLaurel, ooh, thanks for all this. You know quite a bit about these flowers! Are you growing bellflowers? Do you use any of them for home made medicinal remedies?
DeleteI think the purple Serbian bellflower is gorgeous!
I had typed out a second comment and of course, I lost it.
DeleteLaurel, well crap! Please try to get it back so we know what you wanted to say! You always have wonderful things to say!
DeleteWow, that was quite the episode indeed (both in the show and the podcast!) I'm hoping to watch episode 4 tonight to be back on real time with you all. Joanna - sounds like such a fun time at the cute meet with Seo In Guk. I don't know him, but was thinking of watching Doom at Your Service, and I think I need to now. Thanks for sharing that with us. 🥰
ReplyDeleteBack to Kingdom, the plot is thickening but I still feel like we don't know that much about the main characters! I'm so in for all the character development and can't wait to see how Yougshin and Seo Bi help the villagers now that the selfish and cruel aristocrats abandoned them. That scene was HEARTBREAKING! And that poor little girl wandering the docks all alone. Ouf...
I'm with Sung Hee for the kdrama elements. This show is so different and I don't really think of the elements, but it's a fun challenge now and Sung Hee brought up some good ones. I'll try and keep an eye out for them as well in the next episodes.
Quick question about Gyeonseong Creatures ( I haven't watched it yet) - would you say it's more gruesome or less than Kingdom with all the zombies? I've been wanting to watch GC but was a bit nervous and from what I understand they are human made monsters and that seems scarier (although I guess the zombies in Kingdom are too), anyhow, that might be my next scary one after Kingdom! 😄
Béatrice Lyne, thank you for your comment!
DeleteYes, the Kingdom plot is thickening! Even my husband is watching and wants to binge the show! Who knew?
As for Gyeongseong Creature, it's basically a war movie with a monster. It's less gory than Kingdom but it's got some bloody scenes with the monster and a high body count. If you can watch Kingdom, you can watch GC. Sung Hee and I absolutely loved Gyeongseong Creature. We discuss it in Season 6 of the podcast and boy were we surprised at how much history we delved into! Check out: https://www.kdramachat.com/search/label/GyeongseongCreature but watch for spoilers. If you're on the fence, listen to the first episode of the podcast so you get a sense of the show. And if you do end up watching, definitely let us know what you think!
I'm starting season 2 of GC and so far, so good, although I've only watched one episode. I just finished Love Next Door on Netflix, so I'm ready for my next show.
I LOVED Doom At Your Service. If you loved Goblin, you will probably love DAYS. Great actors, great chemistry, some deep themes. Sung Hee liked it, but didn't love it, although she just recently watched Goblin and feels like she should rewatch DAYS. I have watched DAYS several times. And I got an "I love you, too" from Seo In Guk! Amazing!
Thanks Joanna for your answers! I will definitely check out both of those shows. I did enjoy Goblin, although I thought it was a bit longer than necessary at times. But such a great story, great acting and of course, amazing set locations with la ville de Québec being showcased! That was so cool. I grew up just north of Montréal and have visited many of the locations they had in the set. I was fangirling pretty hard. 😂 Canada isn’t next door to Korea, I do wonder why they chose that location. Anyhow, thanks again for your show. It has elevated my kdrama experience by a lot! ❤️
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