[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jing Bi-rok" Episode 17

As usual the episode opens up with King Seonjo and his advisors, now in a decidedly less dignified location, once again ineffectively debating the best course of action. King Seonjo comes up with more bad ideas, and everyone else is too busy being reverent and respectful to really seriously address the fact that they've literally been driven out of their own capital. The Chinese are no help either. Fortunately, by the end of the episode someone (you can probably guess who) finally shows up with a plan to make life less terrible.

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And not a moment too soon. On the ground we see how the Japanese are actually planning to negotiate the inconvenience of being stuck in a foreign country while they work on getting to their actual goal- China. Interestingly, massacres are not on the agenda right now. Somewhat comically, the Japanese appear to be inadvertently instituting the social reforms Seong-ryong's been pushing all this time. This should come as little surprise, because the Japanese know that they need cooperation in order for this invasion to go anywhere- from all levels, not just the elite.

This is the only real interesting individual portion of the episode. I've written it before and, hopefully for the last time, I need to write it again- the conflict has always been consistently portrayed less as a foreign invasion as a failure of the Korean government to properly assess the situation. While this is probably historically accurate, it doesn't make for terribly exciting viewing.

At least the wardrobe department's doing their job properly. Well, except for Hideyoshi's buck teeth. It's always very easy to tell at a glance whether we're in Korea, Japan, or China because the clothing, architectural design, and even the makeup differs quite a bit depending on which culture we're currently looking at. Even the soldiers' uniforms are simply designed yet easy to tell apart- an important consideration when questions of massive warfare are taken into account.

Of course, I'm no expert in archaic East Asian fashion, and I remain rather curious as to how a Japanese or Chinese version would view the events in "Jing Bi-rok". Historically and in the drama, this Hideyoshi guy really just seems like a jerk. And yet I couldn't help but notice that in the alternative future of "2009 Lost Memories" Lee Soon-sin's statue was replaced with one of Hideyoshi. I suppose it doesn't matter too much. Everyone has their own perspective on history, and if you're watching "Jing Bi-rok", for the moment anyway, you're probably most interested in the Korean version of events.

Review by William Schwartz

"Jing Bi-rok" is directed by Kim Sang-hwi and Kim Yeong-jo, written by Jeong Hyeong-soo and Jeong Ji-yeon and features Kim Sang-joong, Kim Tae-woo, Im Dong-jin, Kim Hye-eun, Lee Kwang-ki and Lee Kwang-ki.