Hong Gil-dong, The Hero

After Chilwu, The Mighty (Choi-kang Chilwu) ended two weeks back, I thought that was the last time I will watch any Korean TV shows on KBS World. Yes, they do have others but it’s mostly modern setting (correct me if I am wrong Rin-chan). I actually enjoy watching those old-setting kind of TV shows especially those with kung fu, sword fighting, fly here and there et al.

But on the night of 1^st Syawal, I received a text from Rin-chan telling me there’s a new show – Hong Gil-dong, The Hero – playing on Channel 303. so I quickly changed channel and watched it. Two weeks have passed and I have watched four episodes. I loved it already, well frankly, in the first episode also, I’ve already took a liking to Gil-dong. Rin-chan was right, she said that I may liked this new show. Indeed I am… hahaha. Thanks to Rin-chan

As I have said before, I wanted to find something different from my appetite for Chinese drama on TV. I still love them though but Korean drama with the genre like Chilwu and Gil-dong are something fresh for me. I can even afford not to watch The Seven Swordsman currently playing on TV2 at 7pm. Yes, Seven Swordsman is a good drama. The only thing is that Gil-dong is only shown on Wednesday and Thursday at 9pm, unlike Chinese drama which is shown everyday on weekdays.

Well, here’s a what I think about Hong Gil-dong, The Hero – based on what I have seen from the four episodes so far (Rin-chan, please correct me if I am wrong J).

Hong Gil-dong is the ‘illegitimate’ son of the Yipan Minister in Joseon. His mother was murdered by his mother-in-law. Gil-dong’s has a half brother (about the same age with him), who, IMHO, was a total spoiled brat!! But Gil-dong has many talents – one of them is in martial arts – after he was ‘taught’ by Monk Hamyeong who found him weeping at his mother’s grave (who laugh like a donkey, hmmm, but his laugh is surely weird though). Okay, Monk Hamyeong may think that he ‘taught’ Gil-dong all his skills but Gil-dong may think otherwise. But Gil-dong did admit to Yinol that he did ‘learn something’ from the Monk. His everyday activity is going round the city harassing all the ‘bad people’– thieves, bad merchants and vendors et al. Though, Gil-dong never admit to helping people and he openly admit he is lazy. This is interesting, why is he lazy? Gil-dong told Yinok that his teacher (Monk Hamyeong) that ‘even if you work hard, you won’t be achieve anything anyway’ – thus, he is being lazy.

The decription from Astro is “Hong Gildong is famous for his robbing the rich to feed the poor (much like the English folk hero Robin Hood)”.. though I haven’t seen him helping the poor or even robbing the rich so far.

And there’s Yinok. Yinok is a mobile vendor aka con-artist – together with her ‘Grandpa’. From selling medicines to playing ‘dancing snakes’. Unfortunately the snake was ‘killed’ by Gil-dong LOL. One funny thing about Yinok is that she eats a lot!! Always hungry… and something interesting is that she may turn to be the daughter of a noble…

Compared to Chilwu, this Gil-dong drama is much better laid out. No ridiculous scenes so far. But I do believe the people behind them are funny people because this show is very funny. All the four episodes I’ve watched tickled me and I can’t help laughing. Some modern things are incorporated into this drama – besides Gil-dong who sports a sunglasses a la Fong-Sai Yuk, there’s also modern dancing in the local night tavern (they’re also clubbing in those days… hahaha) and in episode 3, the King of Jaseon is playing golf!!! Albeit, the golf club looks like a sword’s hilt.

Rin-chan did mentioned something about the ending though, but let’s not think about the ending as yet, because it’s only beginning.

So, whoever wish to watch this Korean costume drama, make sure you are tuned to KBS World (Channekl 303) on Wednesdays and Thursdays… have fun ya!!