Thursday, September 5, 2013

FREEDOM! for slaves it means one thing, for the freemen a better world is LIBERTY

I have just finished watching all twenty-four episodes of The Slave Hunters, and I was able to see all the parts that had been missed while I made coffee, or worked on something else.

Korea (Joseon) of 1648, the end of the Thirty Years War in Europe, the time of The Three Musketeers, in France, and in England they were beheading Charles the First. In China, the Ming was being replaced by the Qing (Manchurians, really) from 1643 until much later, China is a big place.

The KBS production is available on DVD 2 box set, my library owns a copy (large Korean-American population), it can be purchased on line, probably available on Netflix with English subtitles. It all takes place in Korea, although some of the main characters have spent time in China, and Korea has a younger brother role with the Older brother.

This movie centers on slavery, runaway slaves, and slave chasers (or Slave Hunters of the title), and court intrigue to maintain power. All the bad guys are good, all the good women are really just beautiful (even with slave markings). The martial arts are very fantastic, but close to reality (NOT), but entertaining. To me the greatest hero was the tiger hunter, now slave, that knew how to shoot a matchlock, and taught other slaves the skills needed to kill the nobles. That was revolutionary... and the story shows how the culture resisted the needed changes, although everyone had the dream.

I recommend it for all those that are thinking of resistance to the oppressors, but then I really liked the whole story...just remember, it is loosely based on real history, real martial arts and real romance... loosely.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review! I'll have to find one with sub-titles though.

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    1. Sorry, most Korean Historic dramas are subtitled into two Chinese and one English - and then some other languages. The set my library has was with English.

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