Historic dramas have at all times been widespread in motion pictures and TV. Followers of historic dramas, each in Korea and overseas, like being taken again in time and discovering the tales that enthralled or had been set in motion by our predecessors. Some folks tune in to test how the current stacks up towards the previous. Others look on to witness improvement. Watching historic movies may give Korea-lovers a fast lesson in Korean historical past. Nevertheless, with a purpose to maintain audiences , all historic dramas invent or conflate occasions, add romantic subplots, and create characters.
Amongst many historic dramas that hit the small display screen, MBC’s “The Red Sleeve,” which facilities round King Jeongjo (1752-1800) of Joseon and his beloved concubine Uibin Seong (1753-86), was the most well-liked.
Why is it so well-known ?
King Jeongjo, typically often known as Yi San, is the topic of a variety of historic Okay-dramas. What, although, was distinctive about “The Red Sleeve”?
It’s most likely as a result of the drama series focuses on the intensely romanticized relationship between King Jeongjo and his concubine Uibin Seong (performed by boy band 2PM’s Lee Jun-ho and actor Lee Se-young, respectively). The drama relies on precise occasions, comparable to how Uibin Seong, whose actual title is Seong Deok-im, twice turned down Jeongjo’s supply to take her as his concubine.
The distinction between historical past and fiction
1.The two refusals of Deok-Im
It’s exhausting to consider {that a} court docket woman of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) might reject a courtship of a king or a crown prince. Would it not even be potential for a king to simply accept such conduct?
Deok-Im “refused my request at the price of her life, noting that Queen Hyoui [1754-1821] had not but given start to any youngsters,” in accordance with the epitaph for Uibin Seong, which was written in 1786. This moved me, and I finished attempting to push it. Deok-im was 14 and King Jeongjo was 15 years outdated. King Jeongjo continued by saying that he approached her as soon as more 15 years later, after having a number of different concubines, however she turned him down “once more.”
He claimed that Uibin accepted the orders after her maids had been punished, grew to become pregnant that month, and gave start to a crown prince in September of 1782. The king was 31 years outdated, and Deok-Im 30. Evidently, the coincidental encounters between the 2 as depicted in “The Red Sleeve” and the 2 forming a romantic relationship after turning 18, are all fictional as Yi San had already been rejected by Deok-im as soon as on the age of 15.
2.Deok-Im’s Origin
Deok -Im entered the royal palace in 1762 as a 10-year-old baby and labored as a gungnyeo, or court docket woman, on account of her father’s connections to the Pungsan Hong clan, which included Girl Hyekyeong, also called Queen Heongyeong, the mom of King Jeongjo. Crown Prince Yi San and younger Deok-im would have identified one another since they had been youngsters as a result of it’s said that the queen raised Deok-im as if she had been her foster daughter.
3.Gwanghangung
The director invented the fictional Gwanghangung, a clandestine group run by Head Court docket Girl Jo that goals to assassinate King Jeongjo. As they feed, dress, bathe, and even persuade kings and queens when essential selections must be made, gungnyeo are sometimes depicted within the drama as having actual authority, in accordance with Head Court docket Girl Jo. Nevertheless, historians keep that the court docket girls couldn’t intervene as a result of Joseon was a nation the place the king ran political affairs by consulting and debating along with his folks, notably in such a Confucianism society that upheld strict gender hierarchy.
4.Kang Wol-hye
Kang Wol-hye, a gungnyeo, makes an look within the drama. She is portrayed because the educated murderer’s niece, the Head Court docket Girl Jo, who perishes after failing to assassinate the monarch. The character relies on the same-named real-life historic determine. In keeping with the “Annals of Joseon Dynasty,” Wol-hye, who was the daughter of one of many political opponents of King Jeongjo, participated in a plot to assassinate him in 1777. She was imprisoned, expelled from the palace, and made right into a slave.
