[LET'S GET TO KNOW] Korean Sageuks' and In What Order You Can Watch Them (Part 2)

The continuation ~ The Goryeo Dynasty 

The famous painting by King Gongmin

Goryeo (Hangul: 고려; hanja: 高麗 (918–1392), was a Korean dynasty established in 918 by King Taejo (of Goryeo) also known as Emperor Wang Gun, and overthrown by Yi Seong Gye (who became King Taejo of Joseon) with the help of his son Yi Bang Won (later king Taejong) and scholar Jeong Do Jeon in 1392. The name "Goryeo" later gave name to the modern exonym "Korea". 

There hasn't been a lot of dramas done in this time period. I don't know why, I guess nothing major happened, expect for when the Yuan Empire took over Goryeo and the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty which is pretty much what I'll cover in this blogpost, and it'll go quickly:

Goryeo:

Emperor Wang Gun (the founder of Goryeo)

The Iron Empress (Wang Gun's granddaugther)

Soldier

(and then the dramas that I think you should watch to get a good overall view on this dynasty will be marked with a *)

Empress Ki * (focuses a lot on the Yuan Empire and the struggle between Yuan and Goryeo, as well as the fall of the Yuan)

The Great Seer (If you're interested in seeing how life in Goryeo was for both the king and the citizens during Yuan's harsh rule, check out Empress Ki or Faith instead. I know Ji Sung is in it, but I personally don't recommend this drama) 

Faith * (It's a time-travel - supernatural drama, with not much historical accuracy except that you get a good introduction to who King Gongmin, Queen Nagook and General Choi Young were) It's not super important, but I watched it before Six Flying Dragons, and you got a better understanding of General Choi Young, why the government was the way it was and as well as who the old kings that are mentioned in SFD were)

A frozen Flower (It's supposed to be about King Gongmin and Queen Nagook and their relationship, but it adapted from a fictional point of view, it's involves mature content, nudity and homosexuality, just so you know. It's not accurate to history but it's still a highly enjoyable movie!

Six Flying Dragons *** (Yes three stars are needed! All biased feelings aside, this IS the most important drama to watch, after probably Empress Ki and Faith if you decide to watch those, of this dynasty! I dare say that if you skip this drama you are pretty much skipping on an essential part of korean history. Just watch it! It's epic! (Yeah, I'll leave it at that since I think unless you're a new reader, you probably already know how much I've fangirled and spammed about this particular drama xD oh and if you're feeling hesitant because of Shin Se Kyung, don't worry, I used to dislike her actinga  lot too, but in this....she blows minds! Her acting has improved so much! So yeah, if this is holding you back, mark my words, you won't face-palm whenever you see her on the screen)   

Shin Don (Set in the same time period as Faith, it follows the life of the rumoured father of King U, who was one of the last Goryeo kings. I haven't seen it myself but unless you're hardcore and want to know every detail about what went down between the Empress Ki - Six Flying Dragons time period, you can skip this one, especially since I haven't managed to find it with subs ._. it's quite an old drama). 

Jeong Do Jeon (I'd dare say this is a twin of Six Flying Dragons, but only focuses on the scholar Jeong Do Jeon and his backstory. Sadly I have only been able to find the first episode subbed, but if you're fluent in korean, go ahead and check it out! 

Empire of Lust (movie) 

Non-historically accurate drama, but still set in the time-period:

Shine of go crazy 

So yeah, in my opinion if you just check out Empress Ki, (Faith), (A frozen Flower) and Six Flying Dragons you'll pretty much get the full picture of the important stuff in this dynasty! I hope you enjoyed :3 If you have any questions you're more than welcome to post a comment down below or contact me through my mydramalist! I'll see you in part 3 where we'll jump right ahead into the Joseon dynasty ~  

End of part 2  

Link to part 1 (The three kingdoms) 

[LET'S GET TO KNOW] Korean Sageuks' and In What Order You Can Watch Them (Part 1)

Korean historical dramas: The Three Kingdoms

B.C – before Christ
A.D – After Christ (sometimes written as just numbers)

Quick historical backstory: Pre- and during the Three Kingdoms

Several tribes formed “The Gojoseon” (old Joseon) kingdom around 10th century BC. Gojoseon fell to an invasion by Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty of China in 108 BC (Emperor Wu of Han, 5^th emperor of the Han dynasty). During this time various tribal states emerged and built walls. As their political powers got stronger these tribal states developed into Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla – The three kingdoms of Korea. 삼국시대; (refer to the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean peninsula and parts of Manchuria, North-East China, for much of the 1st millennium. The Three Kingdoms period ran from 57 BC until Silla triumphed over Goguryeo in 668, which marked the beginning of the North and South States period of Unified Silla in the South and Balhae in the North. The earlier part of this period, before the three states developed into full-fledged kingdoms, is sometimes called Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea).

About this blog post and Sageuk dramas:

Not to long ago I got quite a few requests and questions about the topic in what order should I watch sageuks? This is a very interesting question because some of them are connected to each other, and based on real historical events while others are more fictional and can be watched whenever. So Instead of writing a super long essay in a private message on mydramalist to everyone individually, I decided to make a blog post about it. This way it won't only answer the question but it could also perhaps help everyone else who might be wondering the same thing.

I've categorized them based on kingdoms and then time period. Unless it's stated that something is a prequel or sequel to something, those dramas (which will be marked in in cursive letters) can be watched separately. But I still recommend to stick to the order for best historical accuracy. When a drama is written as "related to" another one, it means that you can either watch it right next to the other or watch them both at the same time (preferably. Because that way you'll get the full story).
If there is a link for the subbed episodes, it will be provided here as well. However not every drama will have a link. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, just that I'm not an all-knowing person and doesn't know of every kdrama online page in existence xD feel free to comment down below the links if you have them. It is very appreciated! :)
This list is in no way complete (first of all it's is only the first part in this blog-post series as I'll go from The three kingdoms all the way to the 1900's Korea) but I will also add dramas and movies to this list as they come out. It seems like 2016 will be full of sageuks' so when they start to air I'll add them to the list! Also, keep in mind that this is all a recommendation and doesn't serve as a MUST-DO in any way! I also have to note that I haven't seen all of these dramas. I also haven't followed this order as if it's set in stone, especially since some historical periods appeal to me more than others, but I've always tried to watch the prequel-sequel or related dramas in the order in which they are historically presented. Of couse if I can't find the subbed episodes then it can't be helped. I will also mark the recommendations with a *, it is dramas that I've seen and that I think you can watch if you don't feel like watching EVERYTHING xD. Well then, I hope this post will be useful or at least give you an overview on all the different kingdoms and historical time periods. If you've made yourself comfy on the chair and grabbed a bag of snacks ~ enjoy. Let's begin shall we?

In what order they should/can be watched:

Before anything, if you want to start from the very very beginning, I can recommend you to read the manhwa the bride of the water god. It's a fictional story based on korean history and mythology and it's about a woman who gets sacrificed by her village to the water god Habaek in order to become his bride. This is, according to an old myth the only way to calm down the angry Water God so that he'll let the rain fall again (and the villagers have been starving for 20 years or so because of drought). How is this relevant to Korean history you might ask? Well, according to legends Jumong, the founder of Goguryeo and also Korea's first king is said to be the grandson of the water god Habaek. Jumong's mom also makes an appearance in the manhwa and I have to add that besides the story, the drawing is flawless. It is one of the most gorgeously drawn manga/manhwas I've ever come across. So if you feel like that sounds like sometrhing for you, you can start by reading the bride of the water god, otherwise you can just jump right ahead into the first historical drama in this order:

Goguryeo:

Jumong * (First saeguk to watch. Founder of Goguryeo and therefore also the "father" of Korea)
The kingdom of the winds * (Sequel to Jumong and is about Jumong's grandson King Daemusin)
Ja Myung Go (Main character Prince Hodong is the son of King Daemusin. Sequel to The kingdom of the winds)

The Legend (Watch after Kim Soo Ro)

King Gwanggaeto the great

Yeon Gae Somun (Takes places before, during and after Sword of Flower)

Sword and flower Related to the drama Yeon Gae Somun as a fictional sequel. The main characters fathers' are King Yeongnyu and General Yeon Gaesomun - who were enemies)  

Silla:

Queen Seon Duk * (related to the dramas: Yeon Gaesomun and Ballad of Seo Dong).
The great King’s dream (Sequel to Queen Seon Duk)

Emperor of the Sea

Baekje:

King Geun Cho Go

Gye Baek

Ballad of Seo Dong (A love story between a princess of Silla and a prince of Baekje. Based on a folktale)

The King’s daughter,Soo Baek Hyang (fictional story)

Gaya:

Kim Soo Ro (Watch before the drama The Legend)

Balhae:

Dae Jo Yeong

Shadowless sword (movie)

Non-historically accurate dramas, but still set in this time-period:

Battlefield heroes

End of part 1 

[LET'S GET TO KNOW] Omodramaland's favorite bromances'

Let's talk Bromance

Lee Min Ho and Kim Woo Bin from The Heirs

So I recently got a request to write a post of my favorite bromances in dramaland; and it sounds like an awesome idea! Only that....it's quite hard ._. there are just so many good bromances you guys! Dx But I'll do my best try to narrow it to just a couple of them that especially made me fangirl and cry my eyes out. 

First of all, if you're not familiar with the term, Bromance is developed from "brother" + "romance" and is used to describe two (or  sometimes more) male characters who have a very close bond, and who you ship, either as brothers or as lovers/boyfriends. It's also starting to be very popular in the West, so you'll see it more and more in all kinds of TV-shows and movies etc etc. I feel like kdramaland is especially good at making awesome bromances, and hint that something more than just friendship is going on -wink wink-, but depending on your point of views, you can decide if you want to see the hints as something romantic or just continue to ship it as a very close brotherly bond. There are really no set rules when it comes to what a bromance is, it's up to your imagination. I'd say that most dramas have some sort of bromance going on, but it varies in the sense that the bromance might be between supporting characters, or perhaps even two guys fighting over the same girl (which is the case between Lee Min Ho and Kim Woo Bin in The Heirs) or the bromance could pretty much be the main focus of the entire drama, which can be seen in dramas such as School 2013 (between Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Suk). 

But yeah, in this post I'll talk about my favorite bromances. So without further ado, let's get started ~  

(these are in no particular order because it was already hard enough to just narrow it down so this post doesn't become essay long)

[LET'S GET TO KNOW] My Favorite Idol-Actors/Idol Turned Actors PART 2

Part 2 yo!

[LET'S GET TO KNOW] Your Guide to Asian Dramas: Genres and How it All Started (Korean Edition)

Let's get to know Asian drama genres

There are many genres in dramaland....almost too many!
 

From romance comedies to psychological melodramas to chinese vuxia to korean sageuk's to action thrillers to...yeah....there's a lot ._. I think I finally understand what my friend, who got me into Asian dramas meant when she said "Once you're in, you can't get out". I don't think you can ever truly get tired of "dramas", sure you can feel like a genre follows the same pattern or some plots are very similar to one another, but if that's so then all you need to do is switch genres or why not switch the drama country + genre? That's a double combo, right?
To say "asian dramas are all the same" makes you, in my opinion, seem a bit closeminded, but hopefully, after this blogpost you might get a bigger picture of what asian dramaland has to offer. Now, to say that most romance comedies are about "a rich guy falling for a poor girl", however, could be more accurate than the previous statement, but it's still not quite true, because in the recent years there has been quite a lot of refreshing plots that only partly or not at all, overlap with the "rich guy falling for poor girl" concept.
With that said, the point of this post (actually this entire blog) is to introduce both new and old drama fans to new dramas, or to be more precise, new genres! Because there's just so much to explore in dramaland that it's pretty much impossible to say that you've already seen it all.
Before I start the post I just want to say that this will just be about korean dramas, because I feel like there's a lot to talk about. I'll also recommend dramas from every genre as I go through them, however, it's important to know that the dramas I recommend AREN'T the only ones out there, the handful of titles I'll present can perhaps be a good introduction to the genres but feel free to use mydramalist to find other dramas too :) I'll also try to keep the text as orgazined as possible, even though it's very difficult to stick to one genre without comparing it or mentioning another one. So yeah, without further ado, let's get started ~

[LETS GET TO KNOW] My Favorite Idol-Actors/Idol Turned Actors PART 1

Idol actors: idol turned actors who somtimes even give 'professional' actors a run for the money

As a first 'Let's get to know' segment on this blog, I decided to do something fun. Like an intro to not one but a handful of actors that I think people should look up and perhaps even follow. Since I have 8 actors/actresses to go through I'll do this in two parts! Please enjoy ~

First off, let's start by clearing out the term shall we? The kdrama term 'Idol actor' basically means that the actor or actress originally started off as an idol (usually kpop artist) before starting an acting debut and/or turning to acting as a full time job. There is a lot of critisism against idol turned actors as they're said to be very lacking and sometimes refered to as "just a pretty face" to promote a drama or movie, however there are some idols who are born with a natural talent for acting. In this blog post I'll go through some of the idol turned actors that I personally think are very talented. With that said, remember that this is my list, aka my opinion which may or may not be different from yours, and with that said, your idol actors may not be on this list. If you disagree with my opinion, feel free to post a comment below, I'd love to hear who you'd pick to be on the list, but also I expect you to respect my opinion. I can also say that none of the people mentioned in this post are my bias from their groups, so i'm judging them based on acting talent only. I can mention their singing or dancing talents as a side-thing, but the main point that I'm looking at is how well they can act. With that said, let's get started shall we? :D