Immortal Admiral Yi Sunsin

Impression is based on Episodes 1 and 2
FYI: The soap opera "Immortal Admiral Yi Sunsin" is a long epic with 104 episodes. However, the version with english subtitles is only subbed up to episode 19 (as of today 01/26/06). If you want a copy and know how to use bittorrent, you can go to (http://d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php?search=immortal&type=&sub=View+all&sort=) to download the torrents for this.

If it weren't for this class, I probably would have never heard of the admiral Yi Sunsin, nor the invasion of Korea by the Japanese in the last decade of the 16th century(with the ultimate goal of conquering Ming China). That said, it was interesting to find parallels of this invasion with the invasion of Korea and China during WWII. Strategically, it is well known that China has been conquered multiple times from the north, citing the Mongols and Manchus in the 13th and 17th centuries respectively. It is also well known that Japan's invasion of China in the WWII also started from Manchuria. But the idea that Japan in the 16th century intended to invade China through Korea is one that is new to me. Indeed, I was surprised when the Yi Sunsin mentioned to the Chinese general Chen Lin that Ming China and Choson Korea's fate were tied together and they needed to fight together against the Japanese for the safety of their homelands. My impression of Japan during the Ming dynasty was always that of a land of pirates, after all the only military hero I know of the Ming dynasty (for it was not a dynasty known for its military might) Qi Jiguang, made a name for himself fighting Japanese pirates. The fact that Japan had the governmental organization and capacity to invade Ming China that early was certainly something new to me.

The Kdrama "Immortal Admiral Yi Sunsin"

Cautionary note: Watching this drama without understanding the context is extremely difficult so before anybody watches the drama they should read the Admiral Yi Sun-sin booklet and the Wiki article (which gives a more comprehensive historical background)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Korea since the drama starts in the middle of the war with Yi Sun-sin and his Chinese allies going into battle.

Summary of episodes 1 and 2:
The drama starts middle of an arguement between Yi Sunsin and the Ming general Chen Lin (though its spelled as Jin Ling in the subs). The Japanese troops seem to be trapped somewhere and the Chinese allies seem to be reluctant to fight since they think the Japanese just want to pull out and go home. This is the major theme in this and the next episode as the Japanese general Konishi continues to bribe the other Ming general Yu Jung (possbly Song Ying-chang? the Korean spelling is confusing) to undermine the naval forces of Yi and Chen. Indeed, there seems to be factional fighting within the Koreans and the Chinese as the Ming generals Chen and Yu don't seem to get along and the Choson court officials and even the emperor being jealous of Yi and fearing him because he is well-loved by the people. The emperor and court are percived as cowards by the Korean people as they have abandoned the Korean people and escaped towards the Ming border. Indeed the emperor is extremely wary of the admiral as at the end of episode 2 we see an emissary sent by the Emperor to keep an eye on Yi.

Impressions of the drama
While I don't understand enough of Korean history to comment on the historical accuracy of the drama, I am surprised by the effort they put into creating this drama. The 35 million won budeget clearly shows though in the amount of firepower they put into the naval battles and the sheer amount of people involved in the land battles. The costumes are relatively well done as we can tell who's who (nationalitywise - Japanese, Korean or Chinese) by the costumes they wear though I thought it was weird that the Chinese general Chen Lin had a dragon on his outfit (b/c its a symbol of the emperor and usually only the Chinese emperors wear it).

On the other hand, I feel that the portrayal of the actors (at least in the first 2 episodes) raises some issues. The Chinese generals are portrayed big, burly and arrogant (and often corrupt and cowardly), the Japanese as calculating and evil with relatively paler (sickly hue) skin, and the Koreans (well Yi and his generals at least) as upright and honarable. While it may be reasonable to portray the Japanese as villans because they are the antagonists of the drama, it was kind of weird to have them put such a negative view of their Chinese "allies". One scene even shows the Chinese soldiers raping, or at least roughly handling Korean women. While I feel that there may be some amount of truth in this, I feel that this drama (or at least the first 2 episodes) is really taking nationalism a bit too far as there seems to be not one good non-Korean character.

Nevertheless, I feel that the "Immortal" has taught me alot about Korean history and made me understand the roots of the Sino-Korean-Japanese conflict better. Indeed, it seems that the territorial conflicts between the 3 nations seem not to be a recent issue but one stemming back hundreds of years.