Taejanggŭm please…
I’m slightly bemused to discover that someone in Britain has started a blog dedicated entirely to getting the BBC to show the hit Korean historical drama (사극), Taejanggŭm (大長今). I’m really not sure how likely this is considering the considerable barriers to comprehension for a British audience, even with well-translated subtitles. But I suppose it has been a huge hit in many parts of Asia (the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc etc) and I can just about imagine this sort of TV series being shown on the BBC’s high-brow, low audience channel, BBC4. Which incidentally is where they have shown the epic, arty German mega-series Heimat which a commenter on the blog compares with Taejanggŭm.
Actually I must admit that I haven’t seen much of this drama. It was the big hit last time I was in Korea more than two years ago but I only saw a little bit of it, most of which seemed to involve food (no doubt part of its appeal in Korea!). I certainly wouldn’t object to seeing it on the BBC (however unlikely that may be) so I did my bit and signed the petition.
Anyway, to prove the point about the widespread popularity of this series, here’s a picture I posted back last year of the window of a Chinese shop in Seattle with no less than 3 posters advertising Taejanggŭm:
Just discovered that there’s a fairly comprehensive Wikipedia entry.
What a coincidence! I actually started watching Taejanggŭm a couple of weeks ago when the local Korean TV station (in San Francisco Bay Area) started broadcasting it in Korean with English subtitles. You see, it had aired a couple of times already on Chinese channels (dubbed & subtitled in Chinese) but this was the first time in Korean. It’s a bit frustrating but totally addictive — we watch it religiously every night — and not surprising that it was such a hit. Not sure about the BBC audience, however. ;-)
Comment by otherwise — May 18, 2006 @ 9:56 pm