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Conspiracy in the Court DIRECTOR’s CUT 한성별곡-正

Alternative title(s): Hansungbyulgok/Seoul’s Sad Song/Conspiracy in the court
Genre: Sageuk, Political, Action-Romance
Episodes: 8
Broadcast network: KBS2
Broadcast period: 2007-July-9 to 2007-July-31
Air time: Monday & Tuesday Night, 10:55 pm
Producer: 곽정환 (Kwak Jung-Hwan)
[구미호 (Hometown of Legends - Fox with Nine Tails); 추노 (Chuno: Slave Hunter, KBS 2009]
Writer: 박진우 (Park Jin-Woo)
[바람의 나라 (Kingdom of the Wind)]
Music: 최철호 (Choi Cheol-Ho)
[얼렁뚱땅 흥신소 (Evasive Inquiry Agency), 대왕세종 (Sejong the Great)]
OFFICIAL SITE
Soompi thread

CAST:
* Lee Cheon-Hee as Yang Man-Oh
* Jin Yi-Han as Park Sang-Gyu
* Kim Ha-Eun as Lee Na-Young
* Ahn Nae-Sang as the King
* Jung Ae-Ri as the Queen Dowager
* Kim Eung-Soo as Park In-Bin
* Kim Gi-Hyeon as Shim Min-Gu
* Jang Hyun-Sung as Lee Jae-Han
* Kim Myung-Soo as Butler Hwang
* Han Jung-Soo as Seo Ju Pil

PLOT:
Yang Man-Oh is an ambitious merchant selling his soul to the devil, with the aspiration of creating a new world for people like him and his loved one. Lee Na-Young is the daughter of a minister executed for treason, abandoning her every emotion to mercilessly rid this damned world of all the people who wronged her. Park Sang-Gyu is a petty officer, the illegitimate son of a powerful politician, still too naive to understand how much of a big shade of gray the world surrounding him is. And then is the king… a reformist loved by the people but detested by those who cannot allow him to bring his fresh ideas into fruition. Enough to gather together and scream to all creation their new mantra: bloodshed will save our nation. Love, blood and conspiracies. All in the same court. How about that?

DRAMA INFO:
What if…

Anyone even only remotely interested in history must have asked himself that question. What if Gojoseon hadn’t disintegrated internally even before Emperor Wu of the Han began his massive campaign which brought an end to the long standing kingdom, in 108 BC? What if Yeon Gaesomun hadn’t seized power in the Goguryeo court during the 7th century, and instead masterminded a formidable axis along with Baekje and Shilla to repel the Tang aggressors? What if treacherous nobles hadn’t hampered Shin Don and King Gongmin’s reforms which could have changed the face of Goryeo forever, maybe extending its legacy by a good few centuries? What if, and this is the most painful one, the most brilliant ruler the Joseon dynasty had ever shown, Jeongjo, did not perish on a cloudy summer day of 1800, opening the gates of what would become doom for Joseon?

Some of you will have heard of the recently discovered 299 letters between the King and his rival subject Shim Hwan-Ji, in some ways erasing the “poisoning” conspiracy, some others still believe his death was concocted by the same people who would later open the era of 세도정치 (in-laws government, in which a few clans would dominate politics, with kings being no more than glorified puppets). What is for sure is that all the reforms, the political advancements (including the relative leveling between the nobles and commoners), not to mention all the technological innovations which Jeongjo’s rule brought would suggest Joseon could have opened to the world not in the early years of the 20th century, forced by the circumstances, but a good century earlier. Everything which was ignited by his death == from the in-laws government to the isolation of the Daewongun, from Empress Myeongseong’s assassination to the Japanese colonization == sounds like a very sad song bringing us back to that very question…. what if.

What if a young and talented producer with a decade of work as assistant PD suddenly took an interesting script for a 4-part short sageuk, written by who was then a newcomer with talent, decided to expand it to eight episodes, and do something crazy, like shooting the shows’ entirety before broadcast? What if they spat in the face of star casting, and instead chose good actors who would fit the characters they were to play like a glove? What if with nothing more than 100 million won per episode, less than half the usual budget of a normal sageuk, they managed to bring the kind of visual quality, verisimilitude and film-like panache that the struggling sageuk genre had a hard time showing? What if, finally, they ignored the often fickle and shallow whims of the masses, and instead focused on making their little jewel of a project something that, even if only seen by a tiny percentage of the TV viewing cosmos, would leave a remarkable, indelible aftertaste? What if they actually did all that…. and you were just about to see it?

한성별곡-正 (Conspiracy in the Court) is not only what is usually referred to as a masterpiece. It’s a landmark production which gave new meaning to the word “fusion sageuk,” what once was (and very often still is) just a sort of new masturbatory genre nomenclature used by lazy drama executives to excuse the fact that they couldn’t be arsed to study the period they were about to portray, by adding anachronistic shenanigans, clashing pastiches of different periods and genres that have little to do with historical drama. It added this new dimension by simply going back to the basics of what history is: a dialogue between past and present, by drawing Jeongjo’s final days (never mentioned in the show, but all the details hint at 1800, the final weeks of his rule) in a way which eerily reminded of the final days of Roh Moo-Hyun’s tenure as president. Now if you want to compare the callous clans which took over after Jeongjo died with the rats infesting that pretty blue house on the hill right as we speak… I won’t blame you.

But don’t let all that textual gravitas scare you off: this drama is unbelievably good if you know the history of the period, the politics which influenced it and what the traditional canons of historiography suggested about this fascinating few decades. But it’s also great if you have never opened a book about Korean history, and want some kick ass action, romance that smells of real people and real sentiments, and profound and touching dialogue acted with tremendous panache by some greats of the genre, next to people who never even smelled what a sageuk tasted before, like the shocking performance by Lee Cheon-Hee.

At the core, it’s really a love story about people with flaws. About a ruler’s love for his people and country, unable to strip himself of the final layer which could bring them the “salvation” his reforms always promised. About a young merchant doing everything for his loved one, even working with the devils he always told himself to fight. It’s about the baddies feel like human beings and do what they do to survive, not just because the writer needed a squirrelly son of a slattern you throw your remote control at. It is about, more than anything, dreams and hope. Hope that someday something of this quality will once again be produced, and of dreams that one day people will finally realize the potential of this medium, setting aside lurid trendy dramas and over the top histrionics to enjoy quality, every once in a blue moon. That it only recorded a 5%, it was a given. But believe me when I tell you… if you ever decide to join that lucky 5%, you will never forget this show. Guaranteed.

credits to MisterX

SUBTITLES:

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EPISODE 1 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: victory
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 2 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: wichitawx
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 3 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: wichitawx
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 4 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: wichitawx
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 5 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: julier
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 6 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: wichitawx
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 7 – DIRECTOR’s CUT
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: julier
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

EPISODE 8 – DIRECTOR’s CUT Wanna thank us?
CREDITS:
Translator & Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: wichitawx
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link