Janggeum’s Dream: Episode 49 Commentary
Signs of Mother
I’m glad to see the series didn’t try to go in the direction of Janggeum’s mother still being alive. When the yin-yang man said something about Janggeum’s charm, and presumably about her mother, he could have recognized the design and knew which village Janggeum was from.
If Janggeum’s back in her home village, and back at her old house, why doesn’t she let anyone know, “Hey, this is my old house!”? Or does she barely even remember it, herself? Maybe she doesn’t remember the place, but does have vague memories, perhaps feelings of déjà vu, from being at the old house, the lake, and such.
I had noticed this in a previous episode as well, but young Janggeum had an irregularly large head, didn’t she? It can’t simply be the style used because no other child in Janggeum’s Dream, second series or first, had that size ratio between head and body. She does almost look normal a few times, though, such as when pulling down the suitcase.
The chute design with Jeong-ho’s bow and arrow is an interesting one. The bow and arrow is another item where I wonder where it originates, and if different cultures, far apart, independently invented the same concept, with a similar design. I’ve wondered if there’s ever a problem for archers with having arrows too short for their bow, but for Jeong-ho that’s no problem. Even better, with the chute tied to his wrist, he has easy access to it to use repeatedly in rapid succession.
When Haeya is in front of Hwan just before he blacks out, it sounds like she’s saying “anna”, but I can’t find this on a list of family member relations in Korean.
I like Elder Floppy-ear’s training methods. He uses the unexpected. He showed when Jeong-ho and Suro were kids that it was easy for them to catch rocks when they expected them to be thrown, but were defenseless against unexpected rock throws. This time around, Jeong-ho is obviously ready for a strike, only for Suro to get a bop. I’m sure both soldiers need more training. And just where is Dong-I when he could be getting in a little bit of training? Did I miss something where he went on a short vacation? He does show up eventually in the episode, though.
The early 1500’s must be before germs were invented. Not only do people use the same spoon from buckets of water when thirsty, but the meal Lady Han brings the kids comes with only two pairs of chopsticks for the five of them.
I’m not one for battle scenes, but the final battle against the masked ninja has enough suprises to keep it interesting. Between Jeong-ho dropping his sword aside for a physical attack, and Suro’s faking being hit by the dark, the writers kept the battle from being yet another ordinary fight.
In the end, the guy with the straight, rounded see-though hat seems to not have been a bad guy after all. A final suprise was to least Janggeum had met Flops back when she was a young child. The grave he leads her to, the same as she had viewed before, reads: 天女之墓. Janggeum had seen the “天女之” part of it before, and read it something like “jya nyo”. “墓” means “grave”, and the best I can translate out of it is “Grave of the Day Woman”, whatever that may mean.
It’s shown that Janggeum did indeed get her charm from her mother. I take it the man who visited Janggeum and her mother in a flashback was Janggeum’s father, although he’s never mentioned in the first series.
Unfortunately for Jeong-ho, all he can do is stand in the background while Janggeum cries over her mother’s grave.
The next episode preview shows Pansul gets what’s coming to him, and I take it Lady Choe finds the letter from the masked man. But why is Geum-yeong being tied up as well?
A final thought: young Janggeum wears a bright, multi-colored hanbok, and her sickly mother rests under a blanket with a patch on it. Does this mean their family was well off enough to afford a nice outfit for Janggeum, but mended a hole in a blanket to continue using it rather than buying a new one? I’m also left wondering how Janggeum came to be with Dong-I’s family.
