Internal errors
As in quite all drama, one can detect some continuity errors (internal errors of the scenario):
- In E09 Sang-gung uses the pen name Hyewon... before this pen name has been given (E13). [1]
- In E15 56:28, the bad guy is plainly played by the same actor as the mysterious man (Baek Dong-su).
- Problems in sexagesimal cycle. When "now" is 1777 = jeong-yu 정유, then "ten years before" is 1766 = byeong-sul 병술. And not byeong-jin 병진. Both the Korean track sound (everywhere) and the Chinese characters in the "secret library" (E14, 09:27) are describing 丙辰年, i.e. 1796. [2]
Art and Artistic license
The events described by the twenty episodes are dated 1777 (=now) with flashes-back from 1766 (=ten years before). This two years scheme had required some artistic license with the meager historical facts known about the involved painters. Among the distorsions, we can list:
- Painter Yi Myeong-gi 이명기 is only known fl 1791-1796. Painting of Seo Jik-su (E08) is 1796.
- Portrait of Chae Jegong (E09) is 1792 by Yi Myeong-gi, not 1777 by Kim Hong-do.
- Gang Se-hwang lived 1713-1791, and therefore not murdered 1766.
- Portrait of King Yi Taejo, 태조 어진, Taejo Eojin, was painted 1872.
- Dasan Jeong Yak-jong lived 1762-1836. In 1766, he hasn't draw any machine sketches !
- Nam Gye-u lived 1811-88. His Butterflies were not painted circa 1777.
Such artistic license allows a better unity of the scenario, and has been largely acknowledged by the scenarist. Each episode of the series starts by a foreword that says : "the contents of this drama may not match some of the historical facts" (On the left stands the stylized title: 바람의 화원).
Several academics have criticized the drama due to these distorsions [3]. But, on the other hand, the main result over the large public seems to have been an increased interest for artistic topics. "Every day for the past two weeks a line of visitors stretched 300 meters (984 feet) in front of [the Kansong Art Museum in Seongbuk-dong, northern Seoul], and officials reckon 200,000 people having seen the exhibition since it opened on Oct. 12, 2008, buying up more than 2,000 prints of the art on display".
Should art capture the spirit of a scene or a person, or capture each irrelevant detail ? This is a well known question. Another is how to decript a painting.
Episodes
More than forty paintings are involved in the series, providing a possible context for each of them. For the paintings from the Hyewon pungsokdo, this exercise is more striking if possible since the titles were not given by the painter himself, put where attributed more than a century later.
외유사생 (A journey to paint from life) E01
장파형 (Before tempest) E02
장파형수 (Hand crushing punishment) E03
군선도 (Painting of the nineteen immortals) E04
단오풍정 (Scenery on Dano day) E05
동제각화 (One topic, two paintings) E06
정풍 (Gathering evidences) E07
어진화사 1 (Imperial Master Painter) E08
어진화사 2 (Imperial Master Painter) E09
어진화사 3 (Imperial Master Painter) E10
Taejo Eojin 태조 어진
Retrospective Portrait of King Taejo
어진화사 4 (Imperial Master Painter) E11
봉심 (Bongsim Evaluation) E12
Portrait of King Cheoljong
생과 사 (Life and Death) E13
잃어버린 예진 (Searching for the Lost Yejin) E14
다섯개의 초상 (Portraits of the Five Bamboos) E15
얼굴없는 초상 (The Faceless Portrait) E16
(courtesy of Yi Jaegwan)
Lovers under the moonlight
In the middle of the night,
When the moon is dark,
The two hearts are one.
십년전 여인 (The Girl from Ten Years Before) E17
원수 (Enemies) E18
쟁투 (Fight) E19
미인도 (Portrait of a Beauty) E20
