Dae Jang-Geum, Episode I
A lot of things were clarified for me watching this episode, because when I was watching the episodes on TV I started somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, the English subtitles on my DVD version can be a little cryptic (an example would be something like “I show you borrow to me Chinese fragrant powders”).
We start at an archery competition being watched by a royal official. The man who will become Jang-geum’s father (I’m assuming at this point) shoots a bull’s eye (or in the Korean version, a bull’s square), and as he goes to pluck his arrow from the target, it breaks off, and he notices blood on the arrow and on his hands. At this very moment, a factotum runs up to the royal official, yelling that the king has ordered the queen to be poisoned, and the royal official must come immediately. I’m not exactly sure who this royal official is, but he gets out of poisoning the queen by stabbing his horse and claiming that it went wild, hurting his leg when he fell off. This leaves Jang-geum’s father to administer the poison.
The queen is seated in a courtyard surrounded by her crying retainers. She demands to see the king and hear from his lips that he has signed the order that she be poisoned. And then she demands to see her son, the prince. These requests are denied, and Jang-geum’s father hands her the poison. It’s a very quick acting poison, because blood immediately appears on the queen’s lips. Before she falls to the ground, she tells Jang-geum’s father that he’ll regret doing this to her. Jang-geum’s father walks away in a daze, and he sees the young prince playing hide and seek behind a tree, unaware that his mother has just been murdered by his hand.
Jang-geum’s father runs through the forest, unable to escape the images of the poisoning still vivid in his mind. Finally, he falls down a rocky escarpment and passes out. When he awakes, he’s surprised to see that an old man has bandaged his broken arm and is minding a fire several paces away from him. After some brief badinage, the old man informs Jang-geum’s father that three women will influence his fate. The first one, he will kill. The second one, he will save the life of. And the third one will save many lives, but cause his death. Quite naturally, Jang-geum’s father wants to know how to avoid meeting the third woman. The old man tells him that if he doesn’t want to meet the third woman, he should avoid meeting the second woman. Again, Jang-geum’s father seeks a little more clarification. Rather than answer him, the old man throws three sheets of paper at him, each with a Chinese character written on it, and then he disappears.
Seeking to understand the meaning of the characters, Jang-geum’s father goes to another wise man. The man looks at the three sheets of paper, and he concludes that each character must be taken apart to form two new characters. And, quite gratuitously, he mentions that if you take apart a completely different character, it shows that the Li family is meant to rule the world (this did, however, explain a lot to me about Sei’s ego). Taking apart the first character revealed that the first woman was, naturally, the queen whom Jang-geum’s father just poisoned. The second character reveals something about seeing a head in a stream. And I forget what the third character reveals—I wasn’t paying too much attention, because it’s obviously about Jang-geum, and I had a couple beers before I watched it last night.
Fourteen years pass by. Jang-geum’s father is still tormented by dreams about poisoning the queen and hearing the old man’s prophecy. Even though he has been avoiding women to try to cheat his fate, he still doesn’t feel safe. He decides he needs to leave the royal service and go live far away in the forest.
Next, we cut to the royal kitchens and catch sight of our old favorites, Lady Han and Lady Choi—except at this point, they’re not yet ladies, just underlings helping prepare the royal meals. Another underling is working alongside them, someone who looks a lot like Jang-geum. She, of course, is Jang-geum’s mother. And, right away, Jang-geum’s mother notices the future Lady Choi (called Cui in the subtitles) putting ginger into the queen’s porridge. This is wrong because the queen is currently being treated for obesity and should not be given ginger in her porridge (I may have some of the details incorrect here). Jang-geum’s mother tells a supervising lady what’s going on, and the lady quickly tells Jang-geum’s mother not to tell anybody what she saw—and that she’ll investigate the situation herself. Jang-geum’s mother happily accepts this solution and runs out to the courtyard, where she meets the future Lady Han. It becomes apparent that Lady Han also knows about the improper ginger additions, something the supervising lady is unaware of. At this point, a male guard comes up to Lady Han and gives her some fragrant Chinese powders. Lady Han scorns his attentions and tells him to leave.
Nightfall. Jang-geum’s mother hears a commotion outside her sleeping chamber. Suddenly, a bunch of women rush in, cover her head and drag her away. She’s taken out to the forest, where she is accused of sleeping with the guard who gave Lady Han the Chinese fragrant powders. To cover for Lady Han, Jang-geum’s mother admits to accepting the powders, but not to sleeping with the guard. In spite of this, she’s told to kill herself immediately by drinking poison. Luckily, Lady Han is asked to administer the poison, and she manages to dilute it a little during the commotion. Jang-geum’s mother takes the poison and collapses to the forest floor. The head lady commands some of the girls, including Lady Choi, to drag the body out of sight.
In her younger days, it seems perfidy still causes Lady Choi some distress. When they get back to their chambers, she breaks down in front of the head lady. The head lady explains to the tearful Lady Choi that the Cui family has always used treachery to get ahead, citing the example of their great-grandmother, who quickly switched sides during some previous palace intrigue.
Meanwhile, Jang-geum’s father is wandering around his new forested home. From the distance, he sees a woman’s head poking out of a stream. He rescues the woman and takes her to the home of his master. The master recognizes that the woman has been poisoned, but that she could still be saved if given some special herbs and green bean soup. He leaves to the find the herbs and commands Jang-geum’s father to care for the woman while he’s away. After much fever and wild soup drinking, Jang-geum’s mother begins to recover. The master tells Jang-geum’s father that he has saved her life. Suddenly remembering the prophecy, Jang-geum’s father insists that no, it was not him, it was the master. But the master reiterates that by dragging her out of the stream and feeding her the soup, Jang-geum’s father did indeed save her life.
The prophecy of the second woman had come true!
We start at an archery competition being watched by a royal official. The man who will become Jang-geum’s father (I’m assuming at this point) shoots a bull’s eye (or in the Korean version, a bull’s square), and as he goes to pluck his arrow from the target, it breaks off, and he notices blood on the arrow and on his hands. At this very moment, a factotum runs up to the royal official, yelling that the king has ordered the queen to be poisoned, and the royal official must come immediately. I’m not exactly sure who this royal official is, but he gets out of poisoning the queen by stabbing his horse and claiming that it went wild, hurting his leg when he fell off. This leaves Jang-geum’s father to administer the poison.
The queen is seated in a courtyard surrounded by her crying retainers. She demands to see the king and hear from his lips that he has signed the order that she be poisoned. And then she demands to see her son, the prince. These requests are denied, and Jang-geum’s father hands her the poison. It’s a very quick acting poison, because blood immediately appears on the queen’s lips. Before she falls to the ground, she tells Jang-geum’s father that he’ll regret doing this to her. Jang-geum’s father walks away in a daze, and he sees the young prince playing hide and seek behind a tree, unaware that his mother has just been murdered by his hand.
Jang-geum’s father runs through the forest, unable to escape the images of the poisoning still vivid in his mind. Finally, he falls down a rocky escarpment and passes out. When he awakes, he’s surprised to see that an old man has bandaged his broken arm and is minding a fire several paces away from him. After some brief badinage, the old man informs Jang-geum’s father that three women will influence his fate. The first one, he will kill. The second one, he will save the life of. And the third one will save many lives, but cause his death. Quite naturally, Jang-geum’s father wants to know how to avoid meeting the third woman. The old man tells him that if he doesn’t want to meet the third woman, he should avoid meeting the second woman. Again, Jang-geum’s father seeks a little more clarification. Rather than answer him, the old man throws three sheets of paper at him, each with a Chinese character written on it, and then he disappears.
Seeking to understand the meaning of the characters, Jang-geum’s father goes to another wise man. The man looks at the three sheets of paper, and he concludes that each character must be taken apart to form two new characters. And, quite gratuitously, he mentions that if you take apart a completely different character, it shows that the Li family is meant to rule the world (this did, however, explain a lot to me about Sei’s ego). Taking apart the first character revealed that the first woman was, naturally, the queen whom Jang-geum’s father just poisoned. The second character reveals something about seeing a head in a stream. And I forget what the third character reveals—I wasn’t paying too much attention, because it’s obviously about Jang-geum, and I had a couple beers before I watched it last night.
Fourteen years pass by. Jang-geum’s father is still tormented by dreams about poisoning the queen and hearing the old man’s prophecy. Even though he has been avoiding women to try to cheat his fate, he still doesn’t feel safe. He decides he needs to leave the royal service and go live far away in the forest.
Next, we cut to the royal kitchens and catch sight of our old favorites, Lady Han and Lady Choi—except at this point, they’re not yet ladies, just underlings helping prepare the royal meals. Another underling is working alongside them, someone who looks a lot like Jang-geum. She, of course, is Jang-geum’s mother. And, right away, Jang-geum’s mother notices the future Lady Choi (called Cui in the subtitles) putting ginger into the queen’s porridge. This is wrong because the queen is currently being treated for obesity and should not be given ginger in her porridge (I may have some of the details incorrect here). Jang-geum’s mother tells a supervising lady what’s going on, and the lady quickly tells Jang-geum’s mother not to tell anybody what she saw—and that she’ll investigate the situation herself. Jang-geum’s mother happily accepts this solution and runs out to the courtyard, where she meets the future Lady Han. It becomes apparent that Lady Han also knows about the improper ginger additions, something the supervising lady is unaware of. At this point, a male guard comes up to Lady Han and gives her some fragrant Chinese powders. Lady Han scorns his attentions and tells him to leave.
Nightfall. Jang-geum’s mother hears a commotion outside her sleeping chamber. Suddenly, a bunch of women rush in, cover her head and drag her away. She’s taken out to the forest, where she is accused of sleeping with the guard who gave Lady Han the Chinese fragrant powders. To cover for Lady Han, Jang-geum’s mother admits to accepting the powders, but not to sleeping with the guard. In spite of this, she’s told to kill herself immediately by drinking poison. Luckily, Lady Han is asked to administer the poison, and she manages to dilute it a little during the commotion. Jang-geum’s mother takes the poison and collapses to the forest floor. The head lady commands some of the girls, including Lady Choi, to drag the body out of sight.
In her younger days, it seems perfidy still causes Lady Choi some distress. When they get back to their chambers, she breaks down in front of the head lady. The head lady explains to the tearful Lady Choi that the Cui family has always used treachery to get ahead, citing the example of their great-grandmother, who quickly switched sides during some previous palace intrigue.
Meanwhile, Jang-geum’s father is wandering around his new forested home. From the distance, he sees a woman’s head poking out of a stream. He rescues the woman and takes her to the home of his master. The master recognizes that the woman has been poisoned, but that she could still be saved if given some special herbs and green bean soup. He leaves to the find the herbs and commands Jang-geum’s father to care for the woman while he’s away. After much fever and wild soup drinking, Jang-geum’s mother begins to recover. The master tells Jang-geum’s father that he has saved her life. Suddenly remembering the prophecy, Jang-geum’s father insists that no, it was not him, it was the master. But the master reiterates that by dragging her out of the stream and feeding her the soup, Jang-geum’s father did indeed save her life.
The prophecy of the second woman had come true!
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