Jumong
Hi Decoders!
The other day, I surfed local TV and chanced upon a Jumong rerun. It struck me, guys, how every scene reeks of thousands of years of history. Don’t you get that feeling when you watch Asian historical pieces? Each intricate design in the costume or a sword or a character seems to draw from a deep well in their history. Whew. It makes me look at Filipino culture and the questions are compelling. At the end of the day, I am made to consider what we could become (as a culture and as a people).
Some of my favorite quotations are from people I absolutely don’t fancy…Ralph Waldo Emerson said that there is no history, only biography. Thomas Carlyle said a similar thing. These lines continue to whet my imagination. Don’t you think that history is actually uncomplicated in contrast to what famous dead men would have us believe. It is simply made up of stories of individuals who made certain choices during their lifetimes. Whether choices for great things or the opposite. The kind of history we have is necessarily because of the lives from which it is drawn. It can be a tad bit depressing but on the other hand, very inspiring. Because we can choose to live right.
-The Fool
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My kudos, on behalf of a growing number of readers of these entries. For once, blogging can be a credible and enjoyable source of information and more than that, real stories and insights without the smokescreen. That alone is reason enough to keep reading these entries. All the best “geeks”!
April 11, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Wow! I never watched Jumong, err considering that I come from a subculture that sees telenovelas as uber-emotional and unnecessarily melodramatic. But then again, maybe those tagalog voice-overs are masks that hide the genuine raw culture that is Korea.
For example, I heard from a friend that in “Jewel in the Palace” GMA changed the ending because they think that the romance as an ending would be best suited to the Filipinos.
I for one find it disturbing, to put so much emphasis on the love story instead of the real story which is the REAL Jumong and the REAL Jewel in the Palace.
Well anyways, I guess I have to watch Jumong then, hehe, the unedited one.
April 14, 2008 at 10:10 pm