A Life Spent Reading

Dae Jang Geum is a phenomenally popular television series from Korea. It ran over fifty episodes, two per week, and is loosely based on a real woman who lived in the 15th century. This woman rose to become the personal physician to the king of Korea, an unprecedented feat.

The series starts before the main character was born, as Korean stories often do. Jang Geum’s mother is a palace woman framed by a friend and forced to leave the palace. She marries and has a child, Jang Geum, but is still pursued by the palace faction that is arrayed against her. Eventually, the mother is killed and Jang Geum is adopted into the palace’s kitchen section where she becomes a kitchen girl. The rest of the series follows her trials and tribulations as she fights to become the top kitchen lady, then a nurse, then a physician.

This might not sound all that interesting on the face of it, but the show has a good budget, excellent writers and some very good actors. The result is a surprisingly watchable saga, replete with plots, counter-plots and enough twists to satisfy even the most jaded soap fan. Along the way you’ll get to see something of what it was like in the imperial palace of Korea in the 1400s. While this makes the series more interesting, it also renders it less approachable for those who might be watching to help themselves learn Korean. The language used is highly formal, somewhat archaic Korean, and will present problems for even very fluent non-native speakers if they aren’t familiar with the time period.

Along these lines, even the best translation leaves something to be desired. If you want to watch it and don’t speak Korean, spend the money to get a good translation. I tried a cheap one out of Indonesia and had to send it back it was so bad. Then I saw one from the States that was much better. Even this one, though, had some that made the story difficult to follow in places. If you can, watch this with a Korean friend, preferably one who knows enough about the time period to be able to explain some of the finer points of what’s going on. Without knowing the political background, especially as it relates to the queen and her son, a lot of what goes on simply doesn’t make much sense.

Language and cultural issues aside, this is an enjoyable and somewhat addicting series, especially if you have an interest in Korean, political intrigue or – most of all! – cooking. (Since the story centers around the palace kitchen for the majority of the episodes, there are innumerable scenes showing how food was made at that time.) Women in particular seem to identify with the Jang Geum character, and the show has gained some unexpected popularity in the US as a sort of early feminist parable. Buying the full set is fairly expensive, but it will reward you with hours and hours of entertainment.