Opinion | Netflix K-drama The Kings Affection, bloody, gender-bending historical romance, could d
Although infanticide is avoided thanks to some quick thinking, it isn’t long before the blood of anyone who witnessed the arrival of identical twins is used to decorate the palace. This is followed by the blood of children.
Nation’s history in a bowl in Netflix’s Korean Cold Noodle Rhapsody
Why the slaughter and deception in the first place? Because of the inherent sexism that allows the king, from the Joseon dynasty that ruled the Korean peninsula between 1392 and 1897, to ask: “Who will accept a prince that shared a womb with a girl?”
That the girl should survive the superstitious nonsense that decrees twins are a “bad sign” is fine from our modern perspective. But in this Korea of old, pretending boy is girl and vice versa will inevitably result in the cover of the crown “prince” being blown: dressing up as a boy is all very well, but eventually you have to do a man’s job.
Playing the girl who plays at being a boy is Park Eun-bin, who keeps her/his end up as crown prince Lee Hwi with no little aplomb until teacher Jung Ji-woon, played by Rowoon, shows up to throw the possibility of some royal romance into the works.If that isn’t your bag, you can still enjoy the sweeping set pieces full of colour and pomp, the action and the pre-fight stare-downs reminiscent of spaghetti Westerns.
A detailed account of the Boxing Day tsunami
Three-part documentary The Boxing Day Tsunami, now screening on BBC Earth (via Cable TV channel 721, myTV Super channel 401 and Now TV channel 220), gives a minute-by-minute account of events before and after the devastation wreaked on the shores of Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, as related by survivors.
Presenter Xand van Tulleken drives home the stupefying power of the seismic event: the earthquake that triggered the tsunami was the third-largest ever recorded, and the deadliest natural disaster on record; it released energy equivalent to that of 23,000 atomic bombs; the freak waves that resulted reached 8,000 kilometres from the earthquake’s epicentre; a first wave 15 metres (49ft) high travelled at 800km/h (500mph), approaching long-haul airliner cruising speed).
Notwithstanding the staggering statistics, the most affecting stories are to be found in the personal accounts of the witnesses, all of whom still live with psychological or physical scars – sometimes both.
With the help of simulators and wave tanks, scientists explain the physics behind the phenomenon; but cold science can fill only so many gaps in so many shattered lives.
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