Video about a Korean eunuch

[JesusA (imported)]

A Korean historical drama, “The King & I” (Wang gwa Na) is being released on DVD with English subtitles. It was very popular when it ran on television in 66 hour-and-a-half episodes. While the drama covers a many year swath of Korean history, the central figure for much of it is Kim Cheo-seon (childhood name Chun-dong), the most important eunuch in Korean history. The trailer on the web site centers on him. He was the adopted son of a shaman (untouchable caste) and was castrated at age 18 to serve the young woman shown in the later part of the trailer. She was the daughter of a minor noble and became concubine to King Seongjong. After the death of his first queen, she became Queen Jehoen and her son became the 10th king of the Chosun Dynasty in 1494. (The Chosun Dynasty ruled Korea 1392-1910.)

A five minute trailer is currently available, though it may not be up for very long:

http://www.yaentertainment.com/catalog/king1.html

I now have the first set of DVDs – episodes 1 through 21 – and have watched the first six. From my reading of Korean history, they have done a very nice job of it, though the peasants are far too well-dressed and spotlessly clean most of the time. The palace “eunuchs” are mostly played by adult male actors, though the residents of the eunuch school and the young eunuchs of the palace are played by boys and girls ages about 8 to 13.

The two castration scenes in the first 6 episodes (the second of which is in the trailer) seem accurate. They fit with what Chang Hui-hung wrote in his doctoral dissertation in history, which was published in 2006 as “Naeshi” by Kyongin Munhwasa. It’s painful viewing, especially the earlier castration scene, which is not in the trailer. The first one includes the preservation in salt of the removed parts and a discussion between the castrator and his young assistant (Chun-dong at age 13) about why they are so important to preserve. A eunuch is reborn as a male if they are buried with him, as a female mule if they are not.

[vesal_mas (imported)]

Should the link be lost:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVFM5yFS ... re=related

Take Care !

Vesal.

[Milkman (imported)]

wow.. what a great trailer. Do you have the footage of the guy who could not castrate the boy , getting castrated?

[Paolo]

There's no way to share this series of videos, as I don't have Usenet access anymore for binary groups, and Youtube will probably pull it because of copyright issues anyway. If you want to see this series - and it's excellent filming and acting - you'll have to look into buying it or see if Netflix or someone has it.

Besides, the last time I uploaded a movie to Usenet, no one knew how to access it anyway...

[JesusA (imported)]

The entire TV series is available on a Hong Kong based site – all 66 episodes and nearly 100 hours of television. The sound track is, of course, the original in Korean. The subtitles are in Chinese.

http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f937348o1p6.html

If you do a Google search for the series under its Korean name, you turn up hundreds of sites – mostly blogs about it, but also cast photos and other miscellaneous information.

[Milkman (imported)]

What page of the clips is the castration of the hero on ..Do you know.. actually even without subtitles this is a good series

[thepenectomised (imported)]

This vid is ..just so fillef with references to castration it is almost unbelievable

[Paolo]

You should see the series.

It's amazing, from all standpoints.

[thepenectomised (imported)]

Given that I am Chinese, I am able to see the series from the site posted. Will post here the interesting parts if possible.

[Paolo]

EA does not support file sharing, and does not host pictures or videos through VBulletin. Thanks for the offer though.