구르믈 버서난 달처럼 (Blades of Blood, literally Like The Moon Escaping From The Clouds) is a Korean movie that was released in April 2010.
Please notice that I might give some more spoilers than usually because - as far as I've read - some people don't quite understand the story which is why I feel that I should try to explain the historical context as well as my personal understanding/ maybe some interpretation. If you plan on watching this movie, I feel like you should stop reading right now and come back when you've seen it.
Story: The story is set in late 16th Century Korea. It's the reign of King Seonjo, at least officially, but the Korean monarchy is weakend and the King has to rely on the support of the
yangban class, the gentry. Due to some internal strife, mostly between the West and the East parties, corruption and the pressure coming from the Japanese the State Joseon is even more endangered. That's why in this movie an alliance was formed, firstly to defend the population against the Japanese forces. But it becomes obvious throughout the movie that General Lee Mong-hak has other plans and wants to become the King himself. He therefore killed a man that was later condemned a traitor. Hwang Jeong-hak, a blind swordsman, knows about this. He's also there when the alliance attacks the house of the Han family. After saving the illegitimate son of the family that son, Han Kyun-Jja seeks for revenge and asks Hwang Jeong-hak to become his teacher. While searching for Lee Mong-hak they meet Baek-ji, Mong-hak's lover/ girlfriend, who simply starts following them to meet the man who left her shortly before again. It seems that Kyun-ja and Baek-ji develop feelings for each other but in the end it seems she still wants to see Mong-hak again at any cost. In the end of the movie the showdown appears to be in Seoul, called Hanyang or Hanseong in the Joseon Dynasty, at the royal palace but the King and his loyalty had already left when Mong-hak and Kyun-ja meet and the Japanese forces invade the palace later. The scene following that showdown is something I don't want to talk about too much. But the moon's playing an important role, that's why I think it's necessary to know about the literal title as well. Personally, I would guess it's something otherworldly we see mostly due to the color effects used but it all depends on how you want to interpret it.
Now I think that's a pretty detailed story summary for my standards. I honestly don't get why some people couldn't make any guesses about it. I'm not saying that they're stupid, I would never do that, but I guess they didn't pay attention because a) I think the internal strife between the political parties was obvious, b) they've been talking about the Japanese all the time, and they even mentioned a Japanese invasion and c) actually the context isn't even that important because I personally thing the movie mostly focusses on Kyun-ja's revenge.
There is one thing I have to add to those short summaries I've found though: I DO NOT think that the characters are fighting for social equality. In the Joseon dynasty, Confucianism was the main school of thought. Due to the system the people accepted their role in society, they accepted that they were born into the system. And there were two 'rules' everyone had to obey: Filial piety and loyalty towards the State. Everything that endangered the system and especially those two rules/laws was unacceptable (which led to various persecutions of Catholics about 200 years later but that's something totally different).
Cast: Let's be honest, how many of us watched that movie because of
Baek Sung-hyun as Han Kyun-ja? I bet a few did, and if you do watch it because of him, you might love it. His acting in this movie shows many different emotions and shades, though I would characterize Kyun-ja actually as a mostly young and impulsive man who wants to be accepted though he doesn't belong to the
yangban class (I forgot the name for illegitimate children of gentry men with their concubines, sorry).
Cha Seung-won appears as Lee Mong-hak. Though he's listed in the main cast and definitely is one of the key characters he doesn't have too much screentime compared to Baek Sung-hyun and Hwang Jung-min. Most of the time I thought his acting was emotionless and therefore a little empty - there wasn't really a cold feeling around him but simply nothing - but in the latter half of the movie there were some really good emotions included. So his acting itself was at least okay (I would need to rewatch the movie a few more times to see whether I missed out on something or not).
Hwang Jung-min appears as Hwang Jeong-hak, the blind swordman. If I didn't miss out on anything important, which I don't think happened, it was never really explained why he behaved the way he did. Why did he turn against the alliance? I mean, why exactly? Sure it's said that he somehow realized the alliance won't make the world a better place and that in the struggle for power the situation might turn out worse. Anyways, I liked his acting after all. His eyes were closed basically 95% of the time and I don't think it's that easy to film some scenes without opening ones eyes so he definitely deserves respect for that.
Lastly, we have
Han Ji-hye as Baek-ji. She's beautiful and I think her acting actually fit her role well but then again I wouldn't want to discuss whether it's a major or minor role. We don't get to know that much about her after all, only that she was Lee Mong-hak's girl, he somehow left her and she wants to see him again. That's why she follows Kyun-ja and Hwang Jeong-hak later.
Soundtrack: Since this is a movie, there is basically no soundtrack like there would be for a drama. However, I did enjoy the somewhat traditional feeling of many songs included in the soundtrack, especially of those sang by Baek-ji and played on an instrument called
gayageum if I remember right. The music after all did fit the scenes. Especially in the fighting scenes some people will argue it would've been better to use rock songs but please remember that this song is set in the last decade of the 16th Century and imagine a hard rock song playing. That doesn't work, guys, it's just a huge 'Nope'.
After all I've rated this movie as a
7.5/10 mainly because I felt they could've shortened some scenes and maybe used less effects in the fighting scenes. This movie focusses surely more on action than on the plot but I think it's not that bad since the main goal, the revenge, still remained and the story therefore developed. Though it is indeed a rather slow development that's being displayed.
I hope I was able to clear up some things about the setting and the plot above though, and if you have any questions about the
Imjin Waeran or
Hideyoshi invasions that basically start during the time where the movie is set, you can either ask me - or simply try to find the information on Google or Yahoo search.
