Ja Myung Go

The Korean drama, Ja Myung Go, is a historical, slightly romantic drama that will pull in you. The three main cast members are Jung Ryeo Won, who some may know from the (now disbanded) K-Pop girl group Chakra or the drama My Name Is Kim Sam Soon, Jung Kyung Ho, and also Park Min Young. The show aired on the Seoul Broadcasting Station (SBS) from March 9 of 2009 to July 21 of the same year, with a grand total of 39 episodes being aired.

Plot

The story of Ja Myung Go is actually a twist on a Korean folk tale about Prince Hodong (Jung Kyung Ho) and Lahee, the Princess of Nakrang (Park Min Young).

The original folktale is about a famous, mystical drum called Jamyeonggo (which translates literally into "the drum that beats by itself") that would alarm the people of Nakrang whenever their country was under attack by other territories and warriors. This caused for the neighboring nations, including the warrior country Goguryeo, to become hesitant about trying to conquer Nakrang. However, Prince Hodong of Goguryeo, who infiltrated Nakrang with intentions to destroy Jamyeonggo, falls in love with a girl named Lahee, otherwise known as Princess Nakrang. Princess Nakrang, blinded by her love for Prince Hodong, decides to be the one to tear Jamyeonggo, which ultimately brings her country to ruin. In the end, Lahee is killed by her country's people for betraying them, and Prince Hodong is left holding her dead body as he mourns her passing.

The drama brings about a twist to this famous tale by making it so that the mystical drum, Jamyeonggo, is actually a person. Lahee and Ja Myung (Jung Ryeo Won) are born on the same day at the same time to Choi Li, a general, and his two wives. However, a Priest who foretells their fate through reading the stars and the heavens, tells them that one daughter of Choi Li would save the kingdom, while the other would destroy it. The king of Nakrang orders for one of the babies to be killed, and Wang Jasil, the overly cunning and ambitious second wife of Choi Li, who is also Lahee's mother, decides to take fate into her own hands by stabbing newborn Ja Myung with a hairpin, making it so that her daughter would be the one to live and "save the kingdom".

Mo Haso, Jamyung's mother and the first wife of Choi Li, is forced to depart from her newborn by placing Jamyung into a boat that would carry her away from Nakrang and, presumably, seal her fate. However, Ilpum, the toddler son of Mo Haso's maid, is placed upon the boat along with Ja Myung by his mother, his mom pleading with him to look after her.

As time passes, Ja Myung, who miraculously survived being stabbed by Wang Jasil's hairpin, and Ilpum, are brought into a circus troupe and cared for by its leaders, Cha Chasong and Michu, who rename Ja Myung and Ilpum as Puku and Hangkai respectively. As they grow older, the two look for their parents and come to find out that Puku is actually Princess Ja Myung, which makes Hangkai, Cha Chasong, and Michu help her return home to Nakrang.

Due to certain political circumstances and the fact that Princess Lahee has already been installed as crown princess to her father Choi Li, who became king after rebelling against the previous ruler, Ja Myung decides to turn down being named a princess, and instead becomes a priestess. As a priestess, Ja Myung decides to build Jamyeonggo, the mystical drum that will alarm the country of an enemy attack, which leads to Prince Hodong of Goguryeo infiltrating Nakrang as Princess Lahee's future husband.

Both Ja Myung and Lahee are in love with Prince Hodong, who is in love with both of them in return, but Hodong marries Lahee nonetheless to continue his plan of destroying Jamyeonggo and, ultimately, Nakrang. After having manipulated her feelings for him, Hodong gets Lahee to agree to destroy the drum, and his army of Goguryeo warriors then attacks Nakrang, bringing it to its knees.

Overall

Even though I didn't fully come to love this drama, I still enjoyed it. In the first few episodes, a lot happened and there wasn't much to go off of at all, making it a bit hard to keep up with it, but once you came to know who was who, you start to really immerse yourself into their world. One thing I would definitely say about this drama is that it can get a little... messed up. Needless to say, stabbing a newborn baby in the heart with a hairpin is extreme and is probably something not everyone could bring themselves to watch (even if it is just a portrayal), so this drama may not be for everyone. However, if you can get passed stuff such as that, you might come to really like this story. While this is supposed to be a romantic, historical drama, there wasn't much "romance" in it for me to call it one. However, I found this to be pretty appropriate because I thought it made the story more realistic. So yes, I enjoyed watching this drama, and I would recommend it, especially to those that are looking for a historical drama that will be something new for them to watch.