Y’know, I just love it when the blog evolves because of you guys. ❤️
I started this blog mostly for reviews, and then added the k-love section, and the occasional Musings post. But mostly everything else is a result of suggestions and requests from you guys. Pure Pretty, Dream Dramas, and Dear kfangurl posts, would’ve never been born on this blog if you guys hadn’t asked for and contributed to them.
And now, here’s another new thing that we’ve not had on the blog before: a group watch, with open thread discussions to go with! Exciting! 😃 Lemme tell you guys all about it, so that you can decide whether you’d like to join in the fun!
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Beez, Snow Flower, BE and phl1rxd have decided they’d like to rewatch Chuno at the same pace, so that they can have blow-by-blow episode discussions every step of the way. I (most likely?) won’t be joining the rewatch, but I will be creating a weekly Open Thread, so that those episode discussions have a place to live. (I might change my mind about joining in though, if I can make the time!)
If you’d like to rewatch Chuno, or watch Chuno for the first time, and have friends to share that experience with, do join the party!
THE SCHEDULE
We’ll be following Chuno’s original airing schedule (thanks BE, for the fun suggestion!), starting a week from now, on 18 November 2020.
Chuno aired on Wednesdays and Thursdays (albeit not in November), so I will publish one Open Thread every Wednesday for that week’s pair of episodes. You can share all your thoughts, feelings, reactions and questions on the Open Thread. I’m sure that everyone’s watch experience will be much richer for it. 😃
WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER WATCHING CHUNO
1. It’s beautifully, artfully shot. I kid you not, it’s like watching art in motion. You should totally watch this in HD, and nothing less.
2. It’s arguably Jang Hyuk’s most iconic role. If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you probably know that I have Big Affection and Weak Knees for Jang Hyuk. This show is where it all started. He’s fantastic in the action sequences, all commanding in a prowling panther sort of way, and at the same time, he’s also amazing at delivering complicated, raw emotion. So masterful and compelling. 🤩
3. Excellent performances by everyone else. Of course, this isn’t just Jang Hyuk’s show. Everyone else in the cast gives great performances; even Oh Ji Ho, whom I feel has an acting range that leans limited, is literally the best I’ve ever seen him.
4. It has a fantastic OST. This show has one of the best OSTs, ever (and gets a mention in my list of all-time top OSTs here), and that OST is so judiciously applied that it absolutely lifts the watch experience to another level.
5. It’s a sageuk that doesn’t revolve around palace politics. If you think that sageuks are mostly about bearded men scheming in the royal court, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark. But, this show provides a much more relatable, everyman sort of perspective, because our key characters are mostly slaves and slave hunters, rather than officials of the court. So even though the court officials are part of the story, they’re not the main point.
6. There’s a good amount of heartfelt shirtless bromance. No lie; the shirtless bromance between Jang Hyuk, Han Jung Soo and Kim Ji Suk is one of my favorite things in this show. They’re like a little family, with Jang Hyuk as the dad, Han Jung Soo as the mom, and Kim Ji Suk as their whiny immature child. HA. 😆
Note 1: This is best approached not as a romance. Think epic journey instead, and you should be all good.
Note 2: If you’d like to check out my review, you can find it here.
The found family of shirtless brothers. 😍
TRAILERS
TO WHET YOUR APPETITE
This is one of my favorite Chuno MVs because it gives a great flavor for not only the fabulous OST, but Jang Hyuk’s badassery as well.
And here’s the fan tribute video that started all this talk about a rewatch:
Also, here’s a beautiful instrumental track from the OST:
WHERE (& HOW!) TO WATCH
Chuno is available on Kocowa and on Viki with Viki Pass. Kocowa has a free to view option (with ads), and video quality is great (1080p), so this would be a pain-free option if you’d like to join the fun! 😃 All you have to do is sign up for a free account.
Note: If you are not in the US, you can use Opera’s built-in VPN, select Americas as your location, and you’d be able to sign up for a Kocowa account. Just download Opera as a browser to your computer, and you can follow this simple tutorial here.
JOIN US!
Let us know in the comments below, whether you’ll be joining us? Of course, you don’t have to; you can just show up for the party when the Open Thread goes live next week, and that’d be perfectly fine. It’s just nice to know who we’ll be partying with, is all. 😉
Also! If this goes well, we can plan for future group watches of other shows. Whee! 🥳
Look at that intensity and badassery! 🤩
Open Threads
I’ll be linking the open threads here, as they go live, for your easy access!
Episodes 1 & 2 | Episodes 3 & 4 | Episodes 5 & 6 | Episodes 7 & 8 | Episodes 9 & 10
Episodes 11 & 12 | Episodes 13 & 14 | Episodes 15 & 16 | Episodes 17 & 18 | Episodes 19 & 20
Episodes 21 & 22 | Episodes 23 & 24
