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Review: Tree With Deep Roots (뿌리 깊은 나무) (2011)
This was a historical + thriller drama. I thought it was alright, it was a bit different from the historical Cdramas I'm used to, in terms of pacing and the story set up, but I think it was still generally a rich story.
It covered the story of King Sejong in his quest to create Hangul and the people who were for and against him.
Spoilers.
Story
There were two main story lines in this drama. One was the personal story of Ddol Bok. He grew up a slave in a household, and he resented the king and those in the higher echelons because their decisions always affected the commoners, who could do nothing about it. At the beginning of the drama, he had a goal of killing the King, because it was his machinations that led to the death of his father.
The second story line was the larger one about King Sejong's quest to create Hangul. He wanted to create a system of writing that was easy to learn for the people of his kingdom (because Hanja didn't match the way that Korean was spoken and was thus difficult to learn). This was the larger story that contained more moving parts and more characters.
Ddol Bok, now known as Kang Chaeyoon, had a childhood friend by the name of Dahm, now called So Yi. So Yi was mute but had a photographic memory. She was the main assistant helping King Sejong with his project.
There was also a secret organization called the Milbon. Originally, their plan was to lessen the power of the King, but it later became to stop the creation and spreading of Hangul because that would threaten the power that ministers would have over the people.
Through a series of thrillers, the King managed to have his words passed to the people. However, our protagonists Ddol Bok and Dahm died in the process.
I do think the story was thrilling and there were a lot of characters. However, I admittedly had difficulty remembering certain characters (particularly the ministers). Maybe I wasn't used to a lot of new characters? But also, I felt that though there were a lot of characters, that many of them were followers of certain characters and didn't quite have their own motivations, which made them hard to remember. For example, I barely remembered Ddol Bok and So Yi's buddies (the guards and the court maidens), because none of them really had their own motivations. They all blended together. Same with the various members of the Milbon, who all more or less were unflinchingly loyal to Jung Gijoon.
I also felt that the drama was...a bit slow paced? The entire 24 episode drama really only focused on one major mission so maybe that contributed to the drama feeling long for me.
But overall I think it was a solid first historical Kdrama because of the significance of the subject matter.
Production
I won't lie, I prefer the production value of historical Cdramas. The clothes didn't particularly wow me, but I did like the female characters' hanboks. I thought they were nice.
The acting was alright. Again, it took some getting used to, mostly because I'm not as used to Kdrama acting. At times, the acting was a bit dramatic, and I think that was the intention.
Characters
Ddol Bok/Kane Chaeyoon
He was our main character, and we followed him from his youth to his death.
Ddol Bok as a kid was tough to get used to because he acted entirely like an adult. He was parenting his father and that was frankly kind of unrealistic but I accepted it for the purposes of the plot. Ddol Bok was a very angry child, and with reason. His father was always bullied, but the people in his social class were often subject to the whims of the rich and powerful and it angered him.
As an adult, Ddol Bok became Kang Chaeyoon. He arrived at the palace as a guard, with the goal of killing King Sejong, Lee Do. It was Lee Do's letter that was swapped out with a treasonous one that had killed Ddol Bok's father. Ddol Bok got involved in investigating some murders that had happened on palace grounds.
Along the way, Ddol Bok reconnected with Dahm, who was now a court maiden serving the king. And through her, he came to devote himself to the king's quest, just as she had. Ddol Bok was basically putting his trust in Lee Do's letters, that they would allow the commoners the chance at education and that people like him in the future wouldn't be bullied because they couldn't understand what was being used against them.
Ddol Bok helped with the king's final goal of getting the letters to spread. That included protecting Dahm. However, Dahm was eventually killed, but not before she wrote down all the knowledge she had about Hangul, and urged Ddol Bok to return them to the king in time for his announcement. A brokenhearted Ddol Bok did return to the palace with the documents, and there, he fought with someone acting on behalf of the Milbon. He suffered a fatal wound, and eventually died, but was buried with Dahm.
At the end of the drama, there was a dream sequence of Ddol Bok and Dahm having kids and teaching them Hangul. Of course, it didn't happen, but it was their dream scenario.
Ddol Bok was a typical protagonist. Great a fighting, charismatic. But I liked that his qualms with the upper classes was really explored. I really liked when he was debating with either Dahm or the King about his views, why he didn't care about letters at first (because he didn't think it would change anything for the lower classes) and why he hated the king. I liked that his views were presented as valid, but that he was choosing to put them down, to make a gamble on the king's work.
Dahm/So Yi
Dahm was a childhood friend of Ddol Bok's. She had a photographic memory and had learned Hanja through this. However, her knowledge of writing was not advanced enough to realize that Lee Do's letter to his chancellor had been switched to an incriminating one, causing the death of both the chancellor and Ddol Bok's father, who was delivering the letter. Because of that, Dahm felt a lot of guilt for the death of Ddol Bok's father and also others who died because of the chancellor.
Dahm was then taken in by the Queen, and grew up a court maiden. As an adult, she served Lee Do. She still maintained her photographic memory, but she was mute.
Lee Do said that he'd hoped to create the letters so that Dahm could regain her ability to speak, though of course he had other reasons for doing so. With the other court maidens, Dahm worked on the letters.
After reuniting with Ddol Bok, Dahm regained the ability to speak. Originally, Lee Do had allowed Dahm and Ddol Bok to leave and live on their own, but we saw that they lived...somewhat pitifully. Of course, the conditions were nothing like what they were like in the palace. In any case, Dahm said they had to return, because she wanted to see through the words' completion.
Towards the end of the drama, the court maidens were banished and this opportunity was used for them to spread the knowledge of the letters. It was also revealed that Dahm was actually the Haerye, something like an encyclopedia. She was captured by Jung Gijoon, who wanted to kill her to stop her from spreading the knowledge. Ddol Bok saved her, but she was shot by a poisoned arrow. Before she died, she wrote down all that she knew, and pleaded with Ddol Bok to bring it back to the Emperor, and she died in his arms.
Dahm was somewhat of a noble character, very serious. She was very focused on completing the words. The words were so important to her because she didn't want someone to make the same mistake she did, though she truly was a child. Like she said, if she was going to be tricked by someone in the upper class, at least she would know that she was.
King Lee Do/King Sejong
Lee Do was the King. At the beginning of the drama, he struggled with his father, who'd retired but obviously had considerably influence in the court. His father King Taejong was killing a lot of politically important people, and Ddol Bok and Dahm's family and friends were caught up in that.
But that was also the beginning of Lee Do's stand. He'd met child Ddol Bok and saw how angry he was at his situation, and that resonated with him. At that age, he was really into puzzles, which painted him as more of an intellectual, compared to his father who used force to get his way.
As a child Lee Do had run into a young Jung Gijoon, and they'd discussed politics. Jung Gijoon showed Lee Do how the king was a tyrant and held absolute power, hurting people unnecessarily. That also had an impact on Lee Do, in that he did become a king who was for the people.
When we met Lee Do in the current timeline, he'd already been working on Hangul in secret. We saw that he tried to keep cool and confident in his quest to create the letters and spread them to his people, even when he was threatened. But we saw that he was not unconflicted about this. He was very much pulled in several different directions, as many good rulers were.
Ultimately, Lee Do completed his task, though not without much consequence. He lost his son, So Yi, and Kang Chaeyoon, as well as the scholars, and even his close bodyguard, Moo Hyul. But the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. That's always how it is.
Moo Hyul
Moo Hyul was the King's bodyguard. He was assigned to him when they were younger by the King Taejong, but he did become immensely loyal to Lee Do. He also had knowledge about events and we learned about past history in his conversations with Ddol Bok. He was also the first person to recognize Ddol Bok, based on the scar on his body matching Moo Hyul's sword. Moo Hyul died at the end, protecting the King as he tried to make his announcement.
Prince Gwangpyung
Prince Gwangpyung was helping Lee Do with the letters. He'd gotten caught up in scuffles several times, first being held as a hostage by Ddol Bok, and then by the Milbon. However, he retained his loyalty and trust in his father, mentioning that he'd be fine dying because of his causes. In the end, the Milbon killed him.
Ga Rion/Jung Gijoon
Jung Gijoon was the son of the former head of the Milbon, and later became the head of the Milbon himself. As a child, he met Lee Do briefly, and showed how cruel his father was. After the Milbon were attacked by King Taejong, they kind of dispersed, and Jung Gijoon assumed the role of a butcher named Ga Rion.
During the current timeline, Jung Gijoon came out of hiding and gathered the Milbon again, though he did appear as Ga Rion to those outside of the Milbon.
Though he was the one to show Lee Do the cruelty of his father, actually Jung Gijoon's ideology was that more power should go to the ministers, rather than to everybody equally. So Jung Gijoon and the Milbon spent the entire time trying to stop the King from getting his letters out.
He did have several extremely loyal followers, but in the end, he was unsuccessful, and he died.
Themes
Literacy
Lee Do's ideology was that if everybody could read and write, then their thoughts and concerns could be heard and he could rule better. Jung Gijoon accused him of using words to disperse the responsibility of governance to the people (i.e. the people were now responsible for telling him their concerns, instead of him being able to discern this).
Dahm saw literacy as something more related to dignity. At least if she knew how to read, then she'd know if she was being lied to, or being sent to her death. She might not be able to do anything about it, but at least she'd know.
And of course, one of the concerns of the anti-Hangul officials was that once everybody could read, then even slaves could take on high positions (this was emphasized when a slave had earned the top spot in the imperial exams).
Politics and Order
Several officials were concerned about the letters because they thought it would threaten the natural order, which was that the learned and educated should govern the ignorant. If the commoners learned to read and write, that would threaten their places because they could be challenged and/or usurped.
Some were against the Hangul because they were worried of the political implications of breaking away from the Chinese Empire. By taking on a new form of writing, I think the officials worried that the Ming Dynasty would see that as breaking away and thus not protect them or maintain a good relationship with them.
There was also a strong emphasis on the fact that Hangul would signal a move away from Confucianism. Confucianism emphasizes a relationship between one with more power and one with less power. So by creating the letters, they would no longer maintain the position of being protected by China, and the officials in the government would also no longer maintain that power over the people.
Needs of the many
Several people gave their lives in the creation of these letters, and this will always happen in any major historical event that's met with resistance. Ddol Bok, Dahm, Moo Hyul, and Prince Gwangpyung were among the characters that gave their life to protect what the King was working on, because they believed in him. And Lee Do had to carry that burden, knowing that it was him that these people had died, and he had to keep going forward to fulfill his goal or else they would have died in vain.
Overall
So like I said, solid drama. Might have been a bit slow because it only covers one challenge. But again, it introduced me to King Sejong, perhaps the most famous Korean king because of what he did for the people.
It covered the story of King Sejong in his quest to create Hangul and the people who were for and against him.
Spoilers.
Story
There were two main story lines in this drama. One was the personal story of Ddol Bok. He grew up a slave in a household, and he resented the king and those in the higher echelons because their decisions always affected the commoners, who could do nothing about it. At the beginning of the drama, he had a goal of killing the King, because it was his machinations that led to the death of his father.
The second story line was the larger one about King Sejong's quest to create Hangul. He wanted to create a system of writing that was easy to learn for the people of his kingdom (because Hanja didn't match the way that Korean was spoken and was thus difficult to learn). This was the larger story that contained more moving parts and more characters.
Ddol Bok, now known as Kang Chaeyoon, had a childhood friend by the name of Dahm, now called So Yi. So Yi was mute but had a photographic memory. She was the main assistant helping King Sejong with his project.
There was also a secret organization called the Milbon. Originally, their plan was to lessen the power of the King, but it later became to stop the creation and spreading of Hangul because that would threaten the power that ministers would have over the people.
Through a series of thrillers, the King managed to have his words passed to the people. However, our protagonists Ddol Bok and Dahm died in the process.
I do think the story was thrilling and there were a lot of characters. However, I admittedly had difficulty remembering certain characters (particularly the ministers). Maybe I wasn't used to a lot of new characters? But also, I felt that though there were a lot of characters, that many of them were followers of certain characters and didn't quite have their own motivations, which made them hard to remember. For example, I barely remembered Ddol Bok and So Yi's buddies (the guards and the court maidens), because none of them really had their own motivations. They all blended together. Same with the various members of the Milbon, who all more or less were unflinchingly loyal to Jung Gijoon.
I also felt that the drama was...a bit slow paced? The entire 24 episode drama really only focused on one major mission so maybe that contributed to the drama feeling long for me.
But overall I think it was a solid first historical Kdrama because of the significance of the subject matter.
Production
I won't lie, I prefer the production value of historical Cdramas. The clothes didn't particularly wow me, but I did like the female characters' hanboks. I thought they were nice.
The acting was alright. Again, it took some getting used to, mostly because I'm not as used to Kdrama acting. At times, the acting was a bit dramatic, and I think that was the intention.
Characters
Ddol Bok/Kane Chaeyoon
He was our main character, and we followed him from his youth to his death.
Ddol Bok as a kid was tough to get used to because he acted entirely like an adult. He was parenting his father and that was frankly kind of unrealistic but I accepted it for the purposes of the plot. Ddol Bok was a very angry child, and with reason. His father was always bullied, but the people in his social class were often subject to the whims of the rich and powerful and it angered him.
As an adult, Ddol Bok became Kang Chaeyoon. He arrived at the palace as a guard, with the goal of killing King Sejong, Lee Do. It was Lee Do's letter that was swapped out with a treasonous one that had killed Ddol Bok's father. Ddol Bok got involved in investigating some murders that had happened on palace grounds.
Along the way, Ddol Bok reconnected with Dahm, who was now a court maiden serving the king. And through her, he came to devote himself to the king's quest, just as she had. Ddol Bok was basically putting his trust in Lee Do's letters, that they would allow the commoners the chance at education and that people like him in the future wouldn't be bullied because they couldn't understand what was being used against them.
Ddol Bok helped with the king's final goal of getting the letters to spread. That included protecting Dahm. However, Dahm was eventually killed, but not before she wrote down all the knowledge she had about Hangul, and urged Ddol Bok to return them to the king in time for his announcement. A brokenhearted Ddol Bok did return to the palace with the documents, and there, he fought with someone acting on behalf of the Milbon. He suffered a fatal wound, and eventually died, but was buried with Dahm.
At the end of the drama, there was a dream sequence of Ddol Bok and Dahm having kids and teaching them Hangul. Of course, it didn't happen, but it was their dream scenario.
Ddol Bok was a typical protagonist. Great a fighting, charismatic. But I liked that his qualms with the upper classes was really explored. I really liked when he was debating with either Dahm or the King about his views, why he didn't care about letters at first (because he didn't think it would change anything for the lower classes) and why he hated the king. I liked that his views were presented as valid, but that he was choosing to put them down, to make a gamble on the king's work.
Dahm/So Yi
Dahm was a childhood friend of Ddol Bok's. She had a photographic memory and had learned Hanja through this. However, her knowledge of writing was not advanced enough to realize that Lee Do's letter to his chancellor had been switched to an incriminating one, causing the death of both the chancellor and Ddol Bok's father, who was delivering the letter. Because of that, Dahm felt a lot of guilt for the death of Ddol Bok's father and also others who died because of the chancellor.
Dahm was then taken in by the Queen, and grew up a court maiden. As an adult, she served Lee Do. She still maintained her photographic memory, but she was mute.
Lee Do said that he'd hoped to create the letters so that Dahm could regain her ability to speak, though of course he had other reasons for doing so. With the other court maidens, Dahm worked on the letters.
After reuniting with Ddol Bok, Dahm regained the ability to speak. Originally, Lee Do had allowed Dahm and Ddol Bok to leave and live on their own, but we saw that they lived...somewhat pitifully. Of course, the conditions were nothing like what they were like in the palace. In any case, Dahm said they had to return, because she wanted to see through the words' completion.
Towards the end of the drama, the court maidens were banished and this opportunity was used for them to spread the knowledge of the letters. It was also revealed that Dahm was actually the Haerye, something like an encyclopedia. She was captured by Jung Gijoon, who wanted to kill her to stop her from spreading the knowledge. Ddol Bok saved her, but she was shot by a poisoned arrow. Before she died, she wrote down all that she knew, and pleaded with Ddol Bok to bring it back to the Emperor, and she died in his arms.
Dahm was somewhat of a noble character, very serious. She was very focused on completing the words. The words were so important to her because she didn't want someone to make the same mistake she did, though she truly was a child. Like she said, if she was going to be tricked by someone in the upper class, at least she would know that she was.
King Lee Do/King Sejong
Lee Do was the King. At the beginning of the drama, he struggled with his father, who'd retired but obviously had considerably influence in the court. His father King Taejong was killing a lot of politically important people, and Ddol Bok and Dahm's family and friends were caught up in that.
But that was also the beginning of Lee Do's stand. He'd met child Ddol Bok and saw how angry he was at his situation, and that resonated with him. At that age, he was really into puzzles, which painted him as more of an intellectual, compared to his father who used force to get his way.
As a child Lee Do had run into a young Jung Gijoon, and they'd discussed politics. Jung Gijoon showed Lee Do how the king was a tyrant and held absolute power, hurting people unnecessarily. That also had an impact on Lee Do, in that he did become a king who was for the people.
When we met Lee Do in the current timeline, he'd already been working on Hangul in secret. We saw that he tried to keep cool and confident in his quest to create the letters and spread them to his people, even when he was threatened. But we saw that he was not unconflicted about this. He was very much pulled in several different directions, as many good rulers were.
Ultimately, Lee Do completed his task, though not without much consequence. He lost his son, So Yi, and Kang Chaeyoon, as well as the scholars, and even his close bodyguard, Moo Hyul. But the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. That's always how it is.
Moo Hyul
Moo Hyul was the King's bodyguard. He was assigned to him when they were younger by the King Taejong, but he did become immensely loyal to Lee Do. He also had knowledge about events and we learned about past history in his conversations with Ddol Bok. He was also the first person to recognize Ddol Bok, based on the scar on his body matching Moo Hyul's sword. Moo Hyul died at the end, protecting the King as he tried to make his announcement.
Prince Gwangpyung
Prince Gwangpyung was helping Lee Do with the letters. He'd gotten caught up in scuffles several times, first being held as a hostage by Ddol Bok, and then by the Milbon. However, he retained his loyalty and trust in his father, mentioning that he'd be fine dying because of his causes. In the end, the Milbon killed him.
Ga Rion/Jung Gijoon
Jung Gijoon was the son of the former head of the Milbon, and later became the head of the Milbon himself. As a child, he met Lee Do briefly, and showed how cruel his father was. After the Milbon were attacked by King Taejong, they kind of dispersed, and Jung Gijoon assumed the role of a butcher named Ga Rion.
During the current timeline, Jung Gijoon came out of hiding and gathered the Milbon again, though he did appear as Ga Rion to those outside of the Milbon.
Though he was the one to show Lee Do the cruelty of his father, actually Jung Gijoon's ideology was that more power should go to the ministers, rather than to everybody equally. So Jung Gijoon and the Milbon spent the entire time trying to stop the King from getting his letters out.
He did have several extremely loyal followers, but in the end, he was unsuccessful, and he died.
Themes
Literacy
Lee Do's ideology was that if everybody could read and write, then their thoughts and concerns could be heard and he could rule better. Jung Gijoon accused him of using words to disperse the responsibility of governance to the people (i.e. the people were now responsible for telling him their concerns, instead of him being able to discern this).
Dahm saw literacy as something more related to dignity. At least if she knew how to read, then she'd know if she was being lied to, or being sent to her death. She might not be able to do anything about it, but at least she'd know.
And of course, one of the concerns of the anti-Hangul officials was that once everybody could read, then even slaves could take on high positions (this was emphasized when a slave had earned the top spot in the imperial exams).
Politics and Order
Several officials were concerned about the letters because they thought it would threaten the natural order, which was that the learned and educated should govern the ignorant. If the commoners learned to read and write, that would threaten their places because they could be challenged and/or usurped.
Some were against the Hangul because they were worried of the political implications of breaking away from the Chinese Empire. By taking on a new form of writing, I think the officials worried that the Ming Dynasty would see that as breaking away and thus not protect them or maintain a good relationship with them.
There was also a strong emphasis on the fact that Hangul would signal a move away from Confucianism. Confucianism emphasizes a relationship between one with more power and one with less power. So by creating the letters, they would no longer maintain the position of being protected by China, and the officials in the government would also no longer maintain that power over the people.
Needs of the many
Several people gave their lives in the creation of these letters, and this will always happen in any major historical event that's met with resistance. Ddol Bok, Dahm, Moo Hyul, and Prince Gwangpyung were among the characters that gave their life to protect what the King was working on, because they believed in him. And Lee Do had to carry that burden, knowing that it was him that these people had died, and he had to keep going forward to fulfill his goal or else they would have died in vain.
Overall
So like I said, solid drama. Might have been a bit slow because it only covers one challenge. But again, it introduced me to King Sejong, perhaps the most famous Korean king because of what he did for the people.