İyi Seyirler Dileriz.
Chuno (2010)
Chuno
추노 / Slave Hunters
(Jan – Mar 2010)
who’s in it
Jang Hyuk (Tazza, Bright Girl)
Oh JiHo (Super Rookie, Couple or Trouble)
Lee DaHae (My Girl, Hello Miss!)
Han JungSoo (Painter of the Wind)
Kim JiSuk
Kim HaEun (Single Dad in Love, Hometown Legends)
Danny Ahn (g.o.d - member, Dream Team 2 - member)
what’s it about
Jang Hyuk is a lean and mean fighting machine…an infamous hunter of runaway slaves and one that is frighteningly good at his job. His zeal for dragging the flown back to their coop is both ruthless and without an ounce of compassion (kinda of) but the root reason why he chases slaves with such single-minded obsession is not for belief in slavery or the politics behind the institution, or even money, but a personal vendetta and a fractured heart. You see, this man’s one purpose in life is to find his first love, the slave who is partially responsible for the death of his entire family…the woman who brought the end to his former life of comfort as a young nobleman.
Parallel to DaeGil the Slave Hunter’s story, or perhaps more accurately, perpendicular to it, a falsely disgraced general of the royal military, now branded as a runaway slave, makes his daring move after learning of intrigues hurrying forward in his country.
Lee DaHae is the woman that stands like a stalk of bending barley at the center of this burning hot field of almost-naked men.
All their lives are destined to converge—for better, or for worse.
commitment
A measly 24 episodes
network
KBS2
wildcard factor
Jang Hyuk – this actor was so flippin’ amazing in this role that I worship at his feet and even the dirty Chuno ground he ran across. That’s all I gots to say. Well, no, that’s a lie. I have a lot more to say on the matter:
I mean, aside from the fact that he’s one hot potato of a man, he brought slave hunter DaeGil to exploding fruition. His pain became my pain. I became hopelessly invested in his character. The nuances in his acting, the subtle ways he explored his character’s torments and motivations were so intriguing to watch. In the quiet scenes, it’s not Jang Hyuk thinking about DaeGil’s problems, but you really believe it’s DaeGil thinking about DaeGil’s problems. He’s not always pretty to watch (sometimes spittle and hemoglobin do violent chemical things in this show), but one thing’s for sure, it was never boring. Action adventures are so much the more thrilling when good acting is involved, don’t y’all think? I love it when we get the whole package entertainment—emotional investment as well as the instantly gratifying fun of fight scenes and flying high-kicks.
Kim HaEun – now right here was a true acting marvel! This little wench (that’s what she was oft referred to in Chuno) played a worldly ingénue in a charlatan dancing troupe. The contradiction in such a character and the manner in which Kim HaEun delivered her lines were both believable and poignant. After only a few scenes, she became my favorite character. I even wondered if Lee DaHae suffered the abundance of negative feedback for her portrayal as EunYeon because she was being compared to such a natural talent as Kim HaEun. She was definitely not just cast for her pretty face. She hijacked every scene she was in and had an amazing talent to convey multiple layers of emotions with one gaze or gesture. I think her character really helped us connect to the period, this era in Korean history when the role of women were little more than slaves as well. And when she sang, ah, it was both lovely and sad. There is something about characters that tell their story or their pain through song—the ability and power of music to instantly resonate. The ability to rip your heart out and tear it to little pieces.
Also, as pleasurable as it was to watch Jang Hyuk onscreen by himself, it was more delightful to watch the interplay between Jang Hyuk and Kim HaEun when they were together. Their characters were such polar opposites that their scenes practically sparked like two chips of flint being scraped together. MORE, please! Here’s a Jang Hyuk and Kim HaEun photospasm where she is cajoling a ride out of him:
Notable mentions: Kim JiSuk adorably played goofy and gangly playboy WangSon/왕손이 (also funny to note that his name sounded like the Korean word for monkey/원숭이) and Han JungSoo excellently embodied the stalwart General Choi. These two gentlemen ruffians were also wonderful as fellow slave hunters that worked beside leader Jang Hyuk. Can I overuse the word ‘wonderful’ much? Not in this review.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Just one more: wonderful!
The four I’ve mentioned here created the heart of this drama.
after the first episode
Sweeping. Lush. Sexy. Funny. Smart. Well endowed—very well endowed (oh the men!)—with a compelling story and complex characters. I was a bit disconcerted at first at how good it was, completely taken off guard. Naturally, I expected to see the buff men in scanty clothing running around and being all macho…I didn’t expect them to be able to act. I knew there would be beautiful scenery and grand fight scenes, I didn’t expect those fight scenes to be beautifully filmed as well as actually convey sentiment.
Overall, the biggest revelation for me would have to be Jang Hyuk. I didn’t expect him to command his role so completely, as I am not really familiar with any of his previous works. He was hardcore to the max as the nonchalant and insolent slave hunter. He hit all the right notes. He was thrilling to watch in his grand fighting scenes (probably because he’s a martial arts expert in real life as well) but subtle with his emotions so that the human center of his character didn’t get lost in the sneering and the posturing. I totally fell in love. Complex characters can be so engaging to watch as we learn more about them in bits and pieces, truly like a new relationship starting and unfolding. It’s a wonderful feeling to realize the character you thought you knew in episode 1 is not at all the character revealed in Episode 7, and then later in Episode 15, and so forth. The point is growth. The deeper we travelled with him, the more interesting he became, and it was in part the writing, of course, but also very much owing to the ability of Jang Hyuk to pull it off.
Despite the seriousness, it was surprising how very comedic Chuno was as well, but unlike others that have failed, Chuno was able to show its humor in a way that didn’t shame itself.
There was one glaring weakness: Lee DaHae. I just don’t know about her in this role. I hoped for the best but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be satisfied by her performance.
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