Commentary: This drama is considered relevant to monarchism by the author who wishes to use high-quality modern materials to discuss the monarchistic cause. How this drama is relevant explains itself in the text that follows. The author will not delve into details concerning the plot of the drama but focus on the details that are relevant to monarchism. Furthermore, the author will refrain from needless criticism of the plot; he considers criticism too easy whilst it is a real art to try to empathise with the plot, to get into it, and to understand it with the heart. The author never watches dramas or films to criticise them but to empathise with them; he wishes merely to feel what the characters feel and think in every single scene, he wishes to know their names, to understand what the characters are to each other (i.e. how they relate to each other: their relationships), to know their individual personalities and dreams, and so on. The author is a people-focused person, and cares more for people than lofty ideals; people are his ideal, and so he cares only for what people need and what concerns them, not what concerns the universe regardless of people; people are his universe.
Theme: the encounter between human beings from different worlds.
Time-travelling: understanding different times with the heart
Gim Bung Do is a conscientious scholar who lives in feudal Korea. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a plot to assassinate the Queen, where he illustriously takes the side of the Queen! He bravely fights off the assassins in their first savage attempt to assassinate the Queen. Gim Bung Do himself is loyal to the Queen unto death and to make this very clear he swears to defend the Queen with his life! When he later engages in a sword-duel with one of the higer-ranking assassins and falls over, Gim Bung Do is about to be stabbed through the heart with a sword. There is no way that Gim Bung Do can escape his fate. However, when he is about to meet his inevitable death, Gim Bung Do miraculously disappears and finds himself in an empty palace! It appears to be a new place - though not beyond recognition to Gim Bung Do who finds the place itself not too odd, because it bears striking resemblance to the palace where he was just a moment ago.
Yet, he is shocked by his sudden disappearance and he appears to feel that there is something off about the place where he is now; he notices the lights outside , which is a new experience to him because these are lights that he is not used to. Finally, he calms down a bit and appears to think for a moment that he is still in the same place/world. After all, he can recognise his surroundings and apart from his sudden disappearance and the strange lights outside, things do not seem so odd. However, once he starts exploring, he is surprised by what he finds. Though puzzled by his sudden disappearance, what he is about to see will shock and amaze him even more. He stands outside perplexed by the sight of electric lights and a film crew busy shooting a film about the Queen whom he swore to protect. Then Gim Bung Do meets Choe Hui Jin, who offers him a snack, which he reluctantly refuses in a state of perplexion; he is unable to say a word, that is how perplexed he is. The girl tells him that she is the Queen, making him even more confused and surprised at the same time. The girl speaks to him in a weird way, making him deeply aware that everything is different in the new place where he finds himself.
The unfamiliar noises and sounds make make him dizzy and hence cause a sensation of vertigo in him; he is in a completely different universe, so it appears. Choe Hui Jin who is an actress herself assumes he is one of the actors, because he wears clothing from the Joseon era. Gim Bung Do has no idea what he is witnessing and absorbs everything in a state of paralysing perplexion and intense vertigo. He is totally confused and disoriented. Choe Hui Jin will later confess that she has no idea what he must have been experiencing at that moment; she had noticed at the time that he was pale and evidently thought at the time that his behaviour was uniquely strange. This first encounter is a very special encounter; it is an encounter between two people from entirely different worlds. This is an encounter between people from then and now, between people from the past and present; Choe Hui Jin met an "ancestor" as she will later describe Gim Bung Do once and Gim Bung Do met a descendant, i.e. a person who is about to be born in the future.
What does the fact that these people are from different worlds/realities which are in different places in time, i.e. one where the past is the present and the other where the future is the present, practically mean? There will be differences of worldview, zeitgeist one might say. The culture will be different in interesting ways. The language will also be strikingly different. This last fact is too often overlooked. It is said that languages come with a complete worldview and culture; languages and cultures are so closely connected that some linguistic experts speak of them as language-culture pairs. Usually we think of these pairs as originally belonging to different geographical places, but they could also belong to different chronological times; a language spoken at one point in time is not the same as the "same" language spoken in a different point in time.
For instance, the Dutch language spoken in the 19th-century is an entire language in its own right and as culture and language go hand in hand, the Dutch language of the 19th century is accompanied by a culture that is characteristic of the Dutch people living in the 19th century. One cannot, therefore, comprehend the 19th-century Dutch language without studying the 19th-century Dutch way of thinking as well, and that is something that I know by experience. Once one learns the 19th-century Dutch language by reading 19th-century texts, one will quite naturally become more immersed in 19th-century Dutch thought; however, a conscious effort will still have to be made to integrate into the 19th-century Dutch worldview and culture along with adopting the 19th-century Dutch vocabulary and grammar. Not being consciously aware of the fact that this needs to be done is a classical mistake; one has to be profoundly aware of what needs to be done in order to have the maximum amount of concentration.
The drama series offers realistic answers to many questions: how would a person from the past react if he saw a mobile phone, a car, a tie, an electric light, an airplane, and so on? The series evidently paid special attention to answering those questions satisfactorily, demonstrating deep insight into human emotion/psychology. The series also dealt with the question: what would it be like if that same person travelled back in time and shared his knowledge of the future? Particularly interesting is the series' answer to this difficult question: the people in the past as regard this "other world" as some sort of "parallel world" or supernatural world in which fairies live - this is an fascinating perspective to a student of religion. Yet another question that is really interesting to consider: how would an ancient person adjust to the modern world? As the series did have a limited amount of screen time, I imagine, they could not give a very detailed answer to this relevant question, but they did give what I would consider a sufficiently satisfying answer although the adjustment process seemed a bit quick.
However, the series does provide an explanation for this: Gim Bung Do's only merit is his good memory, as he mentions himself a couple of times. Therefore, he could adjust very quickly. In other words, he is portrayed as a genius. I am very familiar with the adjustment process to different languages and cultures. To Gim Bung Do, the culture of Choe Hui Jin's world, the future, as well as the language is practically foreign. Indeed, it is interesting to witness how Choe Hui Jin reacts to his way of speaking: she considers it awkward and funny, as the series rightly portrays her emotional reaction. Korean dramas portray human emotional reactions really well, I must say. It makes psychological and social sense. However, Western movies do often horribly lack in this regard. They are too focused on other things to be concerned about the intricacies of human relationship, emotion, and communication. That is also why - and I have really watched tons of Hollywood films so I can generalise - Western protagonists are too superficial; they have no real depth and though the special effects in Western movies are good, I am more interested in human relationships.
Queen In Hyun's Man presents a refreshingly realistic example of what kind of linguistic difficulties one travelling between the world of the past and the present would experience; there will be many phrases and words that this person would not understand. Paying attention to these linguistic aspects, even in the writing, was a refreshing thing to observe. As someone who is extremely interested in the science of language and communication, I particularly like that they gave so much care for these linguistic details. What was indeed an interesting linguistic-philosophical point is that Gim Bung Do did not understand many words that Choe Hui Jin said, yet Choe Hui Jin could understand Gim Bung Do better. Choe Hui Jin obviously thought that Gim Bung Do spoke in a funny way, but Gim Bung Do must have thought the same of Choe Hui Jin; the feeling that the other's way of speaking is alien to one's own way of speaking was evidently mutual.
The idea of travelling between two worlds is very interesting in different ways: different times are absolutely different worlds and it is no easy task to grasp those different worlds. One of those aspects is the linguistic aspect which I have spoken of, another aspect is the archeological, and yet another is the technological. Of course fashion, style of clothing, is also an aspect. What is, however, the general sentiment that we will feel if we were Choe Hui Jin and Gim Bung Do? Our languages are different, our cultures are different, even our food and clothing are different; we do not really have anything in common except emotion. This is somewhat exaggerated, but that is, methinks, basically the message of the series: emotion is timeless, and it is what can help us to overcome any set of barriers. Therefore, the relationship that develops between the two protagonists and hence love "surpasses" time. In other words, it is not subject to the same changes that other things are; many things change, but love stays the same.
Whenever annals or chronicles were mentioned in the series, it aroused in me an intensely compelling desire to read annals or chronicles as well to inform myself more about the our monarchical history; I want to be presented with a wealth of information on the monarchies of yore, and in those historical books I might be able to find information that will be of use to me in learning to understand monarchy better and hence to promote monarchy more effectively. If I met a person from the past, I would do everything I can to learn from that person about what the past was like and to record information about the past that we might not yet know; after all, that person would be the living past, he would be an ancestor, a person who knows the past by experience.
The closest I can normally get to the past is reading contemporary works, studying the culture/worldview and language of that historical period at the same time - the theme of the language-culture pair - learning bit by bit what the world looked like back then, and finally trying to find things that we have in common and things that are strikingly different; I am always happy when I find out that the ancestors also did certain things like we do and that I can thus relate to them. If I met a person from the past, I would want to know everything about his daily life and his personal history, his experiences and observations, his skills and knowledge, and his relationships with others. I would like to know what the language was like back then, what the world was like back then, and what the people were like back then.
Korea stands relatively closer to the medieval/feudal past than we in the West; that is also why Korean people often look more natural in medieval clothing and settings, they comprehend medieval situations better, and they themselves feel more connection with the ancestors. Hence they can more easily create a masterpiece like Queen In Hyun's Man which shows an extremely good understanding of the barriers that exist between then and now. They portray past people as real humans with human emotions; that is a huge accomplishment for anyone portraying the medieval era today. We are often stuck in our minds with a stereotypical image of barbarians whom we feel entirely detached from and thus we dare not even think they are our ancestors; we are ashamed of our ancestors, and that is why we wish to hide them, thinking that now we live in a culture uniquely superior to that of our ancestors, and hence it is not worth our time to think of the past. We do not look upon our ancestors as our ancestors; it is revolutionary in such times to think of them as such, however. It takes deep reflection or real revelation to reach the conclusion that those people are the ancestors, not barbarians.
Knowledge of the worlds: separated by different parallel realities
I will now look into the philosophical aspects of travelling between two different worlds or parallel realities: there are mysteries between the worlds. The people of the two worlds cannot comprehend each other; the old world has no knowledge of the new world, yet although the new world has knowledge of the old world, it cannot know the old world. Therefore, there is an insurmountable gap between the two worlds; there is an emotional disconnect with the old world. Artifacts from the old world are handed down to the people of the new world and there are other remains; however, these are merely glimpses of the old world, and the mysteries of the old world remain confined to the old world. An invisible force is separating the worlds, keeping them apart, not allowing them to know each other, keeping their secrets carefully hidden from each other: this force is fate. Yet, fate can make encounters between the people from the two worlds possible.
While the gap may thus seem insurmountable, it can be surmounted by the aid of fate: the encounter between Choe Hui Jin and Gim Bung Do creates a relationship that is a bridge between the two worlds. The relationship is love, and this love, which is fated, can overcome the gap between the two realities, making it possible for Gim Bung Do to grow ever more attached to the world of Choe Hui Jin and finally leading him to decide to abandon his own reality in favour of the one where Choe Hui Jin lives. What is interesting to note that Choe Hui Jin cannot comprehend the other world by experience, yet she becomes ever more interested in it because of Gim Bung Do and she becomes ever more able to relate to that world through Gim Bung Do; he is her bridge to that world which she cannot experience. She gradually develops an emotional connection with the past that is unusual: this is thanks to Gim Bung Do.
Although the world of Gim Bung Do is entirely alien to her, she can make sense of that world because of Gim Bung Do; she is interested in the chronicles or annals because of Gim Bung Do. A passion for history is cultivated in her, because she has an emotional connection with the past though Gim Bung Do. This interesting philosophical idea is skilfully presented in the drama. We as monarchists are always dealing with the question: how can we restore the emotional ties with the past? How can we make history a living thing again instead of the dead thing you merely learn? How can we learn not merely to understand history with our minds but to feel, no, comprehend it with our hearts as though we were people living in those past times?
The relationship between Gim Bung Do and Choe Hui Jin is not just ordinary, but it is a miraculous relationship with many interesting philosophical aspects; the encounter between the two has many interesting philosophical ramifications. Of course, the viewer is left to interpret this encounter as fate. The workings of fate can be seen throughout the drama; fate is the one force that binds all events together by being a thread. The relationship is highly symbolic; there is much more to it than meets the eye. While the different worlds are alien to each other, they have many idiosyncratic mysteries to reveal to each other; the only force that can make these revelations possible is fate.
At first, Gim Bung Do needs the help of a talisman to get fate to allow him to enter the other world. After all, to prepare the talisman, fate had to be involved/invoked; fate is the "magic" that makes the supernatural power of the talisman possible. The talisman would not have any supernatural properties had there been no fate. Fate is the invisible force that explains superficial, visible forces such as "magic." Fate like the soul is the invisible thing that is behind a lot of superficial, visible things in the world; knowledge of fate as knowledge of the soul helps us to make sense of many visible phenomena. Animism explains a lot, and so does fatalism; fate, for instance, explains magic, and the soul explains life after death. Therefore, one ought to believe in fate to uderstand things. The metaphysical aspects of the drama make little sense without an understanding of fate.
It is interesting to note that the perceptions of the two worlds towards one another are different (although later a time-based perspective creeps in for the old world as well though often still no clear distinction is made between parallel world and future world): the old world refers to the new world as the other world, insinuating the conception of a parallel world. To them in the past, that other world is not really the future; it is just another parallel world. In the past. they are detached from that world; they do not regard it as their future, but merely as something happening at the same time. Rather, they must have a mythological conception of the other world, thinking it is a land of fairies, which is a conception that makes most sense to them. It is clear that the new world is not fully grasped by the old world, and vice versa.
Another important aspect that may be easily overlooked is that the different worlds are very different in atmosphere and looks (refer to the poster above). One of the first things that one notices looking at the two worlds is that there is much more nature in the old world whereas there is much more civilisation in the new world. Untamed nature is still plentiful and prevalent in the old world, giving it a much more mysterious, primordial, instinctive character; however, the new world does not have this, and has a much more rational, comprehensible, artificial character because of the lack of nature.
Monarchistic vs. democratic world: loyalty vs. freedom
A stark difference between the worlds of Choe Hui Jin and Gim Bung Do is that the former is democratic and the latter is monarchistic. Democracy must be incomprehensible to Gim Bung Do, and I cannot imagine that he would get used to that idea. He even criticised the clothing of the new area for not being practical enough, and he expressed his sentiment to Choe Hui Jin that she looks better in traditional clothing. That being the case, I cannot imagine he would like democracy. He would not believe in individual freedom and he would certainly find it strange to vote. His relationshps were all based on loyalty: he is the servant of the King, and his people are his servants. He expects to receive the same loyalty from others as he gives to others. He is portrayed as a character of conscience, he is a man who deeply cares about his integrity. His loyalty to the Queen and the King shows that he is a real loyalist/monarchist.
He comes from a society of relationships, and he would find a society of ideas strange; he is not loyal to ideas, but to people. He cares about the survival of the people as a whole by means of loyalty to the King. He does not care for lofty ideals; a relationship-based worldview is what makes sense to him. He does not view the individual as liberally disconnected from the whole, nor does he perceive this as a right. Instead, he views everyone as connected, he views everyone as having relationships; people are bound together by honour and loyalty in his world, and that is also how it should be according to his worldview.
All of his actions to change the past make no sense whatsoever if he did not have this underlying worldview. He was not just a man who wanted to stop evil, but he was a man who was unconditionally loyal to the Joseon dynasty of his time. He kept his promise of loyalty to the King because that was his worldview; he would never break a promise because that would be worse than death, and hence he was willing to die to keep his promise. A man of such integrity was a monarchist. The drama series never explicitly call him a monarchist, but they certainly insinuate such. This serves as evidence that Gim Bung Do is portrayed as a staunch royalist/loyalist: he does the moral thing, has a conscience, keeps to his vows, takes responsibility, and has a good sense of duty.
Gim Bung Do does not only live for himself and understands very well that he cannot live only for himself. This is, however, what people living in democracies too frequently tend not to comprehend at all. Monarchism creates a society where a pyramid of social hierarchy naturally emerges from the way relationships are stuctured through the instinctive concepts of loyalty and honour and hence the people living in such a society will usually dismiss equality as an impossible ideal, because loyalty in conjunction with honour is the norm and loyalty in conjunction with honour creates that pyramid of social hierarchy. Inequality is, in the final analysis, only a natural sign of a healthy civilised society.
At one point, Cheo Hui Jin informs Gim Bung Do that the Joseon dynasty had already fallen. Gim Bung Do reluctantly replies that he is interested only in his time. He responds as if it is another universe entirely, though he ought to be aware that he is talking about the fate of the Joseon dynasty in the future. I can, however, not imagine that someone like Gim Bung Do would be unconcerned about the fall of the Joseon dynasty. Choe Hui Jin notes at one point, after all, that lineage was important in Gim Bung Do's time, and Gim Bung Do also notes himself that he is the only surviving member of his lineage, highlighting that if he dies, his entire lineage will disappear.
Therefore, he is very concerned about the survival of his lineage, and it would also make sense, therefore, that he would be concerned about the Joseon dynasty in the same way. The reason for having him being disinterested in the present must have been a political move. The drama does apparently not want to enter into the sensitive area of the discussion of the restoration of the Joseon dynasty, but merely wants to focus on some safe distant past rather than concern itself with the present. The move also makes sense from the perspective of the plot: Gim Bung Do can only return to his own time, and he cannot travel to any other specific period in time, making it impossible for him to prevent the fall of the Joseon dynasty if ever he wanted such.
At the same time, Gim Bung Do acts out of character by being disinterested in the fall of the Joseon dynasty: he is normally so interested in things that happened and he himself is a person of honour and loyalty, the way he builds relationships is based on the monarchistic ideal, the way he thinks is monarchistic, and he even still interacts with the monarchistic world he comes from for quite a while, although he starts noticeably having troubles with reconciling the two worlds, as he begins using words from the other world in his speech, and thus evidently starts to feel more and more attached to the other world; otherwise, he would not be using these words in the first place.
The fact that he uses these words shows that he has grown very attached to the other world; those are the words in his heart. I believe that the drama-makers considered it would have been politically too sensitive for the drama to venture into the land of suggesting the restoration of the monarchy - something that Gim Bung Do's character would obviously have wanted - but I am still of the opinion that had they done that, Gim Bung Do would have been more in-character and it would have made also perfect sense to the plot. Even though Gim Bung Do's chief attention would still be focused on his own time, he would evidently have been concerned about the fall of the Joseon dynasty; he would have been extremely shocked even, I can imagine, upon hearing the destruction of the dynasty like he would be shocked upon hearing the destruction of his own lineage in some future.
Final words
We look in a too closed-minded way upon the past. We try to comprehend it with the mind, but our heart does not comprehend it; we do not even allow our heart to understand. We are too emotionally detached from the past, and may even see this as a virtue. However, without openness to understanding the past with the heart or simply a desire for such openness, the past cannot be fully/emotionally comprehended; we cannot have an open-minded way of looking upon the past, we cannot empathise with it. People nowadays do not know what they are missing; they have yet the wrong approach to the past. Hence I would also have liked to see Choe Hui Jin learning more from Gim Bung Do, though her emotional connection with the past only grows throughout the series.
To a monarchist such as me, Korean movies and dramas - though I tend to really select the ones I like and consider sufficiently moral - are a good example of what kind of movies a Western absolute monarchy - if ever this absolute monarchist wish were to be granted - should produce in the future. Though I have a preference for dramas set in the last 10 years because I can relate to that the most and I wish to focus on the current period in history that is still in the making since I wish to understand my own time, I am a fan of historical Korean drama series. There are so many things I could say about Queen In Hyun's Man, but suffice to say that I consider it one of the best Korean dramas I have ever watched. Upon watching the whole series, I really have the desire to watch the whole series again and pay more attention to details. I will certainly watch this series again soon.
