Quasi-love with 景福宮

[lebateleur]

I purchased this manhwa while in Seoul two years ago:

                     

While I'm not a fan of shoujou, it came down to this series or the licensed translation of Fullmetal Alchemist, and you may rest assured I was not about to attempt that one without another decade of Korean under my belt.

Fast forward two years to the present, where Kung/Gung/Goong/whathaveyou has become the most popular shoujou title in Korea and spawned its own drama adaptation.   Yours truly is perusing the aisles of the Big City Animate, when what does she happen to spot but this.  Behold:

 

The licensed Japanese translation of Gung.  (And oh dear, fragilistikal, check out that title...)   I of course purchase it, and am now able to understand the other 95% of the story. 

It's a quick read with moments of sparkly humor.  And based on the licensed English translations of manhwa I've encountered in the past, it reads much, much more naturally in Japanese than it would in English.

All in all, a nice example of Ooh, Shiny! leisure reading. 

It also reminded me why I'm not a fan of shoujou. 

Take for instance the advice of Our Heroine's mother upon said heroine's impending arranged marriage to Royal Brat #1.

Just do what you're told. When they tell you to do something, do it. When they tell you to go somewhere, go. And it will all be over before you've even noticed.

Being plucky, Our Heroine does not take this lying down.  But shoujou heroines are plucky, not heroic, and that makes all the difference. 'Is that really how it works, Mom?' she emotes before crumpling against a wall. From what I've been able to make of the following Korean volumes, Our Heroine's pluck and spunk and other related adjectives will begin to win everyone over.

But I vastly prefer the shounen hero's response. To whit: can anyone seriously picture Edward Elric or Ichigo or any other shounen protagonist taking an admonition to 'just do what you're told and wait it out' lying down? Can anyone even picture a shounen hero being told to do something like that without illiciting an immediately violent and adverse response?

Which I suppose is just a very roundabout way to discover that I prefer my protagonists battering their way out of the system with reeaaallly cool weapons as opposed to changing it from the inside with their winsomely feminine (yet endearingly idiosyncratic tomboyish) ways.


これで以上です。  

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

it reads much, much more naturally in Japanese than it would in English.

Something I've always wondered about. When people discuss series based on the English translations their takes sound-- I don't know. Off somehow. Based on the Chinese translations and they're on. I'd swear similarity of culture must have an effect on how a translation reads. There are things we just don't say in English that the Japanese say all the time. Like those pretty and resonant scraps of prose attached to colour illos that sound ridiculous in English. And yes WA I *am* looking at you.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

I'd swear similarity of culture must have an effect on how a translation reads. There are things we just don't say in English that the Japanese say all the time.

Yes, and how much language structure plays into culture and vice versa. 'Your Highness' inescapably calls to mind images of European nobility that clash with the very Asian regent on the page; ヨン陛下 does not. The alternative--Yeong-heika--would just remind me that meaningful kanji are now missing from the text. And while there are fundamental differences between Japanese and Korean keigo usage, the social chasms between characters are much starker in a second language that actually has keigo, as opposed to English, where polite speech isn't as class-specific.

And of course all those pesky subjectless sentences and noun-particle-... constructions go nicely into Japanese as is, without the contortions needed to make them coherent in English. Which leaves the weight of the implied portions more or less as it was in the original.

Don't know how all this works in Chinese, though. ^.^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Don't know how all this works in Chinese, though. ^.^

Nor I, but I assume the raising/ lowering phrases are in Chinese as well. As I try to translate somebody's keigo in a way that reflects genteel politeness when all the guy is saying is What do you want?

And... yes. I never realized how culture-bound the English language is until I went to Japan. I can talk about France and the French just fine in English, but Japan and the Japanese, no. Their daffodils are not our daffodils, their maples are not our maples, their reticence isn't our reticence and their politeness for *sure* isn't our politeness: but there's no other word to use for it.

[incandescens]

I also am pro the battering the way out with really cool weapons. (BTW, if there's anything that Ikkaku wants to be doing on touchedthesky -- or would you rather that we organise some violence/plot for you? :))

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Having made this post, I begin to see a rational for my choice of characters as well. ^.^

I would be happy to start some mayhem madness activity for Ikkaku. I should be able once I'm back in town this Sunday.

[incandescens]

That sounds fine: just checking. :)

[fragilistikal.livejournal.com]

...rabu-san?

(Are they for serious? Ha! That's hilariously awesome, yo.)

I'm quite leery of shoujo manga in general.... I want them to grow a spine and yeap--blow a hole in the wall with a really big gun rather than passive aggressively submitting to their fate. I started reading Hot-Blooded Woman (manhwa) for its kickass heroine--but then it degenerated into outright misogyny and physical abuse and other angerly-making things.=/

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Rabu-kyon, actually. And don't forget the subtitle: Love in 景福宮, which with my Engrish-warped sense of phrasing, brings to mind a bizzare East Asian hippy event.

I want them to grow a spine and yeap--blow a hole in the wall with a really big gun rather than passive aggressively submitting to their fate.

Exactly. I wonder how much the whole 'fangirls are so misogynist; they hate [insert name of any female (shoujou) character here]' phenomenon is just a badly articulated reaction to the effect that 'thesefemale (shoujou) characters suck.'

Also, grr on the above manhwa. Promising starts are an even bigger letdown from ye olde predictable from square one. Incidentally, do you know anything about either Hotel Africa or You're So Cool, which are the two series I'm set to slog through next?

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

been watching goong the kdrama. other than an interesting wardrobe, it's too 'shoujo'..ugh..blah ending.

the other manwha you've mentioned also end like other 'shoujo'..y'know...weddings, babies, other saccharine stuff. the beginnings of those manwha are good though.

try manwha by the artist kara. they tend to be entertaining and funny.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

other than an interesting wardrobe
Yeah, there was another Kdrama I was watching--1,000-Year Love is the Japanese title--whose costumes were really excellent but whose characters and plotline I just found odious.

Bummer on those two other series, considering they cost 5x the original price in Chicago.

Kara Demon Diary Kara, non? I looked for her stuff in Seoul and in Han Books and couldn't anything, which is a shame, because DD just read incredibly off to me in English. Woez.

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

yeah, tis a shame tokyopop butchered another manga/manwha. sigongsa, i think is the korean publisher. kara is also doing angel diary released by ice kunion...the korean company that is releasing straight to the usa. the translation seems pretty decent. the other ice kunion titles look nice, also.

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

Well, people have vastly different ways of approaching something. If I were to go bashing in to confront my father, there would be absolutely no winning. How do I win? By being plucky. (and vaguely manipulative, but I digress)

[katiemorris.livejournal.com]

Hi, this is entirely unrelated to your current post, but did you write a rather superb piece of fanfic called "Remember my last" a couple of years ago? It's one of those that stuck in my mind and I just found a reference to it and your name on my old laptop so wondered if it was still available.

If not, sorry to have bothered you. Regards, Kate

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know if I'd call it superb (thanks though!) but I did indeed write the one you're looking for.

Checking for it myself, I discovered that I never archived it to my personal lj, but it's still here (http://community.livejournal.com/sweetsaddiction/8405.html) at the sweetsaddiction lj. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you--I've been traveling for the past two months and not doing so well with lj stuff.

Anyway, thanks for remembering it and I hope it holds up well!