The HIstorical Drama: Jumong

Actor Song Il Guk playing as Jumong, in the historical drama, Jumong

Prior to taking this Asian 270 course on premodern Korea, I had very little knowledge about Korean history prior to the 1900s. I have always been interested in the Three Kingdoms Period, especially Koguryo. Jumong, one of the few historical Korean dramas I had ever watched, portrays the life of Jumong, the founder of the Koguryo dynasty. This historical drama shortly after its release had gained a lot popularity. But while watching this drama, I noticed a lot of very inaccuracies, and it seemed to be a very repetitive pattern in not just this drama, but other Korean historical films and dramas as well. Yes, movies are meant to not be realistic, but some of the things portrayed in this drama were very bizarre.

Battle scenes in particular seemed very inaccurate, especially the weapons that were used in the historical drama. In multiple battles, Jumong and his army have been seen using these black explosive balls, which when in contact with fire explode. This most likely was gunpowder that was compacted into a ball shape. China was one of the first countries to ever use and experiment on gunpowder, which  began in the 9th century. However, in this drama, Jumong and his men from Koguryo are seen using gunpowder as a grenade-like weapon. The setting of this drama dates back to early 1st century, which is nowhere near the 9th century, when gunpowder was first used.

Jumong and his followers, wearing the "God armor" that can penetrate anything

Secondly, towards the later half of the drama, one of Jumong's blacksmith's develops an impenetrable armor. To test it, Jumong fires an arrow at it, and the armor deflects it, and they celebrate the production of this new armor. They go on to mass produce this armor for their army. This is odd in many ways. First off, they seemed to assume that just because the armor deflected an arrow, it is a strong and impenetrable armor. Later, when the first use the armor, the Han Chinese swords were unable to penetrate the armor. However, just a few episodes later, somehow the Han Chinese were able to create a sword that can penetrate it. During the Koguryo time period, the Han Chinese were much more technologically advanced than Koguryo, and it is very unlikely they had created an armor that was impenetrable.

The video below is the very first scene of the historical drama Jumong. Just watching the first 10 minutes of this drama showing a fight scene between Hae Mo Su (Jumong's father) and his friend, a prince of Puyo, is just so unrealistic.