Product Details

• Actors: Lee Yo-won, Koh Hyun-jung, Uhm Tae-woong, Park Ye-jin
• Directors: Park Hong-gyun, Kim Geun-hong
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Korean
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 7
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: MBC America
• DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009
• Run Time: 23 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002PFER0C
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,192 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

The story of a beautiful queen, who has to give up her love to save the people. With historical battle scenes and a star-studded cast, Queen Seondeok of Silla is the follow-up historical drama to MBC's "Lee San: Wind of the Palace" and "Prince of Legend" for 2009! Writer Kim Young-hyun of the famous "Jewel in the Palace" will be the main writer of this new TV mini-series. A biopic of Queen Seondeok, who was born a princess and later became the ruler of Silla, leaving behind many brilliant achievements. During the Three Kingdoms period of Korea... Deokman (Queen Seondeok's childhood name) was born a twin but was abandoned as a baby. She was later brought back to the Silla palace, where she joined forces with her twin sister Princess Chonmyong to oppose Mi-shil, who wanted to seize power. Mi-shil devised sinister plans to have the two Silla princesses exiled from the kingdom, and in a secretive battle, Princess Chonmyong was assassinated by Mi-shil. But Princess Deokman shrewdly enlisted the help of General Kim Yusin and eliminated her archenemy Mi-shil. She became the first female ruler of the Silla kingdom.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best I've seen, October 21, 2009

By 

M. St Germain (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Great Queen Seondeok Vol. 1 (DVD)

This is a great series, it has everything. The characters are excellent and the story has a lot of twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. Misil is so bad she is good. The woman who plays her Go Hyun Jung is so amazing, she plays the villainess to perfection. Really worth watching and entertaining. Looking forward to watching the next Volume.

And thanks to Amazon, the first dvds were defective and once reported they were replaced in days.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, addicting, & worth every penny, December 28, 2009

By 

hanshan mtn. (WDC metro area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Great Queen Seondeok Vol. 1 (DVD)

This is volume 1 of a 3 volume dvd set of the TV series airing in 2009-2010 in the US. This is a top quality south korean tv drama which is receiving rave reviews globally. This month (dec '09), Volume 2 of this set has just come out... As soon as Vol 3 comes out I'm getting it too!

This story is extremely addictive! - I warn you it will make you stay up till the wee hours if you are not extremely disciplined. At time of this writing the US broadcast of the weekly series is probably somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd volume. I bought the 1st volume because I missed the earlier episodes, and because it's well worth owning and sharing with your family. As with other MBC, KBS or SBS historical korean dramas of this decade, this video set is clearly and expertly translated with english subtitling (including all idioms and colloquialisms to english equivalents). Compared to american tv historical dramas, this as with similar kdramas is more addicting, higher production quality, more accurate historical period recreation, and MUCH longer lasting enjoyment. Plenty of eye candy of all types, characters with depth, intellgent script, interwoven plot lines, cliffhangers, martial arts fights and wars (not gross), political intrigue (not dry), family and romance themes, country and individual economic struggles, etc.

Yes, as with american dramas, these script writers take many liberties with the historical true story in order to flesh out historical gaps and to make a riveting plot line - and they succeed - it's such a great story we really don't care - we just enjoy the story... and then many non-korean viewers get very interested to learn about the actual history behind the fictional drama! So we learn the real history one way or the other.) It has overall excellent production, costuming, historical period re-creation, video quality (not HD or blu-ray but with excellent quality flatpanel tv, dvd player and a monster ultra hdmi cable (yes, brand DOES make a difference - you get what you pay for in signal quality), this dvd set is equivalent in video clarity, color depth, etc., to my blu-ray discs).

Thoughts on k-dramas in general (some US amazon customers may be unfamiliar with this genre):

I find that the good kdramas are well worth watching - and worth owning, too. And others who would ordinarily not be interested in foreign video and not have any desire to watch subtitled foreign dramas find themselves hooked after 1 or 2 episodes... what's more, people find that typically women, men and kids all enjoy these - especially the historical dramas, which are very relevant human stories... These are not "chick flicks", they are designed as intelligent family entertainment.

Other historical drama greats are Dae Jang Geum (the one most people new to kdramas start on), Hae Shin ('Emperor of the Sea' about Jang Bo Go), Admiral Yi Sun Shin (famous humane leader and military strategist that saved korea from two samurai invasions in the late 1500's; military historians study his activities today, many judge him as better than Lord Nelson), Sangdo (The Way of Trade), Hur Jun (famous historical doctor), Damo (female policewoman), etc. Many of these are available in Region 1 for the US market. You can often get them at amazon... if not, then look at hanbooks or yesasia.

This addiction got me to get a second dvd player for playing all region dvd's, and it was well worth it - besides, it's good to have a backup. The one I have I got at amazon (search "multi region dvd player"). It's a great player and does everything - and more - see my review on it (Pioneer Dv610av-s Silver Multi Region Code Free Hdmi 1080p Upconverting DVD Player with SACD and DVD-Audio Playback). Has various type output connectors. Plays my european and asian movie DVD's just fine, and of course all american DVD's as well. Also plays CD's and has other neat features. Bookmarks the location of where I stopped at, too. Most foreign movies and tv dramas are not yet coming out on blu-ray, though that will probably change soon... so far, blu-ray capable multi-region dvd players are WAY overpriced, but perhaps that too, will change soon. Not necessary to have blu-ray for very fine video playback quality on regular DVDs, if you have high quality video equipment.

Postscript to my comments on this video set:
1). One nit: One disc, one spot on my Volume 1 set, during episode 2 got stuck partway through, but it was fine at the next episode, and everything else played fine on this set of the first 20 episodes. This hangup happened at exactly the same spot on the disc on both my Pioneer and my Samsung excellent DVD players, so something was wrong with the disc burn there, I guess. But I'm so happy with the entire set of DVD's and these are not always easy to get (since not everyone sells them and they go out of print after a year or so, with english subtitling), that I will overlook it just this once (if it happened more, I'd send the set back for a swap copy). I didn't miss out on key parts of the story, and if I was curious I'd go online to see the tidbit I missed... but it wasn't in a key part anyway.

2). WOW I've been watching Queen Seondeok Volume 1 dvd set and it's a very high quality video, visually, when you watch it using high quality equipment. WOW it really pops!! - seems like the filmmakers really made this a high-quality film, technically. I'm wowed by it, can't say it enough. The video and sound quality of these discs, using my multi region Pioneer DV-610AV- player is really fantastic! Surprisingly, it's equal to the visual and sound quality played with blu-ray discs, using my high-quality top chip blu-ray (or upconverting for regular DVD's) player, displayed over quality monster HDMI cable to my Kuro Elite plasma tv. I watched same Queen Seondeok disc on both. All the eye candy costumes, indoor and outdoor scenery (day and night) etc. really pop in color richness and visual detail, down to hair, sweat, whiskers, various skin tones, various textures and the costume and set details. So in terms of visual & sound quality, using a quality upconverting 1080 DVD player, quality HDMI cable and fine TV, this DVD set really really delivers!

Comments on kdramas generally, relevant for this Queen Seondeok set and others, for US & western audiences:

Many of the kdramas can be found online for free if you can stand low picture quality and watching an hour at a time on a pc, which I hate. Top-rated kdrama stories such as this one are so well made that it's really really worth watching them on your nice big TV at home. Try it - it's amazing how dim and flat and awful the online version is compared to getting it on broadcast TV or on DVDs. If you get them on disc, be sure to avoid formats that are not actually DVD - the other formats are not fine video quality, but cheap recordings of originals... you may save money but for non dvd quality you might as well watch on the pc... i.e., don't bother. You can usually purchase them new from amazon, amazon marketplace (e.g. videocity), or hanbooks or yesasia; note many of the english-subtitled ones (except for Dae Jang Geum) go out of print after a year or so and become hard or impossible to find. Sometimes you can rent the dvds for cheap at korean-owned markets that rent movie discs as part of their business - but make sure these have subtitles! Most of the clientele of these stores are native korean speakers so often their dvds don't include the subtitling.

Kdramas are done both as historical dramas, and as modern dramas and soaps. But even the soaps are better than american soaps - even people who hate american soaps can enjoy some kdrama soaps.

Hopefully the american makers will eventually learn something from this.

Why the local or national nonprofit stations in the US haven't glommed onto these videos is a mystery... Not everyone in the US has access to the broadcast channels that play the historical or modern kdramas.

Why South Korea on the whole doesn't market these products more actively, effectively and widely to western audiences, we don't know either. Electronics and cars are not the only quality export products of south korea. These video dramas are an export market in themselves that have growth potential; as they are popular globally, they have already generated an increase in world tourism to korea and its historical sites. The US has a number of k-drama fan clubs (chicago, philadelphia, california) and scattered fans around the country, and you can find their websites online. The korean tv networks have on occasion attempted to tap into the US interest, but not in any effective way nor with any effective followup... Guess they think we are at heart ignorant barbarians. All that does is perpetuate the non-awareness.

Yet, these shows are a great way to stimulate an interest or at least awareness of korean culture, both modern and historical (even if the historical dramas are heavily fictionalized versions)... Pre-western Korean history is not usually taught as part of world history in the US school system, in spite of the rich melting pot that makes up the US population... Most americans are woefully ignorant of non-european, non-american world history. This is a rich lode to tap for great story-making, at the very least, if not also cross-cultural interest.

More frustratingly, some fine historical kdramas are not fully translated - apparently the makers didn't feel it worth the investment to subtitle the complete story for western audiences... (but since they don't market their products effectively to western audiences they are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy!). For example, the western version of Admiral Yi Sun Shin is a smaller DVD set than the original - they only translated the... Read more ›

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Choose Licensed MBC America Release for Best Quality, January 5, 2010

By 

D. Bannon "The Elements of Subtitles" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Queen Seondeok Vol. 1 (DVD)

For the best audio and video quality with the original broadcast English subtitles, look for 'Studio: MBC America' under Product Details. MBC America is the licensed US distributor for The Great Queen Seondeok. MBC America works from the original MBC-TV master recordings and hires professional translators for the broadcast subtitles, which are also used for the DVD release. Each episode runs about 60 minutes. Volume 1 contains Episodes 1-20; Volume 2 contains Episodes 21-43; Volume 3, Episodes 44-62. On a personal note, I've subtitled many Korean programs but Queen Seondeok is my favorite historical drama. Fans of romance, action and intrigue will not be disappointed.

D. Bannon was the subtitler for the MBC America broadcast and DVD releases of The Great Queen Seondeok Vol. 1, Great Queen Seondeok 2 (8pc) (Sub Box) and Great Queen Seondeok 3 (7pc) (Sub Box). He discusses subtitling Queen Seondeok in The Elements of Subtitles: A Practical Guide to the Art of Dialogue, Character, Context, Tone and Style in Subtitling.