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MBC

Region 0 - NTSC

4:3 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: avg. mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 4:3

Edition Details:
• Production: MBC Television, Korea
• North American DVD Distribution: YA Entertainment (USA)

DVD Release Date: March 24, 2005
1 box set, 3 volumes, 7 discs

Chapters 20

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The rules changed in 2002: Unlike many a Korean television drama, which can be fairly predictable in respect to the arc of the plot and the way each episode comes to its cliffhanging close, Ruler of Your Own World seems to be quite through-composed – making itself up as it goes along – a little like life.

Even though there are the usual four main characters: 2 guys and 2 gals who need to sort themselves out between them, Ruler of Your Own World is no fairy tale, so how they do the sorting grows much more out of the demands of character development than those of a producer married to the genre. Even in translation, the writing is so evidently nuanced that we aware of a considerable degree of depth to the characters: a couple of them, notably Mi-Rae and Bok-Su, are amazingly perceptive at seeing through all the noise that young people create around them just for the purpose of remaining impenetrable to others. (I could really use these people as translators in my family therapy practice.)

Image : 7.5 (7/9)
The score of 7.5 indicates a relative level of excellence compared to other standard definition DVDs on a 10-point scale for SD DVDs. The score in parentheses represents: first, a value for the image on a 10-point scale that accommodates both standard and high-definition DVDs – where any score above 7 for an SD is outstanding, since the large majority of high definition DVDs are 8-9.5. The second number in parentheses indicates how that image compares to what I believe is the current best we can expect in the theatre or, in the case of made-for-TV fare.

Like MBC's Truth, the production values for Ruler of Your Own World go for a naturalistic look, making lighting adjustments for some situations, especially outdoors, where we see more than the usual tendency to overexpose highlights. Enhancement and artifacts are at a minimum – hardly noticeable unless you're looking for them. All in all, a pretty good image considering it's not being progressive.

Audio & Music : 8/8/2
Astonishing as it may seem, but this drama has some of the worst sound I've ever encountered on a DVD (that's the "2" score above.) Chun Kyung is the keyboard player in a small rock band, who always sound like they are in a garage and recorded on a cell phone. Come to think of it, we never get to hear them long enough to make much of a judgment of their skills. How such a sound could be taken to be representative of a group that expects to make it in this world beats me! It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that they do find gigs and opportunities to record once or twice. On what basis, I kept asking myself? (By contrast, there are numerous and lengthy scenes of Bok Su working as a stunt man in which we get a pretty good impression about that line of work and how it materializes into a movie.) Elsewhere, the sound is just fine: the dialogue is clear and the soundtrack (except as noted above) is varied or dynamic by turns, as befits the situation.

Translation & Subtitles : 8/7
The translation is better than adequate, if not especially subtle. Considering that I can still appreciate the screenplay as being the insightful script that it is, we should not be too hard on it. I gather from other Korean speakers, that the language for this series is especially poetic, so it is all the more remarkable that I found the dialogue to be so well written. I did, however, find that the term "pickpocket" was used altogether too frequently: it hasn't nearly the negative connotation as, for example, "thief," which should have been employed more often once we know the kind of thievery everyone is worried about.

Subtitles are white, bordered in black so as to always be clear against any background. A bit large for my taste.

Operations & Box Design : 7/6
Nothing much of interest here, nor to criticize, really. The menu is straightforward, not taking advantage of the medium as do later YAE productions, such as Someday or White Tower. As for the box design, as I have often stated, I am not a fan of internal plastic pages for the discs. I gather that YAE has a new box design for this title. There may be hope.

Extras : 6
YAE provides a very useful 16-page Reference Guide that offers a brief bio on the starring actors plus a good deal of background on understanding contemporary Korean culture, from names to cell phones to tofu, to Seoul slums. One criticism, however: the printing is of such low contrast compared to the paper stock that, coupled with the small font, makes for difficult reading.

Recommendation: 9
Ruler of Your Own World is less contrived than your average Korean soap opera. For some, this will be its greatest drawback: In the absence of cliffhangers, the drama is no page-turner in the usual sense. There is even the occasional action or fight scene whose punches are obviously pulled. All the same, we are drawn to these characters in realistic rather than fantastical ways. We feel more as invisible voyeurs rather than as pawns to be manipulated by writers and producers. We want to find out what happens in the lives of our characters instead of how a particular conflict or situation works itself out in the next episode, which only would have led to yet another tense moment at the end of that episode, and so on. In this way Ruler of Your Own World is more like a novel than your typical TV series, except that the crying scenes go on longer. The only thing that argues against this set is its being non-anamorphic.

Leonard Norwitz

CLICK to order from:

MBC

Region 0 - NTSC