By metalslick – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63996191
“The King’s Letters” (나랏말싸미) is a historical Korean drama released in July of 2019. Set in Joseon dynasty, it tells the story of how Sejong the Great went about creating the Korean alphabet, Hangul (한글 ).
Yesterday, Julia Hanna and I joined Kate Gladstone for a review of the movie.
The King’s Letters is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is less popular than many other Korean movies, but if you are interested in the history of the Korean writing system, it is a must see.
Was the invention of Hangul influenced by Buddhist monks who already were armed with phonetic knowledge they drew from the the Devanagari? Was the credit for the invention of the writing system given to Chinese leaning Confucians? These are some of the questions raised by this unusually intellectual movie.
