[영어뉴스] 최종수정일 / 2008년 11월 22일

       
         The horror series, 'Village Legends,' which is being shown on KBS 2 after a long absence, has become popular, with an audience rating approaching 20% each time it is aired, demonstrating once again the power of traditional
Korean stories to give people a good scare.

        'Village Legends' was first broadcast on October 18, 1977, with 'The Filial Daughter of Mt. Manisan,' a weekly
episode appearing thereafter for 12 years.  It was a popular drama for many television seasons, appealing to viewers
regardless of age or sex, thanks to a combination of ghosts from grandmother's old stories and moral themes of good
versus evil, loyalty and filial piety.  It acquired more popularity with the availability of color televisions starting in
December, 1980.  However, after many seasons, the materials dried up as the episodes repeated similar stories which viewers found trite.  The series concluded with episode 573, 'Waejangnyuh' on October, 3, 1989.  

        In 1996, after a seven-year absence, 'Village Legends' returned as a summer horror series.  It assumed the
Wednesday and Thursday drama time slot on KBS 2, with the episode 'Fox Woman' on June 26, 1996.  It was then
scheduled as a weekend drama in 1997 and as a Monday and Tuesday drama in 1998 and 1999.

        The new 'Village Legends' with its up-to-date style gave people enough of a scare so that viewers watching could forget for the moment the summer heat, and it maintained stable audience ratings.  But it could not avoid the criticism
that the special appeal of old stories was lost because of the various special effects and computer graphics.  It was not as scary as the original.  As a result of weak ratings, it was cancelled after the 1999 season.  


Memorable 'Village Legends' Episodes

        One cannot speak of 'Village Legends' without mentioning the fox with nine tails.
        A thousand-year-old fox with nine tails has one wish, which is to become human.  She takes the form of a
woman,  falls in love with a man, and marries him.  If she can live with her husband unnoticed, she can become a real woman, but her husband discovers her identity just before the one hundredth day, shattering her dream.  The nine-
tailed fox is forced to leave her husband.

        'The Nine-Tailed Fox,' a powerful story, has been dramatized many times in the history of 'Village Legends.'  
Han Hye-sook was the first nine-tailed fox.  Park Min-young is the most recent.  Other actresses who played the role
are Jang Mi-hee, Kim Mi-sook, Sunwoo Eun-sook, Cha Hwa-yeon, Park Sang-a (1996), Im Chae-won (1996), Song
Yoon-a (1997), Noh Hyun-hee (1998), Kim Ji-young (1999).

        Another memorable episode is 'Dukdaegol', which is famous for the line, "give me back my leg."
        A monk says to a woman whose husband has an incurable disease, "If you make a broth with the leg of a corpse
that has not been buried for more than three days, and serve it to your husband, he will be cured."  So one rainy
midnight, the woman goes to a cemetery.  She digs up a grave and cuts the leg from a corpse.  As she runs off with the leg, the one-legged corpse pursues her madly, crying gruesomely "give me back my leg, give me back my leg."  
Having frantically arrived in the kitchen of her home, she relaxes.  But instantly, the hand of the corpse reaches into the kitchen.  Frightened, the woman throws the leg into the boiling cauldron, making the corpse fall feebly.  The next day
the wife serves the leg broth to her husband, who is cured of his disease.  After hearing the whole story, the husband
with his wife gives a proper burial to the corpse in reverential memory.  A large wild ginseng with only one branch is
found beside the grave soon after, heaven's sign that it was moved by the woman's devotion to her husband.  

        Following the broadcast of 'Dukdaegol,' the line "give me back my leg" became the rage all over the country.
        The current season of 'Village Legends' has only four episodes remaining to be aired: 'Young Master Ogu,' 'The
Haunted Gisaeng's House,' 'Sashin's Story,' 'Hwanhyangnyuh."  We hope that they will chill our blood, giving us respite from the hot summer.

August 21, 2008
By Reporter, Kang Myoung-a
Junior reporter, Kim Mi-hee