Princess Hours

Waktu tayang : January 11 - March 30, 2006

Waktu menonton : High School

Hal paling berkesan : The cute teddy bear. The cute Yoon Eun-Hye. The hot hot kiss.

This a an amusing drama, at least for me. When I was in high school, it was huge. Most of my friends watched this. It's second to only Full House for popularity with girls. I said I loved it like all my friends, but the truth is I didn't. I like it enough, but I didn't love it. Why?

Because half of it is damn boring.

This drama is set in an alternate 21st century Korea where the country is run by a royal family, instead of democracy. The prince, Prince Shin, needs to find a bride as soon as possible because his father is very ill. Shin then proposed to his girlfriend, Hyo-rin , but she refused in order to pursue her ballet career. Shin is then forced to marry a girl that his grandfather had intended for him, a commoner called Chae-kyeong, which incidentally also went to the same school as Shin.

The conflict here is, as always, the classic contract marriage and how two people who hated each other come to love one another. It's classic as classic gets in KDrama, but I like it a lot. It's a cliche for a reason : people enjoy it. The romance was cute, and the kiss was hot hot hot! (A refreshing break from all the cold and flat kiss KDrama seems to have). So the premise of an alternate korea was new, the romance was hot, what's boring about it?

Partway through the drama, something else took over : royal politics. You see, apart from the romance, there's the conflict of whether Shin will take over his father as king. I forgot to mention another character, Lee Yul and his mother, who was once the Crown Princess before the death of her husband, the older brother of Shin's father. And it all goes downhill after that. I don't know if it's just me, but I DON'T like politics sprinkled in my romantic drama. I ended up fast-forwarding a LOT of scenes. I'm just as surprised to realize that the politics scene is actually a LOT. So I ended up watching only the romance scenes which I rarely do. I tend to try to appreciate movies and tv series for what it is, and unless it's really boring, I never fast-forward them.

Well, this drama is one of the really boring type I guess.

It's a shame, because I like the romance a lot. Yoon Eun Hye is adorable as Chae-kyeong, and this is actually the drama that shoots her to mega stardom. I like every ending of the episodes too, where they show us adorable teddy bears reenacting memorable scenes from that episodes. If only the politics were toned down a bit.

This drama is actually based on a manhwa (Korean comic books) called Goong, and it's not even half-finished the time this drama aired. I wonder if the degradation of story quality halfway through this drama is because of it. Nevertheless, I think that the romance is well worth it to watch. It's adorable and hot at the appropriate place. Just get your remote ready for some fast-forwarding.

PS : Hyo-rin, Shin's ex-girlfriend and Chae-kyeong's love rival, is played by Song Ji-Hyo, a well-known girl if you follow Running Man (a popular korean reality show). I adore her now, but I hate her then (because of the role). If you're a fan of Song Ji-Hyo, check out this classic drama.