İyi Seyirler Dileriz.
Goong (2006)
Goong
궁 / Princess Hours
(Jan – Mar 2006)
who’s in it
Yoon EunHye (Take Care of My Lady, Coffee Prince)
Joo JiHoon (Antique Bakery – film)
Kim JeongHoon
Song JiHyo
what's it about
Drawing obvious parallels with England, including frequent references to the torrid tabloid scandals that concerned Prince Charles, Camilla and Princess Diana before the latter’s tragic car accident and death, Goong cheerfully speculates an alternate version of history where the Republic of Korea is a constitutional monarchy and has maintained a figurehead sovereignty instead of adopting a purely presidential system of government.
When the reigning king begins to suffer in health, the elders make the sudden decision to wed off the crowned prince, Joo JiHoon, to solidify his status as the heir-apparent despite his still being in high school. There’s a problem though and it’s called a (let’s sing it together now) secret lover, that’s what we are...our little stuck-up prince has a real amour in his life and doesn’t take a shine to the girl chosen for him by the old people who want to dictate his every move in life. Apparently, the previous king (his late grandfather) had betrothed the crowned prince to a commoner’s granddaughter a long time ago, Yoon EunHye, a goofy art student who turns out to be his classmate at the very art institute he currently attends.
Throw into the hotpot of fun 1) extra meat: the sensitive exiled prince with emoting hair and his vindictive mother who wants her son on the throne and, 2) raw garlic: the abandoned ballerina who was the crowned prince’s secret first love, one that decides she needs to get her stud back. Now we got ourselves some salacious tomfoolery of the royal stew variety.
commitment
24 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
Yoon EunHye – the singer turned actress does a really fine job here, to my surprise. She’s natural and funny as the hopeless school girl who crashed the royal party.
after the first episode
I liked it but I wasn’t sure if it would continue to impress. The concept was fun…but I was concerned about how far the novelty of this alternate world would carry before the story thinned and became too silly.
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