Princess Hours

Country: Korea
Genre: Drama
Release Year: 2006
Type: Series

User Reviews
There is 1 user review.
Average User Review Score

90%

Princess Hours Review
This drama is set in present time South Korea, the twist is that Korea is given a constitutional monarchy much like Britain. As the story starts off, the king is very sick and to continue the royal linage, he decides to wed the crown prince to a commoner, Chae-gyung. However, Chae-gyung is not just any commoner; her grandfather had fought many battles together with the present king's father. To reward her grandfather, the future king's father decides to pair up his grandson with his granddaughter. Chae-gyung does not want to be part of this engagement at first, but since her family is broke she decides to save her family from financial ruin and gets engaged to the crown prince. The crown prince, Shin goes to the same school as Chae-gyung and Chae-gyung once saw him propose to another student, Hyo-rin and got turned down. This adds to the frustration of Chae-gyung. Even so, Chae-gyung moves into the royal palace and learns the traditions and manners of the royalty. The other girl, Hyo-rin soon regrets her decision of turning down Shin and decides to get him back. To add to another twist, the crown princes' cousin, Yul comes back to Korea and falls in love with the new crown princess.

This drama had a pretty good story line, but was confusing at times. This may be due to the fact I don't really have a complete understanding of Korean, and the subtitles can often be misleading. Besides the love triangle of the four characters, there is also a subplot in which their parents were involved in the affair. This drama was based off of a manga, which you can see at this link.

The characters in this drama were decent. Chae-Gyung is played by Yoon Eun Hye, the last member to join Baby-VOX. She was particularly funny and very cute, and her acting impressed me, especially since she is a singer and not an actress. Shin is played by Joo Ji Hoon, who was very mean in the beginning but began to soften into a gentler character (Plus he has small eyes which are always good). The other characters were mediocre, but they weren't that crucial to the series. I especially liked the King's mother, she was almost as funny as Chae-Gyung and provided a lot of amusement.

The series was 24 episodes; it dragged out at some parts and had many unneeded scenes. The length was decent, but it was also a bit on the long side. This drama is a cross between a Romance and Comedy, with Romance being the major genre, but every scene where you see Chae-gyung you can expect some good comedy.

The music in this series was exceptional. The two main songs are Perhaps Love by J and Howl and Too Close. Perhaps Love is a very good song and fits well with the series. It's so good that I actually downloaded it and listen to it.

Overall, this was a good drama, with a good storyline. However, the supporting characters were sub-par. Hyo-rin looks like an old woman in this series. The idea of a Korean monarchy is very refreshing and gives a good perspective on life in a palace. I recommend this series to anyone who wants to see a modern Korean Romance/Comedy with a pretty hot actress. Truth be told, I'm sure girls will go goo-goo for the main actor as well.