Although at first I was intending to make this blog a Japanese-only blog, this post I chose to write in English because it would be easier for me to express all I want to say…
A while ago I finally finished watching K-Drama “ Rooftop Prince” or 옥탑방 왕세자 (Oktabbang Wangseja)and couldn't keep myself from sharing my thoughts and review on the drama with somebody (though I actually doubt anyone will read this)
As for the main story, well I actually hope whoever reads this already watched the drama, because like I stated in the title,there’re many spoilers to come below. Anyway, you can find the synopsis very well written on many blogs and sites like here on DramaWiki http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Rooftop_Prince
If you’re a K-Drama fan and have been following the latest few seasons, you’d know what I mean when I say that "Rooftop Prince’s yet another Time-Travel-Romance Drama"
It’s a popular theme in K-Dramas lately, I only know a few which I haven’t yet watched, The Korean version of the popular Japanese Drama JIN, “Doctor Jin”, “Queen In-Hyun's Man” & “faith” are a few examples.
Koreans are very talented when it comes to fantasy plots they have these unique and unexpected ideas rolled up their sleeves which they nicely make use of in their dramas. I believe the theme where love develops between two who live in two different periods of time became popular after the Korean Movie “Il-Mare” and it’s American adaptation “The Lake House”.
Another thing I like about most K-Dramas, is the satisfying choice of actors. It’s not that Korean producers are all a bunch of geniuses,in fact in a lot of cases the choice of the main lead goes according to the most popular actor-actress at the time without bothering to think whether these actors/actresses really fit for the role or not. What rather makes it a success in K-Dramas’ case, is the actors/actresses themselves that help you get absorbed into the drama and story line quickly and start to get attached to the characters. To prove my point remember the first impression you had when you started watching some of your now favorite Rom-Com K-Dramas, you’ll find that at first you felt there was Zero Chemistry between the male and female leads,but then the more you watch the more you get convinced and start even to imagine the actors being in love in real life.
It was my first time to watch a drama for Yoochun…I have nothing to say except “WELL DONE”. He was just marvelous in every way,fitted the role so well, expressed all feelings so beautifully. As for the female lead on the other hand, At first I wasn't really convinced with the producer’s choice of her, I had only watched Han Ji-Min once in her duo with Kang Ji-Hwan in “Capital Scandal”, to be honest I really liked her in that one,but in Rooftop Prince she felt so much older (I mean physically)…well she’solder than the male lead in the plot as well, but somehow I felt at first they don’t fit each other at all. But little by little going deeper and deeper through the drama and experiencing their relationship developing from “Detest>to Interest>to Love”, you start to get the feeling there’s actually quite a chemistry between the two of them.
Rooftop Prince…. As for the Fantasy/Romance/Comedy Aspects, all three of them deserve a near 10/10 points, for me it was a very delightful experience watching the comical and romance scenes throughout the drama. Especially in the first few episodes where neither the viewer nor the characters had anything else to bother them and could concentrate wholly on the comedy line.
The final Aspect of this drama that I found not as successful as the prior ones is the Mystery one. The prince trying to solve his Crown Princess' murder case, starts an investigation with the help of his newly-recruited henchmen, mysteriously time travels along with his entourage 300 years into the future to Modern day Seoul, meets with a woman the splitting image of his lost Crown Princess, Then decides to re-pursue his investigation to unravel the conspiracy that led to her death in Joeson Era. To sum up the idea, it’s like solving a murder case that took place in the Joeson Era but in the present day Seoul. While this seems to be a very interesting plot, well it is quite an interesting idea to be honest and a very unique one at that, it would have been a real success if it hadn't been that starting the middle of the drama where the prince decides to go for the investigation again -upon meeting the "so-believed" reincarnation of his dead Crown Princess-, that the drama starts to take a slope down with many plot-holes, hard to swallow silly parts, and what they call in Korean "Makjang" elements starting to show up here and there. At points it felt like the writers were stuck up, wanted the story to go in a certain way and didn't care whatever means they used to make that possible. All in all, all that made me detest the whole "Solving the Crown Princess' murder" Line so much, wished the drama didn't have it from the beginning.
In fact the reason why I couldn't wait to write a review of this drama is all thanks to those Plot-Holes, unbelievable coincidences and odds. Wanted to share all my anger with someone(laugh)
No more waste, I’ll go right to the main point. The parts I found most ridiculous, causing me at times to simply frown, or pause the video to take a deep breath to sum up some patience, even driving me to talk to myself aloud making fun in all sorts of ways (what they call in Japanese “Tsukkomi”…I was doing that aaaall the time)
Part 1: What about the last look of Goodbye?!
Your wife drowns and dies; you start an investigation in anguish, all that’s nice. But don’t try to tell me you never even for once looked at the body!!!
Part 2: The odd journey of the Mobile phone
The mobile Tae-Yong used in New-York, where he took pictures of himself with Tae-Mu. First after Tae-Yong falls over from the boat Tae-Mu throws it into the ocean, turns out that was someone else's mobile that got switched by mistake, the odds that this exact someone gives Tae-Yong's mobile to no other than Park-Ha, and that Park-Ha instead of handing it over to the police or at least the front of the bar like a normal person would do keeps it safe! ANYWAY…long story short the mobile ends up in Tae-Mu's hand. If you were him you'd want to get rid of it right? Why the hell smash it with a rock and when you get caught while in the middle of that you toss it in someone's paper bag!! Why don't you just put it in your pocket and smash it later MAN!
Part 3: Marry her so we can return to Joeson Vs. Wait for someone to murder her and solve the mystery and we return to Joeson.
When Man-Bo first tells Park-Ha of the story behind their time travel and the mystery they’re trying to solve, he says: “the Prince needs to marry Hong Se-na so that we can return to Joeson” hmm, the idea didn't really make sense at the time, but when later Lee Gak explains the situation to Park-Ha (episode 11) it became even more and more hard to swallow. He says that he thought he needed to create the same situation as it happened in Joeson, meaning if he marries Se-Na someone would try to kill her,then he’d save her and find out the culprit and happily return to Joeson. How stupid is he to come up with such a theory, and how clueless is his henchmen to simply believe that’d solve everything. Let’s imagine they’re right and that creating the same situation is possible and that solving the mystery now would help solve the murder in the past and that if they succeed in that they'd return to Joeson, what about Se-Na?….is Lee Gak as a crown prince willing to put an innocent person’s life in danger just to solve a murder case that scientifically happened 300 years before! How ridiculous is that!?
Part 5: Tae-Mu asks Se-Na to act as Chairman Jang’s daughter.
Maximum Makjang-ness!!! To think that people living in the 21st century would come up with such ridiculous ideas.“Hi Ma’am, I’m your long lost daughter” “Oh, really! I missed you so much dear”….!!!If they’re stupid to think she’d actually fall for it, she might not be as stupid after all and ask to carry out a DNA test herself to be sure. And to add to the ridiculousness, Tae-Mu’s idiot traits turns out to be hereditary, his father turns out to be more naïve than a 3 year old whom upon being told Se-Na turned out to be the chairman’s daughter just buys it and doesn't ask for any details like who the hell is that woman who raised you or how did you found out it was you or anything. Plain rubbish.
Part 4: The Plane ticket misunderstanding arc.
Ok, so Tae-Mu wants to get rid of Park Ha before the chairman finds out she’s her real daughter. Couldn't he with all his wit and evilness think of a better way than buying a plane ticket with Park Ha’s name and giving it to Se-Na. OK! so he was out of ideas, what about Se-Na. by placing the ticket instead of the lease how was she so sure that Park Ha won’t call Tae-Yong and inquire about it, how was she so sure she won’t be exposed? Don’t tell me she understands a woman’s heart so well, and knows that in such situations a woman’s pride will prevent her from calling him coz I won’t buy such rubbish. There’s only one explanation (as I always tend to say): that the director told her so. :D
Also that part where Lee Gak just so easily believed Se-Na's lies that the envelopes got switched. Let's say she did carry a similar envelope, what the hell was a plane ticket to New York in Park Ha's name doing inside?! Was it really necessary to come up with cutting the envelope to show the seal marks part? The whole issue with the plane ticket felt so utterly comic at that point, thought I was watching a Detective Conan episode or something.
Part 5: (one of the most scenes I hate in this drama) the Black Box and facing The big criminal masterminds with the evidence.
Our nice and kind-hearted prince finds evidence to prove that Se-Na and Tae-Mu are involved in Grandmother's death whom he had lately started to develop affections toward, and he vowed to take revenge on whoever caused her death. Don't you think he should use that evidence? No! instead he makes his men bring them over like some cheap Mafia movie (the lighting from the projector and Yon-Sul slapping Tae-Mu etc, all played a role in stressing that atmosphere) and asks them to repent on their own, leave the company and return the money they stole (huh?!) Is all that stuff more important than making Grandmother's murderers pay? I felt it was all a bad written part, the writers wanted the trigger to make Tae-Mu decide to kill his half-brother Tae-Yong once again, and couldn't come up with a better idea other than killing Grandma (so they fight over the company as well) but he needed Tae-Mu to be free and not get arrested in order to carry out his murder plot, so Lee Gak needed to be extra KIND and UNDERSTANDING. too much for me to swallow I kept laughing all through that part.
Part 6: Tae-Mu kidnaps Park Ha just to get the mobile back?!
The two evil heads misunderstand the situation and think that the chairman found out Park Ha was her daughter, so Tae-Mu wants to get rid of Park Ha before she inherits everything. He Kidnaps her (!!!!!) puts her in a freezer (O~Key!) so you'd guess by that he's trying to kill her, right? Bubuuu! he just wanted to use her as a bait to lure the impostor (Lee Gak) out, and not like kill him or anything, No No he just wanted him to bring the mobile phone with the pics on it!! the writers didn't want to actually drive the viewers mad so they made Tae-Mu say a REALLY smart line "If you have a copy and intend to use it, I advice you not to. Or else i won't stop at that" Wooo, that was scary. Guess there has to be a time when everyone shows some kindness, not only our prince has a big heart, Tae-Mu also knows how to be kind at times.
Part 7: Tae-Mu and Se-Na's evilness goes WILD.
So Tae-Mu asks Se-Na to lure Tae-Yong to an isolated lake (seems he has such high expectations of her seduction skills) but anyway....she was lucky and was able to contact him pretending to be Park Ha and invite him to go night-fishing, and the innocent guy shows up. Why not shoot him or send someone to kill him? why do both of them have to go themselves, and even worse, use a car to knock over the victim in the lake? the possibility of failure is very high you know.
This part as the one before it, had too many odds and coincidences to accept, Park Ha spotting the navigator programmed on the lake, Chi-San forgetting the tickets and coming back to tell Park-Ha about the date. One point, this time Park-Ha deserves an A+ on her deduction skills, turns out she's not an "Mongchoni"(idiot) after all (laugh)
As I stated earlier, there were some unbelievably silly Makjang elements throughout the drama (the fire in the warehouse, kidnapping Park Ha just to send Tae-Yong over to save her, of course the odds that the two step-sisters turn out to be half-siblings etc,) but the thing is, such makjang-ness would normally make you feel like hating the drama, but in Rooftop Prince's case, it made me mad. Know why? It's coz I really like this drama....yeah I do, honestly.
I felt angry the writers kept messing everything up, developing plots too complicated to solve, so once more they need to make up an even more complicated plot. It all starts around episode 13 and keeps escalating up until the finale, which deserves a medal in Makjang-ness.
the Mystery is all solved in the last episode....hmm, they only have around an hour, so they needed to be fast, too fast indeed. Watching it I felt like "Are they trying to tell us that the reason he was sent to present-day Seoul was just to make him a bit more smarter and develop some deduction skills and courage to uncover the mystery?!" I mean what the hell changed that'd make him come up with this far-fetched story normally no one'd imagine possible.
Let alone the fact that they made a doppelganger of Tae-Mu and made him Lee Gak's half-brother of a different mother. Considering the fact that when Lee Gak first met Tae-Mu he didn't find him familiar, does that mean he had never actually met him in Joeson? OK what about the part about his step-father causing his mother to die, if so then why did the king make his son marry the daughter of such a guy, that means the king was better off without his queen and was thankful to the guy who caused her dead right? Too many question marks ????
So I have all those gripes against the plot, you'd think I hate the drama, no I don't. In fact I really enjoyed watching this drama and would definitely recommend it to K-Drama fans esp. Rom-Com ones. it's coz I enjoyed the Comedy and the romance parts so much that it paid up for all the disappointment I had in the parts I stated above.
The last was a bit shocking at first since I expected a more light and happy ending, but when I gave it much thought and read peoples' reviews on it, I started to get convinced that might have been one of (I stress one of) the best possible endings. What makes the last bearable is the dialogue in the final scene. It symbolized their love conquering eras.
Though I felt bad towards Lee Gak and kept thinking after I read a comment on one forum wondering about the scene where she went to the library and searched about him in a history book, that she might have read that he died in a so and so manner. Of course if he were to become king he must acquire a wife and bear children, that's also another thing someone pointed out.
But the more you think about K-Drama's endings the more you spoil it.
The last was a bit shocking at first since I expected a more light and happy ending, but when I gave it much thought and read peoples' reviews on it, I started to get convinced that might have been one of (I stress one of) the best possible endings. What makes the last bearable is the dialogue in the final scene. It symbolized their love conquering eras.
Though I felt bad towards Lee Gak and kept thinking after I read a comment on one forum wondering about the scene where she went to the library and searched about him in a history book, that she might have read that he died in a so and so manner. Of course if he were to become king he must acquire a wife and bear children, that's also another thing someone pointed out.
But the more you think about K-Drama's endings the more you spoil it.
The biggest proof I like the drama, is me writing such a loooong review which I doubt anyone would read, I enjoyed it that's why I wanted to make my thoughts into words and to relive all the bad parts not to remind myself of them, but to start to accept them one by one, and learn to appreciate the rest of the drama.
