공주의 남자 The Princess’s Man

This is one of the very few dramas that I follow so closely with the Korean broadcasting period. Usually I tend to wait until the entire drama has finish broadcasting and uploaded online, or start watching only when a few episodes have been broadcasted in Korea. Because I hate waiting, I hate how the drama will leave you hanging in suspension each week. But ‘The Princess’s Man’ was so good that I was willing to bear the torment each week as I fervently follow the Korean broadcast of two episodes each week.

The drama has managed to reel in a lot of love from its local audiences, depicting a tragic love story that parallels the widely known story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Much more appealing is the fact that this Romeo and Juliet story is set in Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, an entirely new adaptation apart from the usual Western/European film adaptations of the star-crossed lovers.

Briefly, the story revolves around the two main characters, Lee Se Ryung and Kim Seung Yoo, who did not know that their fathers were arch enemies when they first met and gradually feel in love with each other. Following on was a series of tragedies that threatened the love between both parties. What kept me watching each week (besides Park Si Hoo dressed in hanbok) was the way they fought and persevered through those ordeals, even as tragedies of tragedies occurred such as lives of their loved ones lost and family ties severed.

Also, I personally found the male actors in this drama outstanding and no I’m not being bias here. Park Si Hoo and Song Jong Ho did their parts convincingly well. Song Jong Ho managed to make me hate yet pity his character at different points of the drama, sometimes both at the same time, which I guess was what his character set out to achieve. Moon Chae Won wasn’t bad, but I can’t particularly say she was very good as I find myself looking a lot at blank expressions and wondering what she’s thinking several times throughout the series. However, both Park Si Hoo and Moon Chae Won together made themselves a seemingly genuine couple.

Good news for haters of lengthy drama, this drama is only 24 episodes long, which is short for a 사극! The casts, beautiful music and not to mention, the beautiful hanboks, make this a must-watch drama!