Plot Predictions for Rooftop Prince or 옥탑방 왕세자

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Although the Korean drama "Rooftop Prince" or 옥탑방 왕세자, ended last week I find myself just starting to watch it. Actually, I don't keep up with the K-dramas these days as I started to get turned off due to the usual story line coming up over and over. But through the blah-blah wheel that is the internet, I decided to give this one a try. So far it has me interested, but I've only seen the first two episodes. Usually, the first handful of episodes are the best parts of a K-drama, then it sort of starts to get into a routine until the last handful of episodes. 

While watching the second episode I started to predict what will happen in this series, and thought it would be a fun blog post. That is why I am here today to give you my predictions for how things will go down in this 20 episode ride-of-fun. 

Brief Intro:

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The drama starts out in the Joseon dynasty period of Korea, which is 300 years ago. Basically you've got the tale of the "Crown Prince" growing up, getting a princess and then discovering her dead in a nearby pond. Officials say it was an accident, he declares it murder and puts a team together to solve the mystery. While they pursue the case a team of assassins is hot on their trail, and as they leap off a cliff the story shifts and they end up in present day Seoul.

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They end up in a girl's house, which is a "rooftop" style. Out here people live in "Villas" which is a smaller apartment complex with several floors. On the roof you can find a smaller sized box-house up top. Usually for storage but people renovate it for living in, and that is the case here.

So you got this twist of two worlds coming together, but that's not all. In the present world you have two step-sisters who hate each other, a dead guy who looks like the prince and some more sob stories. 

The main theme so far is that a rich family lost their son in America. A cousin of this family actually murdered that guy and so is now trying to claim his seat in the family business. Anyways, the Crown Prince looks like that guy so there is the scandal.

Predictions:

• The Crown Prince and the Girl (sorry I don't know recall her name) from the rooftop dwelling fall in love. Their love gets torn apart at some point and they fight to be together. His minions find love too.
• The Crown Prince ends up taken in by the rich family, cousin gets jealous and worried and causes a scandal.
• Step-sister to girl in rooftop uses her fury to wreak havoc on step-sister. She is also in love with the evil cousin dude, but probably they break up. 
• At some point some of the cast end up on Jeju.
• They solve the murder mystery but it has a twist to being related to the modern world somehow. 

Anyways, it's been a fun drama to watch so far, and the male actors are cute. I hope this one doesn't disappoint and gives a somewhat realistic if not fantasy related ending. 

For a good source on the first episode and to get a better feel for the show go to the Dramabeans site. 

Secret Garden (시크릿 가든): Drama Review

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Imagine if you will two young Korean couple, one male and very rich the other female and poor, that just happen to switch bodies. Can you see that happening?

That is exactly what happens in the recent Korean drama Secret Garden, which I happen to be watching. I haven't finished it, but I am halfway through. I'll be honest that I haven't been into the K-dramas that much lately due to American ones grabbing all my attention. Plus after watching a little of Boys Before Flowers I started to grow a distaste for it. I really hate it how the female lead character ended up going from a tough-independent person to a soft-apologetic little thing. As I started to watch Secret Garden I feared that this was going to happen all over again. Thankfully, the lead female character in this story pretty much stays a tough chick (so far).

The Characters: source

Gil Ra Im

Played by: Ha Ji Won

Character: The main female role. Feisty and has a street spirit to her, Gil Ra Im shows no mercy towards the male lead who tries hard to bring her into his heart. Her day job is being a stunt woman so you can imagine she is pretty fierce.

Kim Joo Won

Played by: Hyun Bin

Character: Main male lead here who likes to wear fancy track-suits (hand-stitched) and chase Gil Ra Im. Has claustrophobia and a bossy attitude. CEO of a wealthy department store.

"Oska"

Played by: Yoon Sang Hyun

Character: He is the cousin of Joo Won, so naturally he is rich as well. An aging "Hallyu" pop star who faces his career taking a nose dive. Has a heart-broken past with another character. Comes off as cheerful and more free-spirited than his cousin. 

 

Yeun Sol

Played by: Kim Sa Rang

Character: Watch out guys! This gal is looking for the perfect marriage. She is actually a film director and so you see her trying to make films for Oska. But due to their past relationship things become bumpy. What I love most is seeing her rich-ass cry over her breaking heart...(sorry).

Im Jong Soo

Played By: Phillip Lee

Character: He is the stunt school's director and so has a big influence on Gil Ra Im's life. He secretly loves her but is never man enough to tell her (so far). Makes for complications and a love triangle. 

There are plenty of more characters but these are the main players. The other people you see are Joo Won and Oska's parents, friends of Gil Ra Im and some other lively characters thrown in. 

Formula:

The story and whole formula for this drama is pretty out there but still adheres to traditional drama algorithms.

Typically, a Korean drama takes a young couple and makes them hate each other at the beginning. Then for some random reason they have to be next to each other practically all of the time. Usually they have to lie about each others relationship to keep their social and family lives smooth. Eventually they fall in love and the last part of the series ends with them finding each other, after being torn apart, and swearing they will never leave each other ever again. 

Beautiful isn't?

Well I can tell you that gets really boring, very quickly. Secret Garden's formula is somewhat like this but the DNA has changed a bit. 

Joo Won finds himself attracted to Gil Ra Im and can't get her out of his head. Gil Ra Im doesn't really fall for him like he does for her, but there are times when she finds herself feeling something. At the beginning of the drama they kind of weave this out for 5 episodes until finally their bodies are switched.

Body Switching! Oh my!

I found it quite whimsical and interesting that the creators of this drama took on body switching. For one there are so many gender and sexual taboos in Korean culture that this kind of story-plot has room to play with. What happens when they discover that they are in each others body is really quite amusing.

The guy reacts by being in the girls body by instantly noticing he has breasts. The girl reacts the same way when she realizes she is a man. It is an interesting play on gender roles and there are times when things almost cross a social barrier. However, the creators of this drama kept things light and fluffy in regards to any kind of social commentary.

The body switching scenarios were mostly playful with one instance where Gil Ra Im (inside the man's body) had to show her switched partner how to put on a bra.

 Don't worry no one walks in on this situation.

They stay switched for quite sometime and end up messing up each others lives. Yes they do switch back, and I won't tell you why, but afterwards the tone of the story becomes more serious. 

Throughout the story Joo Won's mother finds out about his relations with Gil Ra Im. Of course she isn't pleased as Ra Im is completely out of his class. During the body switching she even tried to bribe Gil Ra Im to stay away from her son, but since the person she was really talking to was her son (in Gil Ra Im's body) she ended up toyed with.

After the switch reversal there was an intense scene where his mother called back Gil Ra Im to finally get rid of her. At one point Joo Won walked in and declared that she couldn't get rid of Gil Ra Im

Commentary on Social Class and Standards

His mother berated Gil Ra Im for being poor and daring to think about belonging to her class. The whole scene reminded me of how with my first Korean boyfriend I wasn't truly accepted because I wasn't Korean. 

This is about where I am at in the drama. To sum up the story plot you have a rich guy who wants to love and be with a poor girl. The poor girl time-after-time puts him down and even kicks him around. There are mixed in other love stories and the whole thing seems to be centered on forbidden and broken love. What's going to happen to the couple and will they switch again? Just gotta watch and find out.

Is It Worth Watching?

I would have to say, yes. Although you might find yourself muting it now and then, as I do, since they play the same music over and over. 

I am beginning to see that this is more about the male character changing and dealing with his life. It also portrays rich Korean people in a critical tone, of course done so carefully. You do get the sense that the moral merits mostly come from Gil Ra Im and her "lower class" upbringing. The rich people in this show are portrayed as conniving, backstabbing and easily persuaded. I am not sure if this is something I am imagining or whether the directors are really going for this kind of atmosphere.

All in all, I would say give this drama a chance. Mostly you will need to get through the first 5 episodes and then things get really interesting. There's a lot of the usual eye candy and of course they spend a few episodes on Jeju Island. 

In case you need a visual idea of it all:

Have you seen it? Did you like it? Anything stick out to you as interesting?

KDrama: Romance Zero (하자 전담반 제로)

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I don't know if you can remember everything I write, but do you recall that love formula post I came up with? You know the one where I compared America's love formula towards Korea's. It was a great post I think that revealed what people think on the topic. Today I feel my formulas still weren't the most accurate representation of love match making in different cultures.

So sometimes when you can't find the answers in your head you can go to other sources. As for me I found the Korean Drama Romance Zero. I use mysoju.com a lot to determine which Korean drama to watch. I particularly use their drama rankings section to check out which ones are worth watching based upon popularity. That is kind of how I stumbled upon this drama. You can also check out the Korean homepage of the show here.

I haven't watched all the episodes yet, but I am still interested.

Why it is interesting:

• Comedic
• Cute men and women
• Topic of the popular matchmaking service. Thought I could watch it and maybe learn something about matchmaking in Korea. But I don't know if it is working out this way.
• The main character is male, which provides a refreshing change of things.

Stars:

• Kang In, (Who is by the way from the Super Junior music group)

A super cutey in my book! source

• Kim Won Hee,

• Lee Da Hee,

• Lee Tae Sung

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Plot:
Basically you have the main character played by Tae Sung who finds himself and his career in a whole lot of trouble. Why?

He is in the matchmaking business and works at a very fancy company. The beginning of the story goes that he is at a wedding watching one of his match making couples get married. Only to witness that the groom is indeed Gay, causing a huge scandal. Who is to blame? The matchmaker. So the next day he gets transferred to a different department at the company.

Basically he becomes the team leader of the matchmaking group called "Romance Zero". This is a team that helps candidates who are basically too poor to be matched under normal circumstances.

Grading system for potential candidates:
What I think has been the most fun watching the show is seeing the graphic that comes up when the introduce a candidate. It totally sums up my feelings about match making in Korea, which is a person's worth is based upon a certain set of criteria that is either good or bad. Since this drama is fiction and is sensationalizing real life I can't really say that my theories are correct. But it certainly is humerus to see it come to life on screen.

Joy:
Age: A
Appearance: A (Don't mean to be arrogant)
Achievement: B (Haven't exactly become the CEO of a company, yet)
Career: B (Still not boss yet.)
Family: B (Latch-key kid)

Oh but maybe I am being too kind on myself? haha

Rest of the Story:
As for the rest of what I have watched the characters get to help out some candidates that seem hopeless. Of course, though there is a sub-plot going on where a rival at the company wants to see the main character fired. And since the matchmaking people themselves are single it would seem that in future episodes the characters end up finding love.

It isn't the best drama out there, I admit. But it's still fun to watch and learn about the Korean dating scene.

I recommend watching it as a short time killer with potential to grow on you.

Another Take on Korean Drama

Recently I had a surprise comment on one of posts that I wrote about last year on Korean drama. The reader Elizabeth commented by saying:

As a person living in America I really want to say,
I HATE American dramas or shows.
Grey's Anatomy? barf. LOST? blah.
of course there are some good ones and some I can stand but most . . I canNOT stand after a few episodes.

and about korean dramas being more in the soap opera category, what about Gossip Girl or the OC?
those so unbelievably popular dramas are more soapoperaish than any korean drama I've seen.

what I mean to say is that I think the "soap opera"ish theme is pretty universal, also your formula is definitely a reoccurring very constant theme in American shows. It's not just for korean shows.

Now that I have lived here a while and watched Korean dramas both on the TV (without subtitles) and off (on my computer with subtitles) I can say that my earlier perceptions were a bit naive. It is of course rude of me to shove my concept of what makes good entertainment onto the Korean media. And I can agree that the kind of formula I presented for Korean dramas is something that is not specific to Korean entertainment.

Elizabeth continued to give me the suggestion that I do some more research before watching the dramas. Basically that there are some dramas out there with quality acting and story. To which I would truly agree upon. She suggested...

there is actually a pretty different korean drama that I'm obsessing over currently called The Story of a Man, the acting, directing, style, & esp the plot is very tight knit and impressive
I really Really really REALLLLLLLLY suggest to you dramabeans.com.
she has a thorough and very informative info for MANY dramas, i think maybe u should search around a little.
I actually learned of The Story of a Man there.

I know of the website dramabeans but haven't really gotten into it that much. I enjoyed paying attention to Boys Before Flowers when it was a hit with my students, but to be honest I stopped watching it after a few episodes due to that it moved to slowly for me. I guess I am not really interested in shows like the OC or Gossip Girls, and that is why I gave such an unflattering formula towards Korean dramas.

I am the kind of person who likes Lost and comedy shows such as The Office.

But I still enjoy watching Korean drama and Korean comedy shows. That is why for you readers I am going to try to write up some posts on the Korean drama and other Korean TV shows that I enjoy watching. Mostly because I think it is important to not ignore the pop and regular culture undercurrents that stream through Korean daily life.

Anyways, what is your take on Korean drama? Do you stay away? Have your favorites? Not a clue? haha

*But if that isn't enough talk about Kdramas then check out this video where someone else has something to say:

Drama, Drama, Drama! Part II: Formula

Formulas.

Any story has a beginning and an end. Usually something happens in between, like falling in love, breaking up, death, birth and so on. For Korean TV dramas there seems to be a very familiar formula.

Here it is:

Take a guy and a girl:

1. Make sure that when they first meet it is under unbearable conditions.

For Example: You are this young lady in the picture and you happen to run a tour guide business. The tour is over and your job is to make sure the people on your bus get to their airplane on time. But for some reason you are late. So then you run up to the gate terminal and beg to get inside the plane to save it from taking off. You pretend to cry as if your boyfriend is on the plane. Once you made your way inside you find this guy (pictured on the left) and pretend he is your boyfriend. You emberass him and yourself in the process of pretending to be lovers. Meaning that from now on you two will be enemies because of meeting in an unpleasant way.

2. Make sure this "couple" has to be, for some reason, around each other all the time.

For Example: This guy has a serious family issue. His Grandfather's Granddaughter has been missing for a long time. It is this guy's mission to find the missing Granddaughter and bring his ailing Grandfather back to health. What do you do? Well you make this girl (the one who knows how to fake circumstances, pretty well) pretend to be the Granddaughter. Now the two must live with each other in the same house, despite the fact that they hate each other's guts.


3. Despite their initial feelings for each other they start to fall in love.
For example: At some point they start to like each other. Usually the guy starts to think the girl is cute in her devilish ways or the girl thinks the guy is cute when he is angry or frustrated. Either way the story gets built up this way. Here you can see that the guy is overcome with his feelings for her after seeing her in the hospital.

4. Throw in another guy who loves the girl too, but he can't have her.
For example: This guy is either related to the main guy or is an outsider. Try as he might the storyline formula just won't let them be together.

5. Make sure that there is either an ex-girlfriend or main girlfriend for the main guy, so that the storyline has a bit of jealousy.

6. Sh*T Happens: Maybe someone dies, maybe someone becomes on the verge of death, maybe something really controversial is revealed...whatever it is make sure it has such a big impact that it makes the two love-birds split apart.

7. Happy Endings: Because that is what life is really about, right? I mean they build the whole story to leave you feeling happy in the end, right?

Well I haven't watched every single Korean Drama out there but I can say this is pretty much it for them. Heck, it even worked for the drama The First Shop of Coffee Prince, where a girl acts so un-girly that a guy believes her to be a guy and makes her part of his coffee shop staff. And yes they do fall in love, and he thinks he is falling in love with a man...but he figures out she is a girl in the end.

So there you would have it. The Formula for Korean dramas...the same can be extended to some Korean movies that follow this kind of fluff fan-fair.

Bo Kwan even tells me he sometimes can't stand this canned kind of formula and finds American drama to be more refreshing and interesting than the stuff he sees back home.

Although ultimately cheesy and predictable you either end up enjoying watching Korean drama or just want to skip to the ending so to save yourself the agony of whether these two will ever kiss or be together.

This ends Part II of my Drama analysis post. I will create Drama Part III when the time comes.

So folks....

Stay tuned...