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. 

Walking Past the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince Cafe

Yes, I have seen the drama, "The First Shop of Coffee Prince" or 커피프린스 1호점. Out of the select number of dramas I have seen, I did enjoy this one. Mostly because it was fun to watch the character get all muddled over starting to like a boy, who was really a girl. Need help knowing what this drama is about, go here.

When dramas finish their run of episodes they leave behind the places they shot at or built along the way. There are whole "villages" around Korea where you can go and see famous drama filming sites and sets. So it is with the cafe that was created and left behind in the Coffee Prince drama.

In Hongdae you can still come by and see the shop, even go inside and enjoy a cup of coffee. Tourists flock to this site to see in person their beloved drama. In fact, as I approached the cafe two Japanese tourists were in front of me.

Today the place looks like and old cafe, with the greenery getting the best of the structure. Things could use a cleaning here and there, but perhaps that's not necessary.

How to get to:

View 1st Shop of Coffee Prince in a larger map


It's along the way to the Design Museum, which I talked about in my previous post. I would recommend swinging by and admiring the cafe, along with all the drama fans inside.

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?

KOFIC Film Park

Sometimes JH likes to pick me up and take me to some place new without really telling me where we are going. Usually by the time we are about 10 minutes from wherever it is he has his in mind I get the full information. This particular occasion happened last Sunday when I was resting from my walk at Everland. The next thing I knew I was in his car going west along the Han river where there is a dam and beautful lush green mountains in the background.

Here are some maps to get an idea of the location...

Our destination was the KOFIC Namyangju Studios in Yangsu-ri. I was told this is where they shot many dramas and movies. We parked and walked around the complex admiring the sets.

First we looked at the set for the movie "Joint Security Area" where parts of the film were shot at the "border house" near the DMZ. But really it was on a set here in this film park.

It is called the Panmunjeom Set meant to resemble the same structures at the Panmanjeom village.
The blue structures are the mock conference rooms with the mock "freedom house", I believe. Recently due to the Cheonan disaster the real JSA area is closed for tourists. I suppose one could come to this park to get a feel for it but really it doesn't express the political tensions.

For one there are cardboard soldiers that you can stand behind and pose with. I admit it was fun to take part in this and watch others enjoy themselves, but I couldn't help but feel a little at odds with the whole thing.

Have you ever seen the movie Planet BBoy? There is a scene where they dance at the "DMZ", which when you first look at it makes you think, "No, that can't be real." After coming here I figured out how they did it. Just slapped some fresh paint on the "line" and had a ball.

We moved on and took in the Outdoor sets of Traditional villages.

Walking through this set made me feel like I was within the Japanese movie Rashomon.  These were the sets of "The Duelist", which was meant to be a traditional market place and red-light district.

Moving along we walked up a hill to the set of "Strokes of Fire".

We headed back downhill towards an underground museum of Korean film making, or as the brochure calls it, "Affiliation Center for Movie." 

I swear there is a "D" at the end of that. Going inside things become dimmer and much cooler.

There were many rooms and galleries where you could do hands on movie-making stuff or just look at sets and movie memorabilia. The first room we went into was a "Blue-screen" type activity room, where you could play in front of a blue-screen where an image was pasted into it.

Here we pretended to dangle off a cliff. 

We moved on to more rooms...

Old movie posters~

A courtroom set for the for those law movies. I believe this was a real set as you could obviously see the walls were movable and a camera track was set up above.

That brings us to the end of my tour of the KOFIC studios. Like I said earlier I was super tired on this day and was starting to run out of steam. We rested on a bench outside and then moved on for dinner. I will post the lovely dinner and river pictures later on.