Rooftop Prince

Rooftop Prince

6.5/10

Rooftop Prince

Genre:                           Episodes: 20                          Year: 2012

Historical

Romance

Comedy

Fantasy

Synopsis:

After the death and assumed murder of his wife, Crown Prince Lee Gak and his three companions are transported 300 years into the future while searching for the culprit. In the year 2012, the men arrive at a woman named Park Ha’s rooftop apartment. Crown Prince finds a woman that looks exactly like his deceased wife and realises they must only be able to return to Joseon once they have solved the Crown Princess’ murder.

Cast:

Park Yoo Chun (Lee Gak/Yong Tae Yong)

Han Ji Min (Park Ha/Boo Young)

Lee Tae Sung (Yong Tae Moo)

Jung Yoo Mi (Hone Se Na/Hwa Yong)

Lee Min Ho (Song Man Bo)

Choi Woo Shik (Do Chi San)

Jung Suk Won (Woo Yong Sool)

General Thoughts:

Generally a likeable drama, but some major flaws defiantly dragged it down. The series starts splendidly with a Joseon era whodunit murder mystery, followed by hilarious comedy that was a result of four Joseon men skipping 300 years into the future. 

Squad goals

The fish-out-of-water comedy was executed brilliantly and acted out perfectly by our four actors. Here, the over-exaggerated reactions and silly facial expressions fit in well. Because it’s a bunch of guys encountering futuristic ideas that they could never have dreamed of. However, when our heroine starts getting in on the over-the-top performance thing…it doesn’t work so well. 

That's pretty much how I felt about her too, Yoochun

Or at all. I just plain couldn’t stand Han Ji Min in this drama, and neither could those I watched the drama with. Han Ji Min did little to compensate for her less than exciting character (who was generally either being irritatingly stroppy or  bursting into tears), and left me caring very little for either our heroine or the main love pairing. Though I will admit that she is a pretty great crier. Going in knowing that it’s a time-skippy drama, you know it’s unlikely that these exact people will end up together anyway (there’s definitely going to be a reincarnation cop-out at the end), so you’re kind of primed to not get super invested in the main love-line- even if it is kind of the whole point of the drama. Granted, part of this disengagement is my own fault for so readily preparing myself for the end disappointment (that may or may not come), but our leading actress did nothing in the way of earning my attention or getting me to cheer for her romance. I was pretty unfazed whatever way it turned out.

I suppose I could care less

 It probably didn’t help that we had such a strong actress as our second female lead. Jung Yoo Mi slayed it as our evil step (or is it) sister. She gave enough to her role that it was easy to dislike her character, but was able to express enough hesitation and guilt that her character’s half-redemption arc at the end didn’t come as a completely unbelievable surprise. 

There's someone for everyone

Similarly, Lee Tae Sung gave an excellent performance as our primary villain. He showed the slow descent from accident-prone almost-murderer into calmly thought-through would-be-murderer (Tae Moo wasn’t that great at actually knocking anyone off) perfectly. Both Jung Yoo Mi and Lee Tae Sung gave strong villain performances and were able to make their characters understandable and comprehensible. And then there’s our main male lead Yoochun. Yoochun is built for comedy, so it’s no surprise that he did well in scenes that required a dash of ridiculousness. He also did a great job in the more emotional scenes in the Joseon era. While the character of the Crown Prince was quite prickly and a bit of an ass, Yoochun was able to present Lee Gak in a way that his softer, more loving side was always evident. The three boys backing up Yoochun all did excellent jobs in the comedic scenes- which is just as well as they didn’t really get any other kind of scene. 

All kinds of hilarity

The plot was a little bit of a disaster, but managed to pick itself up for a fantastic, zooming race to the finish line. All aspects of the Joseon story were deeply engaging- so it was a shame that we barely spent two episodes in this setting. The jump to the future was very amusing, but after several episodes that capitalised on that comedy, the plot started to lose steam. Because chaebol. And company. And inheritance. And who gives a damn. Although our villains were entertaining to watch for the most part, the company plot-line was kinda really boring. We’ve seen it all before, and the addition of a Joseon Prince impersonating a chaebol son wasn’t quite spicy enough to heat up the bland situation. 

Another inheritance fight? Bo-ring.

Birth secrets were abundant (if not fairly predictable), and there were lots of scenes focusing heavily on company-related matters. Yawn. Once we entered the drama’s end-game the story reinvigorated and gave us a wonderfully satisfying story about how our main baddies basically bring about their own downfall. During the dramatic demise of our villainous pair, I think our main characters were prancing about trying to decide whether to love each other or not. And our three back-up boys were nowhere to be found. 

Please put these glorious muppets back in the drama

The soundtrack was a sweet mix of Joseon instrumental and modern music and fit the vibe of the drama perfectly. While most scenes flowed smoothly there were defiantly a few choppy scene transitions that hinted at a rushed production.

What Was Great:

Murder Mystery:

The idea that initially grabs attention is the question of who murdered the Crown Princess. It’s a great mystery that could have several possible answers. It gives our hero a great reason to skip to the future (even if he doesn’t grasp that reason right away).

Dun dun duuuuunnn

Lee Gak needs to find out who murdered his Princess, and in order to do that he needs to find out that his Princess is actually a giant toss-bucket. And he would never have found that out without his little time-travelling adventure. Hints are slowly doled out throughout the series, and the ending in Joseon comes as a very satisfying conclusion. While many viewers (myself included) picked up early on that it was Sister-in-Law and not Princess that died, the who and the why were still great big question marks throughout the whole drama. The final revelation was a great answer to our biggest question, and added to the concept of Lee Gak and Park Ha’s thwarted fate and their destiny together that had gotten terribly twisted. 

Prince’s Love Swap:

Drama’s always go in with a risk when they start the series with one main lead being madly in love with someone who isn’t their end-game romance. And in this case, Lee Gak really loved his wife. A lot. So much so that he’s willing to brave the frightening world of 2012 Korea to find out who is responsible for her death. The audience is made privy to Se Na’s true nature pretty early on, but it comes as a slow reveal to our beloved Prince. Thankfully, the writers don’t waste much time on Lee Gak’s discovery and he catches on pretty quick once she starts to slip up.

One of the few cutesy, romantic scenes we were given

Late night discussions and drinks with Park Ha had already been going on at this point, and our Prince had already developed a close friendship with our heroine by the time he finds out what a lying nutbag his Princess really is. So at this point, it’s no stretch of the imagination that Lee Gak would end up falling for Park Ha. Both the writers and Yoochun handled the transition beautifully, and it never felt ridiculous that the Prince made the switch from Se Na to Park Ha so quickly.

Interesting Villains:

Se Na and Tae Moo were probably the most interesting and developed of all the characters. Being villains they are given a much wider range of emotions than our hero and heroine (who obviously cannot go past feelings of love, happiness, sadness, and maybe mild jealousy).

Kinda an evil b*tch- but also kinda addictive to watch

It’s fascinating to watch these two people sink further into the lies they’ve created and struggle to maintain their positions. What is most interesting about our villains is that they aren’t inherently bad people. Se Na has always showed signs of reluctance and confusion, but always made the wrong choice when it came down to it. As for Tae Moo, it was more about how one accident lead to the next, and his misguided view on how to fix his situation that lead him down the road of villainy. He’s much darker than Se Na, in that by the end he was ready to flat-out murder his cousin, but always held on to a shred of humanity through his deep and unending love of Se Na. The story was defiantly about how these two individuals got far too greedy and eventually orchestrated their own downfall- which was super satisfying to watch. The only downside of having such engaging villains, is that our main leads seemed a bit bleak and boring in comparison. And as the story revolved a lot around what Se Na and Tae Moo were doing, it dramatically reduced screen time for Lee Gak and Park Ha. Which isn’t great.

What Wasn’t:

Lack of Leads’ Chemistry:

I just wasn’t feeling it between Lee Gak and Park Ha. The plot lay all the groundwork for the love-line, but when it came to actual execution it fell short. Logically the two together makes sense- but it just wasn’t what I was seeing on my screen.

Adequate depiction of how much fire were was between our leads

Han Ji Min presented Park Ha as a rather bolshy, abrasive girl, so scenes of Park Ha trying to be cute felt kind of awkward. All in all, there just wasn’t that addictive spark between the main leads that you get in a really good romance.

Sort of the End:

The actual end to the drama was pretty perfect when you consider how many ways this drama could have gone wrong. And there were so many ways it could have gone wrong. But the drama happily managed to avoid most of them.

Was not a fan of this, but oh well

While personally I found the wedding was a little awkward and somewhat uncomfortable, I know a lot of viewers actually enjoyed the emotional punch it was giving to the main love-line. As it wasn’t a huge point in the plot, and we did need some way to say farewell to Lee Gak before he goes back to Joseon, the wedding can be given a pass. It’s literally the last 3-5 seconds that put a damper on the ending for me.

Totally called it, but still totally worth it

Our Prince has gone back to Joseon and solved the murder mystery (which was awesome), Park Ha is slowly getting on with her life in the absence of Lee Gak, and then she coincidentally meets the real Tae Yong who acts exactly as he did when they met in episode 1. Which is awesome and adorable. Then the two meet up like they weren’t able to in the past. Which is also awesome and adorable. And lastly, they do a fade to Park Ha standing there with Tae Yong in Joseon dress. Yeah, what? Has our Prince somehow time skipped back? Unlikely. Does Tae Yong somehow remember his past life? Doubtful. It’s just the writers making a connection to the whole same-soul bullsh*t. While lots of people enjoyed the connection, to me it just felt like Park Ha was looking for a ghost of Lee Gak in Tae Yong. Because while they may technically be the same soul or whatever- they’re also completely different people. So yeah, by all means make the connection to Lee Gak- but just know that you’ve now killed my imaginings of Park Ha and the real Tae Yong ever being in an honest, loving relationship.

3 seconds too long

It’s always hard when the couple you’ve spent all series watching be together aren’t the couple in the end- you’re hardly ever going to satisfy all your viewers in this situation.

Re-watch?

Most likely not. Cute couple moments were few and far between, and I also now know whodunnit.

At least the boys were always all kinds of fabulous