Of lost princesses and incredibly attractive public servants

This week, or rather, just yesterday, I delved back into the melodramatic, sophisticated, glamorous, gorgeous world of Korean drama, after what must be a four year dry-spell. My drama of choice: My Princess ë§ˆì´ í”„ë¦°ì„¸ìŠ¤ (Ma-i Peu-rin-se-seu). See AsianMediaWiki. The right choice? Time will tell. But I’ll say I am damn hooked. The last drama I watched to the series end was My Girl and that was during my final year of high school. I’ve found over the years that I prefer Korean film, not only because the subject matter tends to vary and be overall both more entertaining and challenging, the executions are more interesting, and there is the great appeal of not having to sit through hours and hours and hours of tedious, exasperating soap operas.

And believe me, it is just infuriating having to tolerate insipid and purely malevolent characters doing such nasty things episode after episode. My Princess certainly has this all in spades. The only other melodrama I can compare this to is Goong (Princess Hours), and while I was obsessed with that series too, my initial thoughts were that My Princess would be a chance to highlight the political intrigue of reinstating the monarchy back into a contemporary Korean society, WHILE also doing that thing that Koreans do so well: epic, beautiful, bitter and angsty romance.

Lee Seol, a university student of archaeology works part time at the old royal palace dressed in the traditional royal princess garb to pose with tourists. Just after her shift ends, a diplomat and heir to the Dae-Han corporation (very big and important, who needs to know the details?), Park Hae-young, approaches her requesting that Princess Stella (of I have no idea which country; I forgot, European I’m assuming) wants to be photographed with her dressed as the princess. He offers Seol $100/hr just so that she’ll stay, and when the task is done to satisfaction, she demands her pay from Hae-young but he only has a cheque for $10,000. Seol has no change (!) so Hae-young suggests she text him and he’ll wire over money to her bank account. Seol sees Hae-young’s good will as a hoax and in exasperation gives this up as a lost case of a good deal of money. Or so she thinks.

In typical fashion, this incident incites the coincidences that will drive the rest of the narrative. Turns out Lee Seol is the direct descendant of a prince, and the Dae-Han Group wants to reinstate the monarchy, because the Director (Hae-young’s grandfather) feels a tremendous guilt over not doing right by the prince, who died in tragic, mysterious circumstances as a commoner. Director tasks his grandson to find Lee Seol, and to his incredulity Hae-Young discovers it is the same silly girl he’d met the day before. Coincidence? Nooo! So, in short, Hae-young now becomes Lee Seol’s “teacher” in all manner of official princess business. Ladidi ladida.

In the first episode I had such incredible hopes. Hae-young was a subdued, reticent if arrogant type, and Seol was bubbly and cute and relatable and their banter was funny. I had hoped this wasn’t just another angst-ridden eye-rolling romantic drama, which is to say, I was dreaming because that’s all I got. I had hoped for more than just a petty storyline about lost royal descendants, and more about the trials and tribulations of bringing back the monarchy to the Korea republic. I’d have loved to see more nuanced byplay between politicians, civilians and the main characters, but I feel as though I’ve just gotten an overdose of angst. In fact, I would say since episode six or seven, it’s been non-stop crap about The Love Rectangle. It’s not enough that the hero and heroine are obligated to go through episodes and episodes of misunderstandings and tension to even get to the acknowledgement that they fancy each other, it is a necessity to throw in a third and fourth wheel (that being Lee Seol’s professor and his former girlfriendâ€”of a sortâ€”to compete for the affections of the heroine/hero), and turn the lost prince/princess plot into a device for revenge. I think this was a wasted opportunity by the writers to create some depth to this political dilemma, but instead it’s just a vicious, calculated plot to bring down the Princess by a petty and totally unsympathetic character. This time the villain of this drama is one Oh Yoon Joo and Lee Seol’s fellow adopted sister, Lee Dan. I don’t believe I have ever seen such a vile character on a melodrama before. (This is a trope that seems to be a pre-requisite of Korean drama. I’ve even jotted down a rough list of the clichÃ©s that occur, which I will outline in a future blog post.) I just want to murder her every time she shows her cold face. I’m sure the actress is lovely in real life, but good grief, the evil emanating from this character is awful. Lee Seol at one stage calls Oh Joon Yoo a “bad person” but that is such an understatement.

My annoyances aside, this is the first I’ve seen of Song Seong Heon and Kim Tae Hee in action. They are such a supremely good-looking couple, I just can’t look away. Their acting isn’t spectacular, but then these roles aren’t demanding too much of them, though I’m sure they’re up to it.Â What makes this drama so appealing is that they’re so beautiful their genuine chemistry and sweet banter (while shown rather rarely, in proportion to all the sobbing, brooding and angst) that clinches the idea of this crazy relationship working out. And a fair amount of slapstick and absurd situations. It’s great and fun when it’s good, but don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to watch the “WE MUST DESTROY LEE SEOL BECAUSE SHE’S HAD IT TOO EASY, THE BITCH” drama play out. I rather wish I didn’t love it so much, but in a perverse way it’s been thrilling to get so angry, so emotional, at television. But those precious moments between Hae-young and Seol are worth it. That’s what I tell myself anyway…

“You watch porn?”
“I only saw a preview.”

“Youâ€™re not the enemy that I hate the most.”

Source: Sala Gifs

Look at them! So perfect! A couple should not look that good together.

There are still 4 episodes left of this drama (and I am in total withdrawal). I’m hoping My Princess can redeem itself and I look forward to seeing ALL EVIL VANQUISHED in a SUPREMELY SATISFYING MANNER, lest I burn out from the fires of fury emanating from me. Oh yeah, and there had better be like the most amazing SNOG ever, like it should make fireworks and bedazzle us all, because a drunken peck does not kiss make. Episode 13 airs tonight in South Korea, with a promise of some intimacy, if we can go by the preview images OHOHOHO.

Hae-young doing Seol’s hair? This is the cutest thing.

Did I mention Song Seong Heon packs an incredibly good body? Holy cow. It’s not that often a man has my jaw dropping in sheer awe… let alone an Asian one. OK, I really shouldn’t be demeaning to my own ethnic kind. Someone said on a forum I was on tonight: we Asians are not a handsome people (!). Whatever that means. I’m still racking my brains over that thoughtless comment. There are beauties all over the world. And Song oppa, you are most certainly a desirable beauty!