Goong 궁, also known as Princess Hours, enters the list as the ninth drama I've watched. The main female is Yoon Eun Hye, former member of old-school girl group Baby V.O.X. She's someone I've seen a lot on the popular Korean variety show X-Man. Goong is a drama that most people watched because of Yoon Eun Hye. Goong is also Yoon Eun Hye's first major role. She was very successful actress and with very good reason. The second female lead, Song Ji Hyo is another one of my favorite actresses. She was an MC for the weekly music program, Inkigayo, as well as a regular member of the variety show Running Man.
Shin Chaekyung (Yoon Eun Hye) is an ordinary girl with a bright personality who is studying design at an exclusive art school. Lee Shin (Joo Ji Hoon) also attends the same school but studying photography and theatre instead. After an awkward encounter, they both start off on the wrong foot. Little did Chaekyung know, Shin is the Prince of Korea and next in line for the throne. With the recent death of the current King, it was decided that Shin needs to prepare quickly to take the throne. A surprise twist occurs with the revealing of a promise between Chaekyung and Shin's grandfathers. Despite modern times, Chaekyung is betrothed to Shin and will become the Crown Princess. Chaekyung doesn't like Shin, but for the sake of clearing her family's debt she agrees to marry Shin. Shin on the other hand, wants to marry his secret girlfriend, Min Hyorin (Song Ji Hyo). Hyorin does not want to be a princess because if she gets confined within the palace, she will not be able to reach her dream of being a world-class ballerina. Shin decides to go through and marry Chaekyung. Shin's cousin, Lee Yul, returns to Korea from England with his mother. It turns out that Yul was originally supposed to be the Crown Prince but lost his title when his father passed away and Shin's father became the Crown Prince himself. The law required that Yul and his mother leave the palace. Yul eventually develops feelings for Chaekyung as he helps her adjust to life in the palace. Hyorin sees the Royal Wedding take place between Chaekyung and Shin. Her emotions get the best of her and she decides to ditch her scholarship to study ballet abroad to return to Korea and win back Shin.
Goong is another drama to follow a "Cinderella" story with the nice girl having a chance at everything. However, unlike the previous dramas I watched, Goong is about a girl suddenly finding out she's a princess. That kind of storyline is a fairly good reason for why this drama was very appealing to female viewers. One of the most interesting scenes in Goong is the kiss scene. Most dramas tend to have an awkward kissing scene because both the main actor and actress are kissing simply for their work and not for the usual personal reasons. However, the kissing scene in Goong took my completely by surprise. Not only did they kiss, but you could clearly see that it was very passionate. Enough to make you wonder if you're still watching a television series. It was passionate enough to convince viewers that they may have been dating on the side, or they really wanted the scene to look believable. Kissing scenes in dramas have generally fell in the "Swing the camera around 180 degrees to see the girl open-eyed and surprised while the guy kisses her." I'm not an expert at all, but I'm very sure that actual kisses do not look anything like that. Otherwise, I guess it's a new trend to awkwardly stare at the person kissing you.
The soundtrack for Goong isn't too bad. My favorite song is "Perhaps Love". I would say that it falls under pop and ballad. The song has a pretty nice melody. Although it's been awhile since I've seen this drama, I recently realized that Yoon Eun Hye didn't sing in this drama. It's pretty well known that Yoon Eun Hye can actually sing. I can only assume that since she left Baby V.O.X. to pursue an acting career, that she wanted to take her role seriously. Also, from the director's point of view, I wouldn't have any clue where to put a scene where she sings. It just wouldn't fit. Goong maintains the palace-like ambiance by including a lot of traditional Korean music. While I watched Goong, I felt the traditional music was very interesting and certainly peaked my interest in traditional Korean culture. I'm willing to bet that it was the intent of the director.
Goong has a pretty satisfying ending. Everything is concluded properly and even leaves viewers demanding a sequel. Not every drama can successfully produce a sequel due to the nature of the plot. With Goong, it's possible to have a sequel although there's very little possibility for adding additional characters like Yul and Hyorin, whose actions drive Shin and Chaekyung to want to be together. At the most, a movie or special episode is possible. It's hard to say since unlike most Korean dramas, Goong completed a total of 24 episodes and it'll be difficult to extend the plot any further. Nevertheless, Goong is an enjoyable drama to watch, regardless of whether you're a boy or girl. The drama revolves around the "Surprise! You're a princess." theme which as I mentioned, is more appealing to girls. However, I found the exposure to traditional Korean culture to be extremely interesting, especially since it was set in modern times. Besides, Yoon Eun Hye is just amazingly pretty and a good actress throughout the entire series which is more than enough reason to check this drama out.
