Goong

My sister and I just finished watching Goong (궁), also known as Princess Hours, Palace, and Imperial Household in English. It is also my second Korean drama to date. :) I'm still getting used to the language, but I'm starting to get a feel for the romanised Korean. Anyway, it stars Yoon Eun Hye from Coffee Prince, Joo Ji Hoon who is a model (and rather cute, if I may say so myself), and Kim Jeong Hoon (who I took a great liking to - his character was tragic though). The following is the summary from DramaWiki - the one from Wiki has a lot of spoilers.

Goong is a story about young love in face of tradition, politics, and intrigue. In the imaginary world, modern-day Korea is a constitutional monarchy and the Royal Family lives in a grand Palace, the Goong. Story opens with the sudden death of the reigning the King. Faced with the decreasing popularity among the public for the Royalty, a grand wedding for the Crown Prince, Lee Shin, is decided to be the best publicity move to improve the image of the Royalty and at the same time prepare Shin for immediate succession. The intended bride? The headstrong, awkward, and sweet spirited Shin Chae-kyung that just happens to go to the same exclusive art school. Chae-kyung was betrothed to become the next Crown Princess by her grandfather and Shin's grandfather.

After 14 years of living in England with his mom, Lee Yul appears all of a sudden. He is Shin's cousin as well as the former Crown Prince. Everything seemed to be going normally until Chae-kyung's optimistic spirit wins the heart of internally lonely, Yul. As the Crown Prince Shin and simple-minded Chae-kyung's relationship appear to developing deeper feelings, a series of scandals are exposed to the public right after the pair were officially announced married. Will love prevail all in a world of political pressures and martial hardships? Or will being in the spotlight of the public be too much for the young newlyweds to endure?

This entire drama spanned across 24 episodes (my longest drama to date - I never watched Meteor Garden) and I found it painful. Not in the bad way though! Eun Hye's character was very embarrassing to watch at times and it made me cringe. Also, the heart wrenching that is mandatory in romance dramas was present throughout the drama. It was well-done, though, and was cute and sweet at many times - not to mention funny! If you have time to spare and is up for a bit of drama, go for it! Also, it's interesting to see Eun Hye as Chae-Gyung as opposed to her character in Coffee Prince - they're completely different!!

Oh yes, and the soundtrack's pretty good as well. :)

Now... my dilemma is what drama to watch next.

Note: it is hard to find this drama online because it is copyrighted. Even so, you can find it here.