Princess Hours

Princess Hours (Korean: 궁, Hanja: 宫, romanized as Goong) is a South Korean television drama series based on the manhwa Goong by Park So-Hee. It was broadcast from January 11 to March 30, 2006 on MBC and stars Yoon Eun Hye, Joo Ji Hoon, Kim Jeong Hoon and Song Ji-hyo. The US DVD release by YA Entertainment uses the title Palace.

Princess Hours was one of MBC's most popular dramas of 2006, second only to Jumong.Overall, the show was the tenth most popular drama of 2006, according to TNS Media. Due to the success of the first season, a second season was to be produced. However, it will no longer be produced due to the withdrawal of two main actors. A spin-off series, Goong S, was broadcast on January 10, 2007.

Set in an alternate 21st-century reality where Korea possesses a royal family, since 1945 to present, this show revolves around the lives of the Crown Prince Lee Shin, and his new bride, Chae-kyeong.

The series starts off with the news that the King, Shin's father, is very ill. With the grim outlook on the King's health, the royal family scrambles to find a wife for Shin, so as to allow him to take over the royal throne if the situation requires.

Despite being in love with another girl, the ambitious and talented ballerina Hyo-rin whom Shin initially proposed to (she rejects him to pursue her ballet dreams), Shin eventually marries a commoner to whom he was betrothed by his late grandfather in an old agreement with the girl's grandfather. Shin marries the headstrong yet lovable Chae-kyeong after Hyo-rin's rejection. Despite initially feeling nothing for Chae-kyeong, love eventually blossoms between the couple as time passes.

In the meantime, however, matters are further complicated with the return of Lee Yul and his mother Lady Hwa-Young, who was once the Crown Princess before the death of her husband, the late Crown Prince, older brother of the current King. Yul and his mother were chased out of the palace some time after the death of his father, and it is later revealed that this was due to the King's discovery of an affair between Yul's mother and the current King who was his father's younger brother.

Yul's mother had returned with a sinister motive in mind; to restore her son back to the throne, which would have been his eventually, if his father had not died. A series of events befall the palace with the schemes Yul's mother carries out, and is further intensified by the various scandals involving the royal family, which are inclusive of the Shin's continuing relationship with his old flame Hyo-rin, and the budding love Yul develops for Chae-kyeong, his cousin's new-found bride. Things gets out of hand and many incidents happened.

Shin visits Thailand. Hyo-rin meets him there and asks him to take her to the airport, setting him up for a date.

The plot of the sequel would have closely followed the plot of the remaining volumes of the manhwa. The production company, Eight Peaks was aiming to re-sign the entire original cast for the sequel Goong 2.

Eight Peaks stated that they would aim to film Goong 2 in late 2007 or early 2008. However, Yoon Eun Hye and Kim Jeong Hoon have stated their wishes to withdraw from Eight Peaks due to conflicting problems with the company. Yoon Eun Hye, one of the main character, has already ended her contract with Eight Peaks and has moved onto Kraze Entertainment. Without the complete main characters of the first season, it is most likely there will be no sequel of Goong.

Thursday, July 21, 2011 by Amidanah Rohmah · 0