Second Impressions and Quickcap of Rooftop Prince Episode 2

Ah, what a shift in focus and a realignment of expectation can do for drama watching enjoyment. While some dramas just objectively suck or rock, a few straddle that nebulous region where pleasure can be derived as long as what the viewer wants coincides with what the drama delivers. I still stand by my first impression that episode 1 of Rooftop Prince was pretty dull – choppy, ridiculously written evil second leads, and a general disjointedness in the entire outing. But happily for me, episode 2 of RP managed to win me over by a surplus of Joseon time-traveler antics in modern Seoul. If I take RP as a situational comedy, then it works.

I still find the overarching story not very compelling because the villains are sketched in such extreme strokes, but if I fast-forward their scenes, then a drama solely about four time-traveling Joseon boys is charming, hilarious, and done just right. Since literally nothing happened in episode 2 beyond the Joseon 4 accepting they’ve time-traveled and then settling into their new track-suited existence, I found the hour just breezed right by and I had a smile on my face the entire time. I don’t have the need to recap RP, but this would be a great drama to showcase scenes here and there along the way that really out to be memorialized. 

The directing is still pretty much a hack job and the editing, though better than episode 1, still needs to calm the heck down. The music has gotten better, and without the herky jerky cuts between the present and past that marred episode 1, we finally have a better sense of the main characters personalities and behaviors. I have to confess that the love story or the OTP does nothing for me in this drama. Fate doesn’t mean jack unless there is believable “love” to develop between the supposed lovers (which was MoonSun’s major weakness for me), and so far I don’t feel it. What I do love is the friendship, the loyalty, the camaraderie, and the bickering between the Joseon 4, plus Park Ha added to the mix more and more. Episode 2 was all that, and boy did it satisfy the goofball in me who loves a nice behavioral driven skit full of funny moments.

Episode 2 fun times ahead:

Plucky Park Ha confronts the intruders in her home, four strange men dressed like they are filming a sageuk drama.

The pow wow moves outside to the roof, where Prince discovers that he’s seeing the night view of Seoul. Clearly he’s not in Hanyang anymore. Where’s his Toto when you need him? Park Ha wonders naturally if her intruders are less of the violent variety and more of the crazy persuasion. Prince asks if this is the land of the living or the dead?

Once Park Ha asks if she can take them from whence they came, the Joseon 4 huddle to discuss their options. Smarty pants Man Bo suggests they get back to the Palace first and maybe it will solve this strange situation they find themselves in. Prince orders the “demon” that is Park Ha to let them back to the Palace and she will not be harmed. Eunuch Chi San adorably announces out loud that his highness the Crown Prince is returning to the Palace.

Operation: Hitch a ride to the Palace in Park Ha’s pick up truck, complete with gaping at the scenery whipping by.

Park Ha drops off her cargo of strange four men and gives them a pep talk about working hard as extras for a sageuk, and they ought to go home now.

The Joseon 4 stand outside the locked gates of the Palace, with eunuch Chi San announcing that his royal highness Prince Lee Gak is here and demands immediate entrance.

Naturally they are loud and annoying and someone calls the cops. The officer shines his high beam on them and orders the extras from the recently filming sageuk to leave since the filming has wrapped.

The befuddled Joseon 4 have no choice but to slink away, with poor Chi San biting it on his way down the steps.

The hapless Joseon 4 wander their way into the middle of Seoul traffic, with the annoyed motorists beeping and cursing at them. They are split up when trying to dodge the oncoming cars.

It starts to rain and Prince finds himself seeking shelter under the awning of a convenience store. He sees two school girls eating ramyum and he’s so hungry he gapes at them.

He goes inside and orders the convenience store cashier give him a bowl of that same food those girls were eating, and he’ll pay her later. She calls the cops on him.

It happens to be the same officer who shoo’d them away from the Palace gates, and he’s got the rest of the Joseon 4 in the back of his police car.

Our Joseon 4 find themselves in lock up, and they can’t be released unless a guarantor comes for them.

The only person they know in this strange world is that girl with the frying pan. Man Bo realizes she’s their own hope.

Thank god Man Bo has a photographic memory, and he was able to memorize visually Park Ha’s license plate number, and he paints it for the police.

Park Ha comes back from working to find the four strange dudes have been delivered back to her courtesy of the police.

She doesn’t want anything to do with them, but Man Bo preys on her kind heart as he shows her poor Chi San, who has fainted from hunger.

Park Ha makes omurice for the Joseon 4, complete with a squiggle of ketchup on top.

They are starving and devour their food, niceties and etiquette bedamned.

Young Sul tries to open a bottle of water by using brute strength to tug on the cap. It’s these little fish-out-of-water touches throughout this episode that were just wonderfully done.

The TV gets accidentally turned on during the water bottle open endeavor, and Bow: The Ultimate Arrow shows up on the sc reen. The flying arrow freaks out the Joseon 4, with Young Sul grabbing his sword and attacking the TV.

A poor teddy bear even gets sliced and diced during the kerfluffle.

The boys accidentally start a fire and Park Ha comes running in from outside and grabs the fire extinguisher and lets it loose.

She gives the boys a well-merited lecture. Prince doesn’t like being lectured to as being shameless and using her and then leaving. He reluctantly asks her what she wants them to do. First she makes them give her all their Joseon clothes and she stashes it at the drycleaner ahjusshi. She makes a reference to the fairy and the woodcutter folktale, where the woodcutter stole the fairy’s fairyclothes and she couldn’t return to Heaven.

Time for the obligatory make over! Or make under, in this case, cuz going from royal and official Joseon garb into polyester track suits is not exactly tickling the fashion sense.

Park Ha checks out her creations. Looking good.

But not yet complete. She shows Prince and his retinue how to put the finishing touch on a track suit, i.e. zip it up all the way to the chin.

Oooh nice, first cute moment between the OTP, courtesy of a track suit zipper.

Park Ha supervises as the other three zip up as well. Voila, all done!

But it’s not time to rest, despite the implication of putting on a track suit. Park Ha has the Joseon 4 go to the market with her to help with her deliveries. Today the item is cabbage.

The evil duo, who are evil separately but not together, share a non-evil meal together. I have to mention that earlier, Park Ha went to deliver food to Se Na’s apartment and Tae Moo sees her. He recognizes her as the fruit seller girl from NYC that saw him and Tae Young together, which alarms him.

Grandma is in the hospital sick with worry over the disappearance of his golden grandson Tae Young.

The Joseon 4 tag along as Park Ha goes to the hospital to meet her evil sister Se Na. Evil sister says that its been two years since they have been reunited (since Park Ha came back from NYC), and she’s not keen to let the world know they are step-sisters. So she doesn’t want Park Ha popping by to drop off groceries or be a nice kind humanoid sister. Apparently Se Na is so evil she hates nice free groceries.

Prince is strolling outside when he spies his Crown Princess lookalike through the glass. He tries to follow her and runs head first into a glass pane.

Poor Prince. Luckily no permanent damage done, other than to his royal ego.

Prince tells his minions that he saw the Crown Princess. Here! In this strange world.

Yong family discussion time. What to do now that heir apparent Tae Young is missing. Hand the reins to Tae Moo? He sure would love that.

Park Ha and the Prince share a cute moment outside since neither can sleep.

Apparently whip cream from a can is a food stuff no one can resist.

They are really cute together. Now if only Ha Ji Min would calm down from acting like an over-energetic chipmunk most of the time, she’s actually got chemistry with Yoochun. Otherwise he’s the only one doing all the correct emoting.

Operation: Teach the boys how to brush their teeth! Could be considered a success notwithstanding the swallowing of their rinse.

OMG, she started FIRE with the turn of a knob! We have a miracle, people! LOL, their expressions are just so adorably taken aback and excited about everything.

Time to navigate the streets of Seoul. First step is learning how to cross a cross walk. Red means stop, green means go.

It’s the multi-colored track suit parade. I love how Young Sul has his palm up indicating to the stopped cars not to move forward and hurt his Prince.

Now they mastered walking, next step is mastering the public transportation system.

Park Ha has to go run errands and Prince and co. tag along.

Prince is accidentally welcomed into the Yong household and taken up to the room belonging to Tae Young. Prince sees a portrait of Tae Young and is shocked to see his own face on another person.

Grandma is missing her sonny boy and happens to wander in.

Grandma is shocked, but then sooooo happy her grandson Tae Young is back.

For cousin Tae Moo, who decided to let Tae Young drown and cover it up, this development does not look good for him.


Comments

Second Impressions and Quickcap of Rooftop Prince Episode 2 — 26 Comments

  1. definitely loved the hijinks, but I’m wondering if this drama isn’t moving a bit too fast… now the grandma has already seen the prince and mistakes him for her nephew, so I guess the evil machinations of the sociopaths will take on new dimensions and maybe the power rangers will ditch the rooftop apartment in favour of granny’s mansion? why not give something that works well a little space?!

  2. Lol I am surprised you are surprised by the quality of this drama. Like you I watched the trailers and when I saw what I saw I understood. I have always thought Han Ji Min lacked something appealing and I still think dramas’ directors waste too many lead roles on Micky…

    • lol so you think most drama critique/drama awards have wasted their recognition on Micky? SKKS also had received so many awards…(Bronze award in New York Film Festival was the latest)

    • I would have agree with you on the “waste role” subject, but the boy had improve constantly & had done nothing but take his work seriously. For every negative comments he get, he also received 3x the praise.

      If you pre-judge something before going into it with an open mind, you will never enjoy all the good things in life for something that you can’t control (in this case, you can’t control a director’s decision when they are casting someone).

  3. My impression of this drama totally changes now!! I was laughing with a hurt stomach all the way through, although i think learning how to brush our teeth is a trend in dramas these day

    • No, it’s not a re-labeling of this drama that allowed me to enjoy it more. It’s that the second episode was MUCH better than the first, and also I realized it’s a sitcom masquerading as a drama. So if I watch it knowing I’m watching something of a sitcom quality, then it’s mindlessly fun.

  4. I skipped Ep 1 altogether….but did watch Ep 2 and it made me laugh out loud multiple times. The 2 side kicks are soo cute (LMH & the guy in the yellow tracksuit). The concluding scene made me think it’s going to get a lot more serious from the next Ep onwards!! :/ I love how Yoochun’s character talks….it sounds ridiculously hilarious in modern times!!

  5. I did the same readjustment, and it fits better now. And 2nd ep is better too. I find than the two leads have chemistry: The scene on the outdoor table/bed when they mix alcohol and whip cream is upper cute. Isn’t it strange than someone who was a noble deprived of human touch a few days ago become a touchy/handy guy? LOL. But if you let slide those kind of things, then it’s fun. I felt a bit like in a sitcom too. True.

  6. I think the OTP have good chemistry.. Glad to see this epi was much better. I’m planning to watch it later. Lol about the fire. but really, I found it weird that she just them stay. Why let 4 strange guys stay with her? Did she believe their time traveling story? I gotta watch it to know, I guess.

  7. (wth, I’m here again and admittedly I wanted to know what you think about the second episode.) Thank goodness, Your Koala Highness liked it. *cross fingers for 3rd episode* wanna see what happens next.

    I still can’t get over this: “The befuddled Joseon 4 have no choice but to slink away, with poor Chi San biting it on his way down the steps.”

    and Young Sul holding his hand up while crossing the street. XD

  8. Thanks for the quick cap!! I actually just read your thoughts about the ep 2.
    I certainly don’t want to spoil myself coz I’ll be watching this later.

    I’m so glad that you enjoyed it!! I was really scared about how boring episode 1 is, as you said, but now I’m really excited to watch this and looking forward to LOL on the dumbfounded joseon 4.

    *still crossing my fingers that it’ll be better on the next episode*

  9. Thanks for the recap – I also had a big smile the whole way through, and LOL’d at their confusion and wonderment.

    It’s “surf the net” time when anyone else comes on screen, which is a waste of Lee Tae Sung, but I don’t really care what they do or say. He will machinate. Step-Sister will block. Gramma will…I dunno…Gramma will at least house the Prince for now.

    I do see a spark or two of chem between the OTP. It is slightly not believable that Prince would NOT have recognized her eyes, voice and hair yet. I guess when she is wearing something that covers most of her face, he’ll do a lightbulb flashback moment…
    Totally agree that the Chipmunk could calm down a mite.

  10. OMG..thank goodness there is not much ‘evil-makjang-element’ in this episode.. I’m literally ROFL with this episode!!

    Ms. Koala, you are AWESOME!!

  11. This episode was better than the first one.

    I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard….Here’s hoping the writer keeps up the hijinks and the four make it to the end alive. 🙂 Don’t tell anyone else your from the past CP.

    Thanks for the recap.

  12. your recaps are so hilarious… I’ve already logging for prince&park ha couple! The best thing about this drama is, I somehow understand and enjoy (not to mention laughing like crazy) although I don’t understand Korean language. 3rd episode would expected to be more insanely hilarious.

  13. Hi Ockoala!!! I am glad you finally found a drama you liked. I have been stalking u 😛 in the last few months and saw you recap a drama and then drop it, which you were actually right about. These drama’s tend to start very good but they somehow lose their spark when they’re at the climax of the story…Maybe its because we expect too much of it.

    Anyway thanks for your recap, and I had a question. Do you watch Kpop ultimate survival? Its from Yoochuns lil brother and its very good. Kinda like You are beautiful but with a very strong jerky female lead + jerky male lead and a bunk of handsome male leads. I was very curious about your opinion on that particular drama.

    Take care Koala unni 🙂

  14. I am really curious to know who murdered the evil Crown Princess and when will the Prince find out about the truth. Also, when will Park Ha do something about their hair?

  15. Interesting ideas , I Appreciate the points . Does anyone know if my company can get a fillable USPS PS 3811 form to fill out ?

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