Two Fantasy Tinted King and Prince Kdramas Confirm Leads
Two big drama casting confirmations came out this week in The King 2 Hearts and Rooftop Prince, and both left me slightly cold. Rather than reunite Ha Ji Won and Jo In Sung, the upcoming MBC drama The King will instead find Lee Seung Gi to play the role of the fictional King of South Korea who finds himself married to a daughter of a politically powerful family in North Korea. Their marriage is built on a political union, but they instead fall in love even as family and alliances from either side threaten their relationship. I love Ha Ji Won, but Lee Seung Gi is just a cute puppy who does nothing for me, either in his acting or his hotness. With a writing team of the Hong Sisters (not of the Best Love, Gumiho Girlfriend fame, but of the Beethoven Virus infamy), and directed by PD Lee Jae Gyoo who brought us the innovative and heartbreaking Damo, I think it’s a toss-up at this point whether this drama will ultimately work. No matter what, it’ll be hard shoes to fill as The King follows The Moon that Embraces the Sun on Wed-Thurs.
Another K-drama with a fantasy bent (which appears to be quite popular these days), is the upcoming SBS drama Rooftop Prince. Leading man Micky Yoochun was onboard awhile ago, but only recently has his leading lady been confirmed as Han Ji Min. Apparently Moon Chae Won turned down the role. The story has shades of the laughable One Thousand Years of Love, but this time it’s the prince and not the princess who time travels to the future. Yoochun plays a Joseon prince who loses his beloved princess. To what we’re not told. He manages to time travel to the future, with his retinue of servants in tow, to look for her. He finds her doppleganger in modern times, and hopefully they fall in love all over again, this time with a happy ending. The drama will have a significant sageuk element, which works fine for both leads who have had decent sageuk experience. Rooftop Prince will air after Take Care of Us, Captain, on Wed-Thurs, which would pit the Prince drama against the King drama. May the royal with the better story and execution win.
Is LSG confirm? I love Lee Seung Gi.. but I don’t think i love the pariing… he is so babyface… the age gap is what concern me… i really hope it was JIS or CSW… also I could not mind seeing Lee Jun Ki as the king either since he will be out of military service then…
in regard to rooftop prince… i do like the pairing ok…. so will see…
I can’t imagine Lee Seung Gi playing a king (maybe boy King Tut) but Mickey IS a prince…
lee sung gi is the “real king”. yoochon is just okay for me. lee sung gi daebak
I thought the news is denied by Lee Seung-gi agency right after it surfaced earlier?
so many kings….Ha Ji Won is like a female Jang Hyuk in one respect- her co stars keep getting younger with each project….more power to her
Uggh. I’m also disappointed with this casting. I was so looking forward to Jo In Sung and Ha Ji Won reuniting again. It’s been forever since Bali! And most definitely since his last drama. I was for sure gonna watch that drama if that had been the case but now I’m hesitating.
I’m afraid that I have to agree with you with LSG and his acting. I absolutely couldn’t stand him in Brilliant Legacy and couldn’t continue the drama because of him. He was better in MGIAG but I was more interested in Shin Min Ah’s character. His character was meh. However, I love him as a host and his variety stints. Huge fan of his since the X-Man days but when it comes to dramas, I tend to really not care.
I think his charm worked in Gumiho; he was endearing
but BL was all about the Bae Soo Bin for me
Most perfect “oppa” to never get the girl
you didn’t watch bl,still it had 47.1 ratings. this shows sunggi’s dominance. as a actor he is daebak for me and his fans.iwatched mgiag for lee sung gi.king drama gonna be epic
Hmmm. I am verrry excited for the Rooftop Prince (but then I actually liked 1000 Years of Love, though I can’t claim it was a good drama). It sounds like it could be hilarious and I love the writer and the PD. I happen to love both HJM and Yoochun and the age gap/visual difference of same between them is not really evident to me. Also, it’s about time for the guy to do some time-travelling.
The King – I can’t say I wasn’t more excited when it was rumored to be Lee Byung Hun or Jo In Sung, but I really do like Lee Seung Gi (and it may be blasphemy, but I much prefer him to Cha Seung Won, who got on my last nerve in Best Love). I don’t find him good-looking in the least, but he has that odd quality of making me fall in love with his characters and find him progressively more and more handsome as I fall for his characters – in both Gumiho and Brilliant Legacy I started out sneering and wondering why girls would swoon but by midway point was swooning myself. The age difference is a lot more noticeable between him and Ha Ji Won, but oddly it doesn’t bug me (normally I loathe noona-dongsaeng romances), maybe because in an arranged marriage, anything could happen. Not that it would ever be turned into a drama, but there have been royal marriages with 30+ yr differences, and no necessarily with the guy being the older. I am not sure either lead is confirmed at this point, right? I mean, HJW is a near cert because she’s been rumored to be attached whatever iteration of leading man this thing went through, but with LSG I’d wait and see.
OMG I totally agree with you about Cha Seung Won. I don’t particularly care for him. I’d probably stay away from a drama that he’s going to be in. There’s just something about him that I can’t watch.
try to watch Bodyguard (2003) CSW in Best Love pissed me off starting with the first ep but in Bodyguard he plays and has a role that fits him well. It is a weekend drama but the episodes have 50-55 min. And there we have Han Go Eun with an awesome character – way better than the Candy heroine and more the producers noticed that. That drama redeemed her char in M2F.
On the other hand I love noona dongsaeng relationships even though it kinda sounds cliche nowadays or in kdrama it seems that becomes a normal trope or nobody cares about it
Indeed HJM and PYC doesn’t strike me as a N-D relationship at all… even more he will be the old one in Rooftop Prince
However Ha Ji Won and Lee Seung Ki as OTP strikes even a person like me – who goes gaga over such a trope. But @Dangermousie puts it right – this is an arranged royal marriage therefore would be weird if we would have a balanced pair at the start with rainbows and puppies to look at – where would be the drama?… with an actor like LSK who loves to play characters that grow over a drama … it will be a showdown about look how 30+ noonas come to love him even they don’t want to.
LSK is the kind of actor who’s looks don’t make anything to my hormones like Kim Nam Gil or No Min Woo do to me, but his chars are endearing and the kid can act and look mature or childish depending on the stage of the drama.
Btw LSK instead of CSW – LSK could make Dokko Jin to look bearable eventually I would love him, but for the sake of the drama and the way the drama was made by Hong Sisters I believe CSW was the best choice even I loathe him in that role. Why? the proof = all those people who love the drama for being exactly the way it is
That’s going to be one tough battle, but I’m going to be tuning in on “Attic Prince.”
Oh my god, One Thousand Years of Love is like the worst drama ever! I watched it only because I was on a So Ji Sub hunt after watching MISA, but I resent those hours of my life I threw away watching it hoping it would get better. Rooftop Prince is hopefully nothing like it.
On a happier note I like the casting of The King. I adore Ha Ji Won but am fairly ambivalent about Lee Seung Gi as an actor though I like him a lot in 1 Night 2 Days. Damo was shot beautifully so thumbs about regarding the director.
Hrmmmm king vs prince.. Maymthe best royal,storyline, and music win!!! Koala unni, are u gonna recap moon embrace sun ep 5 and6
guys another KING drama coming titled I AM THE KING..apparently Jo ji Hoon is on it too..
Yoochun can fit the prince image to a T. and Han Ji Min can definitely play a princess
Han Ji Min has a very youthful face, and i dont think she looks like YC’s noona
plus
I like the writer of Rooftop a lot (Bad Family)
but Lee Seung Gi is like a woodland creature T.T
How am i supposed to think of him as a KING? let alone a prince and next to a badass ha ji won?
He is the definition of boy next door
don’t you know his nickname is “king”. he is nation’s younger brother,nations prince.there is only a few actors whose name is attached with the word”nation”
OH, ICK!
ewww ewww ewww
really?
well now I have no expectations for either pairing
LSG n HJW?? I cant picture them together as a pair….I prefer senior actor!!!!!
Er…..no. Just NO. Han Ji Min is really flat in Padam Padam. I liked that show in spite of her. And Lee Seung Gi and Ha Ji Won is weird. Any dude paired with HJW should be more I dunno masvuline; not that she’s butch. Whatever.
I think I kind of understand what you mean… I always think of Lee Seungi as a “boy”-next-door, whereas Ha Ji Won is not a girl, she is a grown woman. But fingers crossed for both dramas!
Aigooo! LSG and HJW???? Are you sure?
If lee sung gi pairs with Ha Ji Won, it’ll be a terrible, disaster match. His acting is only average but his appearance is absolutely NO for playing a King. There no hotness and handsome in that guy. Subordinating role is ok but as for a male lead is no no.
how come he is in top 10 handsome,hot looking actor list in every magazine and pollsPLZ EXPLAIN!
Lee Seung Gi? I am not a fan of his acting. I lurve Ha Ji Won. I dont like the pairing. I dont find him good looking either. I dont get his appeal . Charisma? weeh!
thanks so much for the post sis!
i am not very excited with LSG and HJW at all… it’s a wait and see for me. when CSW’s name cropped up earlier i was excited up to the high heavens but after the replacement, dug! i feel right slam to the ground. it is not that i don’t like LSG but i LOVE CSW. another negative factor is the Myung Wol vibe. brrrrrrr.
oh, rooftop is getting me excited with the premise and of course because of Micky!
Looking back on this post after knowing how awesome LSG and HJW are….. I laugh at how skeptical we were.
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