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I just watched the 2006 MBC Korean drama Goong (궁) a.k.a. Princess Hours. The drama, adapted from a popular manhwa, is a fairy tale of sorts. In the story, modern day Korea is a constitutional monarchy. The plot revolves around the Royal Family and two princes vie for the affections of the heroine (portrayed by Yoon Eun Hye). If you can't imagine Korea having a Royal Family, just imagine England's Royal Family and the lives of Prince William and Prince Harry.
I am writing this entry because while watching the drama (it has 24 episodes), at one point, i could not decide who i wanted the heroine to end up with more. The antagonist proved to be very formidable and had strengths and qualities of his own. It wasn't as clear cut for me as say...like in Stairway to Heaven (2003) where there was no contest!
Those who have seen the drama would probably know what i am talking about. Did you feel the same? To those who have not seen the drama yet, let me tell you about both the princes.
Prince Lee Shin
Crown Prince Lee Shin
Next in line to the throne, tall and handsome Prince Lee Shin (aged 19) has been groomed to be the next King since the age of five. He has a quiet and steely disposition. At times, he might even appear emotionless and heartless. However, under that stubborn exterior, this young man has a pure and good heart.
He is also one of the loneliest persons on earth - much lonelier than you or me because he has not truly experienced the love of a mother or a father. The royal household is conducted in a very formal manner and there is much protocol. Hugs are not given freely. His best friend in the whole world is a small teddy bear given to him when young.
Despite the luxuries the life of a Prince has to offer,he is the loneliest person you've ever met
Most of the time Prince Shin is misunderstood because he cannot find the words to express what he feels in his heart. 'Tis not easy to win his affections, but if you can melt the outer glacier, you will have him faithful and loyal, by your side forever.
Favourite past time - fencing. This prince also loves movie making and has ambitions to become a director.
Prince Shin has a penchant for wearing pink and polka dots. He is a walking fashion disaster most of the time. In the final episode, pairing a buttoned down formal shirt, jacket and peddle pushers was just too absurd.
26-year old Joo Ji Hoon assumesthe role of Prince Lee Shin
Prince Lee Yul
Destiny took the crown away from him...Originally the Crown Prince, the position was robbed from him after his father's death. He and his mother were then banished from the Palace. Prince Lee Yul spent the next 14-years in London, secretly groomed by his mother to one day reclaim his rightful position.
Prince Lee Yul is soft spoken, gentle and sensitive. He is most attentive to your needs and is always a good listener and companion. Whenever you feel sad or depressed, he's there to comfort you. He will whisk you away from your troubles and be your shoulder to cry on. He is also a hopeless romantic and knows how to treat a lady.
Prince Yul Goon - the hopeless romantic
Prince Yul Goon - the hopeless romanticNineteen year old Prince Yul loves to read fantasy books and you will see him with the Lord of the Rings or a Harry Potter book whenever he is relaxing.
This prince has a penchant for women's accessories and his signature piece is a looped gold necklace. At times, he might pair it with stud earrings.
28 year-old actor, singer and modelKim Jeong Hoon plays the role of Prince Lee Yul.
He even wears his Tiffany & Co. Feathers lariat necklace off screen.
So which one of them is YOUR Prince?
Pics credit: MBC
43 Comments:
Prince Lee Shin Goon is my guy! I like the cold type...I don't know why...maybe I like 2 suffer...but I like it when a man is silent and mysterious and it wouldn't hurt if he was tall, dark and handsome either haha
I will only love Yul :)
I'm in love with Prince Shin Goon!!!
Prince Shin Goon is my choice. He is so lonely my heart aches for him. I want to comfort him. Gamsahamnida.
my choice is lee shin...no reasons..my heart just goes out to him...even tho yul is much cuter...^^
at least i could choose in this series..unlike autum in my heart/endless love..
both r so outstanding in their own way...
I would go for Prince Lee Shin Goon!!! ^.^
I just felt like pointing out that their names are not really Shin "Goon" and Yul "Goon". That's just what Chaegyung calls them. It's Lee Shin and Lee Yul.
And I didn't think Shin was a walking fashion disaster. I thought his clothes were actually hot!
As for me, It would be very hard to choose. But I pick Shin! ...or maybe Yul? gah!
YUL! i absolutely fell in love with him in this drama. he treats a woman well and is so romantic..:D
The whole time I just wanted her to go fer Yul Goon.. I mean Shin Goon was so mean to her and had a GF to go to anyways while Yul Goon never judged her and was always there and so damn SWEET! I didn't even understand WHY Chaekyung(I believe that's the characters name o.O haven't seen the drama in a while) was interested in Shin Goon... All in all the fact her ending up with Shin Goon ruined the drama for me and I ended up disliking it.. Very disappointing... PLUS Yul Goon was cuter :D
how about both!!!
Shin all the way
Yool is too clingy. he made me gag when i rewatched the drama. >_<
@hazel Thanks for correcting me on the names. I went to the official Korean site and you are right! Actually i didn't know what their real names were...cos the version i saw had really bad subtitles and it was probably translated from Mandarin. They used the Mandarin translation of their names, which i did not want to use in my entry.
Also, i saw in an sms that Shin Chae Kyeong sent the Prince and she called him "Shin Goon". How come?
Then the other Prince is also called "LV" sometimes. I've heard him been called like three different names. :-)
i LOVE LOVE LOVE shin and i like him in pink n he such a mysterious person, makes me go ga ga even more *dreamy* ...i HATE yul!!!he looks so soft n charming n gentle but very manipulative kinda person.oh, and clingy too..
At first I liked both for different reasons.. until Yul became super-clingy... sometimes his eyes got kinda crazy, haha! It was all Shin after that. :)
for me it would be kim jeong hoon...
all package....
handsome
pretty
talented
and
smart
~*~*Yeah I too liked both but for different reasons. At first I was in favor of Lee Shin but he turned out to be very distant and uncaring. Then Lee Yul came in and he was so sweet but once I saw his clingy and on the verge of losing it side I was on Team Lee Shin and he turned out to be so sweet and caring too. :) Goong is by far one of my favorite dramas I have watched it way too many times*~*~
Shin Goon. :P GOSH. I got so addicted to him that I watched all 24 episodes of Goong five times last summer. Woo. He is so hot! :P
I think he is the rightful owner of Shin Chae Kyeong's heart.♥ Wooo. Episode 16 is the best. :)) Still can't ge over it.♥♥♥
Prince Shin!!! i like treasures.. for me, he personifies that (or at least his character does). it's like digging deep for something amazing and it's all worth it. Yul is good too but Prince Shin is deep. He's my style. haha. :D
sounds like the second prince has the early signs of a cross dresser!
Hands down...Prince Lee Shin is my choice!
I didn't like the drama much (stopped watching after 4 episodes or so). The setting/costume/props were great, but everything else...meh.
Same goes for the actual comic book. Initial idea was great and so was the drawing, but the actual storyline, character development/interactions all sucked.
Haha D:
But, if I had to choose b/w the 2...
Shin cuz Yul is too emo (plus imagine having his mom as your mother-in-law...yikes). :D
No contest! Shin Goon hands down!
I rooted for Prince Lee Shin the whole time when I watched this last year... KJH is a cutie but I didn't take to his character... Shin did dress really flouncy and dandy boy-ish most of the time, but it suited the backdrops... I liked him best in uniform, haha... It's that hideous dress Yoon Eun Hye wore in one of her kissing scenes with the top hanging out that I look back on with distaste.
@ezra why is episode 16 your favourite? Is it the one where they both went off to see the sunrise together?
my copy is really very bad. I have to skip entire episodes due to DVD problem. i want to rewatch episode 23. that's the one where they sort of made up. =)
Lee Yul!
Shin Goon.... though hes mean.. at least he loves her back... after all they had went through... its one of my best korean dramas by far.. :D
@Orchid I also watched a bad copy of the drama and saw that they called Yul "LV". How did they get "LV" from "Yul"?!
After that, I watched it online with subtitles from WITH S2 and finally understood what was happening. I love fansubs! :)
I hope you get to watch "Goong" with better subs. I'm sure you'll enjoy it much more.
I'm in love with Yul..
Kim jeong hoon is just too adorable..his smile is sooo nice!
Definitely Yul until Shin started peeling his defences away and making a choice. Shin is irritating when he 'sits on the fence'. That is a very unprincely trait to have. No?
@hazel so how come they call Yul "LV"? Please tell if you know. I am so curious.
@mimiejay yeah Yul does have really nice kissable lips. ;-)
@anonymous i didn't like it when Shin was sitting on the fence either. But he didn't do it for too long. After saying Good Bye in Thailand, he made his decision. He just didn't show it that much. He is such an introvert.
of coz one & only Shin Goon!!! he might be very cold but there's something about him that makes me to get attracted to his character.
actually what i love about this drama not only because of the character but how they twist the story...
as for me @ first i felt sympathy for chae-kyung especially when shin kept hurting her.
when the last few episodes, especially when we started to know shin's true feeling towards chae-kyung, i started to hate her & i felt sympathy for shin!
and of coz in the end i was so happy when they got together!hahaha
@orchid yes,he has really nice kissable lips..
i watched this on 8tv, man..they cut the kiss part!! so i'm like did they or not kissed?haizz..spoil mood je
random fact: DBSK was mention in this drama! LOL
@orchid: you had a question why chae gyeong called shin, shin goon.
basically, goon in korean is "jun" in chinese. which means something like gentleman. its a sort of a title. but shin didn't like it cos its definitely not as respectful as your highness.
and you asked why yul was called lv right?
in chinese, yul is lu(with two dots above the u). however,you can't really type that out, so another common form used for typing the hanyupinyin of lu(with two dots) is lv. that's why he was called lv.
hope i helped.(:
@looni tunez yes that explanation helped a lot. Thanks!! =)
*cough* i've been checking Joo Ji-hoon and Kim Jeong Hoon out more. They have groups in Facebook.
Joo Ji Hoon is love on Facebook (I must warn you, there are two thousand over photos uploaded in that group. So you can view JJH photos till your heart's content!)
Kim Jung Hoon rocks on Facebook (lots of photos -ok that was before i checked out JJH's group. KJH has less than 100 photos.)
Also found out more about that gold necklace Kim Jeong Hoon wears! It's from my fave jeweler actually...
The gold looped necklace is from Tiffany & Co. - Tiffany Feathers lariat necklace. 18k gold, USD1,450
Shin! Shin! Shin!
Prince Yul is such a pansy. :)
Prince Lee Shin All the Way.... Fall in love with him in Goong which is also my first Korean drama.
He's tall, handsome, cool yet charming and warm hearted, cold outside and warm inside. My type of guy.
Don't think he is a fashion disaster at all. He is a model by profession (won the Best Male Model Award). I think he wear and carry himself well in those clothes in the drama.
To: Orchid
Chaekyung calls Yul and Shin "goon" after their names because in Korea, you call important people with a "goon" attached to their first name. Also Yul and Shin is not their real name in the drama, it is something else but those names are names for which prince is which. If you're Korean, you'd know what i mean. Also, I like Yul the best!!
@anonymous...are you Korean? Thanks for leaving a comment & explaining!
Wooww hard choice... to be honest if i was Yoon Eun Hye in the drama (forgot the girls name... =]) I'd get tired of waiting for Shin! I like guys who tells you how he feels about you, not bottle it up inside! Haha sooo Yul for me =]
I like Yul better, in autumn tale I also have this dilema of who is better
i love Prince Lee Shin
he is so cute...adorable.
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