Average Rating: 8.9 out of 10 |
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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 (Joo Ji Hoon),
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 (Yoon Eun Hye)
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 (Kim Jeong Hoon) 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?
Starring:
- Yoon Eun Hye as Shin Chae-kyung
- Joo Ji Hoon as Lee Shin
- Kim Jeong Hoon as Lee Yul
- Song Ji Hyo as Min Hyo-rin
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One of my favourites!! I got very emotional with this drama, reason because I can relate with few ups and downs of Princess Chae-Kyeong and Prince Shin (without the Royalty)
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.
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 (Bingoong) 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.
In the end of the series, Shin's sister takes the throne and Shin and Chae-kyeong get married once more in a Catholic church in Macau (since they haven't married for love yet). It is strongly implied that Chae-kyeong is pregnant at the end of the series since she supposedly threw up.
It’s a shame that the Goong 2 was not as good as this one. There was also a lot of laughing moments in this drama 10/10!!! Overall!!
Highlights – There are so many highlights that you will never forget with his drama but here are the few I listed..
- The theme songs “Perhaps Love” by Howl and J & Aeng Moo Sae (Parrot) sang by Howl
- Scene at the beach where they supposed to watch the sunset
- Princess Chae-Kyeong’s silliness in the palace
- The forced honeymoon night
- When Prince Shin was taken away by the police and Princess Chae-Kyeong was chasing him down the hill (I cried so bad with scene)
- First weekend of Prince Shin @ Princess Chae-Kyeong’s house together with her family, also when they were left alone together at home.
Now on to the story..
Goong started out quite well because of all the visual image that got me hyped to watch episodes after episodes. It's very interesting to imagine.. what IF Korea still had a royal family? It started out comedic, but slow. The story went on and on, and as the story went by it got slower and slower. I won't go into details about the story, but in a nutshell, it's about a girl who finds out that she'll become a princess because of her grandfather's "pact" with the former king, she then marries the prince even though they don't love each other. Will they learn to love each other? A typical drama story, with the palace setting. The drama also goes into the trials and tribulation of life in the palace.
I don't mind slow movies/dramas, but this one just got too dull for me. Nonetheless, I finished the drama. The story is not completely bad, but it unfolded slow.
Overall, it's beautiful visually, but very slow-paced. But although it was dull, its visual and overall presentation (the whole palace theme) puts this drama on my recommended list.