Rooftop Prince (Korean, Drama)

Its something that is unusual. A genre not really tried a lot. N hence fresh. An funny...and exciting.

This Drama involves a lot of things in one thing. It is a fantasy story, a Romantic Comedy, and a Murder Mystery all in one. The concept is that some people from the past fall in to the present time. And how they encounter with reincarnations and they try to solve the Murder Mystery of two people one in past and one in present time. Also trying to adjust with the present world...

But the main point is that the concept of cuteness in the togetherness. I had first encountered this concept in the drama 'The First Shop of the Coffee Prince', where the princes, or the people working at the Coffee Prince cafe, were too lovable. The concept of a lovable bunch of people together really clicks. Here in
'Rooftop Prince', The Crown Prince along with his court men, Song Man Bo, Do Chi San, Woo Yong Sul, plus Bak Ha is a team to die for. If the three court men were not in this drama it would never have been the same as it is, in fact we cant imagine this drama without Song Man Bo, Do Chi San and Woo Yong Sul in this. They blend in to the drama making the thread holding the loveliness together.

The way the men from past trying to adjust with the modern world is something that is a fresh concept and out of the world funny.The different coloured track suits just add to the whole feel of it.
The romantic aspect is too cute and yet too touching in the end.

The story is thrilling and eventful and will keep you to the edges of your seat. The mystery of murder of the Crown Princess is saved to be solved till the end, keeping viewers interest.

The Cast itself is another important reason to see the drama.
Park Yu Chun is kind of my favourite main lead nowadays. (He is too cute, right?). He acts really well too. And the rare smiles he flashes are to die for.

And when I had seen Lee Tae Sung as Bong Jun Gu in 'Playful Kiss', and loved that comic, innocent, cute character; never thought that Lee Tae Sung would make such a great villain too. We would hate Yoon Tae Moo so much here that I really cant believe its the same actor who played lovable Bong Jun Gu who plays Tae Moo.

Also, I am really becoming a fan of the guy, Lee Min Ho, who plays Song Man Bo. Saw him and liked him in the drama 'The Moon that Embraces the Sun' and for a cameo role in 'Sungkungkwan Scandal'. The guy has got potential and i really think he should be given a lead role sometime soon. Don't know if this Lee Min Ho will be out-shadowed because there is a super star with the same exact name (Our old Lee Min Ho of BOF, Personal Taste n now Heirs). But still I do like this junior Lee Min Ho a lot.

Another notable thing about 'Rooftop Prince' is that the background music is really good. OST is good, but above that the background music is awesome.

Technical Details : The drama is of 20 episodes long and each episode is 1 hour long.

Characters :

The Crown Prince (Lee Ghak) : The crown prince of Joson Dynasty around the time 300 years back. Along with a serious side, n responsibilities, he is a person who still maintain a childishness n naughtiness in him. The Prince is also a bit arrogant as he was raised in a way where everybody look up to him n speak fearfully. So he expects to get that respect always. Yet his hear is filled with love n is loveable.



Song Man Bo : Prince searches out this really wise boy and appoints him as the place scholar to investigate the crown princess's murder case. Man Bo is the youngest among the 4 guys, being only 21 years old. But he is so intelligent and have a photographic memory. He can remember things by-heart with only one glance, and his logical thinking helps in the murder case solving...

Do Chi San : Prince appoints him as the palace attendant to investigate the crown princess murder. Chi San being a metro-sexual, knows both d world of men and women. He is aware of every rumour that flows inside n outside the palace. Besides him being out of the world cute, he is too effective in extracting out information from people.



Woo Yong Sul : The Crown Prince rescues this man who was about to be executed for killing the lord who raped his sister n killed his mother, and he is appointed as the personal guard for the prince.
Young Sul is superbly skilled sword fighter n have really good reflexes n hearing power.
But as much as he is a tough guy regarding d skills he is very loveabily innocent and very straight forward.


Hong Boo Yong : Boo Yong was first selected to be the crown princess. But when an accident (or intentionally inflicted by her sister), gets her face disfigured by a burn, she is relinquished from being the crown princess n her elder sister is married off to the Crown Prince.
Boo Young becomes a very talented and intelligent women but her skills get shadowed by her sister.
She can only follow the Crown Prince from a distance, when she secretly likes him.
But the Crown Prince really regard his sister-in-law as a friend and really appreciate her cleverness.

The Crown Princess (Hong Hwa Yong) : A greedy girl as young, the Crown Princess takes the place of her sister while intentionally or unintentionally burning Boo Yong's face. Even after growing up, the princess claims the embroidery works done by Boo Yong as done by herself in front of the Crown Prince. She is eternally over shadowing Boo Young.
One day this Crown Princess is discovered dead inside the Lotus Pond.




Park Bak Ha : Wronged by her step sister Sae Na, Bak Ha had to suffer an amnesia due to an accident at d age of 9 n live away from her family. She is a very hard-working energetic girl with a good heart.
When she finds her parents again she is trilled to go back to them, but knowing that her dad died makes her too sad. But Bak Ha's step mom accepts her.
She is trying to live a happy life working hard, n that is when the fantasy miracle happens and the 4 men from Joson Dynasty fall in to her rooftop room.


Yoon Tae Yong : The look alike or reincarnation of the Crown Prince Lee Ghak. The legal grandson of a company owner. Though his grandmother wants him to join and work for the company he doesn't have any interest in that. He travels around the world never coming back home, sketching and drawing things. He falls in love with Bak Ha in first glance.

Hong Sae Na : The look alike or reincarnation of the Crown Princess in present times. She is greedy n bad. She works as an office assistant for the Home Shopping Company of Chairman Yeo. She is secretly in a relationship with Yoon Tae moo. Because Tae Moo's father might not approve of their relationship they both keep it a secret. Sea Na has lied in order to get the job as the Secretary, and hence is too scared that her secret might come out, and has decided that she will marry Tae Moo without the secret ever coming out.

Yoon Tae Moo : The illegitimate grandson of Tae Yong's grand mother. Though Tae Yong consider him as his real cousin brother, grandmother has never acknowledged him as her grand son. Tae Moo will never get the ownership of the company no matter how much he work hard as long as Tae Yong is alive. N for this reason Tae Moo hates Tae Yong secretly.
Though he has a lot of greedy or dangerous sides, he really loves Hong Sae Na, his girlfriend, and is willing to stand against even his father for that. (And thankfully, Sae Na is a fit par for him as she is bad and evil too.)



Pyo Tek Soo : A higher officer in the company. Yoon Tae Yong's Grandmother trust him a lot. Pyo Tek Soo is a faithful man and he hates Yoon Dong Man, Yoon Tae Moo's father, and know that Tae Moo is not much different from his greedy father.

Chairman Yeo : Tae Young and Tae Moo's grandmother and the owner of the Home Shopping Company. Since Tae Young is her leagal granson and Tae Moo is illegitimate, she has partiality between them. She loves Tae Young too much and doesn't even consider Tae Moo her grandson.


Chairman Jung : She is the real mother of Sae Na. She was a friend of Man Ok, Sae Na's current mother and had given Sae Na to Man Ok to raise her. Now that Chairman Jung was detected with Cancer she wanted to visit her daughter. She is also searching for her younger daughter In Joo.
But as Chairman Jung posses a lot of shares of the Home Shopping company she is a person too important for Yoon Tae Moo and his father, and they try to keep to be in Chairman Jung's favour by flattery and other underhand measures.

Becky & Mimi : These two girls live on the apartment below Bak Ha's rooftop room, and they are Bak Ha's fiends. They are quiet friendly with the 4 guys too. Among these, Becky is a model, and Mimi is a webtoon writer.
And Mimi have a crush on Song Man Bo.




Story Line 

300 years back from present day, in Joson Dynasty, the King decides to select a bride for the young prince. A notice is given out to submit the names of suitable candidates. The rumour is that state minister's daughter will b selected as the crown princess. And the state ministers two daughters are excited about it. They both think that rather than the younger Boo Young, the older one Hwa Yong will be sent for the selection process. But shattering  Hwa Yong's expectations and dreams, their father declare that Boo Yong will be enlisted for the selection process. But one evening Hwa Yong will be ironing Boo Yong's clothes and Boo Yong comes to talk to her and in an accident the hot iron is fallen on Boo Yong's face scaring her face badly. The father decides to enlist Hwa Yong for the princess candidates instead of Boo Yong and Hwa Yong becomes the crown princess.

In the present times a young girl Bak Ha is abandoned inside a truck while she is sleeping by her step sister Sae Na. The truck starts and drives off, as little Bak Ha wakes up and calls for her sister Sae Na turns away from her cruelly and Bak Ha gets driven away in the truck.

Years pass on. In Joson, Boo Yong now is a wise young lady, but she can only silently follow the royal couple as her sister Hwa Yong takes all the credit for the works Boo Yong do. Yet the prince likes the intelligence of his sister-in-law n finds it amusing to give her riddles to solve.
One morning the crown prince wakes up to find that the crown princess in lying dead in the lotus pond. He is heartbroken and devastated...

And while he looks at it, a butterfly from an embroidery in the hand kerchief that the princess had given him, comes alive and flies away...

The butterfly fly in to the present time, and goes to a market place in New York. Yoon Tae Yong who was sitting on a bench see the butterfly n smiles at it and try to touch it, but the butterfly fly away n go n sit on the shoulder of a girl who was selling fruits. The girl is Bak Ha. Bak Ha stands very still as the butterfly has settled on her shoulder. Tae Yong watches this scene and smile at it and start sketching Bak Ha in a post card. That is when his cousin brother Tae Moo arrives and they go off for talking...That night in a bar. They two again see Bak Ha, who works there as a waitress. When Tae Yong tell Tae Moo that he thinks Bak Ha is pretty and shows him the sketch he drew, Tae Moo tell him to ask her out. But Tae Yong shakes off that idea.

Bak Ha gets to know that the authorities found her real parents in Korea n she is too excited that she will be going back to Korea.

The next day Tae Yong rents a boat and go in to sea along with Tae Moo. But while in the boat they gets in to an argument regarding the company and Tae Moo punches Tae Yong and he  falls in to the sea while hitting his head on the way. Tae Moo watches his unconscious little brother lying in water and does nothing to save him. He secretly wanted Tae Yong dead all these time, and so Tae Moo jumps into the sea and swims off. Tae Moo arrives in Korea the next day. He tells everyone that he didn't see Tae Yong in New York and Tae Yong is reported missing.

Bak Ha arrives in Korea and is heartbroken to know that her father died. But her step mother gladly accept her in to family. The step sister Sae Na, who is by now secretly in a  relationship with Tae Moo, is really frustrated in the return of Bak Ha and treats her as coldly as she can.

In Joson, the crown prince is insisting that the princess's death was a murder, but no one is agreeing with him and the court men wouldn't let him investigate the case.
The prince searches the country long and wide and find three men who are excellent in their area for investigating the princess murder case. They are : Song Man Bo, Do Chi San and Woo Yong Sul. (See their character description please).
Along with these guys the prince finds that the princess's death might have been arsenic poison consumption.
While investigating, these 4 get chased and attacked by some unknown horse riders. The 4 men gets chased up to a cliff, but while at the cliff they gets disappeared in to thin air.
In present time, 2 more years have passed and Bak Ha now lives in Korea, while working hard and is going to open a shop soon. She retunes home one day to find these 4 men from Joson times to be sitting inside the house....
Both the parties are shocked and scared at first and try to fight each other. As the past time men come outside and see the city lights and get shocked by that, Bak Ha think they might be crazy people who ran away from mental hospital.
She drive them to the gates of the palace on their request and leaves them there. But these 4 soon gets arrested for public disruption and other things, and put to lock up.
The police keep asking for their guardian's's contact. But they don't understand either of the words 'guardian' or 'contact'. The police man show them a phone, an id card and a registration plate of a vehicle n tell they can give any of these. Song Man Bo who has a photographic memory remembers Bak Ha's truck's registration number and draws that out for the police man.


Soon the guys are dumped in front of Bak Ha by the police man. Though Bak Ha is ready to throw them out, Chi San pretending to faint and Man Bo saying out loud "how can you faint from two days starvation?" - makes Bak Ha feel sorry for them and take them in to house and feed them. But they cause a rucksack in the house and Bak Ha tell them to work for her to compensate for the damage. She teaches the 4 men the ways of the modern world and picks out cloths for them and make them food and all... In this process The Crown Prince tell her that they came from Joson period of time and she believes them.

The Crown Prince see Sae Na and mistakes her to be the Crown Princess and try to run to her but fails to.
And then one day, Bak Ha gets a work to move Tae Yong's things from his room. The Crown prince comes in to Tae Yong's room and see Tae Yong's photo and gets shocked. Soon Tae Yong's grand mother see The Crown Prince and mistakes him to be Tae Yong.

Though, The Crown Prince pushes off the grandmother and insults them and walks off.

The 4 Joson men try to live with Bak Ha and adjust to the modern world. And while at it Bak Ha and The Crown Prince comes a lot closer through their usual fights and arguments.

After an accident similar to what happened to Yoon Tae Yong, The Crown Prince decides that maybe solving Tae Yong's case will be a clue to solve The Crown Princess's murder case and their key to go back to their time. So The Crown Prince accepts in front of Yoon Tae Yong's grand mother that he is Tae Yong.
Thus The Crown Prince becomes Tae Yong and starts to live as Tae Yong. And the four guys cut off their long hair and starts blending in with the ways of the modern world.

The Crown Prince try to stay close to Sae Na and make her love him, as she is the look alike of The Crown Princess, while his heart is getting attracted and attached to Bak Ha...
And Tae Moo is trying his maximum to prove the newly appeared Tae Yong as fake while hiding the fact that he killed the original Tae Yong.
The story gets too exciting as Tae Moo and Sae Na gets too viscous...


Actually the relationship of Bak Ha and the Crown Prince is quiet cute. The way they confess is too cute too. Slowly the relationship develops from fights to friendship to attraction to confession to relationship...Sweet.

My Ratings of this Drama : 10/10

My Top 10 Korean Dramas

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