Princess Hours

love in spite of ourselves

I loved the couple. I loved the premise. I loved watching them slowly fall in love. But the pacing, unnecessary characters, and dragged-out middle made this feel like a chore at times.

If you like contract marriage, forced cohabitation, modern royalty, and watching two people slowly fall in love while living together, then you will like this drama — but only if you keep your remote very close and are not afraid to skip. A lot.
This is one of those dramas where the idea is better than the execution. The premise is amazing, the couple is worth it, and when it focuses on them, it’s genuinely beautiful. Unfortunately, it also wastes an unbelievable amount of time on unnecessary characters and side plots that add nothing. I truly believe if this drama were edited down to only the main couple, it would be incredible — and about 8 episodes long.

👍 LIKES
-The premise is so good — modern Korea with a monarchy? I was hooked immediately
-I’m a sucker for contract marriage / forced cohabitation, so I was already invested
-Feels like Boys Over Flowers but better, calmer, and more intentional
-I loved how they start liking each other earlier than expected — it’s subtle but there
-The modernized palace styling and hanbok looks are still beautiful almost 20 years later
-The FL’s cheerful, resilient attitude made her easy to root for at first
-When the drama focuses on just them, watching them fall in love is genuinely satisfying
-The real first kiss(though pretty much towards the end) was amazing — great chemistry, real payoff. wished we'd seen more.
-Episodes 15–22 complete mess, so annoying.
-I enjoyed the journey of them falling in love despite everything

👎 DISLIKES
-One of the slowest paces I’ve ever experienced, and not in a good slow-burn way
-Too much time wasted on high school nonsense when they’re already married
-Immature, annoying side characters that added nothing and were painful to watch
-Episode 9 flirting while married felt like cheating, not cute
-Political plotlines kept coming and going with no clear purpose
-The FL becomes extremely frustrating toward the end — childish, whiny, and illogical
-The overseas separation trope was completely unnecessary and infuriating
-Decisions near the end made no sense, especially who took the blame and who didn’t
-The mom deserved consequences — and it barely felt addressed
-We got way too little time of them actually being together after everything they endured
The ending needed more couple time — even something small would’ve helped

I started skipping early — and by episode 15, I skipped everything that wasn’t the main couple. Honestly? That’s the only reason I finished it happily.
If someone ever edits this drama down to just the couple, I would rewatch it immediately — and probably rate it much higher.

Final rating: 7.5/10
Could’ve been a 9.
Should’ve been shorter.

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"Goong" tells the story of a normal girl who finds herself in an arranged marriage with a real-life prince. Yes, it's not a historical drama, but a story where the royal family still exists.

Chae Kyung is a strange girl who is engaged to Lee Shin, the cold prince who studies with her and also has a girlfriend named Hyo Rin. To top it off, we have Lee Yul, Lee Shin's cousin who falls in love with Chae Kyung... and then we have the recipe for a romantic comedy.

The drama didn't really grab me, especially Yoon Eun Hye's character Chae Kyung, she was too silly, like a child and I really didn't understand why two princes would fall in love with her. HAHAHA'
The romance is dragged out and the main characters only start a real romance basically at the end.

A positive point is the soundtrack, Howl & J - Maybe Love is an addictive song.

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I think this is a classic but it's not amazing

This was the first Asian drama I've ever watched. So it does hold some sentimental value to me. However, despite that, I wouldn't consider it a great drama.
It's also not bad though; it's entertaining enough and an easy watch. The story is very cliche and predictable it tends to be a bit slow in some parts. The romance is kinda confusing and a slow burn at least on the male leads front and they're horrible at communicating until closer to the end of the drama.

That being said, the acting is really good (in my opinion, although I can understand why some people would think differently) even for Eun Hye who made her acting debut in this drama. It is a classic drama that I think everyone should at least check out.

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In my opinion there is room for improvement

From a love triangle to arson accusations. There is so much to unpack in this show. I would always tune in now and then because in my opinion it lasted way longer than it should have, but I always wanted to know what would happen in the end. Let me just tell you, if it was shorter I would definately come back and watch it every now and then. Maybe its just me and my impatience but I found myself racing through the episodes sometimes because of unecessary dialogue. I think this show had so many opportunities to make things better than extending the episodes, they could have made the storyline more compact but still conveyed their plot. The plot is amazing but it could have been interpreted in a better way without all the unecessary and enraging stuff in between.

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Watched it the 3rd time and no plans to rewatch it all over again.

Soooo, when it was aired on Philippine TV some years ago, I will definitely give this a 10. I thought the main leads and the 2nd leads were great from visuals to acting.
But... if you have grown and matured 10 years later, and after several kdramas under your belt, from my POV of 3rd time seeing this, I have come to realize that both main leads acting are so cringe and lackluster.
However, my admiration for their costumes will remain the same, especially YEH's outfit when she became the princess was so cute and fashionable.
The love triangle as usual remains cliché and nothing new.
I have also loved the OST. One of my faves actually.

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The Classic Romcom That Everyone Should Rewatch

I just did a rewatch one of my first kdrama. It made me appreciate this drama more looking at their property, stage, styling, to music, the filming team really did an impressive job with the korean modern monarch concept that ascend beyond time.

I really love how the palace maid corporate the uniform blazer with the traditional belt and keeping the hair braid with ribbon / daenggi. fl's fashion is iconic and she often wears a modern fusion hanbok. how they shot within the palace and then the traditional bgm tune in made the scene more enchanting. of course the iconic stuffed bear too that is always the chapter highlight.

somehow older drama made more thoughtful craftmanship and i miss that so i often turn back to the classic. i rated it 7.5 before only focusing on the story, but my best decision was rewatching this and noticing even the tiniest details the team had worked on. solid 9!

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TRIGGERS PTSD

19yo HS student forced to marry a 19yo crowned prince. She was isolated from her family, from society and forced to live within prison-like rules within the palace. She developed affinity towards a narcissistic crowned prince who does not accept faults and finds a way to blame everything to the FL. I find it inconsistent for the FL to fall for a mean guy. She lived in a harmonious family and she has many friends. Unlikely that this kind of personality would want to have the high drama a narcissist brings.
All throughout the show, she wants to feel accepted by the ML. She gears towards an abusive relationship with ML's detached and self-centered personality.
I know she's making a great mistake and totally understandable because she's a child. If there will be a season 2 where they are middle aged person, I know for sure FL and ML would have already separated and high hopes that the FL finally learned what's good for her.

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Kinda disappointed

Usually i'm easy to please when it comes to watching dramas, but i got so bored of this plotline. I watched to the end thinking maybe the storyline would fall into place but it was way too messy. Literally half of story could've been solved if the characters were honest with each other. also the love hate relationship between the main leads was so confusing one minute they like each other and then the next they hate each others guts.
Another key part of the story that confused me is when the scandal about the crowned princess was out and the family find out that it was Yool she was with that night, why did she not tell the truth and say that it was one-sided when the king ha asked her whether she had feeling or not it literally makes no sense.
I get that this is an older drama and a lot of things were excused back then but the relationship between the main leads were so toxic, especially the way the crowned prince treated the crowned princess.
However it is a classic loved by many and there were also many parts that i did enjoy. One of these being when the main leads did get along, their relationship was really cute and i wish that their was more of that because they never really held that for longer than an episode to which something would get in the way of it and they dislike each other again. Another one is one of the characters being the great late queen, in my opinion she had to be one of the best characters in the story. She was the only one true to herself throughout the show and never really drastically change her character. I also like how she wasn't displayed as a clique of the bad grandmother and was more of a lighthearted character who tried to see the good of all the characters.

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A classic that is still so amazing after a long time!

Maybe to many, the 24 episodes were a drag, but I felt that everything that led up to the happy ending was worth the wait. In the story plot, the ML and FL are 19 years old who were forced to go into this arranged marriage when they are still high school students. In these 24 episodes, we saw 2 19 years old teenagers grow together to protect and love one another in all the turmoil of traditions, politics, school and their differences.

ML:
The ML was secretly dating but was rejected by his girlfriend (SFL) and suddenly, there was such a huge change in his life as he was arranged to get married. I saw many negative reviews on how he is cheating and hesitating a lot but as reflected in the later episodes, the ML admitted to the FL that he initially did not like her as she just suddenly came into his life and made him question his life but it was also her that successfully opened him up to how a life should be lived and with all the things that FL has brought to the ML's life, he found himself falling harder for her. This was then reflected in their live broadcast interview where he admitted the FL's shortcomings and good qualities and how he ended up falling in love with her. The ML did not cheat on the FL, the SFL went to Thailand intentionally to meet up with the ML and he did not even know. He basically just met her as a friend since they were both in Thailand and got filmed by paparazzi. The other redeeming point was that the ML had a clean cut with the SFL and told her to close their chapter as he knew that he has already fallen in love with his wife (the FL).

FL:
The FL is young and naive and is easily swayed but despite the portrayal of her character to be ignorant and naive, she still possesses certain good qualities such as how she keeps giving in to the Crown Prince (ML) not just because of love but because she knew that a divorce would end up with her family suffering too. It was only till the end that the ML may have disappointed her with the Thailand incident and the SML liking her and trying to brainwash her to think that divorce is the best for her to free that she was swayed into saying nonsense during the interview. But we all knew her heart is always with the ML since the earlier episodes, she has always expressed herself very openly on her feelings to the ML as well which the ML probably try to think that she is not being serious about it since she is always hanging out with his cousin (SML) which obviously have feelings for her but she just sees him nothing more than a good friend.

SFL & SML:
I would say they are both broken souls with regrets from their childhood or past. For the SFL, it is obvious that she regretted rejecting the ML's proposal but at the end of the day, she finally realized that this just was not meant to be and decided to let go for good. For the SML, being someone who just returned from overseas and only having the Crown Princess as his very first friend back home and having someone who cares about him after a long time is probably the reason why he thinks he likes the Crown Princess (ML being a cold cousin did not help at all in this situation).

Other notable characters include the Empress Dowager Grandmother, she is so cool and dope, and also Crown Prince's sister who returned from overseas (who would later become the Empress), she has a very refreshing take on everything due to her overseas exposure which makes her so modern and interesting!

I can't deny that watching this as a 12 years old in 2006 gave me the SML syndrome, I was shipping the FL and SML back then but revising this almost two decades later as a 30 years old who have been through some life experiences, I felt that the SML is manipulative and brainwashing the FL. The ML on the other hand, despite his initial hesitation, was just being very cautious with the FL so as not to trigger any potential pitfall in their blooming relationship. Although he has difficulty in expressing his emotions for the FL, but his action spoke so much louder than words - he was always covering up for the FL, bring her out to play and was always there to protect her from behind the scenes.

In conclusion, revisiting this drama after two decades still feels amazing although there are some things that are dated and not as relevant in this era. And, even till today, I still hear "Perhaps Love" being played (be it in South Korea or Singapore), that just shows how a classic this drama is, not just to the Koreans but to people internationally like myself!

That aside, I'm glad to see that most of the 4 main actors/actresses in this drama have moved on to better dramas/films/variety shows etc. I look forward to seeing the FL (YYH) back to the drama scene soon with a new project, hopefully one day she and the ML (JJH) can reunite for a romcom since their chemistry here was so natural.

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Top of its genre, classic young love story

I watched this drama YEARS ago when I myself was closer to the age of the characters. Let's just say this drama had me by the chokehold when I was 16 and it was one of those dramas that kept me up thinking about the characters and the couple's love story. I haven't rewatched this drama is years but I feel that it doesn't warrant an entire rewatch for me to write a review of it.

This drama is in my opinion top of its genre meaning that if you are a sucker for a teenage/high school, cinderella love story, this show is for you. The charm of Chaekyung is timeless to me (can't believe I still remember the FL name 10 years later). Yoon Eunhye also does a great job bringing her energy and sorrow onto the screen- my teenage self was so charmed by her! This drama had funny parts, heartwarming parts, and parts that made me cry. It's a very straightforward cinderella love story. The chemistry between Chaekyung and Shin could be felt through the screen as well and the OST is a classic! It has classic Korean ballads that we associate with Kdramas pre 2010.

This drama still has the charm it had in 2006 even though its target audience has grown into full adults. If you are an adult above the age of 25 watching this drama, don't expect any earth-shattering soul stirring love-- it is a high school love story that touches on your teenage heart that is timeless and pure.

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