Rooftop Prince

What in The Disney Channel...

I really should have been writing things down because I have so much I want to say about this drama. I’m going to start with the reason for my review title. Warning: major spoilers. Sena is an absolute irredeemable character, and the fact that the writer dared to suggest otherwise is absolutely disgusting to me. Not only did she try to steal her sister’s lover (twice!) and tried to never let her meet her mother (btw, can we talk about what a useless plotline that ended up being?), she sabotaged her and Tae Yong at every turn and felt absolutely zero remorse for it. She’s an absolute sociopath who played with people’s feelings only for them to let their guard down so she could do it even more. The fact that she had some sort of redemption arc is absolutely hilarious to me because she was FORGIVEN by Park Ha for “saving her life” after Sena was literally the #1 REASON why Park Ha was on the brink of death to begin with. The Disney Channel “villain redemption arc” was terribly done and absolutely laughable after everything Sena had done. She doesn’t deserve anything she has and you can’t convince me otherwise. Park Ha is incredibly stupid as a character. This ties into my short rant about Sena and the fact that not one person on the planet could ever survive if they were as nice/idiotic as Park Ha. Like, girlie literally went to see Tae Moo the DAY after he stuck her in a freezer and tried to kill her, and yet she didn’t do anything about it. She forgave her sister because of a stupid liver transplant and even before that never really hated her for all the bullshit she put her through. All I need to say about Boo Young is that she’s a stupid idiot who ate persimmons straight off a plate instead of taking the whole plate with her and dumping into a river. That’s all I will say about that. Perhaps my biggest turn off about this drama was the odd romance development and the absolute mess of a toxic relationship that the leads had. Like, cmon, ML literally berated the FL and screamed at her whenever he didn’t get his way all the damn time, and half the time she screamed back while the other half she stared at the manchild with lovey dovey eyes. The relationship progression was just odd and it felt like the romance kind of came out of nowhere. Chemistry was absolutely absent and I honestly didn’t really care about the relationship nor “feel” their love for one another all the way until the end. This drama is also simply too long. Don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining enough and was pretty nice to watch in the mornings before class while I got ready, but at some point all the plotlines were being reused, they were just ~slightly~ different, and the show became an annoying drag. It was always either Sena doing some stupid shit and sabotaging Park Ha or Tae Moo making moves against Tae Yong in their stupid business. Not only were the plotlines super generic and very much the exact same as the plotlines in other 2010 type kdramas, they were just reused constantly to drag out the screen time. Now for my final grievance (as far as I can remember at least) : that ending. What. The. Absolute. Hell. Of. A. Monstrosity. Did. I. Watch? Not only was the ending weirdly vague (which is fine sometimes but I usually don’t enjoy it), it also seemed to contradict itself and didn’t lend itself to any solid interpretations. I could only see myself making “partial cases” for Tae Yong having Lee Gak’s memories and Tae Yong not having his memories at all. Any of the clues that the viewer was given to puzzle out whether Lee Gak’s consciousness traveled through 300 years did not add up, and if you found yourself arguing for either side, you would come across plot holes that would blow your theory out of the water. I would’ve been more content with either a sad or happy ending (or bittersweet) and the writer utterly failed trying to create an ending that’s “up for interpretation” by leaving way too many clues that all contradict one another. Random point, but why did everyone seem so OK in the end? Nobody was bawling their eyes out, nobody was depressed, they all kind of missed each other and got a BIT sad, but that’s totally not how I would react if I lost the love of my live. Everybody was just so damn calm and logical the whole time. Like what?
PHEW. If you read this far, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, and I hope you learned that this drama absolutely does not get my seal of approval. It was entertaining enough, but I’d definitely think of this show as one of those “it’s so bad it’s ALMOST good” shows that I will absolutely never watch again but will sometimes think of fondly as a mildly entertaining waste of 20 hours of my life. Ciao!

PS: contrary to popular belief, I absolutely hated the last 4 episodes :D

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Awesome!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the story line, it made me laugh and I had tears rolling as I kept anticipating for Park Too Chun's role to disappear. All the main actors were superb and I have now become a fan of Park Too Chun. I started watching Korean dramas about 5 months ago and I am completely enamored with these dramas. I watch them every single day and as I finish one I look for another one to start. The writer did an excellent job in this drama. It always kept my interest and I am one of those individuals that loves romantic movies and happy endings. Thank you for this drama.

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There is no time travel without a reason

I enjoyed watching this drama as it was funny and thrilling to follow up with but how can they make out a fool of the audience?
First, the death scene of the crown princess drowned, i suppose it was detected hours after its onset so the body wouldn't have been degraded yet to make it difficult to identify it, then why didn't the crown prince verify that it was his wife that is dead while it was his in law thus he must be allowed to do?
Second, in the final episode , prince moon chan is caught red handed trying to kill him with his men and we all known that he is the past life of tae moo who the same crown prince has confronted in his days in seoul then why did the crown prince recognized him or recall his fight with the future one?
Third, when he went to the present and find the reincarnate version of his princess and sister in law, he discovered the evil se na and the kind park ha that were real sisters without knowing, he studied each personality of them and fall for park ha knowing what se na personality is, it took 15 episode to recall park ha as his sister in law reincarnate and this is a waste
Fourth, when he went back to Joseon he directly punished the crown princess who was alive because of bo yong plot and sacrifice, we only knew that she was jealous from her sister accompany to the crown prince and was obliged to follow her family wishes, but her evil deeds weren't proved as they were rumors only then why to take it out on her? His infatuation with park mislead him to such disrespect his crown princess without listening to her at once...
These contradiction and others made me think that this drama needed more framework and a change of story to a pure sageuk or at least past-present connection between the episodes would import more success and light to it

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enjoyable

●HOW I CAME TO IT
I had thoughts of watching this drama after coming across a few of its hilarious clips. And yeah it entertains to the fullest possible way despite having flaws in the story.

●FIRST IMPRESSION
The story is simply cute and suspenseful, but the uncovering of suspense took a really long time. This drama could have been wrapped in 18 episodes if they didn’t go into the identity crisis of Park Ha.

●PLOT VIEW
The character doing their historic stuff and adjusting to the modern era was hilarious but genuine. the transportation concept wasn’t cleared as in firstly the characters made us believe that rooftop is the reason but at the end that was just for nothing. And they were running on during the historic period but in the present time, they were in Lotus position as if meditating.

●ACTING/CAST
All the characters were amazing, vibing the historic time with their gestures, costumes, and body language. I personally enjoyed Choi Woo Shik as Do Chi San, he had the charm to crack jokes with his pity side.
FL Han Ji Min as Park Ha was a little immature with the expressions but had good chemistry with Park Yoo Chan as Lee Kak.
Negative characters are made to be hated. So there it was but the grandmother took every chance to fall whenever there is a tense situation, the most annoying character.

●MUSIC
it was cool and refreshing, I enjoyed the flute BGM and even searched it. It had a rhythmic tone making my feet move to their tune.

●REWATCH
I would like to watch the comical scenes rather than the whole drama.

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Fun watch with some disappointment

The story had a great start. It was hilarious and suspenseful. For the first 14 episodes it was amazing and very well executed with proper pacing and structure. Watching the whole cast was a treat and very funny. Watching this drama was so much fun! I enjoyed the music and among the cast, I enjoyed the interactions of the three minions the most. My favorite part of the show was how these 4 guys adjust to the modern world. From episode 15-19, the story was concluded in a very lame way. Many intelligent characters became stupid, some characters changed suddenly and it seems not much effort was put here to keep up the quality with which the show started and I had high expectations on how they would have concluded. Ep 20 was good though I was expecting some more detail. If they had wrapped the show in a more structured and clean way, it would be one of my top shows. Despite the flaws, it was a treat to watch and a fun and enjoyable ride overall!

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Surprisingly Good

I read quite a few reviews about this show being good but for some reason I didn't have high expectations. Something about those bright colored track suits seemed silly to me. lol

I really enjoyed this story line as it's different from what I usually watch. It is still technically a romcom but it's not solely focused on that. I also really liked that they didn't dwell on the whole, she thinks they're insane and must've escaped an asylum or something. lol I mean it does take her a bit, but they didn't let that drag on too long.

These guys suffered the same fate as Lee Jong Suk in Pinocchio, which is falling victim to the very interesting hairstyles that dominated the early 2010's for male stars in Korea. lmao I get it, I do, but I'd rather they kept their historical hairstyles because they looked a little wild especially when combined with those bright track suits. haha

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➰️ Twisted Sister & the Other Royal PIA ➿️ °7° °over-the-top self-aware fluff°

There's adorable videos out there of kittens launching fearsome (overly theatrical) attacks ~> Kitten-drama in overdrive, the caption reads:
Attack: 💯
Damage: ⭕️

This describes RP, a show that hits us with everything: Mmp (missing / misplaced parents). Amnesia. Rooftop apartment. Running through the airport (because of a long string of “almosts”). Running with the stretcher. Transplant. Villains that will not stop. Going rogue with the rules (Rules? What rules?). An (arguably) cheap death…

But the net result was just snickers from me. I enjoyed the ride but didn't take it seriously for a second. Does RP take itself seriously? I don't think so. I think it puts on a kingly act of grave seriousness, but it's just an act. RTP seems to know exactly how silly it is.

It's been too long since I've time-jumped to old Joseon. There was a point where I thought I knew every cobblestone there. Ep1 is a montage of time-jumps. As it opens, we'll see that the princess is dead and his majesty is wailing. Then we get a vision of a 21st century man who is also face down underwater.

Next time we're back in Joseon, it's a few years before the death of the princess. A future queen will be chosen to marry the CP. We visit one family with 2 daughters. The eldest is beautiful, but dad informs that the youngest's name will be the one submitted. In the 21st century these two girls will be step sisters. They aren't getting along. The oldest (portrayed by a young Kim So Hyun from Love Alarm & Bring It On, Ghost-4.6) feels like the little brat is a burden. She can't contain her jealousy. As adults, the youngest, Park “Ha” is played by Han Ji Min (Familiar Wife-8.5, Our Blues-8.5) and the oldest (Hong Sena) by the ultra gorgeous JunYoo Mi (Partners for Justice, Five Star Hotel). Ms Jung is beautiful and excellent at playing a phony evil sister. But the real acting starts when her plastic exterior begins to crack.

RP, one of the popular older shows that hasn't been easily streamable until now, is another reason why the recent Netflix drop of old classics is a bonanza. It is a 2012 release that is rated 96 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 20 65-minute episodes of our Joseon fish struggling to breathe modern-day Seoul air. At a particularly tense time for our male protags, the doorbell rings. They all freeze and look at one another with faces spiked by anxiety. Slow realization descends on Chisan's visage as he brightly says: “O, the PIZZA is here!” They are entirely too happy about it~> There's a taste of what to expect. It's in the simple, goofy, time filler category. We'll rate it as such. As I write this, I'm on episode 13, which feels like a last episode. I checked my notes to confirm the number of ep and I'm shocked. What will 7 more episodes contain? We'll see. TBF, RT could as easily stand for “Ridiculous Plot" as it could the title. The plot is entirely silly. But the show is a pleasant pause in time for the viewer, just the same. (“Pleasant,” like Chisan returns to Joseon clutching a ketchup packet while moaning for pizza, “pleasant” 😆.)

The plot of RP is alot to follow, while at the same time, it's largely besides the point. This is not a show one watches for the elevated writing. We have Tae Yong, the modern day version of the CP - his cousin killed him. But the CP has time slipped to modern day. We have the modern day sisters. In the past, the older sister drowned in the palace pond and the little sister has a burned face. In the future, they are step sisters. The cycle of abuse remains constant in modern day as the older one deliberately abandoned her younger sibling, Ha, who was adopted internationally. Oh, older sis, Sena, is seeing the traitorous cousin, Tae Mu, as well.

The CP didn't time slip alone. His entire crew came with him. Lee Tae Ri (Time Renegades, Extraordinary You) portrays the earnest one with the photographic memory, Song Man Bo. Choi Woo Shik (Parasite-9, Ho Goo's Love-7.4) is the bright and cuddly Do Chisan, and Jung Suk Won (Kingdom-8.3 & Sweet Home Series) is the meathead warrior, Woo Yong Sul. The cast is rounded out with Kang Byul (Seoul Searching, Ugly Alert) as Ha's adorable & supportive friend. Director Ahn Gil Ho is prolific with The Glory, Stranger, Memories of the Alhambra-7, and Record of Youth-5.8 on his resume. Shin Yoon Sub brought us Catch the Ghost & Ugly Alert. Screenwriter Lee Hee Myung penned Revenge of Others-8.1 & The Girl Who Sees Scents.

The chaebol head, Tae’s grandmother, spots the CP out in public and believes the long missing Tae is alive. The CP refuses to move out of the rooftop apartment, however. Grandma doesn't know it, but that's where the time portal is. He wants to go back home.

In the meantime, evil step-sister Sena won't stop messing with Ha, so Ha has financial troubles. She tells the boys they MUST work. The next motifs are of them directing traffic, taking macchiato orders, powerwashing everything but what they're supposed to, and making general mayhem. It's cute. Ha's friend is training the men to dance in costumes (it pays cash!). She doesn't understand why CP won't lift a finger. He looks stubborn but we see him starting to soften as he practices the moves from a remote location. Soon, when they're trying to sell their strawberries, a wild panda will show up and dance his derriere off. They all think it's Becky. The viewer knows: It isn't Becky.

Now for places RP becomes more of a jester than royalty. Lee Tae Sung of Miss Hammurabi portrays Yong Tae Mu, one of our villains. His facial expressions are quite strong and he has to repeatedly show us a look of shocked and trepidacious consternation. It becomes cartoonish. Often, something dramatic will occur, the sharp orchestra THRUMM❗ will boom, and the camera zooms into his shocked bemusement. I can't say they didn't knowingly make it funny··· I can't tell. But it was cracking me up. It should be a drinking game, lol.

In ep10 they go rogue with the logic. All of a sudden, one of the crew somehow knows they came from Joseon to meet the princess and can return there after the prince marries her. Nothing in the show supports this conclusion. This is a bad Kdrama habit in which they create a fantastical world and then abandon all their rules (or make new ones up) as the show winds down. In the last episode they return to Joseon and get into some harsh palace schemes. They avoid CP getting a DNA test in dramatic fashion as if that would have busted him. His appearance is identical in both timelines. How can he be the same person without the same DNA? Don't think about it too much. In my experience, you'll get nothing for your efforts but a headache.

Reincarnation is one of those things that sounds beautiful on the surface, but the more I think about it, the more problems there seem to be. It seems that mal-treatment of the poor is more common where that belief is prevalent, due to the belief that they deserve such for prior life sins. Also, with no memory of prior lives, what good is it? People who have a sense of prior lives are probably experiencing a true sense of the divine, but perhaps, they are not interpreting everything they are feeling correctly. What we refer to as the supernatural may just be super-dimensional, and many mystical feelings we get could be a sense of dimensions beyond 3D and 4D. I've been mulling it over.

Overall, CP is pleasant. The art of the show is solid. Sena’s outfits are always gorgeous. {PSA -Don't trust the Senas in your life - ever. She's forgiven too easily.} In ep4 we see one of the most beautiful wedding dresses ever. It's a stunner. The leads end up on an impromptu date (amusement park, claw machine, chucking darts at balloons). It's cute - the romance is entirely cute:

Her: “I thought you were crazy when I met you.”

Him: “You were so loud, loose women despicable for such a tiny thing. I had to stop my guard from killing you numerous times.”
😅

These Joseon residents are transported to modern-day Seoul and their learning curve is a merry-go-round. The fish-out-of-water vignettes are for the laughs, and they milk them like farmer Brown's last living cow. She sends them into a building to change clothes in the bathroom. They don't know anything, so they think the elevator is where they're supposed to change. It's a funny scene that involves School girls, women's aerobics classes, and photographic evidence.

The secondary tension is that our FL's sister is the reincarnation of the CP's wife. He believes he's in love with her because he doesn't know her true character, both in the past and the current day. He has a growing attraction to our FL but he doesn't recognize it. She just thinks she hates him. He's /LAZY!/ ~~> Most of the tension, at least in the first half, is her expecting him to earn his keep and him, as bona fide royalty, expecting to be catered to.🤣

If you are looking for pleasant and unchallenging wind-down entertainment and are a fan of romcoms, RP will cater to your wishes. It you prefer things to make sense and don't have a well-developed goofy side, then seek sustenance elsewhere.


QUOTE🗣

Being clueless is a burden to others.


IMHO〰🖍

RATINGS 🎬7.5 🖊6 🎭7.5 💓6 🦋6 🎨🎶7 🔚6 🤗4.5 ▪ LEVELS 🌞4.5 ⚡3.5 😅3 😭2 😱2 😬2 🤢2 🤔4 💤0


Age 11+ Language:

Re-📺? Once was fun

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Fateful Magic Brought Us Together

My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Playful kiss-7.3,
Rooftop Prince-7,
Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8,
The Beauty Inside-6,
Hotel del Luna 8.4,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
While you were sleeping-7.3,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Tomorrow with you-7,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3
Love and Redemption 10

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Appealing and entertaining

I recently watched a Korean series that had some of the same problems that ROOFTOP PRINCE has–overused cliches, lack of logic, unbelievable plot. But I didn’t dislike ROOFTOP PRINCE as much as I disliked that first series. In fact, I quite liked it. What’s the difference?

1. First, ROOFTOP PRINCE was made in 2012. Some hokey stuff (going to an amusement park, watching fireworks, riding bikes) that have since been done to death--were still fresh back then.

2. The ML and FL were so playful and likable that they added something new to every trope.

3. Big chunks of this drama were zany and madcap and not supposed to be taken seriously. Yes, the actors also overacted in places when they should have been playing it straight. And the plot didn’t always make sense. None of this bothered me, although I’m guessing it will bother other viewers.

It was such a joy watching the uptight, authoritarian prince get his due from an enlightened, modern Korean girl. It was hard not to fall in love with both of them. Both leads played off of each other with ease and affection.

I’ve never enjoyed secondary characters as much as I have the prince’s Korean sidekicks. In most series, the secondary characters are annoying or poorly written or fillers that add nothing to the plot. Not here. Each of the guys was hilarious and irresistible.

One of the things that DID have a weird vibe was the way the ML talked to the FL. He called her “stupid,” “vulgar,” and said he wanted to “rip her mouth out” among other things. He did this with kind of, sort of, a twinkle in his eye–so you could convince yourself, if you wanted to, (and I wanted to) that he was just teasing because he actually liked her so much. It didn’t seem to bother the FL that he was saying these things. She even gave it back to him in spades. So why did it bother me?

Here’s why. Because some men start out by making inappropriate remarks in a teasing way–and later, when the relationship is under stress, they’ll say it again – only this time, no one’s laughing.

Still, there was plenty of evidence that our ML was a decent guy who would take good care of the FL, if given the chance. So I put my reservations aside.

In the second half, the story became more plot driven. The writers gave us a lot of half-baked, nefarious scheming by the villains–schemes that our ML and the FL (especially) should have been able to anticipate. But they didn’t-- which frustrated me and made both leads seem a bit doltish.

Nevertheless, overall this is an entertaining series. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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