A capture image from SBS' "Rooftop Prince" seventh episode [SBS]

Typical plots in TV dramas: Relationships between characters are entangled from birth and a girl in the story is waiting to be rescued by a rich man. In short words, “Rooftop Prince” is a combination of the cliche plot and ‘timeslip’ setting. However, as the rich guy in the story (Park Yuchun) move into Park Ha’s (Han Ji-min) house with nothing in his hands, the story diverges from telling materialistic love; the rich guy fulfills Park Ha’s life and makes her happy with memories, which caught the viewers off guard with an unexpected scenario. Firmly grabbing Park Ha with his hands at their short trip to a suburb, Lee Gak shares Park Ha’s childhood memories. As Park Ha begins to recover her memories, Lee Gak gradually starts to find answers to the questions and doubts he had over the whole situation. Lee Gak was not healing Park Ha’s soul, but they were both opening their eyes and hearts to each other. The drama did not have to spare time to show more of their love stories, and made it natural for them to look like a soulmate.

Not just that, “Rooftop Prince” utilized the characters’ secret in birth as a tool to develop the story, and even went beyond using it as just a story setting. In the sixth episode, Wu Yong-sool (Jung Suk-won) complains to king Lee Gak, saying that all the luck he has in his life is solely because he was born into a royal family. His line in the scene explained why “Rooftop Prince” had to bring hierarchical society into question and its characters are transcending time and space. Also, last night’s seventh episode went beyond explaining how their secret of birth is putting the characters in the same cycle of life from the Joseon Dynasty; it threw the viewers a question, if we are destined to do certain things in life. A king from the class-oriented Joseon Dynasty jumped into the 21st century, but he quickly adjusts without any problem -- which shows that the modern society is pervasively being controlled under a strict hierarchical order, just like the Joseon Dynasty was largely divided into a royal class and a lower class. Especially, the management system that centers around Tae-moo precisely shows that the company follows the traditional class-society system. Of course, Sena (Jung Yu-mi) and Tae-moo (Lee Tae-sung)’s attempts to change their destiny and the three courtiers’ situation can be seen as the result of giving up to their fate. But the drama is not even at the half point and there is plenty of room for the series to build a stronger bond with the viewers.

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10 아시아 Reporter : Yoon Hee-Seong nine@
10 아시아 Editor : Monica Suk monicasuk@
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