Who’s the real Prince Charming?

Characters:

• Park So Dam as Eun Ha Won
• Jung Il Woo as Kang Ji Woon
• Ahn Jae Hyun as Kang Hyun Min
• Lee Jung Shin as Kang Seo Woo
• Choi Min as Lee Yoon Sung
• Son Na Eun as Park Hye Ji

Details:

• Korean
• 16 episodes
• Original run: August 12 – October 1, 2016

Quick Rundown:

Eun Ha Won is the very definition of a Cinderella: she lives with her evil step-mother and sister while toiling away at part-time jobs to pay for her tuition. Her only relative is her father who is distant and cold for some unknown reason. And as luck would have it she somehow gets entangled with Kang Hyun Min, playboy extraordinaire of the Kang clan; Kang Ji Woon, the silent brooding one; and finally Kang Seo Woo, a popular singer. Ha Won gets invited to live in the Sky House by the boys’ grandfather in hopes that she will be able to bring the family together. Will she be able to accomplish this task? Will she follow the ultimate rule of no dating? Or will she carve out a new path for herself?

Estelle’s Take

When I first saw an advertisement for this it was described as the new Boys Over Flowers which prompted me to give it a shot. As many issues as there were with BOF I must admit it was a very pretty drama to watch. While I don’t think Cinderella and Four Knights is comparable in that aspect, it does have a lot of the similar components. No matter how much of a twist this series will plan on introducing – there’s already a birth secret and inheritance battle, though probably less intense than a melodrama would have it – this is still a chaebol story after all. Like its name suggests we are still here for the romance, and for the poor girl meets rich man (or men, rather) plot.

Of course, that’s not to say Eun Ha Won, the heroine, can’t stand on her own. Despite the very Cinderella-esque “origin story” for her, Ha Won is not looking for her glass slippers at all. Instead, she is determined to figure out her own way in life without getting bogged down by her situation. She is not afraid to face a challenge head-on and confront whomever she thinks she needs to. I applaud her bravery and positive attitude, and I sincerely hope she stays this way.

The three boys (and I guess the secretary is supposed to be the fourth knight) are your typical chaebols with their usual problems – too many girls and too much angst. In this way this story is not very imaginative. Ha Won is destined to repair everyone’s broken relationships and make them realize the importance of family, but I sure hope the journey will be interesting and eventful. Should you watch it? I would say yes. It’s got enough differentiating elements that you wouldn’t feel like you are watching a repeat, but still, let us not fool ourselves into thinking it’s a real game changer.

This & That:

• Park So Dom won multiple awards, including the 52nd Baeksang Arts Award for the Best New Actress in film for her role in The Priests. She starred in OnStyle networks’s first drama, Because It’s The First Time and was more recently in medical drama Beautiful Mind.
• Jung Il Woo first made a splash with his role in 49 Days, followed by a successful portray of a chaebol heir in Flower Boy Ramyun Shop. Aside from being active onscreen in Korea, he is also expanding into China with his role in Korean-Chinese web drama High-End Crush as well as Beautiful Woman, an upcoming drama on Hunan TV.
• Ahn Jae Hyun played supporting characters in both My Love from Another Star and You’re All Surrounded, but he didn’t stay that for long. In 2015 he starred in Blood as the main character Park Ji Sang, a vampire doctor. It is this drama and skyrocketed him to fame and introduced him to his now wife, Ku He Sun, the original Cinderella in BOF. He will appear in upcoming Chinese web comedy Wedding Bible.
• Lee Jung Shin is the bassist of popular Korean boyband CNBLUE. He debuted in drama Seoyoung, My Daughter for which he earned several award nominations, including the Best New Actor and Most Popular Actor in TV at the 49th Baeksang Arts Awards.
• Son Na Eun is a vocalist in Korean girl group Apink and was in Twenty Again last year.