K-Dramas! Where K-Pop and Drama Collide! Niki Reviews: King 2 Hearts

I absolutely love K-dramas. K-dramas are what introduced me to K-pop, so I owe them a debt of gratitude. Therefore, when I saw that they weren’t getting enough love here on AKPF, (even when they had K-pop idols in them) I decided I needed to give them a helping hand.

At first I was planning on going back to the beginning of the year and reviewing K-dramas that had K-pop idols in them, but good night! It seems a majority of shows these days have at least one K-Pop idol in them! I realize that idols like to branch out, but come on guys. You’re killing me here! So instead, I decided I was going to start with the two dramas I just recently finished, which both had singing idols in them by the way, and just go from there. Without any further ado, finally, here it is: King 2 Hearts starring singer and MC extraordinaire Lee Seung Gi as Prince Lee and his amazingly awesome side kick Eun Shi Kyung played by Jo Jung Suk. If you don’t know who either of these actors are, don’t worry. I’m about to fill you in, I promise.

First off, the entire cast was absolutely spectacular. Except perhaps for the English speaking actors, not all of them, but most. Samantha Daniel is the one English speaking actress that I absolutely loved because she is terrifying as all hell playing a character named Bon Bon. Sounds cute? Hooooly cow no. But back to the Korean talent. The entire cast is amazing with award winning actors and actresses filling up many of the remaining main cast as well as the supporting cast. I’m not going to start spouting off names to you, because that very quickly becomes confusing, but if you want to travel over to the wikipedia page, you can quickly get filled in with who is who. But as a warning! The character descriptions contain some spoilers. So just remember: you have been warned!

As for the cast, there are five main characters: Prince Lee Jae Ha, Captain Kim Hang Ah, Princess Lee Jae Shin and Eun Shi Kyung are the good guys while Kim Bong Guk, aka John Meyer, is the bad guy. John Meyer is played by Yoon Je Moon, who can portray one scary dude, let me tell you. Captain Kim Hang Ah is a North Korean soldier and an awesome butt-kicking chick if I ever saw one. She is played by Ha Ji Won who also played the female lead in Secret Garden. This lady. She runs the gauntlet of emotions perfectly and I love it. The last non-idol in the main cast is Princess Lee Jae Shin, who is portrayed by Lee Yoon Ji. Yoon ji is best known, to me at least, for her role in Dream High as Shi Kyung Jin, the dance teacher at Kirin. It impresses me that she goes from acting as an adult in Dream High to a prissy teenager in King 2 Hearts a year later, and yet she can pull off both amazingly.

Now onto the “K-Pop” idols. I say “K-Pop” with quotes instead of K-Pop because one of the actors that I’m calling idols never really debuted as a singer, while the other is more well known for recently being an extremely successful MC and actor. Lets start with Eun Shi Kyung, who is played by Jo Jung Suk. When you see his face, more than likely you will recognize him, but if not, no worries. Just go watch a little show called What’s Up! You’ll thank me for it, I swear. Instead of taking the path of being an idol, Jung Suk went straight onto the stage by entering a school specifically for the performing arts. He had to cancel his dream to help his family, but now that he is back on track? Omo. So good. While this is only his second TV drama, he has been performing on stage for around 7 or 8 years, and boy can you tell. You will love this actor and this character after watching this series. He makes you laugh and cry and cry and smile and giggle and swoon, especially in the one scene where they let him sing. (Apologies to any male readers I may have, I just had to gush).

The last, and main, role is filled by none other than Lee Seung Gi, ex host of Strong Heart. I honestly didn’t know that he was/is a singer, but he produced his last CD, #5 I think, last October. He also, as I stated, hosted Strong Heart for 3 years and 1 Night 2 Days for 5 years. Holy cow that is a long time. But truthfully? At first I didn’t even recognize him because, well, I had only seen 1 episode of Strong Heart, 1 episode of 1 Night 2 Days, and hadn’t seen any of his previous dramas (which includes My Girlfriend is a Gumiho) . But I almost instantly fell in love with him and his character. He truly did carry the show, as he should have. The character grows so much through out the show, and I loved watching that. Plus the relationships that grew and the way he showed that growth? Spectacular. I am already planning on watching My Girlfriend is a Gumiho just so that I can see more of him!

And now for the show. This won’t be quite as long, since I don’t want to give anything away and I really, really want you to go watch it! This show was spectacular. It tells the tale of a carefree prince, and how he grows into an amazing King. How he goes from caring for no one but himself(and his family I suppose), to finding real love in the most unlikely place. The relationship between Jae Ha and Hang Ah and the way it grew just blew me away. In a lot of dramas these days there is a love-at-first-sight deal going on with at least one of the characters, but I didn’t get that feel in this one, and I enjoyed that tremendously. Then the relationship between Jae Ha and Shi Kyung? Bromance for the win, dude! That type of bromance should live on forever, it really should. And while the story was amazing, I will admit there were a few places where I went “Ugh, come on show, go faster!” Or “What? What?! You can’t just skip over that! Give us more details!” Or even worse “You… you did what?! SHOW STOP STOMPING ON MY FEELS!” Oh! And at the end? I will admit I was a little disappointed with how they handled a few things, but the ending in most dramas feel rushed or not quite finished these days (Again, just my opinion). But overall? I’d give it an 9-9.5 out of 10, depending on my mood. I would definitely watch it again from start to finish just because I love it that much.

So go ahead and take some time to watch this show. I swear you will not be disappointed!