Princess Hours (궁,宫,Goong; lit. "Palace") is a 2006 Korean drama starring Yoon Eun-hye, Joo Ji-hoon, Kim Jeong-hoon and Song Ji-hyo. It is based on Korean manhwa Goong by Park So-hee. It was broadcast from 11 January to 30 March 2006 on MBC. Princess Hours was one of MBC's most popular dramas of 2006, second only to Jumong.[1] Overall, the show was the tenth most popular drama of 2006, according to TNS Media. Due to the success of the first season, a second season was to be produced. However, it will no longer be produced due to the withdrawal of two main actors. A spin-off series, Goong S, was broadcast on 10 January 2007.

Synopsis

Set in an alternate 21st-century reality where Korea possesses a royal family, since 1945 to present, this show revolves around the lives of the Crown Prince Lee Shin, and his new bride, Chae-kyeong. The series starts off with the news that the King, Shin's father, is very ill. With the grim outlook on the King's health, the royal family scrambles to find a wife for Shin, so as to allow him to take over the royal throne if the situation requires. Despite being in love with another girl, the ambitious and talented ballerina Hyo-rin whom Shin initially proposed to (she rejects him to pursue her ballet dreams), he eventually marries a commoner to whom he was betrothed by his late grandfather in an old agreement with the girl's grandfather. He marries the headstrong yet lovable Chae-kyeong after Hyo-rin's rejection. Despite initially feeling nothing for Chae-kyeong, love eventually blossoms between the couple as time passes.

In the meantime, however, matters are further complicated with the return of Lee Yul and his mother Lady Hwa-Young, who was once the Crown Princess before the death of her husband, the late Crown Prince, older brother of the current King. Yul and his mother were chased out of the palace some time after the death of his father, and it is later revealed that this was due to the King's discovery of an affair between Yul's mother and the current King who was his father's younger brother. Yul's mother has returned with a sinister motive in mind; to restore her son back to the throne, which, in her mind, is rightfully his.

A series of events befall the palace with the schemes Yul's mother carries out. It is further intensified by the various scandals involving the royal family, which are inclusive of the Shin's continuing relationship with his old flame Hyo-rin, and the budding love Yul develops for Chae-kyeong, his cousin's new-found bride. Things get out of hand and the royal family takes matters into their own hands.