[News] Moon Chae-won leader cast in 'The Princess’s Man (공주의 남자)' KBS new drama.

[News] Moon Chae-won leader cast in 'The Princess’s Man (공주의 남자)' KBS new drama.
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Moon Chae-won has been cast in her next drama, titled 'The Princess’s Man'.

The Princess’s Man is being called a “Joson-era Romeo and Juliet” and will be a fusion sageuk; Moon takes the lead role as Princess Lee Se-ryung, daughter to Grand Prince Su-yang (who was the second son of King Sejong the Great). She falls in love with the son of her father’s enemy, making for a “tragic love story.”

Princess Se-ryung is bold, inquisitive, determined — a set of characteristics not common or idealized in the ladies of Joseon aristocracy — but encounters a number of hardships because of her father’s ambition to become king. Historically, Su-yang (or Sejo) became the seventh king of Joseon, but in this drama he hasn’t yet secured the throne and plots to take the crown from his nephew Dan-jong. Naturally this meets with resistance from Dan-jong’s supporters, and therefore Su-yang is out to eliminate his opposition, which includes Kim Jong-seo, the father of Se-ryung’s beloved.

It’s an interesting way to incorporate a familiar and powerful love story into the crux of a sageuk drama, and I’m curious to see how it works out. Sageuks do include romantic plots, sometimes even feature them as prominent storylines, but historically speaking they’re more about the political machinations and power plays surrounding a monarch at its core, and the dynamics of the court. It’s really mostly been in recent years that romance has become such a strong player, and more so in the fusion series (Hong Gil Dong, Iljimae, Chuno).

This’ll be Moon’s second sageuk series, but third sageuk project overall; she first burst onto the scene as the gisaeng who fell for Moon Geun-young (in boy guise) in Painter of the Wind (see below), and has signed up for an upcoming movie titled Bow: Ultimate Weapon (which stars Park Hae-il and Ryu Seung-ryong).

The Princess’s Man is being planned for 24 episodes and takes to airwaves after Romance Town ends in July, and will be a Wednesday-Thursday KBS drama. Now, who’ll they cast as her Romeo? That’s the big question.