Rooftop Prince is a Korean melodrama that aired earlier this year (2012). It's another fantasy/time travel romantic drama that deals with reincarnation and circular themes that are common to many Asian productions.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Your story begins with a prince in Joseon era (Korea; approximately 300 years or so ago) who dotes on his wife, but he also clearly has some interest in her sister. The sister was actually the one who was supposed to be the princess, but she got scarred in an "accident" before the engagement and was thus no longer deemed "suitable" to be the future queen. All is going along well enough, until the princess is found dead one night, drowned in a lake under suspicious circumstances. The prince sets off to investigate what happened and rounds up 3 people to help him (a legendary fighter, a brilliant scholar, and a cross dresser who hears all rumors and secrets in town). While investigating the mystery, the 4 of them are somehow transported to modern day Korea (via some magical once in a life time lunar eclipse or something).
While this is happening, there's a 2nd story taking place in modern day Korea. Two stepsisters are brought together when a widowed/divorced man & women meet. The older stepsister doesn't like this arrangement a whole lot, and she makes an impulsive decision to abandon her younger stepsister one day. The younger sister is orphaned then eventually adopted and relocated to America where she grows up not knowing/remembering her parents or what happened to her. Once grown, the adopted sister sets off to find her real parents and learn more about her history. So, she travels back to Korea where she and her stepsister are reunited.
Now, your "gimmick" here is that the 2 lead actresses play the roles of each sets of sisters in both the past and the present, and one of the sisters wronged the other during their youth in each time period. The prince from the past also plays another character who is the missing son of a wealthy family in the present; this makes for great karmic drama & intrigue that only adds to the overall entertainment value of this show. Korean melodramas have been pushing these dual role/character/timeline plots quite a bit lately, to a pretty fair degree of success, and it's easy to see why; this breaks up the status quo monotony, allows for actors to perform diversely, gives the writers and directors a chance to be creative, etc. I can easily foresee the day (probably very soon) when these productions will further expand upon this format by incorporating 3 roles/stories at once.
As the story unfolds, our 4 men from the past are transported to the roof top of the adopted sister's tiny apartment in modern day Korea. These men were the "cream of the crop" at their specific skill set in the past, but are totally incompetent when faced with modern day tasks; they can't even figure out how to feed themselves, much less understand how a toilet, elevator, TV, etc works. Our young heroine (the adopted sister) takes them in like a litter of lost puppies and puts them to work while she teaches them about the modern world they now inhabit. The prince is not used to living as a pauper though, or communicating with an independent woman in a modern society, so there's some friction between the two main characters to begin with. Soon enough though, the time travelers start to adapt to their new life, the prince becomes more involved with the 2 sisters in the present, and well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out where all this is headed.
This show has what you're looking for if you're a fan of this genre, and, as a bonus, it's mostly accessible to those who aren't 'fans'. You've got your dual back & forth love stories between and among the 4 protagonists, your manipulative male and female antagonists, plenty of fist clinching/hand wringing, family business/power struggles, growth and eventual acceptance between family members, etc.
The never ending Korean well, from which talented gorgeous women & hunky dudes seem to spring from, is still overflowing. The more put together or sexy characters are the meaner people, and the cuter ones are the nicer people, as usual. The main mean dude is ridiculously good looking, and, it's a shame the mean female lead didn't get to play the nice sister as her brilliant smile just lights up a room.
It's almost impossible to not draw comparisons between this show and "Queen In Hyun's Man"; both shows aired very close in time to each other, and each feature noble men from Joseon era who travel forward in time to modern day Korea. Intrigue, hijinks, drama, & romance ensue; you know the deal by now if you've seen a few KTV melodramas. "Rooftop" has more of a typical K-drama aesthetic to it in both production values and storytelling than does "Queen", and it is by far the more soap opera-ish of the two, whereas "Queen" takes a more stylized and slicker approach that's more similar to a well polished movie. "Queen" is also much better written than "Rooftop" IMO. That's no knock on "Rooftop" though, as this show is pretty entertaining. It is often sillier and more comedic in tone than "Queen", and it almost runs off the rails a few times and does get a little too over the top and repetitive as it progresses, but that's the way it goes. Which one is better?...that probably depends on what you're looking for, or typically like. I personally prefer "Queen", and I do feel it is by far the better of the two overall (for my tastes), but you likely can't go wrong with "Rooftop" either, and I liked it well enough.
Final Score: 7 out of 10 stars. I can't justify giving it any higher rating than that. It's fairly enjoyable overall.
