Prosecutor Princess is a winning case. A romcom turned revenge drama with a touch of greatness.

Prosecutor Princess Details

Name: Prosecutor Princess, Prosecutor Mata Hari, 검사 프린세스
Date: 2010
Country: South Korea
Episodes: 16
Time: 1 hr. 8 min.

RATING: 7/10

My Review of this series

In the shows first episode we see the character Ma Hye Ri graduate as prosecutor. From the moment we see her, it’s clear this is not your normal woman prosecutor. Miss Ma just doesn’t abide by the rules.

When a workshop is started right after graduation, she finds an excuse to skip it. Rather than taking another boring class she has a meeting with a friend to ski and then finish her evening with an exclusive fashion show. I sure can’t blame her for having her priorities straight. What world do we live in, when we can’t celebrate passing exams, but prefer to study some more?

But unfortunately it doesn’t work out as planned. Instead of having a great evening her valuables get stolen from her car. On top of that her friend can’t come after all and their hotel room got cancelled. At the fashion show she misses out on the shoes she wanted to have. Sounds boring and like a cliché already? Be ready to be surprised!

I heard a lot of people say they did not find the first episodes good and they didn’t like the character of Ma Hye Ri. Screw them! Hooray for some individuality in dramaland. I consider the start of Prosecutor Princess rather fascinating. Sure, there is room for some improvements in her personality. They made her smart, but she does have some dumb moments now and then, here and there (oh, remember that one?).

I can appreciate a person who does neither do things the conventional way, nor is pressured by a group. Be honest with yourself: would you work until 11 in the evening if you don’t get paid for it? Will you have lunch with colleagues if you don’t like the food and you have prior appointments? Would you dress up in man-clothes to be accepted? If the answer is yes, I recommend some professional counselling.

Who I didn’t like were the wannabe goody two-shoes colleagues of her. Even with some character errors, Ma Hye Ri did not deserve the gossip and the overall harsh treatment. They all act as if they are so righteous, but I was disgusted with their prejudice.

Later on in the show we find out Ma Hye Ri had some serious overweight in the past. She should be congratulated for working hard to get in shape again. Instead she is mocked again. This was the point in the show were I just wanted to smash some of their smug faces against the wall.
The whole overweight thing is handled a bit strange in this series anyway. It was disturbing to see that being adipose apparently makes you an outcast in South Korea. It was a relief that the main male leads didn’t seem to care much about it.

The first half of Prosecutor Princess is about her getting accepted and starting to appreciate her work. She gets aid from prosecutor Yun Se Jun (played by Han Jung Soo, the mysterious Moo Young in Arang and the Magistrate) and lawyer Seo In Woo. She falls in love with the harsh but honest Yun Se Jun and the always helpful Seo In Woo assists her in getting closer to her beau. It seems like the basic romcom and ‘you’re with us or against us-mentality’ indoctrination.

Praise the heavens for the second part. Don’t get me wrong. I relished the first 8 episodes, but I was afraid it would end with her being one of the many office robots. Instead we are surprised with a serious revenge plot. It’s like Santa just visited us half a year early. Presents!

Our villain is none other than someone she is very close with. But is (s)he really a villain or actually a hero(ine)? And who is the revenge against exactly?

In my opinion the progression in the last half of the show is slightly on the slow side. They start to repeat parts of earlier scenes frequently and you get to see a lot of teary eyes and pensive looks from practically every camera angle possible. I’m sure they could have cut at least 2 episodes, without hurting the story.

An exception was the last episode. Here I appreciated the calm pace. They genuinely take their time to give Prosecutor Princess a pleasant finish. In a lot of Asian series the ending gets rushed. I get positively pissed when I spent 16 hours of watching to get a five minute wrap up.

Of course it’s not the only creditable fact of the second half. The story itself gets some real meaning and the writers manage to stay away from most clichés. We see developments in personality, not merely in our Prosecutor Princess Ma Hye Ri, but in a lot of the side characters too. I adore the change in her mother and father at the ending the most. They were really in need of some transformation.

The acting was splendid. Kim So Yeon (Ma Hye Ri) and Han Jung Soo (Yun Se Jun) did amazing jobs and the other actors didn’t fail to impress me either. But the true winner here was Park Shi Hoo (Seo In Woo). He gave a whole new dimension to inner struggles. Crying men generally get some ‘ohs and ahs’ from me, but he was by far the most forlorn guy I’ve ever seen on my 15.6-inch laptop screen.

With the music I had some major giggles. The song ‘Goodbye my Princess’ (Monday Kiz)  just gets hilarious if you hear it for the 50^th time and they still sing ‘princess’ like ‘preencessh’. The other song (Give Me by Nine Muses) sounded like a Britney Spears rip-off. My ears survived it nevertheless and the melodies tended to stick in the back of my head in a pleasant way.

Goodbye to my (Prosecutor) Princess.