Coffee Prince - Korean Drama

Remember how I recently went into loving-asian-dramas-mood? No? Seriously? Come on, my life is just sooo interesting, I don't understand how you could not remember that. So, basically... just get out of my blog.

In order to investiguate Korean drama, I watched the Coffee Prince series (well, most of it actually, 'cause, let's face it, I got bored). It's about a tomboyish Korean girl, Go Eun Chan (the front one on the picture) who works hard to make ends meet. Someday, things get ugly and she finds herself in such need for money that she accepts to work for a wealthy man, Han Kyul.

Miss I'm-a-boy Go Eun Chan

At first, she pretends to be his lover to help him avoid meetings arranged by his grandmother, who really wants him to settled down before cancer gets the best of her (only she doesn't tell him she's sick, 'cause, you know, telling the truth might had had him actually give it a serious thought).

Mr I'm-whinny-but-rich-so-I-can / aka Mr Spoiled-brat Han Kyul

Then she accepts to waitress in the coffee parlour he's demanded to run by his (still dying) grandmother. The deal goes as such: if Han Kyul manages to regain three times the money his grandmother lend him for the renovation of the coffee shop, he'll get his share of inheritance. If not, said grandma will take his car, appartment and, well, that's quite enough for starters.

Only that Han Kyul is convinced that Go Eun Chanis a boy and recruited her at first because of this, pretending to be gay in order to avoid arranged meetings. So for the first part of the series, Go Eun Chan tries her best to hide her true identity (which works quite well as, let's face it, she's as disgusting a man as every man is -oh god, oh dear god, yes, yes she is).

But, of course, she eventually falls for her tyranical boss and therefore, you know, crap happens.



This is only the main storyline. On the other hand, we're happy to present to you the sappy lovestory of Choi Han Sun, a really nice music producer who's got a dog (I can assure you that is a very relevant detail to the plot) and Han Yoo Jo, a very pretty singer lady who's recently gotten back from the States. Han Sun and Yoo Jo were together, then she left him for the States, then she came back to Korea, but his poor heart was all broken, and blah, blah, blah.

Mr Nice-I've-got-a-dog-man Choi Han Sun

Now, tell me, what's the link with the main plotline? Come on, try and guess it. Here's a hint: cheesse with a "y". Yes. "Cheesy". Or "Y" is it that cheesy?" *and now start to cry*. So, have you guessed yet? No? Good, your brain's still not totally dead, you musn't be such an addict to Paris Hilton.

Miss Funny-to-be-with-yet-mindshifter-girlfriend Han Yoo Jo

Ready for an answer?

Go Eun Chan (aka: the tomboyish waitress)'s first crush is on Choi Han Sun (the nice music guy), while Han Kyul (the tyranical boss)'s first crush is on Han Yoo Jo (the pretty singer).

And, of, course, at some point, the nice music guy finds himself falling for Go Eun Chan, which reverts the "every male loves Han Yoo Jo" tendency to "every male loves Go Eun Chan". Dreamy.


If I were taking a degree in psychology, I would say that Music Guy represents Go Eun Chan's ideal of a partner, which is why she first falls for him, until she realises what a real man is like (whinny whimy, apparently) and accepts him as such, thus eventually falling for the tyrant.
And, of course, Music Girl represents the tyrant's ideal of a partner until he realises [copy and paste previous sentence] plus that Go Eun Chan is actually a girl ('cause that's quite a serious issue for him at first, medium and almost always point of their relationship).

So that series would not only be a bunch of sound plus moving pictures kind of show but also a reflexion about what a real couple is like, and a comparison of ideals with reality. I mean, let's face it: Go Eun Chan is so disgusting at times that even her cute face isn't enough to resurrect the remains of lesbian vibes in me that her eating behaviour killed. And Han Kyul can be such a whimy bitch that it would turn any gay man straight. To sum it up, it's a lot about accepting the other as such, knowing that this person is far from perfect. Did I already say it? Cheesy.

But I'm not taking a degree in psychology, and telling all that would probably annoy you, so I won't. (Only that I already did. Do I deserve my degree in Annoying Skills or what?).



It would be lying to say that I didn't enjoy the show (I watched it up to the tenth episode over fourteen so there, it is entertaining). I mostly enjoy it when people are confused about their feelings and start emoing around about how they're falling for the wrong person -did I wrote that out loud? Great, now people will start thinking I'm a sadist. What I meant was that I enjoyed seeing how people are so in love with apparences and yet can't help off this huge pair of blinkers they were offered on their birth day.

I liked the fact that Go Eun Chan is a very strong minded little thing that doesn't let people step on her toes -only until she's supposed to act as a girl, at least. The fact that Han Kyul first believes that she's a boy actually allows their relashionship to start on an even status, the sad thing being that Go Eun Chan starts acting a bit girly (and teary) when her true gender is unveiled. But at least they're both equals in that relashionship from the start, which might explain why they get along that well. At least there is no gender gap between them as man and woman.

I also have to confess that the cheesy relashionship between the Music couple was kinda cute, and that it got me to decide to go buy a girlfriend that's as fun to be with as Miss My-fingers-are-wearing-little-boots-on-the-tip-and-they-travel-through-your-body Han Yoo Jo as soon as that is released for purchase.

I also liked to have a glimpse of nowadays Korea. I wouldn't take it as a documentary about this country, but it's still a series set in facts, so some of it must be true. For instance, the fact that one of Go Eun Chan's family small jobs is to sew eyes on a bunch of plushes (not real ones, come on!) made me realise how real the "made in Korea" business is. And the public baths made me realise that, well, people clean themselves. Maybe I should try that too, someday.

Oh, and I obviously enjoyed the fact that, you know, Kim Jao Wook.

Kim Jao Wook.
Let's face it -he's gorgeous- and I'm such a huge fan of gorgeous.

His character's story is not very developped, but it's still one of the most interesting ones. And apparently, being (half)Japanese in Korea is not that well received.
It's such a shame his character doesn't speak a lot. I suppose that he's of the "dark silent guy" type. Creepy, yet sexy. Kim Jao Wook is always sexy.

Here, I'm sure you could use some more convincing (I know I could): here's Kimy reading slash listening to music in front of a red sportscar.

The rest is silence.

But let's not end this review in such a fangirly tone. Let's say instead that through Coffee Prince I discovered a proper Asian series, something along the lines of, err... another romance show, I guess? Not a sitcom, but a nice, enjoyable stir of episodes. Something to watch if you're tired of thinking and are looking for a nice, non-american brainsoaping (beware! it might start to bubble).

To say it all, it was nice enough for me to consider watching it to the end, someday. You know, when it's not 3 a.m. anymore and if Kim Jao Wook promises to take his shirt off, then takes a picture of himself and sends it to me along with his best regards.

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La review en français pour les frenchies > cliquer ici. Ca ne sera évidemment jamais aussi drôle que si je l'avais écrite moi-même, mais j'ai vraiment la flemme de traduire -au moins autant que vous d'apprendre à lire l'anglais, apparemment.
Par contre, je tiens à me laver consciencieusement les mains des opinions avancées dans ce blog - pour dire ça simplement, Mademoiselle Pancake et moi n'avons pas les mêmes.

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See online / Visionner en ligne > here / ici. (Or / Ou somewhere else / ailleurs).