Thursday, June 05, 2008

The First Shop of Coffee Prince


I just finished watching my first Korean drama and it was rather good. I suppose this will be a start to me watching Korean dramas, instead of the Japanese and Taiwanese ones I tend to go for. It's titled The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (커피프린스 1호점 ), or simply known as just Coffee Prince (wiki version here). It stars Yoon Eun Hye (윤은혜), Gong Yoo (공유), Lee Sun Gyun (이선균), Chae Jung Ahn (채정안), as well as Kim Jae Wook (김재욱), Kim Dong Wook (김동욱), and Lee Un (이언) as the other Coffee Princes. The summary from DramaWiki is as follows:
The life of Go Eun Chan is not easy; she works many jobs to pay off debts and even gave up her feminine image. Choi Han Kyul is the heir of a big food company, but his grandmother wants him to settle down, so she arranged many dates for him. After Eun Chan bumped into Han Kyul and was mistaken for a boy, Han Kyul decided to hire Eun Chan to be his gay lover in order to avoid the arranged dates. Desperately in need of money, Eun Chan had no choice but to accept. Han Kyul's grandmother also made Han Kyul in charge of a filthy coffee shop in danger of being bankrupt. Eun Chan begged to work at the coffee shop, and not long after, feelings start to spark, except, how would Han Kyul accept his "homosexuality"?
I actually had a pretty good impression with this as my first Korean drama. It was very nice and slow-moving - though in a good way (the characters were believable and relationships seemed real). The situations were sweet and there were many funny moments. I found myself pausing the scene and running around the house when I was just too excited for the characters or if I couldn't believe if something happened. :) Needless to say, my emotions got really involved! Even so, that love... square type thing gave me a bit of a headache - but it was a drama. And, of course, there were those moments when the people are happy for practically two minutes then something comes up. I did love the entire drama, though, and even though Go Eun Chan did look like a boy, when she dressed up - she was totally believable as a girl. That must have been hard!

One last thing on this: when it ended I was sad, because I really love the drama and it was at a close. It also has a potential for a sequel, though I recall reading somewhere that it might not happen or will be postponed as Gong Yoo, one of the main characters, will be joining the army. >_<>

3 comments:

prashanth said...

where are you from ? I mean u r studying in US, but which country do u belong to? I just started watching Coffee Prince. I got addicted to K-dramas since may ending. Delightful Girl Choon hyang was my first drama and saw many other dramas, all were quite good. If the square-love thing is kinda new to you, then I want to suggest u to get used to it, as all (most of) of the korean dramas have it.
I watched Goong - princess hours (yoon yun hye's), Only you, Exhibition of Fireworks, Witch Yoo Hee, Full House. Sweet 18 was the last drama I finished. All were quite good.

Sirhin said...

Um... I'm actually from the US, but I'm ethnically Asian - only first generation though! I don't know how you got that I was from somewhere else. haha... Do tell! :) I'm curious.

Thanks for listing out all those dramas! I'll look them up! Yeah... I'm still pretty new to Korean dramas, but most dramas do have at least a love triangle, it seems. I did watch Goong, though. It was the second Korean drama I've ever watched. It was pretty good (though the main female character made me embarrassed for her a majority of the time. haha).

Beatrice said...

Dude, I totally do that pause and run around the room thing when a drama gets too exciting to handle :)