Monday, January 7, 2013

Looking Back Drama Pick of the Week: Coffee Prince

The First Shop of the Coffee Prince

            The First Shop of the Coffee Prince is the story of Go Eun Chan and Han Kyul.  Eun Chan’s life is very challenging.  Her family has a lot of debt and to help pay for them she has to do odd jobs.  She has to forget her sexuality because the priority is always money.  She’s existing not living.  Almost all her waking hours are allotted to nothing but work.  When other girls are out with friends, she is out delivering foods on her motorbike; when girls her age are still enjoying their beauty rest, she is already up, on her bicycle delivering newspapers and milk.  On the flip side is Han Kyul whose life is the exact opposite of Eun Chan.  He has a lot of time in his hands to do whatever he likes to do.  It is safe to say that he lacks certain maturity or sense of responsibility that Eun Chan has, as a result of his status in life.  He is the grandson of the owner of a big food company. 
            Han Kyul’s grandmother wants him to settle down so she set him up to different dates.  Han Kyul is very much in opposition to this so he hired Eun Chan to pretend like his gay lover to turn off his dates.  The first meeting of the two wasn’t this incident, though.  In the beginning of the series, Eun Chan delivered some food to Han Kyul’s condo [as one of her part time jobs].  The second was when he thought that Eun Chan was in cahoots with a guy who snatched the bag of Han Yoo Joo.  Han Yoo Joo was the ex-girlfriend of his cousin that he likes ever since they were younger. So there were several incidental meetings before the agreement between them.  In these meetings, he thought Eun Chan is a guy which explains why he hired her to be his fake gay lover.
            After a while, Han Kyul realized that Eun Chan is someone he can trust so when his grandmother assigned him to manage a run down, dying, coffee shop, he hired Eun Chan.  Now, this business is not something Han Kyul wants to manage because for one, he has to work with the old man who was already managing it plus the fact that it is literally getting ready to get eaten by the ground.  The place was, way, way, way past its glory days.  But of course, he didn’t really have a choice.
            Since it was decided that all employees will be males, Eun Chan was hesitant about working at the coffee shop because she is a girl and at first was worried that she might get caught.  But the strong commitment to support her family and pay off the debt encouraged her to just go on with it.  It will be such a huge help because it is more of a full time job.
            Being around Han Kyul a lot, made Eun Chan see his good side.  Slowly she developed romantic feelings for him but she couldn’t let it show since the dude thinks they are the same [gender].  It was a good thing that she has someone who she can express her thoughts to—ironically, it’s Han Kyul’s cousin, who used to be Eun Chan’s crush! 
            Later on Han Kyul will also develop romantic feelings for Eun Chan which will make things more complicated especially for the first since the whole time he thinks Eun Chan is a guy.   Gong Yoo was especially commendable in this part of the series for making the viewers feel what he was feeling—the frustration, pain, and the fun side of it. 
            The life and love of the four characters, Eun Chan, Han Kyul, Yoon Joo, and Choi Han Sun (Han Kyul’s cousin) will all be intertwined that definitely makes the story interesting.  But aside from them the other members of the coffee shop will not be short of your expectations.  Hong Gae Sik (the ex-president of the shop), Sun Ki (the waffle maker), Jin Ha Rim, and Min Yeop sure add spice to the show. 
This series is a kind that will make you laugh, cry, and feel inspired.  Although, there were dramas [and crying], I still consider this series pretty light.  If you are looking for something that will make your heart flutter without the heavy melodramatic scenes, I recommend this series.
Once again, thank you for reading and have a good one! J

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