I'm back again with another K-Drama review for you wonderful people. Today's drama is Coffee Prince.
BE WARNED THAT THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.
SYNOPSIS: The story revolves around Go Eun Chan, a hard working young lady who works multiple jobs to help support her family since the death of her father. Finding work easier to get, she give up her feminine image and wears male clothes and cuts her hair short. This comes in handy when she met's Choi Han Kyul, a handsome heir of a coffee company. Coming back from America his grandmother wants him to go on blind dates so he can pick a wife. Not wanting to get married Han Kyul decides to hire Eun Chan to pretend to be his gay lover and to appear whenever he goes on a blind date. Eun Chan agrees since Han Kyul is willing to pay good money. She decides to not reveal to him that she is in fact a girl out of fear of losing her job with him. After a while the two form a friendship and when Han Kyul's grandmother asks him to help run a coffee house, Han Kyul decides it will be a coffee house where only prince's can work so of course he offers a position to Eun Chan who once again puts off telling him she's a girl so that she can have a job and earn money for her family. Things get tricky when the two of them begin to develop feelings for each other.
MAIN CHARACTERS:
Yoon Eun Hye as Go Eun Chan [A major tomboy who is the bread winner for her family. She starts to work at Coffee Prince for the money however after a while she begins to develop feelings for Han Kyul]
Gong Yoo as Choi Han Kyul [A handsome and rich man who simply wants play through life, however once his grandmother puts her foot down and makes him take on the responsibility of running Coffee Prince he begins to change. He also finds himself liking Eun Chan as more then a friend, which he finds himself conflicted with, since he's never liked men before now]
Lee Sun Gyun as Choi Han Sung [He is Han Kyul's cousin and starts to date Yoo Joo even though she cheated on him and left him for two years. However once he meets Eun Chan he begins to form feelings for her.]
Chae Jung Ahn as Han Yoo Joo [She is a woman who is constantly changing her mind. She dated Han Sung a long time but cheated on him and went to America for two years only to come back and want Han Sung again.]
EXTENDED CAST:
Lee Un as Hwang Min Yeop (He's the muscle at Coffee Prince and is in love with Go Eun Sae, Eun Chan's sister)
Kim Jae Wook as No Sun Ki (He is actually Japanese and came to Korea to search for a lover who left him, he works at Coffee Prince as the cook and waffle maker.)
Kim Don Wook as Jin Ha Rim (He is a wannabe player who works at Coffee Prince and is a friend of Han Kyul's)
Kim Young Ok as Han Kyul's grandmother
Han Yeh In as Go Eun Sae (Eun Chan's sister)
Kim Chang Wan as Hong Gae Sik (the barista at Coffee Prince)
ACTING: The acting was superb. I was blown away by Eun Hye really and truly, her acting was spot on. I mean when I first saw her I though she was a guy, and I mean that is the most respectful way, because her acting made me believe it. Also I'm a fan of Baby VOX and I didn't even recognize her that how well she became this character. Gong Yoo was so very charming and did a very good job of expressing his characters inner-termoil over the fact that he might be gay and then finally over coming it and excepting it. All the supporting cast was great as well.
PLOT OVERVIEW: Such a wonderful and pleasing plot. I love to see a strong lead female who can take care of herself and not always relying on the lead male. I like the fact that this drama was different then most dramas in the respects, that both Han Kyul and Han Sung like Eun Chan, however unlike most drama's where there is clearly romantic feelings between the two characters yet the writers tease us and never let anything happen between the two. I was actually very happy that Han Sung acted on his feelings. There was also the fact that Eun Chan and Han Kyul's relationship come full circle, in that they *cough*sleep together*cough* and get engaged. Though I wish they would have showed their wedding it was clear by the end of the series that they would eventually marry.
ENDING: The ending was cute and wrapped everything up for the characters. I really liked that all the princes found someone to be with and that Han Kyul and Eun Chan end up together. I wish there would have been a wedding since they talked about it so much the episodes before, however it was clear that they would be together. The only thing I didn't like was that fact that they had Yoo Joo lose her baby, that made no sense. Her relationship with Han Sung was finally good they got married so why?
SOUNDTRACK: I was super disappointed with the soundtrack. It was not utilized to its full potential throughout the drama to make the scenes more tender or more dramatic. And the use of English songs were confusing.
RATING: On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being the worst drama i've ever seen and ten being something i could watch every day its a solid 10. There are two things that are stopping this drama from knocking Secret Garden out of my number one drama spot and those are, the poor use of soundtrack and the fact that there is no wedding and or fast forward to where we see them with their kids.
As always I encourage everyone to form their own opinion about a show or movie, these are simply my views and reflections of what I felt about this drama.