Starring: Gong Yoo, Yoon Eun Hye
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
This is an old drama, like ten years old I think. But it's a classic and one that everyone who knows anything about kdramas, and even those who don't, talk about and rave about. I decided it was finally time I caught up and watched it!
It stars Gong Yoo (who I know from Goblin and Train to Busan, but I'm sure he's done a gazillion other things these past ten years too) and Yoon Eun Hye, who actually starred in the very first drama I watched, Lie to Me. I had no idea it was her because she is TOTALLY different in this one!
So, the basic story (because as you know there are a ton of side stories too!) is about this guy who is sort of loser, struggling in life, not really doing anything and just living off his family's riches. But his grandma challenges him to take this old run down coffee shop and make it successful. I think she is hanging something over his head to motivate him but I already totally forgot what. At any rate, he does love his grandma and I think he finally grows up enough to want to just make her happy.
And so he puts his heart into it. And hires a bunch of sort of misfit guys to run it and he calls it Coffee Prince.
But before all that, he is bugged that his grandma is setting him up on a ton of blind dates, so one day when he runs into this young dude, he takes a fancy to him and hires him to pose as his gay lover, even though, of course, he's not gay.
The problem is, this guy is not a guy, but our girl, the heroine of the story. She is very tomboyish and many people at first glance think she's a guy. So when our guy hires her to pose as his lover, she just goes along with it because she needs money to support her family.
And then they become friends and he hires her to work with the guys in the coffee shop. Still thinking she is a guy of course.
Well, and so.... she starts to like him. And much to his dismay, he starts to like her. Which is very confusing to him, because.. he's not gay.
It makes for quite the interesting conflict!
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| Gong Yoo and Eun Hye |
And so it goes for awhile until you are just DYING for her to finally just tell him already! And then when the truth finally comes out, it's not in a good way and BAM.. everything falls apart.
Throw in all the other side stories and the back stories and you've got yourself one crazy drama filled drama! So perfectly awesome!
The best part about this one was the acting. Like these two were so totally amazing. Gong Yoo, I mean... he's just.. there are no words. He's so good. And Eun Hye? The way she could make you forget she's a girl? Like how does she do that when she's this beautiful actress? I don't get it! She was so good. I think that these guys and this drama won all sorts of awards because of them.
And it quite pushed the boundaries, you know, for this whole gay thing and gender identity and all that. And just really makes one think.
And the romance was so... cute and fun and intense. All of it.
SO GOOD!!!
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| Kim Jae Wook who is NOT Japanese but played the cool Japanese guy. |
Oh wait, did I mention the Japanese guy? Well, I'm not sure if the actor is Japanese (I looked him up, he's not) but he did play a Japanese dude and he was so COOL! Like, he hardly said anything and yet you just fell in love. But when he did say stuff.. he had all the best lines! Yeah. He was also awesome.
Some cute clips with music that was not in the show:
This one actually sounds cute enough to tempt me. I really wish more of them were on Netflix though. I’m pretty tired of always having to download some new app. :(
ReplyDeleteIf you watch on the computer you don't have download anything just click on that link above watch the first episode. But in a device it's easier to have the app. Yeah.
DeleteCan you plug your computer into your TV? That's what we did before we had the Roku stick.
DeleteGood news! Netflix has Coffee Prince in their K-drama category!
DeleteThis one is ten years old? Really? The guy on the left in the picture looks so familiar, but he don't look like I could know him 10 years old than he is. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteYeah Gong Yoo looks pretty much the same now as he did 10 years ago. :)
DeleteCoffee Prince is one of the four kdramas I heard about years before I started watching kdramas the other three were Boys Over Flowers,Playful Kiss(which was terrible and isn't worth your time) and Princess Hours(which always starred Yoon Eun hye). After watching this drama I can really tell why it has became so popular and that is because of the excellent performances that Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun hye gave in this drama as well as there excellent chemistry that the two of them shared is really what makes this drama stand out.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best part of this drama was when Gong Yoo's character had finished going through his sexuality crisis and had decided that he wanted to be with Yoon Eun hye's character even if she was a boy and he told her it didn't matter whether she was guy or not because he just likes her before he gave her a super swoony kiss because that is one of the most swoonworthy things ever having a guy love you so much he doesn't even care what gender you are, for me most of the their scenes were just cute but this one was something special.
I know that this drama at the very least got a ton of critical praise after airing and I know that this drama is why gender benders became so popular in dramas afterwards so this drama is one that left a mark on the kdrama scene.
I was a bit surprised to see that you finished this drama already because it seems like you went through it really quickly and I thought for sure you would review While You Were Sleeping as your next drama review since you usually finish dramas pretty quickly after they finish airing it seems.
Lilly: I watched this one while I waited for While You Were Sleeping episodes to come out. And then I gave up on that and binged watched the last half of this one in just a few days. So good! I have finished While You Were Sleeping and will review it soon! But I agree with you you SO MUCH on this one is so good because of their acting and chemistry. And the swoony kiss! Yes! Oh my! Such an interesting drama all the way around. Thanks, as always for commenting! I love hearing your thoughts!
DeleteThis was the one I stopped doing reviews on because... I just couldn't... there were no words! Except! YOU FINALLY WATCHED IT!!!! And we didn't even talk about it at all over THanksgiving... because... I think I could talk for hours about it!!!! SHEESH!!!! Like seriously, the chemistry between these two was the BEST and it was the first that like, they actually acted liked each other... and wanted to hold hands all the time... and were super cheesy goofy... ugh... I LOVED THIS DRAMA!!!! How long have I been telling you to watch it... and you said it just didn't grip you... HA!!!! BULL! ~Megs (I'm not logged in as me because I am the Kpop right now...
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