Broadcast: Jul-Aug 2007
Episodes: 17, Romance/Comedy
Cast:
Yoon Eun-hye as Go Eun-chan
Gong Yoo as Choi Han-gyul
Lee Sun-gyun as Choi Han-seong
Chae Jung-an as Han Yoo-joo
Lee Eon as Hwang Min-yeop (waiter at Coffee Prince)
Kim Dong-wook as Jin Ha-rim (waiter at Coffee Prince)
Kim Jae-wook as Noh Sun-ki (waffle chef at Coffee Prince)
This drama stars a very young and lean Yoon Eun Hye and Gong Yoo. At first glance, you'll think the drama is mainly focused on making coffee and opening up a cafe. For the coffee drinkers out there, you'll be disappointed. The main focus of this drama is on the developing relationship of the characters Go Eun Chan and Choi Han Gyul.
Choi Han Gyul loves being free and doesn't want to be tied down to the family business. His grandmother wants him to come home, work at the company and sets up match maker sessions for him so he can settle down. He has no interest in these things and he is still hung up with the one sided love he has for one of his best girl friends who is dating his cousin.
Go Eun Chan is a tomboy who works extremely hard to earn money on the table to feed the family. She holds many jobs from teaching young kids Tae Kwan Do to making deliveries. It doesn't help that she has the biggest appetite :)
Han Gyul mistakens Eun Chan for a boy and pays her to pretend to be his gay lover to get his grand mother off his back. That only stopped the match making setups. The grandmother gave him an ultimatum and a test to fix up a broken down coffee shop.This was also to prove how capable he was since his father thinks he's just a frivolous spender with no sense of responsibility.
Han Gyul hires 3 male staff for the start up of the coffee shop. Interesting mix: one unintelligent beefy guy who is in love with Eun Chan's younger sister and lets her string him along for the majority of the time; one guy that doesn't stop talking who is a complainer and whiner; the last one is a Japanese guy who is very private and doesn't speak much at all. Eun Chan begs Han Gyul for a job there to earn extra cash. The older barista that helped the opening of the shop has known Eun Chan for years and knew that she is a girl. He was against it for her to work there because she would have to hide her gender while working there but she was able to persuade him not to say anything.
It wasn't too clear why Han Gyul only wanted to hire guys for the shop. Maybe his tactic was to attract more female customers using flower boy staff, although I wouldn't consider the staff there to be flower boys at all.
Things did get interesting as the relationship between Eun Chan and Han Gyul developed. They had a lot of fun together and was always joking and laughing. Initially Han Gyul treated Eun Chan like she was his younger brother but when intimate feelings started to develop, he was conflicted with his own sexuality and questioned if he was really gay. Eun Chan enjoyed spending time with him and continued to deceive him as the lie was getting to big to confess. She didn't know what to do either.
When Han Gyul discovered her secret, she tried to talk things over with him but he was so hurt and angry that he didn't want to see her. He felt betrayed to be fooled like that. Slowly he came around and they patched things up. They started dating but things were not smooth sailing from there. The father and grandmother were against Eun Chan due to her poor family background. The grandmother however softened a bit after she met Eun Chan seeing how hard working she was and how determined she was in her ambitions. She helps Eun Chan in terms of finances to train to be a barista in Italy.
After a couple of years of long distance relationship, the last scene shows her coming back, looking more feminine and more sophistocated.
This drama received really good reviews, higher than what I would've personally given it. It was enjoyable and the leads had strong chemistry, but I thought the storyline was just so so. Maybe for it's time it was considered really good. There were a lot of boring bits and I thought the drama just dragged on. The side story of Han Gyul's cousin and his girlfriend's on and off relationship was very boring and I felt it was just added to make the drama longer.
I really liked the compatibility of Eun Chan and Han Gyul. They were both so fun and the relationship was so playful and loving. The relationship suited them and the drama very well.
Again, this theme has been portrayed in kdramas so often, I think it's getting a bit bland. Eun Chan looks nothing like a guy. I think kdramas with these themes are playing with the fact that Korean flower boys can look so feminine that you can't tell if the guy is actually a girl.
I didn't like the sound track in this drama so have not listed any songs. Nothing stood out for me.
Good drama, enjoyable and fun to watch.
Rating: 3/5
Broadcast: Oct - Dec 2011
Episodes: 24, Romance/Melodrama/Comedy/Action/Sports
Cast:
Chun Jung Myung as Kim Young Kwang
Park Min Young as Yoon Jae In
Lee Jang Woo as Seo In Woo
Lee Jin as Cha Hong Joo
Park Seong Woong as Seo In Cheol
Lee Mun shik as Heo Young Do
Kim sung Oh as Joo Dae Sung
Lee Jin as Cha Hong Joo
Cho Seung Kyun as Ko Kil Dong
The first opening of each episode had a small explanation of a feature in Baseball. If you are a baseball fan, you would like this drama. Although, the drama was more about relationships than about the game.
Young Kwang was the son of a chauffeur who worked for a very rich business man. This rich businessman had a daughter Jae In. The two children met when they were very young at Jae In's birthday party. Another little boy named Seo In Woo was at the party. He bullied Young Kwang. This lead to game of baseball. I guess that's how the love of baseball started for both Young Kwang and In Woo. Young Kwang instantly liked Jae In because she was kind. Before they parted, he gave her his precious baseball which was signed by a famous baseball player. This signed ball plays a big part later in the drama.
Jae In's dad had an accident on the way to the solicitor's. He found out his partner Seo Jae-Myung
was corrupted and he wanted both of them to go to the solicitor to sort out the mess, when the car drove in to the water due to a struggle, he died. The chauffeur (Young Kwang's dad) was saved by the partner.
Jae Myung threatened Young Kwang's dad, paid him to keep quiet regarding the accident. When Jae In's mum heard the news, she collapsed and went into a coma. Jae Myung paid the chauffeur some money to get Jae In killed off so she wouldn't be around to claim any of the shares to the company he co-owned with her father. The chauffeur didn't have the heart to kill her off but instead took her to an orphange ran by some nuns.
Many years later, we see Jae In in training to become a nurse. It is in her destiny to meet Young Kwang and In Woo again but at first they didn't know who she was. She was in search of Young Kwang's dad as she thought he was her father. Obviously she must have had a memory loss and forgotten about what happened to her in the past.
When she met up with Young Kwang's dad, Young Kwang's family thought he had an affair and Jae In was the love child of that affair. The family was outraged and treated Jae In really badly. However, they did let her stay with them as they had no where else to stay. This misunderstanding gets resolved at a later stage, but Jae In suffered a lot from Young Kwang's family's mistreatment especially from his younger sister.
Young Kwang was thrilled to have Jae In stay with him but he was also unhappy and conflicted to find out that they were half siblings because he was in love with her. Imagine his relief when he found out later that they were not blood related at all!
The whole drama is about Jae In fighting Jae Myung to retrieve the company back which belonged to his father. When she did retrieve the company back, she decided to divide the shares to all the company employees free. The drama was about 2 men's love for Jae In and how they all helped each other to overcome the villians Jae Myung and his nephew Seo In-Cheo. It was about family relations. At the end, a lot of the characters had undergone development.
I found this drama to be very clever. The marketing team lead by Heo Young-Do was funny and smart at the same time. The gemophobic guy Joo Dae-Sung cracked me up.
The chemistry between Park Ming Young and Chung Jung Myung was quite strong. I love the scene in the bedroom when they are talking and he touched her hand with love but he had to hold himself back because they were siblings. The chemistry was electrifying.
Jae In was able to go back to training to be a nurse and Young Kwang after his recovery from a baseball injury went back to playing baseball. He hit his first home run. He had promised Jae In that after he hit his first home run, he was going to marry her. The final scene was him asking her to marry him. She just stood there smiling at him. I guess we know what the answer is.
I only liked one song from this drama which is Who You Are To Me by Hyorin from Sistar. I loved this song. She has such a beautiful voice and I found this song to be so meaningful and relevant to this drama.
I really enjoyed this drama. Great cast. Great acting. I'm giving this one a 4 out of 5 because I felt the ending just kind of fizzled. It wasn't bad but the whole drama was suspenseful and makes you think it's going to end with a big bang, which it didn't. Overall, good drama. I recommend it.
Rating: 4/5
Broadcast: Jan - Feb 2013
Episodes: 16, Romance/Comedy
Cast:
Park Shin Hye as Go Dok Mi
Yoon Shi Yoon as Enrique Geum
Kim Ji Hoon as Oh Jin Rak / Oh Jae Won
Park Soo Jin as Cha Do Hwi
This drama has got to be one of the worst dramas I've seen along with Flower Boy Ramen Shop and Love Rain. It was slow, boring and the acting was so bad. Although I enjoyed You're Beautiful, Park Shin Hye's acting was awful. She's improved a bit in this drama but not enough since she's been in the industry for a few years now. Her acting is not up to scratch for her to be placed in lead roles.
Go Dok Mi is a hermit who stays in her apartment all day long. She's an editor so this job suits her fine to be able to stay at home to edit scripts and autobiographies. She would only ever leave her apartment only when necessary. She won't talk to anyone and minimises contact with anyone and everyone. She became who she is because of an incident that happened at school which affected her so badly that she is socially crippled in life.
Fortunately for her, she has a lot of good looking neighbours. She perves on the good looking guy across from her apartment window daily with her yellow binoculars. Her life and routine is disrupted when the good looking guy's younger brother from the apartment across the road arrives from Spain to live with him. The younger brother is called Enrique Geum. He catches her perving and is really peeved. He runs across the road to her apartment door and tries to confront her.
From that funny incident, a friendship develops between the two which eventually turns into love. Enrique's happy and bubbly personality helps Dok Mi turn her boring and gloomy life into a normal one where she is able to confidently go out into the world and become and live like a normal person. I won't go into what the incident at school was that crippled her social skills. You'll know once you watch it.
The apartment next door to Dok Mi's lives a spunky cartoonist, Oh Jin Rak. Jin Rak has been attracted to Dok Mi for 3 years and constantly keeps an eye out for her. He draws pictures on a sticky note and leaves it on her milk every morning. He is protective of her and watches over her secretly. That is so sweet.
She has 2 guys who are in love with her. She chooses Enrique in the end. After she confronts her demons with the help of Enrique, she comes back into the world and works at the office instead of her apartment and does more things and meets more people. That is basically the whole story with some extra people and things in between.
I found Enrique to be quite an annoying character. The way he talked, the way he laughed and the way he behaved was so childish. He can be serious but the majority of the time he is just an immature kid. I guess opposites do attract. I found Oh Jin Rak to be better looking, more manly and would have suited Dok Mi better. I feel that Dok Mi chose Enrique was because they spent more time together and got to know each other. Oh Jin Rak lost out because he waited too long and lost the chance. You can't like or fall in love with someone if you don't know them.
Go Dok Mi is a weak character who let what happened at school affect the rest of her life. She wasn't resilient enough to over come this incident. I just feel that people need to be stronger and move on. Perhaps it's easier to see it than when you are actually in that situation. I have seen a lot of people who are resilient and bounce back from struggles. It's about mastering the mind and not let it master you, or letting other people or the environment turn you into something that you don't want to be or is bad for you. Anyway, she over came it in the end so that's what is important.
The idea that staying at home all the time and yet you have 2 guys going after you? Seriously that is not going to happen in real life. The only person that you'll ever meet if you stay at home all the time is the postman. Even the postman here don't come to your door. They deliver letters to your letterbox! So to have good looking admirers by just staying at home, forget it, yeah well only in kdramas:0
I did'nt like the OST in this drama. There was only one song that was ok but nothing really stood out. The song by Lee Jung (이정) - I Wish It Was You (너였으면 좋겠어) was alright.
I didn't enjoy this drama and couldn't wait to finish it. I have a rule. I don't watch dramas half way. I have to complete it even if it's bad or boring. This one was one of those bad acting and boring ones. No, I wouldn't recommend this drama.
Rating: 1.5/5
