The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince

Yoon Eun Hye as Go Eun Chan
Gong Yoo as Choi Han Kyul
Chae Jung Ahn as Han Yoo Joo
Lee Sun Gyun as Choi Han Sung

Go Eun Chan is a 24-year-old pretty tomboy who always gets mistaken for a boy. As the breadwinner of her family, she has taken on almost all different kinds of jobs: Taekwondo instructor, milk deliverer, etc. Now, she will take on a new job: pretending to be a gay lover! In desperate need of money, she agrees to precious Choi Han Kyul's (who mistakes her as a boy too) offer to pretend to be his "gay lover" in order to avoid blind dates his grandma forces him to attend. Soon, Han Kyul opens up an old coffee shop, again forced by his grandma who's bearing a serious sickness. Eun Chan asks him to hire her as a waiter, even though she knows that he would only hire males. Han Kyul, believing that he really is a man, agrees.

Back to the love rectangle, Han Kyul has been not-so-secretly in love with Han Yoo Joo, a successful artist, for 9 years. Yoo Joo was his cousin, Han Sung's, girlfriend until she broke up with him for another man (no, not Han Kyul!). Years later she comes back to make up with Han Sung, who was smitten by Eun Chan's "yup-gi" (disgusting but lovable) personality. He knows Eun Chan is a girl for she delivers milk in his house, and agrees to keep her gender secret from everyone. Eun Chan at first also liked Han Sung, but her feelings for him vanish when she found herself in love with Han Kyul. Han Kyul also finds himself questioning his sexuality every time his heart fluttered because of Eun Chan, but he always denied it to himself since he believes Eun Chan is a man.

"Coffee Prince" is not just about these four characters, it is also a story about the 3 waiters of the coffee shop, playboy Ha Rim, half-Japanese Sun Ki, and strong, but a bit idiotic, Min Yeop. Other minor sub-plots include Mr. Hong, the former shop owner's old love, and Han Kyul's real family history.

My Review:

I'll wrap up "Coffee Prince" in 2 words: "beautifully unique". Every one of the cast showed their best acting, (especially Yoon Eun Hye who specifically took some time to learn about how boys act and who sung out her voice in a karaoke room just to get Eun Chan's husky voice).

The writer, director, and the rest of the crew's 100% effort were displayed too. I love the scenes where Han Kyul avoids Eun Chan since he's questioning his sexuality! I won't spoil the ending since I want you to seriously watch this great show! A show's never perfect, though. "Coffee Prince" showed some draggy scenes, but overall, it's great!