The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince

Choi Han-gyeol (Goong Yoo) is the heir to the Dongin Foods Company. He has been in US with a hobby of designing miniature toys and requested to immediately come home. He is sharp, witty and very much handsome that he is popular among women. However, he hasn't settled to any particular job and taking over the family business has not yet entered his mind. His grandmother arranges him a date with daughters of prominent businessmen in her field. Incapable to flout his grandmother, he goes out to date all the women and start managing a small coffee shop.

Choi Han-seong (Lee Seon-gyeon) is the cousin of Han-gyeol. He is a music producer. He is also easy-going boss so his staff respected him so much. Like most artists he is eccentric and odd. He lives alone in a beautiful house that is very much away from the family business – Dongin Foods. He had a girlfriend, Yoo Joo of 8 years but broke off that leads him to have difficulty dealing with women. He meets Eun Chan and he is involuntarily drawn closer to this free spirited young lady.

Han Yoo Joo (Chae Jung An) is a stylish artist just like her ex-boyfriend. She is friendly and easy to deal with inhibited character that leads her to slight depression. She has successfully disguised her outside appearance by looking strong but deep inside she is vulnerable and is having trouble getting over it. Her passion for art causes her to break up with Han-seong.

The Choi children and Yoo Joo have been friends for long. Both vie for Yoo Joo attention. But Han-seong got her heart first. Han-gyeol remained friends and has been loving from a distance for 9 years but he is satisfied of just being in the background.

Go Eun Chan (Yoon Eun-hye), an energetic and liberated 24 year old young lady who heads her family, taking over her father’s position when he suddenly passed away when she was age 16. She works from morning till night to any possible decent job she can take from threading eyes of mannequins to food deliveries to support her family. Despite being in this situation she is outspoken with strong principles; She has a childish-ness that will make you love her and she keeps most of her pain internally to be strong in front of everyone and just turns that pain into a positive output. Since she was young, a father’s girl and plays around men, she is often mistaken as a male. She is also a Taekwondo coach. She often receives date proposal from girls of her age because of her handsome features. She also takes care of her sister whenever someone tries to miff her. Her sister also calls her “Oppa.” She never thinks of anything for herself but always thinks of her family. She is a very likeable person that has some bad habits when it comes to food. She eats food like she hasn't eaten for days and has the uncanny ability to tell differences between coffee aromas. This was influenced by her coffee-loving father and through this her future is set to have the best days of her life.

She finally meets the Choi brood and their only rose friend Yoo Joo in the most odd way. Eun Chan meets for the first time Han Kyul in one of her food deliveries half naked and she got so attracted to him. She immediately rush off to avoid being seen drooling. Eun Chan crosses path with Han-seong delivering milk in his house. They live in the same quiet neighborhood. Before they got acquainted she usually plays with his chubby hairy big dog and the dog enjoys this attention that got him interest to know the girl. Apparently, the dog is very choosy of whom is touching and playing with him. From the day they got to know each other they talk anything under the sun and discreetly Eun Chan got confused of their closeness.

The second time Eun Chan meets Han-gyeol is in a robbery and at the same time meeting also Yoo Joo. Yoo Joo just came home from New York stint and plans to open a business and silently wanting to go back to Han-seong. During the Eun Chan's delivery motorcycle got damage and she has to pay it on her own. With the family financial strains they are into she ask assistance from Han-gyeol to pay the damage since she help to bring back the stolen bag. But before she can get the money she has to pose as Han Kyul's lover. It seems Han Kyul mistook Eun Chan as a man because of her looks and how she behaves. They successfully laid off Han Kyul's grandmother's (Kim Young Oak) plan but he has to manage a small coffee shop. Upon learning this Eun Chan requested Han Kyul to get her as his employee. Han Kyul not knowing her gender hired her after a funny heated argument. Deep inside Han-gyeol he is mystified why he just cannot let go easily of Eun Chan and her being free-spirited. Eun Chan is Han-gyeol's first employee with Mr. Hong (Kim Chang Whan) as his guide. Mr. Hong is also Eun Chan's father close friend. She always run to him when she need someone to talk to. Once, he also lends her a money as need to pay for their house rent. So this time her request to be quite of her identity as she is really in dire need of money.

Han-gyeol uses the strategy of only hiring pretty males to attract females. So learning this reason, she hides her gender identity to permanently get a job at Coffee Prince. Han-gyeol learns that Eun Chan loves coffee and has uncanny ability to judge the aroma of coffee. She also has a superb artistic style of presentation of coffee. Eun Chan immediately becomes Han-gyeol's confidante. However, very soon Han-gyeol found himself falling for Han-gyeol. Despite not knowing Eun Chan is a female, Han-gyeol starts to question his sexuality and even goes to the hospital for it.

Eun Chan however, is not yet that affected by Han-gyeol's sudden sweetness as she is still confuse by her feelings towards Han-seong. On the opening day Han-seong appeared on the party and learns that Han-gyeol is his cousin. So she ask Han-seong to keep quite of her identity.

While working in the shop she meets 3 other handsome “princes” – Jin Ha Rim (Kim Dong Wook), Noh Sun Gi (Kim Jae Wook) and Hwang Min Yeop (Lee Uhn). Ha Rim is an orphan who befriends Han-gyeol and hired him immediately to have source of income for living. He is also vulgar about his feelings for Eun Chan as he thinks that Eun Chan is so pretty and candidly called her "My Chan." Sun Gi was a street waffle vendor that Han-gyeol tried to hire when Han-gyeol and Eun Chan when out to observe different cafes. When SG's stall was confiscated because of lack business permit he accepted Han-gyeol's proposal to work for his Coffee Shop and will still prepare waffles. SG at first is cold towards Eun Chan but in the latter part of the story he becomes a good shoulder for Eun Chan. Often he informs Eun Chan to never give up especially when he learns of Eun Chan's reason of pretending to be a guy. He is an expert wafer maker. He speak Japanese when he is so annoyed. He have a son to a girl that left him. Min Yeop is apparently is Eun Chan's sister (Han Ye In) suitor who also believes she is a male. He is also got hired by chance when he was force by Eun Chan to help her cleaning and promises that they will continue the fight afterwards. MY wants to prove his strength to Eun Chan so he could court her sister legally. MY does not yet know Eun Chan’s secret. Amongst these three princes Ha Rim is the last to know the secret.

As the story progresses Han-gyeol now battles his feelings for Eun Chan and same with Han-seong. Yoo Joo plan completely back fired and found that she loose all the precious things she had.

Comment

As I said in my introduction, Coffee Prince is a usual romantic comedy of twist and turns but differs in recipe of cast, script and twist. I love each character and what they portray. Both lead actors did their part to make everyone who watches it drool over and fall in love even love story. The supporting cast also did their part perfectly but I just do not like the ending. Long introduction, good climax and then abruptly ending the story equals a low rating. But because you already fell in love with the characters you’ll watch it till the end.