Last sip of the Coffee Prince

Apart from the short interludes for the Liverpool vs Wigan football match and the Japanese Grand Priz Race at Fuji, my television was screening the 8th to 17th Cups, including the special programmes, of the Coffee Prince’s First Shop drama series from Saturday to Sunday. It was my very first Korean drama marathon, one that lasted a total of 11 hours over the weekend!

While this experience has left me a little light headed as I write this post, I have to say that the experience was entirely fulfilling and fun! It’s especially good fun when I have my wife besides me drawing parallels between Go Eun Chan’s (Yoon Eun Hye’s character) and Choi Hang Kyul (Gong Yoo’s character) characters and us!

Think I will need a clearer head, and lots of coffee induced caffeine boost, before any attempt in writing a brief synopsis of the series. All I can say now is that Coffee Prince’s First Shop has been a thoroughly enjoyable drama series which did a great job in filling the gap left behind by Flowers for My Life.

On a scale of 10, Coffee Prince’s First Shop is a solid 8 pointer for me. I am already missing Eun Chan’s dogged determination in everything she does and Hang Kyul’s love for his ‘little rascal’.

Gong Yoo trades his Cuppa for Greens

I was surprised when I read in Popseoul that Gong Yoo will be enlisting for army soon. Yup, our suave ‘Coffee Prince” is trading his cuppa of coffee for army fatigues. He must have deferred his enlistment many times since he’s already 28!!! In Singapore, there’s no such thing as deferment. Except for exceptional reasons, all able-bodied young men are shipped off to our camps at a tender age of 19.

I am gonng miss Gong Yoo during the period he’s away. I hope his star will still shine as brightly when he returns to the small screen. In the meantime, I can still depend on Hyun Bin to provide some Korean masculinity on my telly.

Let’s all give Gong Yoo a good farewell and wish him all the best in his new role as a solider!

TEN-HUT!!!

Have a Cuppa! The First Shop of Coffee Prince premieres on Fieldmarshal’s Goggle Box

Something aromatic is wafting from my television screen. Sniff. Sniff. Smells nice, warm, delightful and a tad bitter. It reminds me of something. Oh yeah, it smells like a good cup of hot coffee made from the best roasted arabica coffee beans!

No, I am not behaving this way because of my coffee addiction, nor have I become a connoisseur of coffee, although I did have a stint of studying coffee consumption for an academic thesis before. The coffee-like ’aroma’ comes from the new Korean drama – The First Shop of Coffee Prince.

After much agonising, my wife and I finally succumbed to the temptation of catching this latest drama offering from MBC. Our original plan was to hold out till the release of the dvds, which usually means around a year, so that we can get the version dubbed in Chinese. Guess our need for a Korean drama ‘fix’ was just too strong.

Korean dramas were just not the same after Flowers for My Life, which, in our opinion, is still the best Korean drama out there.

The First Shop of Coffee Prince stars the ever bubbly Yoon Eun Hye (Princess Hours and The Man in the Vineyard fame) and the oh-so-delectable Gong Yoo(One Fine Day). The First Shop of Coffee Prince is MBC’s response to falling viewership for its drama as competition heats up for eyeballs in Korea and other parts of the world.

Based on what I see in the first episode, also known as the “1st Cup“, I believe that MBC has recaptured the magic which we saw in Princess Hours. Filmed in a style akin to the Princess Hours and Alone in Love, The First Shop of Coffee Prince, in all its HD (or high definition) glory, is a slick, stylish and beautiful made drama.

Images are so crisp, that it beat the signals I get from my cable service provider! Alone in Lovewas the only other show where the images were so crystal clear and sharp, and I watched that on dvd mind you. This is another reason why everyone should upgrade to a HD-ready tv and download HD programmes off the internet. Doubt there’s any infringement of IP since the drama was shown on free-to-air MBC channel in Korea. Yay to technolgy! Yay to all the hardworking fan-subbers out there! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Image quality aside, Yoon Eun Hye plays the role of tomboyish girl – Go Eun Chan- really well. We all know that she’s a girl and one can’t help but feel amused that all the men and the women in the drama seem blind to her delicate feminine features. Their ignorance is played out to the maximum effect as Eun Chan and Choi Han Kyul(Gong Yoo’s character) are put in some gender-awkard positions.

As for Gong Yoo, he plays the role of Choi Han Kyul. Han Kyul is a happy-go-lucky epicurean who does nothing all day apart from partying and getting his mum and granny all worked up. Female fans would be glad to know that he has gamely bared (for the benefit of female readers and fans) his upper torso for a few scenes in the 1st Cup.

I have to hand it to Gong Yoo for maintaining such a well-sculpted body. As a guy, I can’t help but admire a beautiful specimen of my gender within the species. Makes me wonder what I should do with the excess flab on my own body. hehe… …

Anyway, I have not laughed so much, or so hard, for some time. The First Shop of Coffee Prince is a great drama to lighten the mood after a hard day’s work. What’s more, there’s eye candies in the form of Yoon Eun Hye, for the guys, and Gong Yoo, for the girls. If these are not enough, the supporting actress – Chae Jung Ahn – is also another pretty face to look out for.

I am already itching and urging my PC to burn the next episode on the dvd. That way, I get to watch the drama on the big screen! Here’s a toast to the drama that’s giving me the reason to stay addicted to, coffee, well actually Korean dramas. I am already looking forward to the next serving of coffee.

Eun Chan! Where’s my cup of coffee? I need it now!!!

(This post will also appear soon in my Korean Drama only blog – HelloHallyu. So don’t be alarmed if you come across the same piece in 2 different blogs! Aja!!!)

I’m back!

Took another sabbatical from blogging. Was suffering from the cursed writer’s block, so thought it’d be better for me to stop writing for a while instead of boring my readers with my incessant rants and raves.

The past month went by in a blur. Work kinda took up much of my time then. I suspect it will take up much of my time in the coming months too. Think I will stop here for today. The shroud of the my writer’s block is still fogging up my mind. Promise to update soon!