Pimping Coffee Prince, a kdrama
Hey there, flist. Delurking from my self-imposed exile to let you know I'm okay. No huge problems in my life, just the same ol' same ol' -- kinda depressed, with a heaping spoonful of mid-life crisis, and a complete inability to focus the moment I think of writing or talking to people. I owe huge apologies to jessriley and pattrose for dropping the ball on commitments I made. But it looks like that's just the space I'm in. Meeting my LMFA commitments is probably the most fannish involvement I can handle at the moment.
Having said that, I really want to share something that's been giving me a whole lot of fannish enjoyment the last couple of weeks. It's off the beaten path so I doubt many of you know about it and it really is wonderful.
I ran across a rec in Rageprufrock's blog for a Korean television serial drama (kdrama for short) called Coffee Prince. I wouldn't have paid any attention but the description hit one of my cast iron het kinks: "...features a tomboy who is literally taken for a boy, and gets paid to act like a lazy, wealthy scion's boyfriend (I'm not making this up or stealing the plot from an SGA story, by the way) to scare away potential suitors." *beams* I only realized a couple years ago that it's the slashiness of the theme that makes it so riveting. The hero always gets to angst about how he has these inappropriate feelings for another man and OMG what should he do?!!! The best versions have the hero decide he loves the other "man" before he knows his beloved is a woman and an acceptable romance object. Yay for slashy subtext! The cheating ones have the guy figure it out before he declares himself. Boo hiss! Yes, I'm looking at you, Victor/Victoria.
Coffee Prince is the best, slashiest version of this theme I've ever come across. Plus the two leads are adorable as puppies when they get their schmoop on (ETA: without being saccharine. That's kinda important to know). The acting, writing, and production values are high, IMO. I can't recommend this highly enough. You can find the English subtitled versions here. It's a streaming site so you can watch it without downloading, although I love it so much that it's a keeper. The series is still ongoing -- there are ten one-hour episodes up at this point with six left to go.
Okay, so... pimping. Rageprufrock's description is basically only true for the first two hours. The 'pretending to be boyfriends' is a one time deal because Playboy's grandmother has set up a bunch of matchmaking, blind dates that Playboy isn't interested in. Playboy and Tomboy have a blast scaring off the girls and doing the male-bonding bit. Grandmother is made of sterner stuff and insists that if her grandson doesn't get married then he can run a successful business instead. She gives him three months to make a broken down cafe into a thriving business or she'll disinherit him. Tomboy encourages Playboy to go for it and hire "him" to work there. The name of the cafe is Coffee Prince and it's near a women's university so Playboy decides their gimmick will be that only "princes" or men will work there. This is, of course, the main reason Tomboy cannot reveal she is actually a girl because she desperately needs the job to support her mother and sister. o.O (There has to be a reason or the show resolves itself pretty darn quickly. *g*)
The next eight hours are about making the cafe a success and the growing UST between the two leads. It's perfectly done with kudos to the actress for her performance as a naturally boyish young woman who's been mistaken for a boy all her life and handles the roughhousing and mutual insults that express male affection with casual reciprocity. She really reads like a guy and it's understandable that she's able to fool everyone. The actor does an outstanding job as well and his performance is the one I'm most interested in because his story is slash. He's falling for a guy and he bounces between affection, admiration, annoyance, startlement, terror, angst and longing. It's an amazing performance.
And just to make this absolutely irresistible, I'm going to link to a Youtube clip so you can see what I'm talking about. There aren't any subtitled clips available but the body language is far more informative than the words in this scene. The context is that Playboy tries to sublimate his growing attraction by declaring that they should be sworn brothers and this scene is them hanging out at the beach pretending they aren't in love with each other. At one point, Playboy holds Tomboy's hand (apparently this is kosher in Korean culture between two males) and it's clear from their expressions that they both know it's not brotherly at all. It's nighttime and Tomboy falls asleep while waiting for the sunrise and Playboy slowly, tenderly embraces "him" as a lover to see what it feels like. (At this point, I exploded from squee. It was the finest, best quality, most thrilling squee I've felt in years. I sprained my rewind finger. Don't deprive yourselves of the squee!) He breaks from it and it's clear he's overwhelmed, terrified and wants it so much that being near Tomboy without acting on it is unbearable. The words he speaks while staring at the sleeping Tomboy are: "I don't think I can take it any longer. You're dismissed starting from today."
But don't worry. He's being a complete jerk and it smacks of sexual harassment, but Tomboy is pretty pissed off at the complete turnaround and refuses to be fired and the angsting and fighting continue. *g*
Lastly, I'll point to my icon which is the expression on Playboy's face after he can't fight his feelings any longer and tells Tomboy he wants to try to have a relationship. This is him holding her for the first time as a real boyfriend and, yes, he still thinks she's a man. So, so, so utterly adorable. This happens at the end of episode ten and there are six more to come so I don't think this is a real spoiler. This is, after all, a romance and they're the leads.
Again, if you decide to give Coffee Prince a try, you can find all the subtitled episodes here. They just updated and screwed up the first three episode links but that will get cleared up in a day or so.
Disclaimer: I'm using the identifiers Playboy and Tomboy because it took me at least five hours before I could associate the Korean names with the characters - Han Kyul and Eun Chan. I thought this would be easier for pimping purposes.
Having said that, I really want to share something that's been giving me a whole lot of fannish enjoyment the last couple of weeks. It's off the beaten path so I doubt many of you know about it and it really is wonderful.
I ran across a rec in Rageprufrock's blog for a Korean television serial drama (kdrama for short) called Coffee Prince. I wouldn't have paid any attention but the description hit one of my cast iron het kinks: "...features a tomboy who is literally taken for a boy, and gets paid to act like a lazy, wealthy scion's boyfriend (I'm not making this up or stealing the plot from an SGA story, by the way) to scare away potential suitors." *beams* I only realized a couple years ago that it's the slashiness of the theme that makes it so riveting. The hero always gets to angst about how he has these inappropriate feelings for another man and OMG what should he do?!!! The best versions have the hero decide he loves the other "man" before he knows his beloved is a woman and an acceptable romance object. Yay for slashy subtext! The cheating ones have the guy figure it out before he declares himself. Boo hiss! Yes, I'm looking at you, Victor/Victoria.
Coffee Prince is the best, slashiest version of this theme I've ever come across. Plus the two leads are adorable as puppies when they get their schmoop on (ETA: without being saccharine. That's kinda important to know). The acting, writing, and production values are high, IMO. I can't recommend this highly enough. You can find the English subtitled versions here. It's a streaming site so you can watch it without downloading, although I love it so much that it's a keeper. The series is still ongoing -- there are ten one-hour episodes up at this point with six left to go.
Okay, so... pimping. Rageprufrock's description is basically only true for the first two hours. The 'pretending to be boyfriends' is a one time deal because Playboy's grandmother has set up a bunch of matchmaking, blind dates that Playboy isn't interested in. Playboy and Tomboy have a blast scaring off the girls and doing the male-bonding bit. Grandmother is made of sterner stuff and insists that if her grandson doesn't get married then he can run a successful business instead. She gives him three months to make a broken down cafe into a thriving business or she'll disinherit him. Tomboy encourages Playboy to go for it and hire "him" to work there. The name of the cafe is Coffee Prince and it's near a women's university so Playboy decides their gimmick will be that only "princes" or men will work there. This is, of course, the main reason Tomboy cannot reveal she is actually a girl because she desperately needs the job to support her mother and sister. o.O (There has to be a reason or the show resolves itself pretty darn quickly. *g*)
The next eight hours are about making the cafe a success and the growing UST between the two leads. It's perfectly done with kudos to the actress for her performance as a naturally boyish young woman who's been mistaken for a boy all her life and handles the roughhousing and mutual insults that express male affection with casual reciprocity. She really reads like a guy and it's understandable that she's able to fool everyone. The actor does an outstanding job as well and his performance is the one I'm most interested in because his story is slash. He's falling for a guy and he bounces between affection, admiration, annoyance, startlement, terror, angst and longing. It's an amazing performance.
And just to make this absolutely irresistible, I'm going to link to a Youtube clip so you can see what I'm talking about. There aren't any subtitled clips available but the body language is far more informative than the words in this scene. The context is that Playboy tries to sublimate his growing attraction by declaring that they should be sworn brothers and this scene is them hanging out at the beach pretending they aren't in love with each other. At one point, Playboy holds Tomboy's hand (apparently this is kosher in Korean culture between two males) and it's clear from their expressions that they both know it's not brotherly at all. It's nighttime and Tomboy falls asleep while waiting for the sunrise and Playboy slowly, tenderly embraces "him" as a lover to see what it feels like. (At this point, I exploded from squee. It was the finest, best quality, most thrilling squee I've felt in years. I sprained my rewind finger. Don't deprive yourselves of the squee!) He breaks from it and it's clear he's overwhelmed, terrified and wants it so much that being near Tomboy without acting on it is unbearable. The words he speaks while staring at the sleeping Tomboy are: "I don't think I can take it any longer. You're dismissed starting from today."
But don't worry. He's being a complete jerk and it smacks of sexual harassment, but Tomboy is pretty pissed off at the complete turnaround and refuses to be fired and the angsting and fighting continue. *g*
Click to viewLastly, I'll point to my icon which is the expression on Playboy's face after he can't fight his feelings any longer and tells Tomboy he wants to try to have a relationship. This is him holding her for the first time as a real boyfriend and, yes, he still thinks she's a man. So, so, so utterly adorable. This happens at the end of episode ten and there are six more to come so I don't think this is a real spoiler. This is, after all, a romance and they're the leads.
Again, if you decide to give Coffee Prince a try, you can find all the subtitled episodes here. They just updated and screwed up the first three episode links but that will get cleared up in a day or so.
Disclaimer: I'm using the identifiers Playboy and Tomboy because it took me at least five hours before I could associate the Korean names with the characters - Han Kyul and Eun Chan. I thought this would be easier for pimping purposes.