KoreanVibe.com

Posted on November 11, 2010 by daiko

Coffee House comes as a refreshing story, wrote by  sitcom writer Song Jae Jung (Unstoppable HighKick) and directed by Pyo Min Soo who directed  In Soon is Pretty and Worlds Within.

The screen opens with an unintentional meeting between a famous but quirky 32 years old writer Lee Jin Soo and a careless, jobless and hopeless 25 years old Kang Seung Yeon and later Kang becomes Lee’s secretary.
Lee Jin Soo works for years with Seo Eun Young, a smart, successful 31 years old woman, a CEO of publishing company who publishes all Jin Soo’s books.

With 2 women around Jin Soo, we guess that he will end up romantically with the less than perfect Seung Yeon as  has been often seen as common recipe in many Korean dramas.

But when we brought to explore deeper and deeper into each episode, the scriptwriter smartly opens one by one the depth of 10 years relationship between Jin Soo and Eun Young.
Their relationship foundation was solid as rock, they’ve been together through all the good and bad and Eun Young was the only one who stood beside Jin Soo in his darkest days of his life after the death / suicide of his ex-wife whom had just  divorced by him before the death.

Jin Soo’s ex-wife Hee Soo was none other than Eun Young’s best friend.
And Eun Young’s ex-fiancee, Han Ji Won was introduced to her by none other than Jin Soo itself.

Through some scenes, we see Jin Soo who doesn’t care for other people shows his sincere face and attitude to Eun Young. Although Jin Soo always quickly changes his sincere face with his fake humorous ones, we knows he cares for Eun Young.

So, we thought it’s weird if the scriptwriter and drama’s crew forced a Jin Soo-Seung Yeon ending. But  they made right choice so we at last have a Jin Soo-Eun Young ending.

Overall Coffee House is well written drama, superb pace, with solid casts  build strong chemistry. And well directed too.
With fresh story, thankfully there’re no secret birth, deathly illness or misunderstanding love.

We love Lee Jin Soo’s personality, a rich character. An eccentric, quirky writer. He’s not a superhero or prince charming character , he’s not perfect in many area, a down to earth character , just a difficult to be pleased writer with haunted past, that’s it.
Kang Ji Hwan was terrific as usual ! No question about his acting quality !

Park Shi Yeon surprised us ! She brought Seo Eun Young into loveable character, how can we hate her?
We’re looking forward for her next role !

Ham Eun Jung gave her all , although in some parts she exaggerated her acting, but in many other parts she’s superb too !

About Han Ji Won (played by Jung Woong In), as a single minded person, his character was fresh and made us laugh every single time he appeared on screen.

We love Kang Seung Yeon’s family, her wittty halmoni, aboji and dongseng.

The publishing company and Coffee Bene’s crew are cute,  sweet and hard working too.

Memorable moments :

Naked Dance ….. are you crazy Seung Yeon? Ha ha ha

Kyak Kyak moment

Birthday gift for Jin Soo is a  sweet kiss inside a telephone box under the rain.

The hottest kiss ever in Korean drama history? We bet !

Jin Soo was sitting, waiting for an hour  for Seung Yeon to cry over her broken heart . So sweet !

The decision to call Eun Young took 2 years long, oh man !

The moment of truth : ‘saranghae’
Is it right if we make assumption that it took 12 years for Jin Soo to said that ?
Sometimes women don’t need the mighty 3 words ‘I Love You’ , but when you dealing with a person like Jin Soo, you need those words to be sure. Ha Ha !

Finally, the ring found its real hand, sealed the life time contract between part A : Lee Jin Soo and part B : Seo Eun Young.

When we finished Coffee House, it’s so intriguing to know the story before Coffee House, the story behind below picture.

Usually in almost Korean dramas we got detail story when, where and how the 2 lead characters meet and how they develop their love relationship.
But, in Coffee House case, Jin Soo’s feeling for Eun Young was already there and we so curious when Jin Soo starts that feeling, after he divorced his wife or a long way before that ?
That’s a mystery and the scriptwriter will not help us , so  it’s up to us to make up our own story or to make everything easier,  just don’t think about it !

In the end, we so fortunate to be able to watch this drama and in our opinion, Coffee House definitely the strong candidate for drama of the year !