tv spoiler: coffee prince

i don't watch telenovelas. but last weekend was an exception. i've spent my entire day off to watch one.

i remember that before i swore that jewel in the palace would be the last telenovela that i am going to watch. but due to persistent suggestions of my friends to watch another korean telenovela, coffee prince, i just found myself buying a copy and watch it for the entire weekend.
probably whoever coined that term, peer pressure, wasn't able to make it and say the word twice.

the story is about a girl who carried over the the responsibility of being the head of the family after her father died. she works for various jobs from doing food delivery, teaching taekwondo for kids, stitching eyes for stuffed toys,peeling chestnuts and literally everything that could earn her money. then he met a turning 30 year old, arrogant, happy-go-lucky bachelor who was being forced by his dying grandmother to get married and settle a business. it started with a very bad acquaintance and with the physical characteristics of the girl, she was mistook for a boy. eventually, there stubborness somehow made them work well along until the guy was forced by her grand mother to take over an about to crumble coffee shop and triple the investment in a three month span for him to prove himself. obviously, he employed the girl. but the main twist was the coffee shop only employs males to follow the name of the bar, coffee prince. afraid of being fired, the girl kept her identity and remained pretending to be a boy. what she didn't expect was she found herself falling for the guy and same thing with the guy to her.

almost everything about the story has the same ingredients. in particular with the highschool formula: the more you hate, the more you love. but what was nice about it was it tackled a lot of gender issues that transcend from the limitation of heterosexual relationships. it depicted not only the issue of the abused women. but also tackled the emotional male, the tendencies to fall in love with the same sex, and the inevitability of society to accept such relationships.

at the end, it just came into me that it is possible that the original draft of the story intends it as a man-to-man relationship. but since the majority of the target audience are still heterosexuals, they adapted it into the format that would still be watched by the general public. nonetheless, it was still able to execute it with effecient gender sensitity and atleast exceeded my expectations.