Review: Coffee Prince

Coffee Prince revolves around the story of Andie or Go Eun Chan in the original version (Yun Eun-hye), a girl who gives up her feminine image to help support her family with multiple jobs and Arthur or Choi Han Kyul (Gong Yoo) who despite being handsome and the heir of a big food company, is forced by her grandmother to settle down and arranged many dates for him; too bad for Arthur because he does not believe in a long-term relationship. After a series of encounter, Andie was mistaken for a boy by Arthur and was offered to be his gay lover to avoid dates set by his grandmother. Because Andie was desperately in need of money, she had no choice but to accept it.

Arthur’s grandmother made him in charge of a coffee shop in danger of being bankrupt. Taking this opportunity to earn more money, Andie volunteered to work in the coffee shop named Coffee Prince. After a series of events, feelings eventually started to spark between the two. But the problem is Arthur has no idea that Andie is really a girl.

GMA- 7’s Coffee Prince, one of the Korean Telenovelas shown on primetime television, is the only foreign show to land on the Top 10 primetime evening shows (AGB Nielsen survey). Koreanovelas sell in Philippines because of these two reasons: First, all the characters are good- looking, more handsome and lovely than the usual Filipinos, second, the conflicts are familiar and unique to societies ruled by social harmony and filial loyalty.

What’s good about Coffee Prince is that the story isn’t just about romance of the two main characters, but about the natural conflicts of all the characters. Andie’s charm, especially her bubbly and tomboyish character captured the heart of the Filipino viewers that made the series a consistent contender in ratings. Credits should also be given to the supporting characters and the script that gave life to the story.

When I heard that Coffee Prince is to be premiered in GMA-7, I was disappointed because I was expecting it to be aired to its rival station, ABS-CBN, where Yun Eun-hye’s other series, Princess Hours was aired. I was having thoughts that maybe the Kapuso Network won’t give justice to its dubbing and revision of lines. Just as what I have expected, the dubbing was one of the worse I have heard. The voice was not suited to the character they were voicing. It might have been better if they added subtitles than dub their speech. And the original lines were changed to fit the “primetime” showing. Although I know that there are lines in which children should not be exposed to, I wish GMA-7 should have stick with the original lines to preserve the consistency and flow of the story. Another thing is that GMA-7 should just have used the Korean names of the characters instead of using local names.

I have nothing to say about Coffee Prince’s production, it’s just that GMA-7 should have considered maintaining the series’ unique perspective which some Asian countries have followed. - MARY GRACE INGARAN

Photograph Source:
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