Prince Coffee Lab (2018)

Story 6/10
PROs
I love Gao Xing. Her cheerful personality makes everyone smile. Her bluntness about her emotions is something enviable. She isn't afraid to tell everyone upfront how much she likes them. Qin Zhe Mo, Jiang Shang Wu's cousin, is also a beautifully woven character, initially Gao Xing's crush. Gao Xing and Qin Zhe Mo's friendship is honestly so cool. They tell each other about their love lives over dinner and they both know how much the other loves their significant other. Whenever Han Xiao misunderstands Gao Xing's and Qin Zhe Mo's relationship, Gao Xing would always meet up with Han Xiao to tell her that Qin Zhe Mo really loves her. I loved the ending of this drama, especially the trip Gao Xing and Jiang Shang Wu takes to find a certain type of coffee bean. The drama really describes, in much detail, how to make coffee.

CONs
Jiang Shang Wu's personality is terrible. He's yes and then he's no. They were in the boss and worker zone, then friend zone, then family zone. His sole reason for not being in a relationship with her is his dislike for her tomboy nature, which does not make sense because he keeps on thinking about her. In the Korean drama it made sense because Han Gyul had to reconsider his sexual identity, which is not a simple understanding. In this Chinese remake, Jiang Shang Wu clearly knows she's a woman, so he's not facing a sexual identity crisis like the show suggests. I disliked how Gao Xing had to apologize to Jiang Shang Wu all the time for hiding the fact that she's friends with his cousin, which is a ridiculous reason to break up with her.

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I don't usually like watching remakes because most of the time they turn out to be disappointing but I gave this a try anyway.

What I like about the drama is that they certainly added things that made the drama better or make it their own. I like how they improved the story with the supporting characters. I also liked how they didn't exactly copy events from the original drama and added their own. The design of the places were interesting, especially the main character's house and the coffee shop itself. And I also like how they really focused on coffee and added more interesting things regarding coffee.

However, they made a big change about the male main character that affected the plot greatly. The drama followed the plot even though they made a lot of changes but it was a huge mistake to change the female main character's gender from hidden to exposed. She was regarded as a tomboy from day one. Everyone knew she was a girl but their attitude and behavior towards her was the same in the original drama when they thought that the main character was a boy. I was baffled to see that the male main character's biggest crisis was that she was a tomboy and she didn't tell him that she went to the exhibition as a companion of his cousin. I don't know if it's really a huge problem to not fall in love with a girl just because she dresses like guy or acts like a tomboy in rl. In the drama, nothing supported it and nothing made the male main character feel pressured to not fall in love with a tomboy, unlike the original story. This was really poor writing in my opinion.

I like everything except that part I mentioned above. This drama is still nice to watch and I did like it. I commend this drama for trying to be its own even tho it's a remake. They had flaws but still had other things that made it special. Thumbs up for this remake.

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Ok first of all I promise wont be biases and compare it less better to the original story. I just wandering around to seek more C-drama and found this adaptation. I like the background stories for all characters in here which way more different from the original (still stick to the main plot of Gao Xing as the head leader of her house and struggle around part times to sustains her family and Jiang Shang Wu as the rebellious heir of coffee business) and their relation to each other too. The screenwriter done extremely good within their boundary which contain them to gave the mains overly romance acts due the censorship.

The cafe interior and exterior way much different and I love it when the gave Chinese touch to them which it so unique, the wardrobes are goods, the characters of Gao Xing and Jiang Shang Wu way much better since they didnt force to exactly same as Go Eun Chan and Choi Han Gyul. It just shame Qin Zhe Mo character which played by Wang Wayne ahjussi tried to have same facial expression to Choi Han Seong which played by Lee Sun Kyun ahjussi. Wang Wayne ahjussi acting so good even the cgi in the Infernal Affairs still like a sh*t but doesnt effect the acting. Gao Xing sister is less irritating than original Go Eun Chae.

Seriously the screenwriter should get the award, his story telling and the way he made those characters interact with each other so good. The suspense it gave when they have a barista competition and gave out ancient Chinese culture to make coffee too so educational. Overall I love it~~~

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This drama is a Chinese spin-off of the 2007 Korean romantic comedy “Coffee Prince”. Although it is a nice watch, the changes done from the Korean adaptation made this drama failed to produce the expected effect of the male lead’s struggles as he finds himself falling in love with his tomboy employee; which made Eric Le Yang’s character (Jiang Shang Wu) seem delusional and his reactions were almost illogical. Xu Lu (as the tomboy Gao Xing) played her character well, but there was no romantic chemistry with the male lead. It seems that the changes to the story were brought about because of Chinese censorship which it would have been better to create a whole different drama. Overall, the drama is nice to watch if the viewer knows nothing about the original story! Aside from the changes to fit censorship demands, even the acting from the second leading couple was not the best as expected from a seasoned actor as Wang Yang.

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Version sympa et agréable à regarder malgré quelques défauts.

J'ai voulu regardé cette version chinoise de "1st Coffee Prince Shop" parce que j'ai adoré le drama d'origine.

J'ai eu du mal à m'habituer au ML (excellent acteur, d'ailleurs) parce c'est difficile d'avoir le charme de Gong Yoo :)
Mais après quelques épisodes, je me suis mise à apprécier ces personnages.

Quelques remarques troublantes, cependant :

- que se passe-t-il avec le 5e prince du café ? On ne voit l'acteur à l'écran que quelques minutes de temps en temps. Dans le drama original, le personnage avait une place importante, son histoire d'amour avec la mère célibataire japonaise aussi. Dans la version chinoise, il disparait complètement. Y-aurait-il eu un problème pendant le tournage avec l'acteur ??? Le réalisateur a-t-il utilisé un acteur virtuel ?

- cette version a voulu reproduire les ruptures (en nombre et en timing) entre le ML et la FL. Mais dans le contexte "tomboy" (et pas fille déguisée en garçon), certaines disputes n'ont AUCUN sens !!

- Cette version s'est approprié l'histoire originale et c'est amusant de constater que les couples qui se forment n'ont pas les mêmes partenaires que dans la version coréenne (mère et sœur).

J'ai regretté que les moments amusants de la romance au sein du CL dans les derniers épisodes, soient esquivés /éludés par rapport à la version coréenne. La lutte du ML contre ses désirs d'intimité, les moments de tendresse et de skinship, la scène du petit déjeuner sur la terrasse, etc. Pudeur chinoise ?

Les OST sont adaptés sans être particulièrement mémorables, cependant.

Ce drama reste sympa et agréable à regarder malgré quelques défauts.

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