Coffee & Vanilla (2019)

A Twisted Cinderella Story

I decided to take a break from c-k-drama to watch the Japanese series Coffee & Vanilla. First I was admiring how this live action version matched the manga, but soon I felt myself looking at downtuned scenes from movies like 9 1/2 weeks (1986), Wild Orchid (1989), Sleeping With The Enemy (1991).

Plot
Coffee & Vanilla has the same plot as these other western movies, a shallow twisted Cinderella story that is meant to glue the emotional, intimate scenes together. There is this naïve girl from the country, without an impressive resume or pedigree, who doesn't realize how pretty she is. She gets discovered by a mundane rich guy, full of tricks, but tired from his own lifestyle. Without breaking a sweat he conquers her, takes her in, starts to cuddle and experiment with her, apparently enjoying her freshness, but after a while even this dum girl feels there's something really weird going on. Her Prince acts strange, at times he's alienated from her, showing signs from some psychic disorder or traumatic event in earlier life. The outside world doesn't seem to matter to both of them. No questions or background stories are asked, parents, family, and friends are strangely unimportant. In stead of that, the outside world gets more hostile for this girl. She starts to feel like a helpless chick, a burden to people around her. Main question is, has Cinderella found her Prince Charming, or not?

The Good
I guess the central theme of this drama is self confidence. The story shows that it is better not to trust easily, but when you really love someone you can break a curse with nothing but your courage and steadfastness. Both elements are nice to know, and reassuring.

The Bad
Too bad I couldn't feel a spark of eroticism between the leading couple. A romance can be based on instant attraction and passion, but their story didn't convince me. The casual remarks of the male lead that he already knew her, wanted her, prepared even a house for her, was creepy to say the least. I know there are many people on this forum who think otherwise, but I've really had my fill of male obsessiveness, or males saying Kawai all the time. If someone would pat my head like the male lead did to others...I would pinch his face real hard.

Verdict
So, can you spend your time with this series? Yes you can, it's just not my cup of tea.

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There are better Jdramas out their to spend your time on.

Overall
I do not recommend watching this. The story is pretty bad and it's basically just a bunch of clichés put together and call a plot.

Story
This story was pretty bad. To start out with, she falls in love with a guy who she doesn't know because he helps her get away from guys hitting on her by taking her out on a date and after spending the night together seems schechy and not honest. Seems realistic asf, right? Now, make this all happen in one afternoon and you have the first episode. After that bad premise, the show brings in two other guys that are interested in her in the next two episodes and does virtually nothing with them after that. After this, the show becomes a series of damsels in distress situations, and the ML always, ALWAYS, finds a way to save her, even if he is in Hong Kong and she is in Japan. Sprinkle in there two more love triangles and that your story.

So now let talk about the characters. Risa is a pretty and young college girl that has all the single guys dying to talk with her and she doesn't allow it. Later on, we find out that she actually thinks very little about herself and actually does not think she is enough for Fukami. On the other hand, Fukami is an obsessed 30-year old that wants this girl he doesn't really know, and once he dates her treats her like his personal pet or object. These are the basics of the two leads

So to recap, this is a love story, with a romance that is faster than the flash, between a girl with no self-esteem and a man who is obsessed with her. This couple then goes through 4 love triangles and many situations where the girl needs to be rescued by the man.

Acting/Cast
Why do they cast a young-looking actor to play a 30-year-old? I know that Sakurada Dori was 27 at the time of filming but this man literally looks like still isn't legally supposed to drink if he was in America. This really takes away from the believability of the drama. Other than that, both Sakurada Dori and Fukuhara Haruka are good actors, although I think I have seen them act better in other works that they are in.

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Tsundere and girl with no self-esteem

I'm not going to reiterate the other reviewers. For me, the rating is mostly for being able to look at Dori Sakurada - oh, my goodness! That said, there really wasn't too much of a story line, other than repeating over and over and over again how low the girl's self-esteem was. I was so tired of "I'm not good enough for him". Actually, she said that so much I had to agree with her. She never even really talked to him so I don't get how they could be in love. He was aggressive, which if she was as innocent as she kept talking about, she would have run for the hills. I just kept waiting for her to get a spine, and it never really happened.

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Storyline:
Risa is loved by every guy without reason. Start from beginning, every male character will suddenly fall in love with Risa without solid reason.

The story is too sweet but only sweet. Unlike manga, the story only sweet.

Acting:
The actors are pretty and handsome.
However, i cannot feel the chemistry between them . It just too robotic and forced . The only scene that i feel romantic is the scene Fukami speak to Yuki :" because you love me".

Risa character should be more complex. At manga, Risa love Fukami but also continue asking herself why Fukami love she. But i cannot feel the same for drama.

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Coffee and Vanilla is a very enjoyable series, it has a bit of 50 shades vibe but the sex scene are to dull (well i grew up on mexican series)... I don't think the love story was too Vanilla, i feel they just showed the male lead as matured enough not to create unnecessary misunderstandings, tho the female lead was way too clumsy that it got on my nerves sometimes. The romance was not fast in term of the male side (he explained when he met her before) but on the female side, well like i said it's a 50 shade vibe
It was just disappointing that Upon the female lead saying she will become mature and strong many times we never really saw her grow into been that
But overall it are really enjoying series, would definitely rewatch

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And this is why it's not worth watching a drama only because of the main lead

Watching Coffee and Vanilla has been... interesting, to say the least. The cast is hot and there's something compelling enough to keep watching, but that's where the pros end.

Risa wants to experience her novel/drama love story and what she gets seems more like a poorly written y/n fanfic lol. They meet and 5 seconds later they're dating and oh wait now they're engaged??? And in the following scene they start living together and it's like trope after trope but everything happens so fast I just can't process all this shit!!!! The chemistry between Risa and Hiroto is pretty much non-existent and it's so uncomfortable trying to watch the intimate moments... the guy really tries to make it seem sexy while this woman stands there with her eyes closed and being stiff like a plank. I refuse to believe these two fuck on a regular basis as they're trying to make us believe! Hiroto tells her to take his clothes off or kiss him or something and she looks at him as if they hadn't been having sex since they started dating. Anyways, I've seen Dori in a better role but I don't have any references with regards to Fukuhara Haruka so idk if Risa being that way is because of the character or bad acting.

Ok I know I've just ranted a lot, but despite all of these terrible things... I was hooked? I had to look away continuously because of the second hand embarrassment, but tbh I had a great time making fun of it and it was a short watch. Still, I don't really recommend it.

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Just another wattpad story

I'm gonna be honest-i didn't hate this show. It was sort of addicting, but for the wrong reasons. I only wanted to watch the next episode to see what other dumbshit idea the writer wrote next. This dollar store quality, cheesy, cheap whatnot plot is meant to be ridiculous and dramatic.Its just every cliche coming together and forming one big old clot of cliche. Your'e not supposed to expect a decent story with redeemable characters. The FL has zero personality, she's made out of foam and only breathes for the ML. The ML just tries to act tough and sexy when he's actually the opposite. He saw the FL for 1 sec and was like yeah i'm gonna marry that girl.

Anyways if u want to just watch something to fill that awaited guilty pleasure that we all crave once in a while, then yes go ahead. But don't bother trying to be logical :)

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Love at first sight heard many time but start a date or start a relationship after that not even give a chance to understand each other completely not heard. Then entry 2nd man I though there will be a love triangle but that man story didn't go much ,then again entry of a man with negative attitude I thought this character has something suspicious that this character now I give spark to the story but after two episode that spark blow off and last all the time I wait for a secret to disclose about male lead that he had seen doubtful with the starting of few episodes that may he had a past ,he had done bad in his past but whatever story come out it had no power or craze which I was expected ,As a whole the drama has no story which make sense but their love story balance the drama (the way he crazy about her ..) other than rest part of story was boring..

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Fast paced romance/ adapted from a manga

If you don't like a drama that is based off of a manga than this is not for you at all or fast paced romance than you are also out of luck.

Storyline/Plot: There wasn't much or any of a storyline to begin with, I had watched it on Viki and the synopsis was very accurate to what I had watched. I didn't mind the lack of storyline which is why I gave it 5.0 since it wasn't misleading. One thing I didn't like was the constant guys liking Risa (FL), even though she was dating Hiroto (ML). Also, it was disgusting how her friend didn't have any morals (I don't believe in girl code), since she found it okay to date her friend's boyfriend.

Acting/Cast: I liked the cast especially since the main leads are from Good Morning Call which was also another good drama. It was a bit cheesy at times with the acting but it was good for how each character was supposed to be portrayed.

In conclusion, it was a good drama for what it was. I didn't really take this all to serious since it wasn't suppose to be serious, it was suppose to be watched for the romance and skinship. So, I wasn't to serious with this review and critizing it. I would definitely re-watch it for something short but entertaining.

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