Coffee prince...

or

Hana Kimi...

...which one dya prefer?

I think it's too close a fight, as both have their own merits (and demerits). But because they both touch on the theme of homosexuality, I shall write about them in the same post. I thought it's pretty interesting that scriptwriters are now more adventurous in their work, it wouldn't have happened 10 years ago. I find it especially clever of them to include the topic of homosexuality within the light genre that is romantic comedy. Cos while it makes the topic more viewer friendly, we are made to question so many things. So we get to see homosexuality without all the explicit hard-core scenes that would appear in gay movies. Anyway, I must say that homosexuality has always been and will always be a controversy so even without the explicitness of gay movies, slipping in the theme of homosexuality in romantic comedies will make people think.

As much as both Coffee Prince and Hana Kimi are romantic comedies, I feel that Coffee Prince is more for an adult audience while Hana Kimi will appeal more to the youngsters. The school setting in Hana Kimi really waters down the seriousness of homosexuality I think. Although the single-ed school setting makes it a fertile breeding ground for gays, somehow I am led to believe that whatever feelings of being a homosexual that one has in school are usually transitory. It's just the time when people are exploring their sexuality and sometimes they tend to get confused. But then later they realise what they really are and most of the time things go back to normal, where the norm is being heterosexual. I say this because I come from a single-ed school myself and there were a fair share of gossip about some girls in school. And anyway in Hana Kimi, didn't Xiu Yi end up liking Julia? So even though for the most part of the show, he liked Rui Xi homosexually, in the end he was just confused.

Thus, in that sense, Coffee Prince does better in terms of exploring homosexuality. Cos people take adults more seriously, you just can't deny it. And since Coffee Prince doesn't have the high school setting, it makes me more accepting of what the producers are trying to explore. Coffee Prince is also more daring as they had the leads kiss before Han Kyul found out that Eun Chan was a girl, and the way Han Kyul was fretting over his sexual orientation and finally confessed his homo feelings to Eun Chan looked more realistic.

Actually, I believe that both dramas end up protecting the status quo since both leading couples are heterosexual, but while it lasted, homosexuality was better explored in Coffee Prince. Still, I thought it would have been more interesting if both dramas had been a bit more daring to take it a bit further. Have Quan in the dark about Ruixi's gender until like the end of the serial. We would have both Quan and Xiu Yi thinking they are gay, haha. In the case of Coffee Prince, I thought it would have been more explosive if Han Kyul had found out that Eun Chan's a girl the night they slept together before the latter left to study overseas. Then again, me is not a scriptwriter so what do I know, right?

So, I'll leave it to you all to think about it. As for the performance by the cast, I thought all the leads gave a strong and convincing performance. I'd give both my thumps up to Ella and Yoon Eun Hye for their strong showing as guys in their respective dramas. Yoon Eun Hye is really a good actress man, for someone relatively young. Gong Yoo was realistic enough and the laid-back attitude shown through his fashion sense in the show was pretty cute too. As for Wu Chun, I have too many things to say about him but I reckon people will click on the 'x' at the top right hand corner of the screen before I finish so I better focus on his character in Hana Kimi, hehe. I'd say he was really sweet and protective, but somehow I thought his last effort in protecting Ruixi's identity in the last episode was a bit overdone? If you think about it, how far can you go in keeping her identity a secret when other people are fast realising she's a girl? And since they both like each other, shouldn't they have enough confidence to continue their relationship openly as a guy and a girl?

Ok it's just me and my knotty thoughts lar. I should just continue idolising Wu Chun without thinking so much about the dramas, haha. Anyway, is Romantic Princess going to be aired on Channel U in Jan 2008? I saw the teaser and though I can't read the title since I can't read Chinese, the pictures seem like those of Romantic Princess. So exciting! January is such a good month, haha!

Before that fantastic month comes, I shall be ending my 2007 with a full year review tomorrow, on the last day of December, so till then!