See YOO in Dec.8.2009

Han Ryu 2008 January (1)

“The conservative me, changed after going through the filming of this drama series, a drama series that is really like hand brewed coffee brimming with flavour.”

Han Ryu 2008 January (2)

Displaying the attraction of his body, female audiences' eyes stare without blinking

Based on author Lee Sun Mi’s best selling short story adapted to a screenplay of the same name, “Coffee Prince No. 1 Shop” also garnered very high ratings in Korea. The series has been anticipated because of YEH, who gained very wide popularity in “Goong – Love in Prince”, who acts as a “beautiful youth”. But the topic which the audience cared about is the “Wan So Nam” (Most Cherished Male) image of Gong Yoo who acted as Han Kyeul in the series.

According to him, this is his follow up work to “One Fine Day”. Are there areas where he looks for a fresh approach when creating this new character ?
“I am not the type who plans and prepares for a role nor am I one who fixes that the role should be played this way or that way, but I try to show to the audience ‘what I feel Han Kyeul is like’ so that the audience will feel “is this really Gong Yoo or Han Kyeul ?” and play the role as natural as possible and put myself within the role.”

Quite a lot of bodily exposure, so do you place more emphasis on body ‘maintenance’ (NB : sorry had to guess maintenance as can’t quite read the chinese words.).

"Compared to previous works, I did not have to prepare much, because there was not much time. During OFD days, my body was a lot bigger than now, I have become slimmer. But when I heard that that there will be scenes where I have to take off my clothes (laughs) I had to quickly get my body into shape in 2 months, as I felt that a slim and long body type is more appropriate for Han Kyeul. The filming process of the drama was extremely tense and difficult , that is why since filming completed up to now I am still quite thin. (laughs) Now that I am thinner, I am able to wear different types of clothes which makes it not that bad.”

There was a lot of HK bathing scenes and similar scenes exposing his beautiful body, and we heard that due to fans’ requests, scenes of him changing his clothes were increased.

“I personally do not like scenes exposing my body (laughs) , so in the scenes required by the script, for example to show events in HK’s daily lifestyle, a half naked body bathing scene is acceptable to me, other than this I refused to do. The writer and the director are female, playfully saying “ take off your clothes more”, but some scenes were not filmed according to my wishes.”

One scene which gave me a deep impression was where HK was burdened by his liking for Eun Chan who was pretending to be male.

"In reality, the matter of a man falling in love with another man is not a simple thing… in the end , Eun Chan is a girl, for me, no matter how much I imagine, I cannot fall in love with a man. But the extremely conservative me changed while filming the drama, not to say that homosexuality is right or that it is wrong, but that one should totally respect all kinds of love. It has nothing to do with gender, love is love.”

For me, the most memorable scene is the kissing scene with Eun Chan.

“Troubled on his own because he fell in love with a man, and eventually giving in saying ‘No matter whether you are a man or an alien, I don’t care’ the first time to kiss Eun Chan, in my mind, the person before me is not a woman but a man, to confess and kiss a man, I have no such experience (laughs), so it felt extremely strange, but if in reality a person like Eun Chan exists, I think that person will be very attractive and I will fall in love with that person. Ahhh, but she does not exist.” (laughs)

Treating his mother and grandmother like a loved one is also part of HK’s attraction.

"When I was acting as Han Kyeul, I felt sorry for my mom, I am not that loving as a son. At home I am a rather cold person, if I would also act like that, my mom would be a lot happier, I need to improve myself. (laughs). My maternal grandmother does not live very far from us, but I am also not as like that in the drama, afraid to make things difficult.” (laughs)

Finally I asked, what are the good points of CP ?

“Perhaps, not too much attention is paid to youth oriented idol dramas, but this one has a beautiful love story. In the reality of daily life, it is a drama much like hand brewed coffee brimming with flavour. I don’t think the Japanese audience is much different to the Korean audience, and they will like this drama. I also really like HK’s penthouse, although they are all props, the design of the bedroom and the choice of furniture had my input, actually my own room is not as nice, and I live with my parents.” (laughs).

GY answers Readers’ Questions

Original cr:baidu
1st post credit: santaLF at yoohouse
English Transaltion by Ariesw at yoohouse
Re-posted by My Angel at yoohouse