the message in the bottle is the booze

Ever since Eun Chan's father died, she's been taking care of her younger sister and her mother. Her outward appearance is so unfeminine that she's usually mistaken for guy. Han Kyul is a rich son given a project: Clean up this coffee shop and make it profitable. He ends up hiring Eun Chan, and OMG AM I GAY romance happens.

I had reservations going in. Hell no, I didn't expect something progressive. In the end, most of it turned out as I expected, but there were some parts that pleasantly surprised me.

THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW

( Spoilers )

To sum up: Coffee Prince has problems, but it's cute. And it's only about five episodes too long, rather than about thirty episodes too long, like most k-dramas.

Aryoung is hot. Ki-Chul and his gang of idiots are idiots.

This isn't a sequel and none of the female characters are married. But the titular character is a gangster, so we have two out of three.

Aryoung, the daughter of a powerful Hong Kong boss, goes into hiding in South Korea when a gang war makes her a target. Ki-Chul, a thuggish and bumbling South Korean gangster, is told that he has to take care of this "guest." The relationship gets off to a rocky start, and meanwhile, the Chinese underworld is still searching for Aryoung.

It's a formulaic movie and it's hard to believe that Aryoung would be interested in Ki-Chul, who is an idiot and not even a quarter as badass as she is.

What makes it decent popcorn is that it's occasionally pretty funny, especially when it comes to the the communication difficulties.

Because Aryoung doesn't speak Korean and Ki-Chul doesn't speak Chinese, Ki-Chul hires a young woman to be their translator. The woman is at first terrified when she finds out that she's been conscripted by gangsters, and translates everything nasty that Aryoung says into something nice. Later, swept up by vicarious badassitude, she translates everything nice that Aryoung says into something nasty.

Also: Aryoung is hot.

(I'm using the name spellings and translated title that was used in the subtitled version I watched. It also goes by "Jopog Manura 3" and "Gangster Wife 3".)