So...there's Panda (the girl), who's name is literally Pan Da-Yang (played by Yoon Seung-Ah). She owns a cafe that she's sunk all her money into and apparently her parents are dead (?) but she has a sister. The patissier she hired kinda sucks. She's also out of cash and trying to get a job (not entirely following this, as doesn't she have a café to run?) working on a new pastry magazine venture at this fancy French sounding bakery that's very successful (and more about the new CEO/son of which later--he's the guy on the right in the picture).
And Mr. Hedgehog is the guy on the left. His name is Ko Seung-Ji (played by Lee Dong-Hae, a member of Kpop group Super Junior). His gloomy past apparently involves having been in jail (where he enrolled in a pastry making course) and perhaps something with being an orphan or abandoned? Not sure yet. He currently works as a baker/patissier for an old man that isn't actually his grandfather, but who treats him like a grandson. And he also is a loan shark? Hedgehog, that is, not the old man. He runs into Panda (yeah, ok, I'm just gonna call her Panda) a couple of times while chasing someone who owes him money and suspects that she may be an accomplice (she's not) but he doesn't actually meet her until the end of episode 1 when he goes running to her cafe because she's posted a help wanted ad and he wants to not rely on the old man anymore because the old man's daughter is back in town and the old man is too poor to help both of them and he feels guilty. Whew. That was a long sentence.
Meanwhile, the other dude is Choi Won-Il (played by Choi Jin-Hyuk who is one of the main characters in The Last Empress which I'm not gonna see because yo, chaebol royal antics and death and unhappy endings, yo but have been intrigued by the characters therein, so I'm kinda curious to see him in this). He is the recently returned son of the fancy place and is the new CEO (taking over, I think, from his step-father? who isn't overly happy about it?). He's also the childhood friend (and I do mean childhood -- the little clip shows them at around maybe 9 or 10 years old?) of Panda and she was his first love but he hasn't seen her since then because he was sent abroad to study.
Gotta stop a minute here. My little dude is 10. Nearly 11. I cannot imagine him at age 20-something (maybe even 30?) having NEVER dated anyone and pining after a girl he knew when he was 10. TEN. He's not interested in girls. He's interested in Nintendo. What is with the childhood friend thing in Asian media?? I don't get it. It's very prevalent in Japan and China as well. You see it all the time. Anyway. Back to our story.
He's determined to seek Panda out and immediately gets a helping hand when his secretary (who is crushing on him hard) hands him a stack of resumes...including Panda's. Like, right on top. He immediately recognises her. Partly from the picture (oh come on!) but also from her name (yeah, I'll give you that one). His younger sister advises him to surprise his old friend because a visit like that will surely make sparks fly.
This is when you know that the actual love interest is definitely Mr. Hedgehog and poor Mr. Childhood Friend has no chance at all because it cuts to Panda at her restaurant hanging up a huge panda suit outside as a display while standing on a little stool. She's just received the news from her secretary friend that she's got the interview when she, of course, falls off the stool right into the arms of a grinning Mr. Hedgehog, who is there to see about the job posting (and probably to ask about the possible accomplice thing, but I suspect the show won't even bother with that). And...that's also right when poor Mr. Second Lead pulls up in his fancy car, to witness his first love in the arms of another man. Boom.
Wow, I wrote up way too much for this. No way am I gonna keep that up.
Anyway, the acting seems okay. Other than how the show itself feels a bit dated, it's okay. I'm saying okay a lot, aren't I? I wasn't actually looking for a love triangle plot and I kinda suspect that there will be no surprises in this show, but eh, we'll see. Not entirely sure I'll watch the rest of it right now. I might keep this as one to finish later. But maybe I'll give it one more episode before I decide, because at least now the three major players have actually met each other. Will update later.
Edit: I've watched 3 episodes now and I'm still feeling ambivalent. I mean, I'm feeling like I should like it but I haven't really connected with the characters. Maybe it's because of the pace. I dunno. There hasn't actually been much screen time where Panda is actually with either of the two love interest dudes and so it's kinda hard to feel it. Actually, I feel more like I've been told about their individual motivations more than I've seen them. There's no real spark.
And Mr. Second Lead (the actor I was most interested in seeing) hasn't done much but make confused faces and angst about things all by himself. Isn't he supposed to be at least late 20's/close to 30? He flails and pouts. COME ON. A secondary character made a good point to him...basically, he's in an unrequited love triangle that doesn't actually exist except in his head. He's making the relationship between Panda and Hedgehog into this big thing but at this point they don't have any relationship other than a business one. And he's made no moves of his own on Panda other than to give her expensive presents that are kind of weirding her out (a super expensive massage chair from a guy you haven't seen in 15 years is a strange gift by any measure).
And there's all that typical Kdrama stuff where Panda apparently also knew Hedgehog when he was a boy too, so he's ALSO a childhood friend. But he doesn't know it because he lost all memories before 11 after some traumatic accident/incident (and there's gangster-y connotations). But she hasn't connected any dots (nor has he or Mr. Second Lead) and we only know because of a flashback. And there's gonna be family drama with Step-Dad of Mr. Second Lead (who seems like a wannabe-evil dude that's more like a buffoon). So...yeah, I dunno. I'm feeling like it's kinda clumsy. But I don't dislike it. I just can't say I like it either.
Edit: So.......I watched through episode 4 while at the gym today. And was feeling even more meh about it. Mr. Second Lead was getting even more ridiculous and pout-y and Panda, who looks a bit like a teenager, was also really acting like one too. Okay, you're cute. We get it. But how has she survived up until now? The only characters I'm liking much at all are Hedgehog (and this may be due entirely to Lee Dong-Hae being kinda cute and his acting not entirely sucking) -- and I don't really get exactly why he's helping Panda so much -- and the grandpa (he's good all the way around and I'm pretty sure he's actually the for-real grandpa of the Hedgehog character and his daughter is for-real mom of Hedgehog) and Panda's aunt (at least one person in the family has a brain).
Wasn't really feeling much charisma between the two leads though and as more of the "past" stuff was hinted at, it was just making me feel...weary. So I looked up a review and found this. And...yeah. Sounds about like what I was already feeling. So...sounds like another one to write off. Maybe someone could just tell me at which point there were some good Lee Dong-Hae moments and I could skip to those?
Final Edit: I thought I'd do a quick skip through the very last episode because that's usually where there's, like, some romantic bits, right? Eh. I take back what I said about the acting being okay. All of the bits of the last episode that I watched were awkward as all hell. That makes no sense at all. Usually it gets better as the actors inhabit their characters. Ah, well. Gotta find something else.
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