Watching Coffee & Vanilla meant for me... wondering which scenes I was re-watching from western eighties/nineties movies. 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 1/5 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 becomes suspicious, at times alienated from her, showing signs from some psychic disorder or traumatic event in his former 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 it is this long lasting question that the makers are aiming at. "Can I jump to happiness with my prince, letting him in control or better not?" Perhaps the western eighties movies, and also this Japanese version, fill a need. Thirty years ago young western women started to compete for a well paid career of their own, unlike their mothers. It was the Age of the Yuppies, working hard, enjoying luxury at short intervals. The paradoxical result was a collective longing to Cinderella stories. In this series both lead actors are well known, good in acting, so it doesn't hurt the eye to see them. Also the message of this series has some serious undertones. 'Girl, keep your wits when someone starts sweet-talking to you' but also 'In fairytales a girl can break a curse with nothing but her courage and steadfastness.' Both elements are nice to know, and reassuring.
The Bad
Unlike the movies I couldn't feel a spark of eroticism between the couple in this series. 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 who think otherwise, but I've really had my fill of male obsessiveness, male harems, or males saying Kawaiii 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, if you've have been working like a dog all day, got yourself in a black mood, then you can tune right in, enjoy some candy sweet moments and a few unintentional laughs.
