Coffee Prince and 4 other Korean drama series that use cross-dressing characters and gender-bender gags
Long before The Tale of Nokdu saw Jang Dong-yoon dress up a woman, K-drama series like Coffee Prince, To the Beautiful You and Sungkyunkwan Scandal all saw female characters disguise themselves as men – to often hilarious effect
Korean dramas might be most famous for romance, but when sprinkled with cross-dressing gags and gender-bending antics, K-drama becomes a recipe for rollicking romcom success. While it’s usually the women dressing up as men, this season we’ve also got one flower boy disguising himself as a woman, all for your viewing pleasure.
Here’s our list of some of the best gender-bender Korean drama series that will leave you in stitches.
Coffee Prince (2007)
The OG of gender-bender Korean dramas, Coffee Prince is one of the most famous shows ever to come out of Korea, with a swoon-worthy performance by Gong Yoo. Yoon Eun-hye plays tomboy Go Eun-chan, who ends up being hired by Choi Han-gyul to pretend to be his gay lover, in order for him to escape blind dates set up by his rich grandmother.
Uninterested in the family business, an ultimatum leads to Han-gyul taking over a rundown coffee shop, renaming it Coffee Prince, and hiring only good-looking men to attract female customers. Eun-chan ends up being one of the waiters and feelings soon develop, despite Han-gyul being convinced Eun-chan is a man.
Han-gyul’s passionate confession of “I like you – whether you’re a man or an alien, I don’t care any more”, has become one of the most quotable lines in K-drama, and the series handles the pseudo-homosexuality angle and Han-gyul’s struggle tastefully.
Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010)
This historical Joseon-era romcom propelled lead Park Min-young to public recognition as Kim Yoon-hee, who pretends to be her brother to make ends meet for her family. In a twist of fate, she ends up as a student at the prestigious Sungkyunkwan University, to the distaste of the stick-in-the-mud nobleman Lee Sun-joon (played by the embattled Park Yoo-chun, formerly of boy bands JYJ and TVXQ).
Hilarity ensues as Yoon-hee is forced to hide her identity as a woman (women weren’t allowed to be educated) while rooming with Sun-joon. Scene-stealing performances come from a then-unknown Song Joong-ki as a flamboyant playboy Gu Yong-ha, and his bromance with the mysterious and stoic Moon Jae-in (Yoo Ah-in).
The Tale of Nokdu (2019)