KOCONUTS, can I be real with you? Because I did not realize that I needed a throwback, fluffy, bubble gum romance on my stream, but as soon as I clicked play on “Dali and the Cocky Prince,” I hopped up wondering – where is my paddleboat!
Not only is this show cute, it is also cheesy, dreamy, and campy.
Yes, all those words describe “Dali and the Cocky Prince,” you will just have to watch it to believe it.
“Dali and the Cocky Prince,” is the story of two chaebols who have an instant attraction to one another and yet live two very different lives. We went in-depth on the characters and premise in another post, but briefly, Dali is a Ph.D. art historian, and Jin Moo Hak is an heir to a top restaurant chain.
These two are as different as night and day, and yet they are so adorable together! Seriously, just inject their cuteness right into my eyeballs.
Keep reading for more adorableness below though spoilers abound so tread carefully.
EPISODE 1
The opening credits introduce us to the sweet, lovable Dali who only wants to research art all day and night. Forget eating or sleeping or even standing up.
At the beginning of this episode, her Amsterdam boss finds her on the floor in the artifact room with a lollypop in her mouth and paperwork strewn all over the floor. She immediately tells her to go home and get some rest.
This completely endeared me to Dali because not only is she adorable, she is also capable, nice, and very good at her job of knowing every single thing about art. Plus, she speaks like 7 languages.
Later on, we find out Dali is welcoming as well and tries her best to make others look good, which she learned from her loving father. I just love her so much.
In stark contrast is the titular Cocky Prince, Jin Moo Hak, who does not like anything that is unrelated to making money. Our introduction to him is when he is taste-testing a new menu item at his father’s company. He immediately picks it apart (“who cares about pigs from Spain or whatever”) and says that, at $120, this dish is way too small and expensive.
Moo Hak is all about finances, economic solutions, and being straightforward. Though he is not worldly in the slightest and speaks mainly in colloquialisms and loose metaphors. Though the metaphors often do not work, like penguins being on the north pole and polar bears on the south (it is the opposite, y’all). His assistant corrects him frequently on this.
The great thing about Jin Moo Hak is that he really doesn’t care that he is not worldly, cannot speak any other language than Korean, and doesn’t know geography all that well because he is an ace when it comes to money, economy, and finances.
It is his special gift (as your Sunday School teacher might say).
The episode really gets going when Jin Moo Hak has to take a plane to Amsterdam for an important business meeting dealing with pigs. But, due to a series of events, instead of going to that meeting, Dali ends up mistaking him for an important art critique and takes him to a fancy art party full of multimillionaires (maybe even billionaires, these people are very wealthy).
But things get real when Jin Moo Hak accidentally spits an olive in a painting worth over 100 million dollars, putting a hole right into it (this olive’s daddy was a bullet, y’all).
This is a big deal, the entire party stops, and the host yells obscenities at Jin Moo Hak. Though, honestly, why was she letting anyone stand so close to a 100 million dollar painting?
Dali comes to the rescue because she has been eyeing this painting all night, and this accident has given her the final proof she needs to tell the host that her 100+ million dollar painting is a forgery!
Cue collective gasps all around.
Humiliated, the hosts kicks them both out, and Dali finds out that Jin Moo Hak is not actually the art critique that she thought he was. But, in a great change of events, they get over that miscommunication quickly because Jin Moo Hak’s credit cards have been locked, so he is stranded in Amsterdam with no money, no place to stay, and no language skills.
Dali takes pity on him and lets him stay at her place – A HUGE MANSION. But she plays it off and says it actually belongs to someone else so that he doesn’t feel intimidated by her wealth.
He also doesn’t want her to be intimidated by his wealth, so we have two chaebols who are trying to downplay their wealth to make the other person feel welcome. I just love that!
The episode ends on a lovely dinner Moo Hak makes for Dali – and then a blackout – which accidentally leads Jin Moo Hak to fall on top of Dali completely naked (you will have to watch to see how that happened, it’s pretty funny).
EPISODE 2
Episode 2 picks up right at that black out and awkward fall where Jin Moo Hak is laying on top of Dali. He is already smitten with her and extremely embarrassed that he is naked, so he excuses himself and runs back to the shower.
But Dali is an easygoing joy to be with, so they are both happily comfortable with each other the next day again.
When it is time to say their goodbyes, Jin Moo Hak gives Dali his watch and says he will meet her at a museum in Korea to get his watch back. It’s a date! And they part ways.
The problem is, he was too much of a goofy, love-sick goober to remember to get her phone number. So he has to run back after her. But he is unable to catch her because Dali gets some distressing news. Her father has died. She quickly drives off to head back to Korea.
Everything goes from bad to worse for Dali. Though her father was a wonderful person, he did not manage his money well. He borrowed a lot to help keep the museum open, and he gave a lot to charities and orphanages. This leaves Dali not only broke but millions of dollars in debt.
Despite all this, Dali would like to try and salvage the museum, so she takes on the role of the head curator.
Let me rewind to say that Dali’s father has his own storyline in these two episodes, which kind of turns this drama into a mini whodunit because we know he was killed under suspicious money and painting circumstances; we just don’t know who killed him. The murderer made it seem like the father died of natural causes.
Okay, back to Jin Moo Hak in Amsterdam. Moo Hak drives all over Amsterdam with his assistant to try and find Dali. The assistant finally tells him that she thinks he got swindled for his expensive watch (that is worth over $200k).
Moo Hak does not agree with this at first, but after the assistant recounts Dali and Moo Hak’s day together and spins it in the eyes of a swindler, Moo Hak does feel like he got got! And oh boy, is he upset about it.
When Moo Hak gets back to Korea, he can’t get Dali out of his mind and thinks he sees her all over the place (in true Kdrama fashion, the person he thinks is Dali is actually Dali). Moo Hak is also in worlds of trouble with his father because he lent 2 million dollars to a crumbling museum (that Dali’s family owns – though he doesn’t know that yet).
To get the money back, Moo Hak takes all his company workers (who look a lot like thugs) to the museum and plans a sit-in where they all yell and lay on the museum floor to cause a scene until the owner comes out with their money.
Dali comes in right then and asks what is going on.
Naturally, she recognizes Moo Hak and goes right up to him, all splayed out on the floor looking a fool. Moo Hak is so shocked to see Dali and so embarrassed at his antics that he spins over to hide his face from her.
And that is where episode 2 ends!
THOUGHTS
I must say that I love the throwback ness of this drama. It feels old school, like I am watching an 00s K-drama set in a slightly fantastical fictional world instead of the real world.
For instance, “The Veil” feels like I am watching something that is happening in the real world even though I know the situations are heightened. But with “Dali and the Cocky Prince,” it feels like we are living in a Disney fantasy set in the wealthy world of art and pork soup restaurants…and I’m digging it.
Okay, KOCONUTS, truth time.
I may not have been open to a drama like this two years ago. Back then I was all about the “real-worldness” of romances even if it was a romantic-comedy.
But I really love watching this goober of a show right now!
Call it the panini effect of being indoors and masked for almost two years, but this really hit a sweet spot of fun, silly drama watching for me. Seriously, all it’s missing is a random musical act where the characters break out in song.
If you love shows with a Disney-esque feel to them and want to be swept away into a Princess fantasy that has one foot firmly in comedy and the other in romance, then be sure to watch “Dali and the Cocky Prince” on KOCOWA.
If cute campiness is what you are looking for, then you will not be disappointed!
[maxbutton id=”678″] [maxbutton id=”679″]
