BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“Until One has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France
This simple quote sums up the gist of this beautifully simple series. Is it earthshattering? No, but it fills you with a sense of warmth like a blanket on a cold winter’s night. How many of us have had such a close connection to our pets and years after they are gone, still miss them. This story is a manifestation of that connection coming to life in human form.
Jung Woo (Go Ho Jung) is going through a particularly rough time in his life presently and as he commiserates, he longs for his two pets he had as a child that provided him the comfort, security and love he now desires. In an adorable story (separate and assuredly worth watching), we understand how his two pets came back to him in human form. Choco (Lee Jae Bin) was the dog but now comes back in phenomenally handsome human form but now with much more intense feelings, establishes a ‘love’ for Jung Woo. Milk (Kim Seong Hyuk) is the cat, who is devoted to him as well but in an obviously more cat-like fashion and, for those who have lived with cats understand. He certainly ‘loves’ Jung Woo but more so only in a platonic way. Admittedly, both actors captured the behavioral patterns of their respective animals with remarkable accuracy without appearing to be overtly silly or too much over the top. There were a few instances that came close to that, but it was all done briefly and fortunately, not overused.
Jung Woo works for his uncle (Park Seung Bin) who owns an encompassing coffee shop. Both, superficially, seem well-adjusted but each retains a certain depressing mode about them that is unshakeable. While they pretend not to be publicly, we know for certain that Jung Woo is while the uncle appears to hide it better.
Upon meeting his pets again as humans for the first time, he is initially skeptical but soon accepts them as his former pets. And for a while, they maintain that ‘owner-pet’ relationship. But both Jung Woo and Choco sense and begin to feel different about each other. Both deal with the fact that Choco is human and now has all the characteristics of humans that Jung Woo has which includes a deeper perception for love.
As their relationship begins to blossom, Milk feels more and more left out and yet wants to feel the same things, as all of this is still new to him. Jung Woo has been taking them to the coffee shop and both have endeared themselves to the uncle. But Milk and the uncle begin to foster a deeper bond between them and, as typical with a cat, Milk wants to and yet remains aloof. Until of course his human emotions get the better of him. And that is a joy to watch.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? While the acting by all of them was pinpoint, I think Kim Seong Hyuk as Milk is exceptional. Certainly not in a splashy way or deep for that matter. He consistently maintained his ‘cat-like’ personality throughout. Feeling but not understanding. He wanted to be loved but just was not sure how to give it or receive it, as typical for a cat. He envied the special relationship that Choco and Jung Woo have but does not understand it completely. Until he began to feel for the uncle. This was a quiet role, meant more to be in the background, but becomes very powerful. He remains aloof (normal for a cat) yet craves, wants, and desires, attention and love. And now in human form. A difficult dilemma for him. Before his need to return, he finally experiences that strange human emotion called love in its intrinsic form and is smitten.
This series is remarkably entertaining. But so much is left unexplained and at times the reactions to reality are underplayed. For example, when Jung Woo realizes that these two are reincarnations in human forms of his pets, I think the reactions would be one of instant disbelief and shock. And non-acceptance of that fact and asking, “How?” Forgiving that, the transition of seeing them in human form, albeit stunningly handsome, and knowing they are former pets, and yet falling in love, in the physical form of the word, is a bit cringy. As typical of BLs, it never gets too overt in nature but the whole concept just has an uncomfortable feel about it. That ‘reality’ should have been dealt with in a bit more intense way.
The relationship between the uncle and Milk feels surprisingly natural as he does not know ‘what’ Milk is and Milk, being the typical cat, never really shows his emotions until it seems to suit his needs. And as he finds pleasures in being loved, could and will easily succumb to its pleasures, sometimes awkwardly but with so much heart.
Of course this is a fantasy and true to form it does have a happy ending which I am glad did. As corny as it got in places, I loved its suppositions and simply went with them. In the end, as they all stand there in their form-fitted waiter uniforms looking like Adonises, who would not now want to have ‘coffee’ in this shop?
I shall be there!
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