Cook Up a Storm (2017)

This is my completely biased review, but I love this movie. I watched it on a plane to China, and everything, from the story to the characters to the visuals and music, arrested my attention- personally, I like watching food shows, so that was most of the reason I clicked on this drama, but the characters quickly became my favorite part of the movie. My only complaint is that it's too short! It's not that original an idea, and it's not that shocking of an execution, but between the visuals and the characters' interactions, I think you'd be hard-pressed to say this movie moves slowly or isn't interesting. It's definitely worth a watch, even if you're just looking to kill an hour and a half!

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This movie is fast food

The premise of this movie is very simple. East vs. West - whose food can truly be considered best? One of the many East-West dichotomy movies to come out in recent years with the main goal of proving that Eastern culture is just as good or in some aspects superior to Western culture.

So let's get the biggest problem with this movie out of the way first: The writing is absolutely atrocious. So much so that I genuinely had to pause the movie more than once to take a second to take in just how badly written those scenes were. Did anyone try to read this script out loud before subjecting the poor cast to this? It reads as if the writers had about two days to put together one of the most generic, over-the-top and cheesy cooking rivalry movies I've ever seen.
The main two actors are really doing their most to turn this into something, anything at all, but not even the admittedly charming rivalry/ friendship between the two main cooks can save this script from its sheer stupidity.
The worst offenders by far are the flashback scenes that get sprinkled in here and there that are also accompanied by some of the most generic violin pieces that give me "googled royalty free sad music" energy.

But with all that being said, despite the massive script problems and the lacklustre everything else, this movie is extremely entertaining. I wasn't bored once while watching it. The movie gets you to genuinely root for the protagonist, admittedly by using cheap and lazy bad guy stereotypes instead of genuine character development, but it does its job.
The cinematography is also at some points genuinely beautiful. I'm pretty sure half the movie's budget was used up only on the orgasmic food porn scenes that make up about half the movie. They're gorgeous to look at.

This and the charming performance of the main actors make rescue this movie from being simply shit and catapult it into "terrible but I can't stop watching" territory. So basically, this is the McDonald's Combo Meal of movies.

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Yeah, it's a common plotline but I still enjoyed it a lot. Everyone's acting was good and of course, FOOD AESTHETICS along with good-looking people. Nothing intense and a good watch for days and times when you need something less intense to relax. And...though the storyline was not unique, I was taken aback by Yonghwa's role in the movie. I wasn't expecting much from the movie nor from him but I really liked him in the movie. His parts were dubbed so that awkwardness was there but still...I applaud him for his effort. He did justice to the character he portrayed. And in contrast to what I was expecting, his character development took a different turn so that was refreshing to watch as well.

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Watch the trailer in YT but forget about it & don't know the title, finally found it when searching for movie that I want to watch.

Really like the brotherhood between Sky Ko & Paul Ahn. From the trailer itself I can sense they never really fight with the grudge between each other. But only healthy competition between them.

But this movie have some loopholes that not quite make sense, maybe because this just movie so they have shorter duration to explained all:
- The betrayal of Mayo. Not enough explanation through the movie. Where's the ambition comes from, so sudden.
- And although I really like the end where Sky Ko just walk out the stage. But the end just like leaving some more question than answer.
- The stupid owner of stellar restaurant. Just complete jerk & out of place.

Overall this is one good movie about healthy competition & brotherhood. Really hope this can make into drama, so we can get more elaborate about some of the things...

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Just like FOOD WARS!

This movie gives me that excitement of the anime series food wars, mainly cause one of the main actor looks almost identical to Sōma yukihira in food wars.the fact that Tianci’s father disapproved of his cooking skills also made it fun to watch cause the thrill of how he was gonna prove him wrong kept lingering from the beginning of the movie. I also enjoyed this movie because of the attention to details of culinary skills that the two main chefs embodied. The intense look in their eyes due to the passion they have for cooking and their self-assured character that needs no acknowledgment was just FAB, I LOVE, I LOVE I LOVE!!!....definitely a MUST WATCH.

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I feel like- I've to eat it, like right now!!!

রান্না করা একটা শিল্প। তবে কেউ কেউ এটাকে সাধনার পর্যায়ে নিয়ে যান। আর সাধক হওয়ার অন্যতম শর্ত হলো দুনিয়াবি সকল মায়া ত্যাগ করা।
এই গল্প দুই শেফের। যাদের একজনের মুখের স্বাদ হারিয়ে গেছে, অর্থাৎ সে নিজে কোন কিছুর স্বাদ পায় না। তবুও সে নিখুঁত রেসিপি ফলো করে সেরাদের সেরা রাধুঁনী। আর অন্যজন ছোটবেলা থেকে বুকে বয়ে বেড়াচ্ছে দগদগে এক ক্ষত। এই ক্ষত নিয়েই সে প্রতিনিয়ত নিজেকে ছাড়িয়ে যেতে ব্যস্ত।
এই গল্প এক পিতা-পুত্রের। পিতার স্বপ্ন সে রন্ধন শিপ্লের সাধক হবে। সাধক হবার জন্য সে বাকিসব জলাঞ্জলি দেয়, নিজের একমাত্র পুত্রকেও ছেড়ে যেতে দ্বিতীয়বার ভাবে না সে। ২০ বছর পর, সারা বিশ্বে সে এক নামে পরিচিত- The God of Cookery। তার সাধনা সফল হয়। অন্যদিকে পুত্রের জীবনের একমাত্র লক্ষ্য হচ্ছে পিতাকে ভুল প্রমাণিত করা। প্রমাণ করা যে সন্ন্যাসী না হয়েও সাধক হওয়া যায়। ভালোবাসার মানুষদের ছেড়ে গিয়ে নয়, তাদের সাথে নিয়েও God of Cookery হওয়া সম্ভব।
এই গল্প বন্ধুত্বের এবং বিশ্বাস-ঘাতকতার। এই গল্প স্বার্থপরতার এবং স্বার্থহীনতার। এবং এই গল্প অবশ্যই অবশ্যই রান্নার!
একটা ব্যক্তিগত মতামত দেই! ২০১৫ সালের দিকে লেখক নাজিম উদ্দিন ভাইয়ের ‘রবীন্দ্রনাথ এখানে কখনো খেতে আসেনি’ পড়ে পেটের ভেতর মোচড় দিয়ে উঠেছিলো। এত সুন্দর করে রান্নার বর্ণনা দেয়া যে পড়ার সময় নাকে ঘ্রাণ পেতে শুরু করতাম, পেটে গুড়মুড় করত! এই মুভি দেখার সময়ও একই ফিল পেলাম! এত সুন্দর করে রান্নার সিনগুলো চিত্রায়ন করা! ইচ্ছে করবে স্ক্রিনের ভেতর ঢুকে একটু খেয়ে আসি!!!

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