Cupid's Kitchen (2022)

Cupid's Skippable Kitchen

**Spoilers are at the bottom**

This is a Food drama with a pinch of comedy and a very little sprinkle of romance. If you are looking for food then this is the right drama for you. If you’re looking for romance then look elsewhere. This just isn’t it.

For The Good, For the Bad…

For the Good:
1. Colorful Cutscenes - They only did a few of these non-food-related colorful cutscenes but they were absolutely beautiful. I was really hoping to see more of them but we only got 2 of these and nothing more.
2. High-Quality Food Cutscenes - There are a lot of these and although I enjoyed them, they didn’t feel as satisfying as the ones in Dating In The Kitchen. They felt sort of lacking even though they were high-quality and beautifully shot.
3. The Leads - Both are really good actors. I really enjoyed watching them. If not for them I’m not sure I would have watched all 40 episodes.
4. The OST is very nice and different from most other modern c-dramas.

For The Bad:
1. Slow-paced - It's very slow-paced and the side stories make it even slower. Other than the first 5 and the last 5 episodes, I found this drama pretty boring.
2. Huge Lack of Heart-Flutters - Where’s the intimacy? I’m not even talking about kisses. Just moments that make you feel like the leads are falling in love. I certainly felt that they cared for each other but there seemed to be a huge lack of romance.
3. Boring side-stories - Honestly, I wound up skipping through most of the side stories because they were just so boring, and other than the character knowing the leads, their stories really didn’t affect them or the plot in any real way.
5. Evil/Bad Character overload - Honestly who isn’t a bad character other than the leads and a few others. However, none of them were as bad as the 2FL who clearly needs mental help. The method she used to try to stay with the ML is one of the most psychotic I’ve ever seen. She’s a basket case and the worst part is that she’s surrounded by enablers. (More on her in the spoilers below)
6. The 2FL’s Dubbing - Everyone else in the drama is fine but for some reason, her dubbing is not only obvious but it doesn’t match her mouth movement at all. For all the beautiful production they have in this drama, they very obviously dropped the ball on her dubbing.



***Spoilers Below***




I really disliked the way the ML took out his frustrations on the FL. I know he is going through something pretty rough but why did he need to yell at her the way he did and more than once. I know he’s devastated over losing his sense of taste but that’s not the FL’s fault.

In fact, it’s the 2FL’s fault and for some reason instead of thoroughly investigating her, even when she’s suspiciously asking him if he could forgive the person who poisoned him, he completely overlooks her. The ML even fires his longtime live-in cleaning lady, someone who was like family to him, but he keeps the creepy 2FL around. Furthermore, when he does find out it was her, he completely lets her off the hook!! Like what?!!!

Another thing that really annoyed me was the ML’s doctor friend who not only hides the fact that the 2FL poisoned the ML into losing his tastebuds and at risk of losing the rest of his senses, but he also enabled her and helped her hide it from being exposed. He deserves to lose his license to practice medicine and go to jail along with the 2FL. I have no sympathy for him no matter how much he likes the 2FL.

It annoys me that no one got in any sort of real trouble for their bad behavior. Everything is sunshine and rainbows at the end.

The cutest thing in this romance drama is probably the husky puppy in the last episode…

Would Not Recommend
Would Not Re-Watch

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Who ordered the potstickers? Here's your tortellini and a side order of fairy dust!

Food, glorious food! This could have been so much better if they just stuck to that theme but alas, the writer took us down the garden path, deep dive a dank rabbit hole, before magically transported us to the Fairy meadow where the unicorns are frolicking like they were on drugs.

Any reader who has watched the original Karate Kid (and similar movie/show) would recognise the central plot. In this case, instead of martial arts, we have culinary arts. A Michelin star chef needs to find and train a new apprentice, but that person must have a supernatural sense of taste. Of course, this was not done through the kindness of his heart but because he is losing his own ability to taste food, so he needed that someone to taste for him when he creates new dishes. All this is hushed up so people were confused when he decided to mentor a girl (FL) who accidentally entered a top tier cooking competition but can’t cook at all. To compound his woes, he is quite a prickly character and very temperamental. In essence, a stereotypical master craftsman/creative type. All the classic clichés were deployed included the equivalent of the old wax-on-wax-off training trick to bring the hapless FL to some semblance of proficiency. However, this is a rom-com so the tale as old as time was given its due and the master/apprentice relationship took on a much more personal spin.

Speaking of food and cooking, this show has so much food porn. From street food to eateries serving local delicacies and all the way up to Michelin star restaurant. The food was a highlight, and those dishes were shot with skill and a singular focus. I do wonder whether the production team hired a food stylist and specialist photographer. This ended up being the saving grace of the show and I gave it extra marks.

You may well say there is nothing wrong with that storyline, sounds quite interesting and delicious. That is indeed the case, if they stick to it. However, into that pot were added several antagonists as well as dramatic change in tones. I mean descent into madness type of change. Most of this came from left field so what started as a light and breezy rom-com got darker and darker until you thought you were watching a different genre.

The OTP is an odd couple but when all the romantic ducklings are lined up, they can be quite sweet and engaging. You can't deny there is chemistry between them. Towards the end, there are truly swoon worthy moments. It would be tempting fate if this was the only game in town. We are confronted with the typical Chinese rom-com problème du jour, what I'd like to term Too Many Cooks Syndrome. On top of the OTP, there are 5 other CP’s! (Is that a record?) Most of the pairings are contrived and does little for the show other than padding out the runtime and force a change of scenery. This is particularly jarring when the show got darker and more intense. We’d suddenly flip to a CP and watch them do the mating dance or deal with some trivial matter.

All these extraneous stuffs would just be fluff if the show didn’t do a 180 on itself at the 7/8 mark. Every antagonist was reformed. Every problem (except the one concerning the ML) is swept aside. It made a mockery of all the angst and misdeeds that was dished out over the last 30 odd episodes. Some were explained away as historical misunderstanding, but more was left unanswered and frankly, baffling. This was quite strange as the bulk of the show was rooted in reality (cooking is about as real as it can get). When the ML was challenged by reporters as to how he can still be a master chef when he can’t even taste his own food, the writer finessed a clever and logical solution. It only served to highlight the inconsistency later on.

Around that 7/8 mark, we also have an attack of the unicorns as well. We are talking a herd of them. The last few episodes were all about tying every loose end up with pink bows. Happy endings were served to everyone, whether they deserved it or not. This was topped by a Deus Ex Machina solution straight out of a wuxia/xianxia drama. It is as if the writer has abandoned reality, just went all in and damn the consequences. The piece de resistance was the ending. It needs a health warning for diabetics. It was sugar overload. I won’t spoil it, just one hint, Bollywood.

Acting is generally solid but some were exaggerated stereotypes, especially concerning foreigners. Younger actors have room to improve but they show a lot of commitment even when it was an unrewarding role.

OST and production values were good. It would have scored better if the writer stays focused and kept its message clear. Make it sweet and bubbly or dark and crazy but what we ended up is a rollercoaster ride that looped back on itself and make us feel cheated and confused. Individual scenes can be well executed and acted but the whole is, regrettably, less than the sum of the parts.

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