Eccentric! Chef Moon (2020)

Mixed feelings: the drama doesn't come close to reach its full potential, but it's not a bad watch

PORTRAYAL OF EATING DISORDERS
I'm starting with this point because it could potentially be problematic to some viewers.
The drama specifies right from the start that the FL suffers from anorexia, probably exacerbated by trauma. I have luckily no personal knowledge of this disorder, but even so I could recognize some issues with how the show depicted it.
I can somewhat understand why the drama has the FL start eating with gusto once she has amnesia, since her not being able to remember her past and not having to deal with her stressful job could make her able to overcome the psychological barrier she had towards eating. It's probably simplicistic, but fictionally it could make sense in my opinion.
What I found less excusable is how the show doesn't portray any of the physical issues a person suffering from anorexia might have once he/she starts eating normally. I was expecting her to show some discomfort or nausea, but nothing happens. The drama just has her going from basically only drinking juice to eating full meals (and more), as if her stomach wouldn't somehow be overwhelmed by such a drastic change of diet.
I was still able to enjoy the drama but, if this is a sensitive matter to you and you wouldn't be able to ignore it, you might want to reconsider watching this.

STORY
The plot isn't amazing, but it has its good moments.
To me the drama shined when set in the village with Chef Moon cooking, Bella being carefree and Seol Ah having fun with the rest of the villagers.
On the contrary, the parts revolving the business power struggle and family secrets were both boring and exaggerated. Having these parts is something that I have grown accustomed to in Korean dramas, but here they got tedious quite fast.
I would have preferred if the 'big bad villain' was set in ruining either just one of the two leads or maybe only the village, but he's seemingly the root of all evil in the world.
Having the same person being the catalyst of everyone's misery felt like an unbelievable coincidence and reeked of contrivance. It was also more suited to a pure revenge makjang than a romance/healing melo and so I found it quite jarring, as if there were two different stories forced into one.

ACTING AND CHARACTERS
Acting is good all around.
The two leads are very likeable and the child actress playing Seul Ah (Go Do Yeon) is a delight to watch. She's adorable and very natural on camera.
Chef Moon and Designer Bella are pleasant characters; they both have their good and bad sides and interact well with each other even if they don't have a particularly passionate chemistry together. Anyway, they make for a quite endearing couple that was easy to root for.
With Eric Mun being 40 year old and Go Won Hee just 25, I thought the age difference would be very apparent, but that wasn't the case and I could easily believe that they were only a couple years apart. I hadn't watched anything either them previously starred in and I was very pleasantly surprised by both. They really managed to give life to their characters.
I'd also like to point out (since this is usually a common fault of dramas set in rural villages) that the characters of villagers aren't annoying as I was originally afraid of. They are obviously often used for comic relief, but it wasn't overdone and the interaction among the various characters was to me one of the most enjoyable aspects of the drama.

MUSIC
The music really suited the atmosphere of the drama well.
There were some instrumental pieces which I found really pleasing, but beside those I didn't notice any particularly noteworthy song.

REWATCHABILITY
I do not exclude I might someday want to rewatch this show, but it's unlikely it'll happen soon. In that case anyway I'll probably skip all the company business and evil plotting.

OVERALL
In my opinion this drama had the potential to be something really good if the writers had put more importance on the healing aspect, by giving more space to the FL overcoming her eating disorder, the ML coming to terms with the tragic loss of his parents and Seul Ah finding her new family.
As things are, I still found the drama enjoyable, but (with the exception of a quite compelling cast) it lacks any unique feature that could have made it stand out from the rest.

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Episode 1 was lively, funny ? and engaging. My first feeling about this series after watching episodes one through 10 were “awwww how cute” and “ouuuu this is going to be good.” The series starts out at a very fair pace and somewhat picks up along the way. I know that this series has been described as a romantic comedy and I do get the feeling that there are some comical elements to this and definitely lots of little cute scenes but I will also say that there is some depth to this which is very rare for romantic comedies. What I mean by that is that this seriesseries managed to give you a good laugh and make you smile but at the same time it also manages to invoke various emotions in you. Some of the characters can easily be seen as ourselves in our every day lives whether it’s love, family, work or friendship. This series seems to embody work life, family drama, comedy and internal things. I am truly surprised. I am also a bit sad because I chose to start watching before it’s fully completed and I was in a waiting mode.

Ep 10-16Welp, it’s over and it was enjoyable. I enjoyed that it wasn’t too complex however I honestly felt like it was missing something. After the mid series build up with the dun dun duuun moment there was never a really big comeback moment, it sort of just happened. You the way the villain wins and the good guy starts plotting and you get excited. I got excited but it was like annh. The ending while not horrible just seemed to be missing some spice.

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