All the Liquors (2023)

These two leads were actually really cute together. The cold male lead was never excessively rude, the warm male lead was never excessively dense. And together, they had a sweet tentative chemistry that felt organic, filled with gazes and smiles. And best of all, they never played coy with their own or each others feelings, nor what they wanted from each other. And the double entendre of "do you want to eat ramyeon" was spectacular to watch develop from one meaning to another.

There were subtle doses of humor sprinkled throughout. From the cliche situational comedy with our leads, to the caring but disgruntled "forever-alone" best friend who was stuck in an ongoing cycle of on-again, off-again with his off-screen boyfriend.

The kiss scenes were built up to pretty well, but generally lacked in the proportional execution for the build-up. I enjoyed it nonetheless though.

What I did not enjoy is how poorly constructed and inconsistent the plot was, even for a character-driven drama. It seemed to want to be a food drama, but lacked the proper attention and care for the food aspect to really warrant the title.

Even with Korean alcohol culture in mind, Jiyu could be interpreted as at least on the cusp of alcoholism for the majority of the drama (before someone comes at me with the most common rebuttal: it's been over half a year since the break up). Meanwhile, Kihoon's reason for not liking alcohol, that we seemed to have been building up tension to for so long, was too flatly delivered to have impact. Not to mention, the pacing from him being angry about the prospect of being around alcohol to selling it to openly drinking it with the rest of the characters was enough to give whiplash. Not to mention the fact that this same man who passed out after one shot is now able to drink multiple glasses with ease in the span of MAYBE a few months...

And then there were other areas of tension that were introduced and resolved too quickly. Or even an area of tension that was consistently put into subtext from beginning to end, but never resolved (the fact that Jiyu's superiors all seem to think poorly of him, resulting in a palpable lack of confidence in their presence).

I liked the ending messages though:
-The prospect of everyone liking the same dish, but liking it prepared in different ways. This same message isn't exactly uncommon with food dramas, and even dramas that only have minor focus on food (Moonlight Chicken for example).
-Food and drinks are best enjoyed in the presence of friendly company and tastes best when celebrating.

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Would have been better as an ad on YouTube or smth

Don’t expect good writing and character development here.

The first issue I have with All The Liquors is that Kihoon has too many problems and they’re solved all too easily. This is a story of a stubborn chef who meets a foolhardy marketing employee. Somehow, the chef manages to break all his personal rules. WHY??? And more importantly, HOW???? To those who say "it's because of love!! love is the answer", come on. The story was seriously underbaked.

Second issue - I’m not sure if it's just me but the couple didn’t look terribly compatible.

I know Kihoon is supposed to be a stiff and antisocial chef, but that doesn’t mean he couldn't have any personality whatsoever. He came off as really awkward in most scenes (I can’t tell if this is intentional), and seriously ruined the vibes for me.

All in all I must say that this isn't the worst South Korean BL, but it's not memorable either.

Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/all-the-liquors-2023-bl-review/

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