This review may contain spoilers
All the Liquors (and Food)
Let me start by saying first and foremost, I think Won Do Hyun did an excellent job for his first main role. I had watched Kim Jun Hyung previously (definitely has talent) and hope to watch more of both of them in the future.
Now, about this movie version of the series.
(TL;DR AT BOTTOM)
I love the premise as of course food and alcohol are a timeless pairing. It makes sense to have these type of situations come up in marketing. But it is a little bit far fetched in this. The Chef Ki Hoon is an unknown with zero social media presence and no culinary background to speak of other than Grandmama had a tteokbokki shop that he grew up in that has been since renovated into a small restaurant with an exposed kitchenette that he cooks in.
Before I go further let me focus on our cute main lead Ji Yu. How is he not gaining weight? All this character does is eat, drink, eat again, sleep, repeat. We see him at work a couple of times talking about food and soju. We see him at a variety of places eating and drinking. Bestie Ji Ha (Jeong Ho Gyun - he needs a main he’s hilarious and so expressive) meets up to: you guessed it! Eat and Drink. Kind of hard to give any depth when the character is stuffing his face constantly. But we love him anyway and his personality is like a confused chipmunk.
Back to Chef, he is strict and stern. Kind of. For a minute. No Alcohol! Okay, let’s have some alcohol because cutie Ji Yu wants it. Huh? That quickly? I think there were a few steps missing. All of a sudden, Chef is taking Chipmunk on a trip and agreeing to this contract and how did we get here? It’s disjointed and in a way that left me rewatching scenes to make sure I didn’t miss something. So my complaint is the editing or the storyline itself. No idea who is to blame but it is a tough few cuts and jumps while watching.
Then we have the kisses. The actors looked so uncomfortable and there was zero passion or feeling in those couple of kisses. I don’t need tongue so don’t take it like that - I do need something other than camera angles trying to make it look like they are doing more than barely touching lips. They sold their relationship as though it was building up to something but that wasn’t anything. The director should have done better. Workshops or coaching to help and different camera angle may have helped. It just was nothing. I felt it did a disservice to the characters (no matter how disjointed and underdeveloped they were). And the final blow was the fact that their relationship wasn't even established until the last scene even though they already had (implied) slept together and at least a couple weeks had passed if not months. Weird choice.
TL;DR:
So much eating and drinking by cute chipmunk male lead.
Chef storyline made no sense (no social media or culinary accolades but hired for big corporate event?).
More eating and drinking.
Corporate Job for Chipmunk? Huh? Where?
No character depth anywhere to be found.
Why is there so much food & soju and so little actual story?
Flirty with no chemistry.
Kisses that were completely bland.
Needed more of Bestie here or elsewhere.
Wait - they weren’t even a couple? Was this a bromance disguised as a BL?
Ooooh more food and soju and wine this time too!
Eh. It’s forgettable but still I like the actors and they did the best with what they had. I don’t fault them. I blame the scriptwriter(s) and Director.
Now, about this movie version of the series.
(TL;DR AT BOTTOM)
I love the premise as of course food and alcohol are a timeless pairing. It makes sense to have these type of situations come up in marketing. But it is a little bit far fetched in this. The Chef Ki Hoon is an unknown with zero social media presence and no culinary background to speak of other than Grandmama had a tteokbokki shop that he grew up in that has been since renovated into a small restaurant with an exposed kitchenette that he cooks in.
Before I go further let me focus on our cute main lead Ji Yu. How is he not gaining weight? All this character does is eat, drink, eat again, sleep, repeat. We see him at work a couple of times talking about food and soju. We see him at a variety of places eating and drinking. Bestie Ji Ha (Jeong Ho Gyun - he needs a main he’s hilarious and so expressive) meets up to: you guessed it! Eat and Drink. Kind of hard to give any depth when the character is stuffing his face constantly. But we love him anyway and his personality is like a confused chipmunk.
Back to Chef, he is strict and stern. Kind of. For a minute. No Alcohol! Okay, let’s have some alcohol because cutie Ji Yu wants it. Huh? That quickly? I think there were a few steps missing. All of a sudden, Chef is taking Chipmunk on a trip and agreeing to this contract and how did we get here? It’s disjointed and in a way that left me rewatching scenes to make sure I didn’t miss something. So my complaint is the editing or the storyline itself. No idea who is to blame but it is a tough few cuts and jumps while watching.
Then we have the kisses. The actors looked so uncomfortable and there was zero passion or feeling in those couple of kisses. I don’t need tongue so don’t take it like that - I do need something other than camera angles trying to make it look like they are doing more than barely touching lips. They sold their relationship as though it was building up to something but that wasn’t anything. The director should have done better. Workshops or coaching to help and different camera angle may have helped. It just was nothing. I felt it did a disservice to the characters (no matter how disjointed and underdeveloped they were). And the final blow was the fact that their relationship wasn't even established until the last scene even though they already had (implied) slept together and at least a couple weeks had passed if not months. Weird choice.
TL;DR:
So much eating and drinking by cute chipmunk male lead.
Chef storyline made no sense (no social media or culinary accolades but hired for big corporate event?).
More eating and drinking.
Corporate Job for Chipmunk? Huh? Where?
No character depth anywhere to be found.
Why is there so much food & soju and so little actual story?
Flirty with no chemistry.
Kisses that were completely bland.
Needed more of Bestie here or elsewhere.
Wait - they weren’t even a couple? Was this a bromance disguised as a BL?
Ooooh more food and soju and wine this time too!
Eh. It’s forgettable but still I like the actors and they did the best with what they had. I don’t fault them. I blame the scriptwriter(s) and Director.
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