Grand Maison Paris (2024)

A mild-flavored addition to the Grand Maison universe

Before I talk about this movie, we need to establish that this is the third big installment in the Grand Maison universe: there's a drama series, a special episode and this movie (there is also a spin off mini series, but that's more of a side dish, pun intended).

When I'm writing this, in my location I could find the drama in both Netflix and HBO max, the special only on HBO max and the movie "elsewhere" (there are some good fansubs and some not so good google translate ones both out there).

The Grand Maison Tokyo drama series is remarkably good.

It has a lot of ingredients (pun intended, again) which make it enjoyable: the incredible food (production design is consistently superb throughout all installments), the character dynamics, the always enjoyable jdrama journey of the group of outcasts doing their best for a common goal.

However, what makes it remarkable is the dynamic between the two leads: the iconic duo of Kimura Takuya as the complicated chef Obana Natsuki and Suzuki Kyoka as the level-headed chef Hayami Rinko. Two legends who come together and meet each other in a way only they can.

The special episode, after the drama, was a disservice to this dynamic.

Rinko being the head chef for Grand Maison Tokyo and Obana learning to thrive more as her sous chef due to his difficulty relating to people was what made the success of the drama believable and enjoyable. Rinko being a woman, a head chef and learning to stand her ground without compromising her sensitivity was a standout from the series that the special squandered by making Obana and his childish way of helping out "in a tsundere way" remove agency from Rinko.

The movie doesn't fail them as much as the special did, but it can't re-capture the freshness (pun intended, for a third time) of the drama series. It's just alright. It's mild. And underseasoned course.

There are some episodes from the drama that are more enjoyable than this movie, to be quite honest. It's not bad, but we know, after a dozen episodes, that they can do better. When you remove Rinko from a lot of the main moments and underplay her value, Grand Maison goes from something unique to yet another KimuTaku drama where he's the coolest guy who knows more than anyone else but can't get along with people (A LIFE comes to mind). Rinko does more here than in the special, but not nearly as much as she did in the drama, where she was in a level playing field with Obana.

The majority of the main cast not being included in the movie also makes it less entertaining. Ok Taec Yeon is a good addition to the cast, but his background is a bit of a re-hash of both Obana's and Moe's. Aizawa is only present on the sidelines and Kyono is also a bit missing. It's like the special was intending to break ground for the movie to be more prominently about Obana, even though the theme of the movie is 'learning to work together'.

All in all, it's not bad, it still has that amazing production design that makes Grand Maison a stand out, but the drama remains the best of the installments so far.

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