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Wow this is a great fun drama! starts as delightful, refined comedy ... then script gets bad
Written after fast forwarding through ep 10 to see if I want to finish watching this drama, The acting is great. The side character (female helper in kitchen) is great :) and ML is great. It is amazing he is acting so lively and so ordinary and yet he has this amazing face, so it is so ... interesting to watch him. He is a great actor.
FL is soooo flat and stiff.... The actress is, and perhaps the script makes her so. The scipt totally does not do her any justice. She is just a little spice on he side, and otherwise totally irrelevant, the script totally leaves her in the dust.
Written after watching ep8: well.. the plot got so thin and meaningless.. the trip to Japan, the other guy, ... all that was so ... blah. Too many blah episodes. Undeveloped and unconnected script. Ruined it all.
THIS IS WHAT I WROTE AFTER WATCHING A FEW EPISODES:
I didnt expect Netflix to put out something locally Korean and in the true kdrama style, very artistic creative playful fun sophisticated warm positive, very very FINE, meaningful, educational, uplifting, like good old kdramas :) BUT HEY they did!!!! wow. I was surprised but hey I take the gift and thank Netflix!
The script is HILLARIOUS in meaningful ways and the actors really make it come alive and so funny :) The ML is an amazing comedian, and the side characters are very strong. It is a convincing story and great acting.
This is a great fun kdrama, like good old kdramas, very very very very fun :) I adore the comedy and have been laughing a lot with this kdrama. So marvelous, delightful, so light but deep, the issues it covers are for real... . It addresses the social issue of corporate abuse of small business, and tells the very dark story through humor.... LOTS of humor :) It is a GREAT storytelling and great comedy......
Yeah someone said this is like a Potato Lab and in some way it is, this is the same basic plot of "corporate heartless male shark versus a powerless poor woman with a dream", but this one is a lot more sophisticated than the Potato Lab... Potato Lab did not have meaningful side characters (except a few villages sometimes) and ML and FL characters were kinda one-sided, not very complex, and super closed off and immature and unable to communicate. The plot was often just slapstick comedy.
This kdrama has more and more complex and well-acted side characters, the ML and FL communicate in more adult and meaningful ways, the jokes are more refined, the plot is more refined... Potato Lab was like an elementary school fight between girls and boys, and it took until towards the end of ep 11 to have the female lead say something meaningful to the ML and for the two of them to communicate about their issues (the freezer scene). Luckily they kept communicating (e.g. the bed scene where she cannot participate and he helps her) and they turned out a very fine and well-matched couple at the end of ep 12. But it took them 12 episodes LOL
I hope this kdrama will stay good and get even better till the end. In this kdrama, ML says something meaningful and personal to FL in ep 2 and she shortly takes it in and they move on in harmony, and they are discussing the core issues already at the end of ep 2. Totally higher level game in this kdrama. The characters are more mature and open to begin with.
The ML actor is soooo comical and acts in such great detail and is so alive and genuine that it is really fun to watch. He is a master actor. The drama revolves around him as the lead actor and it is right. He makes it alive.
The other actors do a good job too to support the drama but he is clearly the star of the show.
The scene where they introduce ML and he turns around in that James Dean look - he seems so arrogant bc he knows he can dazzle western audience looking as a handsome European guy - but - he is a lot more beautiful and cute when he is more honest and tasting kim chi :) with his hair down. he looks younger and healthier :) bc he looks softer and more genuine.
I think the drama makes it "equal" and introduces the 2nd ML in the same way although he is not such a "looker" but is a spicey character LOL
The FL was introduced in a less AHA WOW! way... She too got to flash a bit, at first hidden under the hat. But it wasnt so flashy as the MLs.
My favorite scenes is ML and 2 brothers talk at the produce and meat shops LOL and the questions they asked him before and during that talk :) Wow impressively funny and on the point LMAO And the ML actor looks impressively handsome although he is acting something very ... mundane. What makes him handsome is the GENUINE ALIVENESS in his talking.
Perhaps someone put that actor as the ML to provide a pretty face on the screen, but he is a lot more than just a pretty face, he is a very great actor. I saw him in different dramas and he ACTS DIFFERENTLY which very few actors can actually do... So many actors act the same in any drama they are in :)
I saw the ML actor here and in Scarlet Heart Ryeo, and those two roles are 100% opposites.
In Scarlet Heart Ryeo he is a prince, a very COMPOSED CONTROLLED RESERVED QUIET mellow slimey quiet dignified serious person, scared, depressed, sad, violent, crude, caring but not really .... very melodramatic..... ver subtle and under the radar.... the acting requires very minute differences in egoistical expressions and some genuine care expressions, and he did it great.
In this drama he is in a very OUTGOING AND EXPRESSIVE troublemaker wheeler/dealer, comedian / macho entitled boy character, sort of jester role, he is a vivacious cocky obnoxious entitled young rich male character who is obsessed about getting what he wants, comical, who gets in your face, who causes trouble, who gets out of trouble by comedy as well as swindling, and he is acting it great and making it a HILLARIOUS COMEDY.
I think what makes it so wickedly good is the paradox and opposite forces in the script, he is actually a mama boy trying to please, including being a trained robot to grab the company, and ALSO genuinely interested to make it work, regardless of the fact that his motives and underlying inspiration are off.... Selling his jacket and watch LOL and wearing those awfully short sleeves LOL
So the underlying issue is, what will happen when his passions and inherently good heart get introduced to causes that are beyond his mama's agenda? CAN HE ALLOW HIMSELF TO HAVE HIS OWN DREAM?
So we are laughing as we watch him trip and fall and get up while he is figuring this out....
So this kdrama and Scarlet Heart Ryeo are his TOTALLY different roles, and he CAN DO THAT WHOLE RANGE excellently. Wow I am impressed.
How he acts in this kdrama allows for more details, like his facial gestures, or looks, his body language, etc. because there is so much more communication, more "fire" in expressing emotions, and plenty of comedy and plenty of various "looks" of his character facets, including "arrogant corporate scammer" to "village market unemployed" to "in the dog house by his woman" - who tamed that barking dog ML literally in the first minute of their meeting LOL to "big manager managing unruly adjumas in a tiny unruly place" etc etc etc so he can act sooooo much and there is so much to watch - the slump of shame, the short sleeves look, etc LOL stealing a drink and a bite while working LOL he is really really really fun to watch.
ML actor is an ***excellent*** actor and the level of detail of his acting in this kdrama is sooo fun to watch. The actor was having so much fun with his role... ! so nice to see. So far some of my favorite scenes are sitting with 2 brothers at the table LOL Overall, he made his role really alive and genuine. He is just this vibrant, RADIANT, bubbly, alive character. The scene of his running with FL was amazing. His whole acting and so many comedic moments are just amazing. He is a fantastic comedian.
The FL and ML work well as a pair. FL actress is not so good at acting and the script isnt so much in her favor. So far, FL is just too one sided proud stuck no-common-sense and yelling. FL character is like a teenager in a temper tantrum..... a business owner without a plan and without any business sense... A loser....!!!! But she luckily learns fast. She did hire someone. She did pull out the plates. etc. Luckily she seems to do well with the new employee. The first time she steps forward is the stare and the question at the end of ep 2. She is pretty and seems smart and knowledgeable and she controls the unruly dude, ok, but she needs to be a little bit more ... complex and stronger as a character. And yeah the outdrinking each other - hm... seems like drinking is out of control in S Korea..... ? Both ML and FL seem so immature there....
Well the script showcases the ML more, as usual.... but ML actor acts better and FL actress cannot act as well. WHY DOES IT USUALLY HAPPEN LIKE THIS IN KDRAMAS?
The second FL (new employee) was the lead villain in Undercover High School and there she is an excellent villain as a very dead serious person. Her face and facial expressions easily lead to villain roles, she looks scary.
The astonishing thing about this kdrama is that her face and facial expressions work for her role here. She is terrifying when she smiles and she has that scary look when she looks aside to check out the situation, however, when that is amplified in the positive direction and an open smile added, she makes for a PERFECT unruly-but-positive employee.
Anyway, this kdrama is a gem, a truly comical, delightful gem to watch.
So yeah, this drama works for Netflix $$$, without a shocking plot and violence etc, and also works for the kdrama art lovers... Local Korean GOOD FOOD will be appealing to the global audience esp americans who are obsessed about food, and we the real drama audience get to see something truely creative and fun.
I expect future counterfeits LOL bc the plot can be globally transplanted... :) maybe not in France :) maybe not in the USA bc there arent small restaurants anymore... perhaps in China.... but .... Nobody can come close to kdramas. cdramas are never that FINE, that WARM and SOPHISTICATED and KIND and PLAYFUL and CREATIVE like kdramas are. I am not sure what it is in K-culture that makes it so .... refined and common sense.
On the other hand... once in a blue moon, chinese stuff can be super deep and I have never seen that deep in kdramas, I am thinking movie Xuan Zhang 2016 about that monk who walked on foot for 5 years to get buddhist texts from India. That is where all Chinese torturesome lifestyle comes to produce a DEEP masterpiece beyond measure. The pain leads to more insights anda greater deeper more passionate desire to reach towards something Higher. A comfortable capitalist country just ... perhaps... cannot produce that. There isnt enough pain to appreciate lack of it... And yeah money rules so there is a limit on artistic freedom... But Xuan Zhang is a movie about a Buddhist monk, and represented communist China at the International Film festival in 2016. I do not understand how it happened. :)
FL is soooo flat and stiff.... The actress is, and perhaps the script makes her so. The scipt totally does not do her any justice. She is just a little spice on he side, and otherwise totally irrelevant, the script totally leaves her in the dust.
Written after watching ep8: well.. the plot got so thin and meaningless.. the trip to Japan, the other guy, ... all that was so ... blah. Too many blah episodes. Undeveloped and unconnected script. Ruined it all.
THIS IS WHAT I WROTE AFTER WATCHING A FEW EPISODES:
I didnt expect Netflix to put out something locally Korean and in the true kdrama style, very artistic creative playful fun sophisticated warm positive, very very FINE, meaningful, educational, uplifting, like good old kdramas :) BUT HEY they did!!!! wow. I was surprised but hey I take the gift and thank Netflix!
The script is HILLARIOUS in meaningful ways and the actors really make it come alive and so funny :) The ML is an amazing comedian, and the side characters are very strong. It is a convincing story and great acting.
This is a great fun kdrama, like good old kdramas, very very very very fun :) I adore the comedy and have been laughing a lot with this kdrama. So marvelous, delightful, so light but deep, the issues it covers are for real... . It addresses the social issue of corporate abuse of small business, and tells the very dark story through humor.... LOTS of humor :) It is a GREAT storytelling and great comedy......
Yeah someone said this is like a Potato Lab and in some way it is, this is the same basic plot of "corporate heartless male shark versus a powerless poor woman with a dream", but this one is a lot more sophisticated than the Potato Lab... Potato Lab did not have meaningful side characters (except a few villages sometimes) and ML and FL characters were kinda one-sided, not very complex, and super closed off and immature and unable to communicate. The plot was often just slapstick comedy.
This kdrama has more and more complex and well-acted side characters, the ML and FL communicate in more adult and meaningful ways, the jokes are more refined, the plot is more refined... Potato Lab was like an elementary school fight between girls and boys, and it took until towards the end of ep 11 to have the female lead say something meaningful to the ML and for the two of them to communicate about their issues (the freezer scene). Luckily they kept communicating (e.g. the bed scene where she cannot participate and he helps her) and they turned out a very fine and well-matched couple at the end of ep 12. But it took them 12 episodes LOL
I hope this kdrama will stay good and get even better till the end. In this kdrama, ML says something meaningful and personal to FL in ep 2 and she shortly takes it in and they move on in harmony, and they are discussing the core issues already at the end of ep 2. Totally higher level game in this kdrama. The characters are more mature and open to begin with.
The ML actor is soooo comical and acts in such great detail and is so alive and genuine that it is really fun to watch. He is a master actor. The drama revolves around him as the lead actor and it is right. He makes it alive.
The other actors do a good job too to support the drama but he is clearly the star of the show.
The scene where they introduce ML and he turns around in that James Dean look - he seems so arrogant bc he knows he can dazzle western audience looking as a handsome European guy - but - he is a lot more beautiful and cute when he is more honest and tasting kim chi :) with his hair down. he looks younger and healthier :) bc he looks softer and more genuine.
I think the drama makes it "equal" and introduces the 2nd ML in the same way although he is not such a "looker" but is a spicey character LOL
The FL was introduced in a less AHA WOW! way... She too got to flash a bit, at first hidden under the hat. But it wasnt so flashy as the MLs.
My favorite scenes is ML and 2 brothers talk at the produce and meat shops LOL and the questions they asked him before and during that talk :) Wow impressively funny and on the point LMAO And the ML actor looks impressively handsome although he is acting something very ... mundane. What makes him handsome is the GENUINE ALIVENESS in his talking.
Perhaps someone put that actor as the ML to provide a pretty face on the screen, but he is a lot more than just a pretty face, he is a very great actor. I saw him in different dramas and he ACTS DIFFERENTLY which very few actors can actually do... So many actors act the same in any drama they are in :)
I saw the ML actor here and in Scarlet Heart Ryeo, and those two roles are 100% opposites.
In Scarlet Heart Ryeo he is a prince, a very COMPOSED CONTROLLED RESERVED QUIET mellow slimey quiet dignified serious person, scared, depressed, sad, violent, crude, caring but not really .... very melodramatic..... ver subtle and under the radar.... the acting requires very minute differences in egoistical expressions and some genuine care expressions, and he did it great.
In this drama he is in a very OUTGOING AND EXPRESSIVE troublemaker wheeler/dealer, comedian / macho entitled boy character, sort of jester role, he is a vivacious cocky obnoxious entitled young rich male character who is obsessed about getting what he wants, comical, who gets in your face, who causes trouble, who gets out of trouble by comedy as well as swindling, and he is acting it great and making it a HILLARIOUS COMEDY.
I think what makes it so wickedly good is the paradox and opposite forces in the script, he is actually a mama boy trying to please, including being a trained robot to grab the company, and ALSO genuinely interested to make it work, regardless of the fact that his motives and underlying inspiration are off.... Selling his jacket and watch LOL and wearing those awfully short sleeves LOL
So the underlying issue is, what will happen when his passions and inherently good heart get introduced to causes that are beyond his mama's agenda? CAN HE ALLOW HIMSELF TO HAVE HIS OWN DREAM?
So we are laughing as we watch him trip and fall and get up while he is figuring this out....
So this kdrama and Scarlet Heart Ryeo are his TOTALLY different roles, and he CAN DO THAT WHOLE RANGE excellently. Wow I am impressed.
How he acts in this kdrama allows for more details, like his facial gestures, or looks, his body language, etc. because there is so much more communication, more "fire" in expressing emotions, and plenty of comedy and plenty of various "looks" of his character facets, including "arrogant corporate scammer" to "village market unemployed" to "in the dog house by his woman" - who tamed that barking dog ML literally in the first minute of their meeting LOL to "big manager managing unruly adjumas in a tiny unruly place" etc etc etc so he can act sooooo much and there is so much to watch - the slump of shame, the short sleeves look, etc LOL stealing a drink and a bite while working LOL he is really really really fun to watch.
ML actor is an ***excellent*** actor and the level of detail of his acting in this kdrama is sooo fun to watch. The actor was having so much fun with his role... ! so nice to see. So far some of my favorite scenes are sitting with 2 brothers at the table LOL Overall, he made his role really alive and genuine. He is just this vibrant, RADIANT, bubbly, alive character. The scene of his running with FL was amazing. His whole acting and so many comedic moments are just amazing. He is a fantastic comedian.
The FL and ML work well as a pair. FL actress is not so good at acting and the script isnt so much in her favor. So far, FL is just too one sided proud stuck no-common-sense and yelling. FL character is like a teenager in a temper tantrum..... a business owner without a plan and without any business sense... A loser....!!!! But she luckily learns fast. She did hire someone. She did pull out the plates. etc. Luckily she seems to do well with the new employee. The first time she steps forward is the stare and the question at the end of ep 2. She is pretty and seems smart and knowledgeable and she controls the unruly dude, ok, but she needs to be a little bit more ... complex and stronger as a character. And yeah the outdrinking each other - hm... seems like drinking is out of control in S Korea..... ? Both ML and FL seem so immature there....
Well the script showcases the ML more, as usual.... but ML actor acts better and FL actress cannot act as well. WHY DOES IT USUALLY HAPPEN LIKE THIS IN KDRAMAS?
The second FL (new employee) was the lead villain in Undercover High School and there she is an excellent villain as a very dead serious person. Her face and facial expressions easily lead to villain roles, she looks scary.
The astonishing thing about this kdrama is that her face and facial expressions work for her role here. She is terrifying when she smiles and she has that scary look when she looks aside to check out the situation, however, when that is amplified in the positive direction and an open smile added, she makes for a PERFECT unruly-but-positive employee.
Anyway, this kdrama is a gem, a truly comical, delightful gem to watch.
So yeah, this drama works for Netflix $$$, without a shocking plot and violence etc, and also works for the kdrama art lovers... Local Korean GOOD FOOD will be appealing to the global audience esp americans who are obsessed about food, and we the real drama audience get to see something truely creative and fun.
I expect future counterfeits LOL bc the plot can be globally transplanted... :) maybe not in France :) maybe not in the USA bc there arent small restaurants anymore... perhaps in China.... but .... Nobody can come close to kdramas. cdramas are never that FINE, that WARM and SOPHISTICATED and KIND and PLAYFUL and CREATIVE like kdramas are. I am not sure what it is in K-culture that makes it so .... refined and common sense.
On the other hand... once in a blue moon, chinese stuff can be super deep and I have never seen that deep in kdramas, I am thinking movie Xuan Zhang 2016 about that monk who walked on foot for 5 years to get buddhist texts from India. That is where all Chinese torturesome lifestyle comes to produce a DEEP masterpiece beyond measure. The pain leads to more insights anda greater deeper more passionate desire to reach towards something Higher. A comfortable capitalist country just ... perhaps... cannot produce that. There isnt enough pain to appreciate lack of it... And yeah money rules so there is a limit on artistic freedom... But Xuan Zhang is a movie about a Buddhist monk, and represented communist China at the International Film festival in 2016. I do not understand how it happened. :)
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