Moon Rae Soong

Dhhddh jae oh PLEASE get a gripe. Jun seo is aware of him being used and actually calls out ah jin manipulative behavior, but Jae oh just really seems unawre of everything, also he believes that ah jin is pire as hell and kill a fly, they both view ah jin bery differently imo.

The part where you said " I don't see her suffering at all" well ti will come soon I think, she is essentially a "villain" in everyone else's life so a downfall is inevitable

His eyes when he is yearning for her, the actor kim young dae really did a fantastic job !!!!!

I really do believe that partially his love is genuine, because he said that he doesn't necessarily needs to date/be woth ah jin but wants to see ber happy that's why he was fine with her being close to jae oh like that, I felt horrible when I saw that scene too 😭😭

I actually cried the end of episode 5 and then i got hit with the ending of 6 😭😭😭 the editing was so evil. I feel so awful for jun seo. Like don't get me wrong, he isn't a good person for helping ah jin out, he knows what she is doing, especially to that poor man she used to kill her father but still, she made him believe that she is all he has and she is the one who crawled back to him. She literally told him that it's his "good heart" that gets her in trouble, yet she is using that "good heart" of his as she pleases. Anyways I don't hate her and actually rooted for her but i just don't understand how dating In Gang is going to help her? I don't even think that she should date jun seo, that woman is not capable of loving someone, she is so detached from everything, she is clearly obsessed with jun seo though, the way she looks at his his commercials and how he showed up with Lena, it's not love but it's an unhealthy attachment. Same for jun seo, his love for her started out from guilt because he saw his own mother trying to kill him, beat her up, and sell her as a prostitute then kick her out. He is helping her out to make it up for every horroble thing his mother did to ah jin, he said it himself. He is also not capable of love, because he doesn't know that his affection towards her results from long years of brainwashing and manipulation. Sighs.... i think I just have a soft spot for this actor or something.

Kim jae oh was so real when he told jun seo that he is pathetic for letting ah jin date in Gang for her master plan. He doesn't realize himself that he is ALSO pathetic....

Here I am once again, commenting to beg for a spin off. Like 5 or 6 episodes of how he will adjust to the modern life. Personally, I would have preferred if she stayed in the past with him and that he regains his throne back cuz the entire setting of her being his cook and him being the king created romantic tension between them. Because you could see the queen, yi heon step mother and his late fathers concubines suggesting to put cook Yeon as the new queen. I really wanted to see Yoona as a queen 😭😭😭 If we can't get a spin off, can we get an alternative ending where they go stay together but in jeoson era. Poor jinmyeong who also became a king at the age of 6. Also we could've seen more of gil geum and the rest of her sous-chefs.

I cried through the entire last episode from start to finish ! no joke!

Where should I even begin? This show has been my comfort for the past month and a half. Every week was exhausting: from university to work, then coming home to study again. I was at my happiest when I was watching it.

I’m a food and cooking lover. Every day, I try new recipes and ingredients, and each episode took me at least two hours to finish because of how often I paused and rewound, taking notes on recipes, cooking techniques, and screenshotting the dishes.

Yoona’s acting as a chef was incredibly convincing — from the way she held the knife to how she delivered lines about what it’s like to be a chef. I was mesmerized. It felt like I was looking at the version of myself that could have been, had I chosen to become a chef. The thought of making people happy with my food ; especially my loved ones ; felt so fulfilling. Despite the struggles, Cook Yeon clearly enjoyed her craft, and that joy radiated through the screen. I’m determined to recreate all of the royal cuisine shown in the series. Being from France, I also loved how she incorporated French culinary elements.

I felt sad reading some of the comments complaining about the cooking competition when, to me, it was the best part of the show. Everything else was about treason plots and palace schemes, which often made us viewers feel gloomy. I’ve watched almost every time-travel Joseon-era K-drama, so I’d already prepared myself for a tragic ending. That’s why I truly cherished the cooking-competition segments; they were the bright spots, and I made sure to savor them as much as I could.

Another highlight for me, aside from the cooking, was Lee Chae-min. Many comments have already praised his acting, but I want to add something about his character. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character as tragic as Yeonhuigun. I’ve seen two other K-dramas portraying this historical Joseon king, and while I always pitied him, it was usually in a detached way ; feeling sorry for his fate but never really understanding his pain. This drama was different. For the first time, I could empathize with him as a child who had unjustly lost his mother. This depth came from Lee Chae-min’s incredible acting and the show’s nuanced portrayal of a “tyrant” king.

Some viewers complained about the lack of romance, but for me, the cooking itself was the romance. Imagine making the tyrant king of Joseon fall for you through food. Every time she cooked a new dish, thinking of his needs, well-being, mood, and what would be best for him, was there anything more romantic than that? I don’t think many people understood the symbolism behind those dishes.

And then there’s the Mangunrok. The time-loop element was handled much better than I expected because it wove the romance into the story too. The king recorded all of her recipes in that diary, as if casting a spell to bring her back. No matter how many timelines she altered, the king’s love never changed. Through his yearning and his call for her, she always returned, and he always found his way back to her, in every single timeline. They were destined to be together across every version of the story.

The moment he realized he had truly been a tyrant all along shattered me. What broke me further was his realization that the “tyrant” Cook Yeon had described at the start was actually him. Instead of lamenting his downfall as a dethroned king, he said, “You recognized me from the beginning,” emphasizing his love for her — accepting everything, even his own flaws. Every time she was hurt or in danger, the way his eyes and heart reached out to her made me teary-eyed.

When he finally understood the true meaning of the Mangunrok, I wept uncontrollably. It revealed that he was both the cause of her time-travel—since he wrote the journal—and the reason she could go to the future, at all! It’s tragic and beautiful at the same time.

Here’s how he traveled to the future: when he realized the Mangunrok she sought was actually his journal, he desperately tried to close the book as Cook Yeon was being pulled into it, even tearing out the last page to stop her from leaving. Earlier, when Cook Yeon was watching the king fight and holding the book while crying, she discovered that the previously “missing” last page — the one she noticed on the plane — was now intact. This showed her that she was holding a version of the book from before she returned to the past. That page read: “Dish that makes you remember home.” It was also the first dish she had ever cooked for the king.
In that moment, she understood everything; that she was destined to return. When she was about to die, she confessed that she never truly wanted to go back, not just because of her wounds, but because of what she realized flipping through the pages. The last page’s words, “home,” ultimately sent her back. When the king later died, that same last page that didn't disappear with her landed on him, fulfilling his final wish.

The time-travel magic of the Mangunrok was rooted entirely in the king’s love. The first page of the book expressed his wish to see her again, bringing her to the Joseon era. The last page expressed the same wish, this time taking him to her in the future. The book’s first and last pages were like spells powered by his love across time.

I found it brilliant that the last page’s dish was bibimbap — a meal tied to the feeling of home. In the end, he cooked it for her in THEIR home in the future. The last page of the diary reunited them.

This is why I believe the time-travel element, the Mangunrok, and all the symbolism behind it were perfectly executed. This drama became my second favorite of the year for that reason alone. The series has its flaws here and there, but overall, I’d give it a solid 9/10.

adding more dramas outside of this list :
All of us are dead because 12 episodes was too little I feel like it should have lasted 6 more episodes to tell us about people like namer who can resist the virus ... or rather control it to its own will !

This is my opinion :

I need a season 2 for hwayugi (a korean odyssey) because of the original story of the monkey king. For me it a-was rather an open ending than a fulfilling one. They did samjamg so dirty too and I loved son o gong and his personality. I feel like a 10 episode long season 2 would work great with so o gong retrieving back samjang from the underworld and possible backstory for him and introducing nez characters like the jade emperor.

scarlet heart rye doesn't really need a season 2 but 2 episodes epilogue or at least one. It was bound to happen anyways but they ignored the fans opinions and deleted certain scenes from the last episode. Thank god IU shared it on IG.

I havent watched vagabond yet but everyone around me said that it ended on cliffhanger so I suppose it needs a season 2.

The heirs and Vincenzo ABSOLUTELY do not need a season 2. I genuinely wanna know what else to add ? The ending was pretty satisfying to me.

Memories of the halhambra needs a season 2 but I feel like it doesn't at the same time. I'm quite conflicted on this because there isn't enough story elements to cover a whole season. same with hotel de luna.