lemon_smile

As a moth to a flame, go I to sageuks. Even faster do I go when it involves my niche favourite trope of time-travelling. And at rapid speeds do I go even further when morally grey men are involved. And an unstoppable force I become when star-crossed lovers is the focal point, even more so at an enemies to lover basis.

Never was I hungry after an episode from how it fed me, cradled me, held me softly as I watched the story unfold towards an ending always known to come around. What is more tragic than knowing how it ends before it even starts? Is it better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all?

It ends how it begins: with a love note.

PREMISE:
Yeon Yi-jeong is an up and coming chef who has recently won star title of chef at a French cooking competition and is more than ready to start her new life and business with the earnings from the show. But before she can return, her father makes one request of her: she needs to collect a historical artifact from the Joseon era to take with her back home. Sure, no problem, what could go wrong?

So much.

So much goes wrong.

When an accident causes damage to the irreplaceable book (irreplaceable in more ways than one), YJ decides to have a little sneak peak because when did curiosity ever kill the cat? And the book is nothing more than a cookbook except - wait, what is that note at the end? A lament for a lost love, the author begging for their return to their side? How cute, but not so cute when the world turns upside down and YJ is thrown through time in a fashion most unkind. She hurtles through the past and finds herself falling from the sky and right into the moment where our male lead, Yi Heon, has decided to hunt.

It is hatred at first sight.

He thinks her a female demon and an omen of bad luck for his already tyrannical rule. And she thinks him to be an actor who has taken his method acting a little too far. It isn't a meet cute, especially when they try to kill each other with YJ gaining the upper hand and she wastes no time in dragging around the king of Joseon like a dog on a leash no matter how many times he insists he most definitely is the king of Joseon. But that's ridiculous because if he was the king of Joseon then that would mean she wasn't in Korea, which would mean she went back in time.

Unfortunately for her, all her worst nightmares turn out to be true.

CHARACTERS:
Yoona plays our heroine, a no-nonsense chef who has one goal and one goal only in mind: return to her time, see her father, and finally open that restaurant she has always wanted. I know some people give Yoona flack for her acting (all because of a show that was over TEN YEARS PRIOR) but she truly shows off her acting chops (pun intended) with her portrayal of Yi-jeong. Never has a more realistic approach been done with a character suddenly thrown through time like YJ. She refuses to believe she's actually in the past until near the end of episode two. She rationalises everything away and turns away when the truth is right in front of her. Because who in their right mind would ever believe they were suddenly in the past? But when push comes to shove, YJ can't deny it any further: she's not in modern day Korea anymore, Todo.

From that moment on, YJ has made her decision: get that blasted mangunrok back and return to the future. And try as she might, the universe is working against her no matter what she does. It's quite refreshing to see such denial and dedication in a character that is so human and realistic of anyone in a situation such as her. YJ is thwarted time and time again, but it does little to deter her; if she can't get mangunrok back, she'll just have to keep surviving anyway she can until it's in her clutches again. And that means doing what she least wants to do: serving the tyrannical king. She knows of him, she shows equal amounts of distain and fear in light of that knowledge. YJ is under no illusions about the truth of her situation and she knows she needs to be careful lest she loses her head.

YJ is a refreshing female lead and Yoona's portrayal of her is equally so. Her desperation can sometimes cloud her mind but not to the point of taking substantial risks, but she is not so cowardly to sit back and hope the answer to all her prayers falls into her lap. She is snarky but knows when to bite her tongue, she is insightful but knows when the moment is right to share her thoughts. She is blatant with the truth about her being from the future, but does not push it when she realises it might result in everyone thinking that she is insane. There is a balance with YJ, and she never loses sight of her end goal.

And yet, her heart wavers with the king deemed one of the worst in Korea's history.

Yi Heon is our male lead and he is neither hero nor the complete villain in the story. He is neither fully good nor fully bad. He exists in the grey area of it all and sometimes he sways before returning once more. He has no idea of the future of his legacy or who his true enemies are, and all he cares about is punishing those responsible for the death of his mother. His moral compass does not point true north, that is if he is even in possession of one. He is impulsive, selfish, rash and also a major foodie. He wants amusement and he does whatever he can to achieve it. So, when he is wrangled by a strange woman who can satisfy his taste buds, he decides to keep her around, disregarding warnings of who or what she might truly be.

Lee Chae Min was addition to the cast but he steals the entire show. I've heard rumours that apparently offers for scripts have multiplied with a number too big for my smooth brain to comprehend, but it's all well deserved. Chae-min expertly crafts Yi Heon in his own image, showing the character as equal parts terrifying and equal parts empathetic. I can't even fathom into words the brilliance of his acting, at just how well he embodies a historical figure known for his tyranny and yet can still carry with him the humanity that comes with being a person.

And the love story - man, the LOVE story.

Despite the bad beginnings and shaky middle, Heon and Yi-jeong find love, comfort and solace with one another. Yi-jeong wavers because she knows who he is, what he's capable of, and yet he smiles so sweetly at her, protects her, aids her in any way that he can. She sees him for who he truly is, and yet she still loves him. He can be monstrous, but he is also kind, he is also gentle, he is also fiercly protective of her. And Heon - for Heon, Yi-jeong is all that is most precious to him. The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but it's as though Yi-jeong has ripped through his chest and taken it for herself. She eases his torment, she listens to him, she soothes him and understands him. She knows he is capable of being good even if everything and everyone else does not. And if she believes it, it must be true and he strives to prove it to her even when the world acts against him. She sees him for all that he is and does not turn away from him. Through time, they find each other and love each other and fight against fate that seeks to tear them apart. Heon will do anything for her, and Yi-jeong will do anything to prevent the tragedy of his ending and the echoes of his terrible legacy.

I came for the love story, but there are other interesting factors at play including the politics, the beautiful cinematography of the cooking and food displays. The other characters are also interesting on both sides of Yi-jeong and Heon, too, even if they fall a little into the typical sageuk baddie categories. But you will have a good time with them, nonetheless. From our adorable gang of cooks, to our sect of evil politicians and those who seek to pull apart and push together our leads, all hold weight in the story and strive to achieve their own goals, seeking to succeed at any possible chance, be it from making a delicious meal to stealing the throne for themselves.

I will say that my biggest if only complaint is the show did lag a little in the second act of the drama due to a drawn-out cooking competition with the cooks of the Ming enjoy that took the guts of 3-4 episodes. I found myself skipping forward a lot during these episodes, but they're still enjoyable nonetheless, just not my taste. There was some political intrigue beneath the entire cooking contest that showed the clear struggle for power in Joseon, but it wasn't really something I found myself frothing at the mouth for.

As for the ending, without giving too much away, I understand people who are frustrated at how rushed it all seemed in the span of two episodes where so many threads needed to be tied up when so much time was wasted on the cooking competition; however, I felt that it was an apt ending for all characters. Perhaps it is a reflection of who I am as a person, but I seek no greater understanding of the universe of how it all came to be, I see no reason to understand when, why, or how it all happened but rather accepting the truth of it all: it just IS. In real life, we often don't get the answers we seek, or perhaps we are too afraid to search for them in fear of what they might be, so the show gives us a secret third option that many fail to realise is there: understanding will not bring us resolution when we have achieved what we have always wanted.

What's more important is accepting that the universe works in mysterious ways that perhaps we will never fathom with our human minds and, sometimes if we're very lucky, it works in our favour.

OTHER THOUGHTS:
-The music was fantastic, but I'm not exactly one to care a lot about the soundtrack of any show.
-The show does balance comedy and the seriousness that oft accompanies sagueks. The show never got TOO dark, but it still had moments that made me hold my breath, particularly in the second last episode where a certain character has a crash out moment. However, this show isn't really marketed as a comedy and therefore, it does not bother me that the comedic moments became few and far between as the shows went on. Often, sageuk dramas will market themselves as a comedy but then abandon the genre at the halfway point, which is often disappointing. But it wasn't a problem here in this show.
-The show, no matter how many episodes in, will always use a title card to indicate the name of a person and their title. Like, by episode 10 it was still telling me the names of main characters and their titles in the palace even though I already knew that. I suppose it was helpful at times when I sometimes couldn't differentiate between the different old men politicians and how they were all connected but I just thought it was a little funny because usually with sageuks, it comes with a big cast of characters and there's always some that slip our mind and we can't remember.
-The set design was of a high quality and no less than I expected from a sageuk kdrama.
-At 12 episodes, the show does all that it can in such a limited amount. I don't know if it would have benefited with the standard 16 episodes, but, again, i felt that the show did drag a little with the cooking competition segment of the show. Perhaps this could have been avoided if they either: had more episodes planned, or spent less time on the cooking competition. Or maybe I'm wrong and what we could have gotten instead was even more of weak second act, it's hard to tell.
-Again, Lee Chae-min. That's it. That's the tweet. That man is going to have an explosive and amazing career after this.

FINAL OPINION:
From the acting, the storytelling, the characters and the cinematography, this show was a feast also for the eyes and not only for the food it displayed. The main characters were enjoyable and fascinating to watch and were portrayed with such excellance that I don't think anyone else could have played them. I will be definitely adding this show to my small collection of k-drama's I will be watching again and again.