BLISS RATING: ★★★
“You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” – Barbara De Angelis
One can call this BL series cute, soft, and slightly entertaining. A nice entertainment escape story. Not deep of course, and not very memorable but nice for the moment. Its story is simple, basic, and frankly, boring. A couple of distractions made this series less impactful for me.
Park Ki Hoon (Won Do Hyun) is a chef of a small, up and coming Korean restaurant. Two things stand out about Ki Hoon. He is aloof and a no-nonsense individual and more importantly does not allow drinking in his establishment. The story obtusely centers around why he has a revulsion against drinking in his establishment. Honestly, it was not clear why that was the case or, more importantly, why that is such an issue. But apparently it is the focus of this story. It literally has nothing to do with alcoholism, although it should have been.
One day by accident in walks Han Ji Yu (Kim JunHyung). He is a bit inebriated. However, there is something about him that Ki Hoon finds appealing and is drawn to him. Both are very handsome men but their attraction to each other is not immediate, but some force keeps tugging at them. As serious as Ki Hoon is, Ji Yu is the opposite. He lives to eat and drink and focuses on the moment. Ji Yu is part of a marketing team for a liquor company who is going to start a campaign to push their product with a collaborative chef and restaurant. Ki Hoon’s restaurant becomes a top contender for such a partnership.
Ji Yu becomes the lead to try and convince Ki Hoon to agree to the collaboration and introduction of their product in his restaurant. Ji Yu is well aware of Ki Hoon’s stance on serving alcohol in his establishment. As it so happens Ki Hoon’s employee, Wan (Roshin), has an accident and is unable to work in the restaurant and Ji Yu volunteers to be his server. Thus, they begin to spend a lot of time together. It is not a long stretch before Ji Yu convinces Ki Hoon to sign the contract.
It is difficult to see the romance in this series because so much time is spent on getting the story line straight to having a happy ending where everyone sits down to a meal and enjoys friendship and good food. Frankly I did not understand the point of this series. It is barely romantic. To some degree there was a greater connection between Wan and Ji Yu’s boss, Yu Na (Han Da Sol) who because of circumstances got involved in this venture as well. You could at least feel something between those two. Their relationship should not have worked yet they made it feel natural.
I think the problem was that Ji Yu and Ki Hoon spent so much time trying to avoid what they were feeling for each other that I began to believe that they really did feel nothing for each other except mutual respect and admiration for one other. There was no depth to their connection at all. I really saw no sense of intense attraction or love for each other. It was all so superficial. And the acting is so standard with no chemistry between them.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? As typical in these unfocused series, it is the ‘throw-away’ characters who have the most impact. Ji Hoon (Jeong Ho Gyn) gives this dull series the kick it needs. He makes things real and brings out a personality for JI Yu that we would not have otherwise seen. Ji Hoon is Ji Yu’s roommate, and he is the catalyst to giving this series comic relief and a humanity about it. Being the ‘odd man’ out he played that to the hilt and rather effectively.
What distracted me from this series are two things. This series has no depth to its story or its characters. The heavy reliance on drinking I found frankly to be a bit disturbing. Drinking is fine; getting drunk and making that fun is not. Not a good message and for me turned the story sad. With the irony of Ki Hoon’s aversion to serving alcohol in his restaurant and his inability to drink a lot, made for a perplexing message as to what this story is all about.
Secondly, we have yet another example of a BL series unwilling to commit itself to showing ‘love’. The kissing scenes were insulting, and obviously badly rehearsed. Korean BLs seems to be following in the footsteps of Thai BLs. Let us not see any demonstrative acts of love that might offend someone. So kissing is played like both are preteen children and now have to wash their mouths out because they did something ‘dirty’. And for that you are expecting an audience of ADULTS to see romance and love?!
It is better for you to show nothing than to insult gay people by not wanting to kiss with some passion. If you are going to play a gay part, they play it with some conviction and the minimal standards of believability.
Otherwise, do not insult us by trying to be cute about it. That gets weary and boring. And that needs to be called out. And a series should lose points for being insincere.
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