Currently Watching: Wok of Love

by kailin, June 20, 2018

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This is my first try at a Currently Watching article, so hopefully I won’t give too many spoilers. In this drama, most of the drama happens in the beginning, and after a few episodes, the pace slows down quite a bit.

Normally I'm the type that discovers new currently airing shows late, or i'm the type that is convinced by others' Currently Watching articles to try out a new drama - it just happened with Love Rerun.

I discovered Wok of Love [or Greasy Melo if you prefer the original Korean title (yuck XD)] after I stumbled across a short clip of it on YouTube. I think it was this one.

I don’t know why this got me curious, but watching it pretty much shows the essence of the main characters. Sorry for those saying that Chil Seong is the second lead, but to me he just never was.

The main dish:

You have the leading lady Dan Sae Woo [played by Jung Ryeo Won], who just had the happiest day of her life – the day of her wedding– turned into her worst nightmare and still deals with it in a quite extraordinary way. She is quirky and chatty, sometimes pouting like a child, but yet I find her very mature. Once shit hits the fan, she goes crazy for a bit, but then focuses on what is most important to her. She lets go of what she knows is her old life, embracing her new life with a sense of hope and vigour I can only take my hat off to. Some might find her annoying but I sympathize with her for not lying to herself and allowing herself to feel hurt and confused.

Seo Poong – what a funny name – played by Lee Jun Ho (member of 2pm, which I only found out like 2 days ago. Yes I am that clueless) is a cook, who loses his job at a high class Chinese restaurant in a hotel. Even worse, his long term girlfriend/almost wife leaves him for the hotel director. Thus his story of revenge begins as he is very hot blooded and cannot deal with the fact that he was betrayed by his loved one and fellow cooks. He is a man of integrity, not ready to give up on his dream of becoming a great chef. He eventually calms down in the course of the drama mainly due to the influence of the other two main leads.

And here comes our special gangster Ahjussi to complete the trio. Jang Hyuk plays Doo Chil Seong, a very odd character: He is a kind-hearted gangster, always wearing sunglasses, falling head over heels for our main lady, quoting Nietzsche and delivering some of the coolest fight scenes I have ever seen in romantic K-drama. I love it when he thinks himself a fool but does it anyways. It’s like he just wants to let his feelings get out in order to let go of them. He is the best hyung to his gangster bros and to Seo Poong as well, and the perfect ‘Mr. Light’ to Sae Woo, when she is in need of help.

As the side dishes, we have a couple of other characters like the stupid gangster bros, Sae Woo’s mum, and two of their old employees who are like a family bound together in their misery. All of them end up working together, and sometimes against each other, at a small Chinese restaurant across the street from the hotel. While Seo Poong's main motive is to take revenge by succeeding on his own and stealing away the customers from the hotel restaurant, the others are joining him to just make it through life somehow.

Then there is a strange old lady selling very expensive chewing gum, and the meanies, mainly from the hotel, who are still trying to bring Seo Poong down after his declaration of defiance.

To me this drama is – to put it in one word: refreshing

Refreshing as in I don’t know any of the actors from previous roles, only Jang Hyuk and some side characters, but I don’t remember the role where I last saw them. So I don’t have any expectations and can watch the actors with unbiased anticipation.

Refreshing as in quirkiness of the story. You have a couple of really odd gangsters, who run a restaurant and don’t seem like either of them is good at cooking or being a gangster, an angry knife throwing cook, a talking horse, and a female lead that says and does some ridiculous things – such as inviting all of them to her wedding, because well… they told her to not get married?

The story is sad and sweet, random and fun, but what I enjoy most is the interaction between the main trio. All of them are hurt and are dealing with their emotions in their own, sometimes confusing ways. But then they dare to feel happy again and are slowly approaching each other with little gestures. While I do hope to see some more lovey-dovey scenes, I am not too eager to see anyone become a couple soon. Instead, i'm just enjoying watching the storyline unfold slowly.

Why is now a good time to start? Because half of the episodes have already aired and apparently there is a break due to the 2018 football World Cup. I do admit it is quite a long drama for me - with 40 episodes each lasting 30 minutes, but it didn’t feel that long to me until now. I hate having to wait for episodes to air, but sadly I have binge watched the last couple episodes that are online on my day off cause I couldn’t stop myself and now I'm hungry for more. Haha ;P

This Drama is for you if you enjoy: slow paced love stories that give you a warm fluffy feeling, quirky characters, family and bromance dramas, and watching people cook.

This drama is not for you if you dislike: more than 16 episodes long drama (of 1h duration), random talk, slow love story development, many side characters, and watching people cook.

Before I keep ranting and spoil even more of the drama, here are some pictures of the mouth-watering food they cook (and that's coming from a vegetarian ^^°):