eccentric chef moon

this pandemic forces us to stay at home mostly, thus netflixing or binge-watching drama or serial is a new habit that i adopt to survive this pandemic (read: boredom). my favorite western serial drama is being put on hold or even finished (criminal minds.. i don't think i'd find other drama like this). oh well.. then comes korean drama. i've watched korean drama before, but not consistently since i usually find free streaming to watch it. but thanks to netflix, my korean drama supply is abundant. i'll try to review every one of them that i've watched soon. but first, let's talk about chef moon.

nope, i don't watch this on netflix. i have to find it from free streaming online to watch this. and the only reason i watch this is eric mun since he's the male lead (ML). i knew that female lead (FL) from waikiki and i don't quite like her, but i'm curious about eric's comeback drama so i managed to finish the drama just now.

title: eccentric chef moon

cast: eric mun (chef moon), ko won hee (yo yoo jin/bella), ko do yeon (kim seol-a), ahn nae sang (im chul yong) and many more

genre: romantic/melodrama

this story revolves around three people, chef moon the eccentric chef, bella the no-face designer and a little girl seol-a. three of them get tangled and end up living together in a small village. and they find out that their life problem come from one source, the greediness of a businessman. together with the villagers, they push forward in life and finally win against the enemy.

honestly, the storyline is a common one. a story about a greedy businessman that would try anything just to get what he wants even though it means killing someone else. obviously it would cost someone else. chef moon's parents for example. seol-a is a little girl that suddenly comes into his life because she claims that chef moon is his father. at first he resented her, but lately, after finding out why seol-a claims he was her father, he accepted her. 

and there is bella aka yo yoo jin. a designer that has a trauma from her childhood so she can't see camera flashes so even though she's a worldwide-known designer, she keeps hiding her face so no one ever sees her face except for her mentor, whom lately she finds out that her mentor has something to do with her mother's death. when she was about to take care of her mother's graves property, she got into an accident and lost her memory and somehow she ended up in chef moon's house.

obviously, living together creates sparks between them, but the evil man is not stopping at all. he keeps trying to crush both of them to dust. together with the villagers, they try to stop the businessman but they fail several times before at last they can win. typical "good will overcome the bad" storyline, isn't it?

what i like: 

- most of the actors and actresses are good, even the supporting ones. i like seol-a too. though i don't quite like yoo jin, somehow sometimes i think she's lack of emotion. and i don't know why they called it eccentric chef while the one that's more eccentric is bella, the FL. 

- how at the end, the mentor helps the daughter of the businessman to keep back to her feet even though at first she was the cause of bella's accident and even becomes the fake bella. and how chef moon doesn't hold bella back. when she finds back her memory and after everything is over, he tells her to do whatever she wants, finds her own dream and leaves it up to her if she ever decides to come back home. this is not a typical love storyline, while other drama would make the ML to the FL and not waiting at all.

- the togetherness of the villagers. somehow it makes this drama more heartwarming.

what i don't like:

- how the antagonist is still a super evil person that has various way to crush other people. how they portray the rich has a way to win though it's only at first. 

- i wish they pick someone else as the FL since i think the sparks is not there between the FL and ML. and surprisingly, the age gap is super wide too! 15 years! the FL is even younger than eric's wife in real life. 

- eric's hairstyle. why do they have to choose that hairstyle? it makes him look old. 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: no

recommended for: someone who likes eric mun, who doesn't mind slow-progressing drama, no intriguing storyline and common story (bad guy vs the good guy and finally the ML win the FL's heart).