I seem to be in a Rom-Com mood today, so as I always says let's go with the flow. The next post looks at another one of those dramas that give you the adolescent giggles, and romantic sighs, MBC's 2010 drama- Pasta. Alright, let's get cooking. "Yea, Chef."
Let's see, where should I begin? As its name suggest, Pasta is set in the world of Italian cuisine. We meet Seo Yoo Kyung (Gong Hyo Jin from The Greatest Love) a kitchen assistant at La Sfera Italian restaurant. She has been a kitchen assistant for the last three years, and has now finally earned her place as a pasta assistant. She is clearly a dedicated worker, friendly and well-liked by her work colleagues. Their kitchen seems to have a great dynamic.
However, all is not rosy at La Sfera. The current head chef has reached his limit and resigns, leading to the arrival of Choi Hyun Wook (Lee Sung Gyun). He's a Korean chef who trained and perfected his skill in Italy. Now he possesses great skill and knowledge of Italian cuisine. However, for Hyun Wook, there is only one simple rule that must be abided in his kitchen, "No WOMEN allowed!" HA. What are you, five? This is kind of a problem, when four of his chefs are currently female. But that does not deter him.
He systematically proceeds to eradicate all of the female employees in the kitchen, like they are some kind of vile bug to immediately remove. His reasons for firing them are all valid ones, as each of the females prove that they are not fit to be in the kitchen in one way are another. In fact, one can't help but think, well they deserved to get fired. Despite agreeing that the females were wrong, Hyun Wook's attitude about firing them is done is such a chauvinistic manner that you forget the women's faults and just want to get mad at him. It is a well played out scene, demonstrating that the acting and directing of this drama is definitely well done. (Ok, I promise I won't do any other food metaphors.)
Everyone thinks Hyun Wook is nuts for taking such a drastic move, and its obvious that the restaurant's business will suffer since he fired a total of four chefs in one night. They are eager for him to admit his mistake, when the next day's lunch time rush turns up and they are running behind on the orders. However, Hyun Wook is not a man without a plan.
Enter the Italian team. They are three chefs who trained in Italy and are currently Hyun Wook's proteges. I mention the Italian team for one reason and one reason only- they were all HOTTT!!!! And here you can check them out for yourself.
Alright, now moving back on to the review. Hehe.
Although Yoo Kyung is also fired, she takes a different approach to her female counterparts and turns up to work as if nothing has happened. Since she has never been able to establish herself as a chef, she feels deprived of the opportunity, and robbed of her chance to hold a frying pan. She turns up to work the next day, ready to grovel for her old job and finds herself suffering under the abuse of chef. Yet, tenacity proves to be her strong point, as she repeatedly returns to the restaurant day after day only to undergo a series torturous task. Her mission is to change the chef's mind and she is determined to do it. Hyun Wook is definitely irritated by her actions, yet completely amazed and intrigued. She seems a glutton for punishment and he doesn't seem to know what to do with her.
His complex feelings towards Yoo Kyung exist on another level besides the business one because his intial meeting of Yoo Kyung in the street was clearly a flirtatious one, and there is obviously a certain degree of attraction between them. Even after firing her, he still wanted to date Yoo Kyung (clearly all his mental faculties do not function properly, but then he wouldn't be a K-drama leading man if they did). Yoo Kyung of course turned him down, but now she is trying to invade his sacred hallow- the kitchen. For Hyun Wook, Yoo Kying is an unknown entity that does not compute and it is a most amusing scenario to watch play out.
Of course, Hyun Wook's aversion to women in his kitchen is based on his previous detrimental romantic experience. And since it wouldn't be a K-drama if that haunted past didn't come back into play, we meet Oh Sae Young (Lee Ha Nui). She was once Hyun Wook's colleague, competitor and lover. It is clear something happened between the two in the past, as the tension, hatred, anger and pain that is expressed on Hyun Wook's face any time he crosses her path is apparent. To be honest, watching the two interact with each other didn't really appeal to me, but we needed some background fonder and we got it.
As we all know, K-dramaland is never happy with just one love triangle, it likes to create love squares, pentagons, hexagons, basically all sorts of geometrical shapes. Pasta has its own little love square, as Kim San (Alex) is the man harbouring feelings for Yoo Kyung. Just as was the case with Sae Yong's character, San wasn't really worth my time. Both of the love rivals in this drama seemed to simply be background characters and I never considered them a real threat, which resulted in my not really caring whenever they were on screen.
On a whole, there is nothing truly unique about Pasta as a drama. There is love, misunderstanding, struggles to communicate and relationship strife. Pasta simply follows the journey of Yoo Kyung from kitchen assistant to a pasta chef, and the way in which she thaws Chef Hyun Wook's heart in the process.
The most appealing aspect of Pasta therefore lies once again in the dynamic between the two leads. Goo Hyun Jin is just one of those actresses that does Rom-com well. She embodies the character of Yoo Kyung so well, that the chef's nickname of "goldfish" to describe Yoo Kyung two second memory seems so apt and suitable, that calling her anything but goldfish sometimes feels wrong. She comes across as hilarious and funny and you just can't help but smile at her two second memory, which facilitates chef's teasing and torturing of her. As for the chef's character? Well, Lee Sung Gyun and his gruff, harsh and chauvinistic interpretation of the character kept the chef just irritating enough for me dislike him from time to time, but not so much that I wanted to throw something at the computer. He struck the perfect balance of a male lead that was annoying enough for me to like him and dislike him interchangeably. It always amazes me how K-dramas take male personalities that I could not tolerate in reality and make them bearable on screen. It is definitely to the benefit of the script writer, director and actors that they are able to achieve this.
As far as rom-coms go, Pasta definitely meets its target and its a thrill to watch from beginning to end. Watching the interactions between Chef and goldfish are two things that you don't want to miss, therefore, Pasta rakes in four stars on the Bel Scale.
According to Bel: It's boiling.
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