Wok of Love (2018) 기름진 멜로 (Greasy Melo)
This is a poster for the 2018 South Korean TV series Wok of Love . The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the TV series, Seoul Broadcasting System , the publisher of the TV series or the graphic artist.
Guest Review: Greasy Melo [An Alternative Lens] posted on The Fangirl Verdict -
Of Nietzsche and Noodles: a review of a very greasy melodrama by Dame Holly (the blog of the writer: Invisible Pink Dragon, or at her Dramabeans fanwall)
Here is The Fangirl's Verdict:
Dropped: Greasy Melo [Wok Of Love]
A charming love story of a group of men and women that is hotter than the boiling oil in a sizzling hot wok. Across the street of the six-star Giant Hotel, there stood a small and shabby Chinese restaurant called Hungry Wok. Doo Chil-sung, the owner of the restaurant and a former gangster from the Big Dipper Gang, took over the restaurant in order to provide a place of work for his former gang members. One day, former (Michelin)star chef Seo Poong, and bankrupt heiress Dan Sae-woo, whose lives were turned upside down overnight, came to visit Chil-sung for his help to get them back on their feet. -Wikipedia
Immediately after CHIEF KIM we watched WOK OF LOVE . We were pleasantly surprised that Lee Jun-ho(Chef Seo Poong here, but he played Seo Yul in Chief Kim, former expert prosecutor turned TQ's Director of Finance) was one of the three main characters. He's the second lead 😊 in CHIEF KIM, but here, he is the central character. Mom hardly recognized him, but when she learned the two Mr. Seos of Chief Kim and Wok of Love were played by one person, she was highly impressed with Lee Jun-ho.
Just a side note: My mom is a polyglot and she learned by listening so when I asked her to teach me some techniques, she suggested that I should watch movies or TV shows without subtitles. She learned by listening more than reading, but nowadays, she is so grateful to the translators(the ones providing the subtitles and putting everything in context...those people who are very careful not to get us lost in translation) for all those subtitles because she is hard of hearing.
The love triangle in this story is very beautiful because the two leading men, though not all the time, have a great friendship. The woman(a famous equestrienne whose family recently went bankrupt) they both have in their heart is not an insecure one, so unlike most of the heroines of other KDramas who have no idea how beautiful they, she is VERY aware that she is definitely not ugly(mom chuckles every time she says she's so beautiful because those other characters from other KDramas who think lowly of themselves are played most of the time by gorgeous actresses...some even more gorgeous than she is).
The THREE main characters:
LEE JUN-HO as the Michelin Star Chef Seo Poong. We watched him first at CHIEF KIM, and seeing him here kind of reminded me of Bradley Cooper in BURNT, but not exactly of course. Lee Jun Ho is definitely a good actor, if not great. He can be annoying, but he can be lovable as well. You can hate his character or love it. He can make you understand the character's innermost thoughts. Slowly, at least here in WOK of LOVE, he made us fall in love with his character little by little(even if some of us really wanted Dan Sae Woo to choose Doo Chil-Seong.
Jung Ryeo Won as Dan Sae Woo, former heiress
and star equestrienne. :-)
Jang Hyuk as Doo Chil-Seong, a gangster and
a loan shark with a heart of gold. Among the three
main actors, he is the most familiar to me and my
mom. We "met" him in SLAVE HUNTERS(2009)
because we saw MODEL(1997) after it. We have seen him in many
dramas, and I must say he is very versatile.
If there's such a thing as a lovable loan shark/gangster,
then Chil-Seong is "the one". Jang Hyuk plays/played
his part well. He was able to convey what goes inside Chil-Seong's
head and heart. Jang Hyuk is really one of the best actors
in SK.
for the rest of the cast, check the links below:
- Official website (in Korean)
- Wok of Love at Daum (in Korean)
- Wok of Love at HanCinema
- Wok of Love at IMDb
- Wok of Love at My Drama List
- Wok of Love at Wikipedia
- Wok of Love at AsianWiki
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