Assistant chef, Jin-Hu (Lee Suk-Hyeong from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha & Lovestruck in the City-7.3), is walking down the street in a tucked-away neighborhood. His boss's new restaurant is set to open there. He looks to the left at passersby: 'That woman shoved a man's body in a refrigerator with the help of' (his head moves from 🕘9 o'clock to 🕚) 'her daughter and' (🕐) 'granddaughter'. His head turns to 🕒. 'That woman tried to stab someone last night.' His head keeps moving right to 🕠. 'And that man struck a pedestrian with his car and attempted to bury him alive.' Tough neighborhood. What do you even feed a crowd like that?
Eun Gye-Hoon & No Da-Hyun: Here's 2 people living a very unhealthy lifestyle. She can't sleep (stress, bills, past due notices, unpaid rent, lying to her mother about her office job - she quit - Oh, she's got a stalker, too). He can't sleep because he has this weird synchronicity thing where he's suddenly feeling her emotions, so when stress keeps her up, it keeps him up, too. When she cries he probably won't be able to hold back the waterworks, either. He's a chef, so he cooks to settle himself down. They aren't sleeping, and they are eating in the middle of every night.
That's not the beginning, though. As Link opens, EGH is buried in grief ever since his twin sister went missing, presumed murdered, at age 10. His family died that day. The family of his friend, Ji Won-Tak (Song Duk-Ho - May I Help You, Cheer Up) also died that day because Won-Tak's father was accused of the murder. Even though he was acquitted, the stigma remained, as the phrase "insufficient evidence" is not sufficient to clear a person's name. NDH is overshadowed by a shady past - it's literally shaded from her view. She has no memories of her childhood. She's only partially present and living. They are halves of a whole.
Link is a 2022 release that is rated 87 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 60ish-minute episodes. Yeo Jin-Goo (The Crowned Clown, Hotel Del Luna) is EGH, the ML. His voice is delicious. EGH is a high level chef. ("When the cook is emotional you can taste it. I won't tolerate any personal feelings in my kitchen." He sounds rough, but a moment later he tears up and passes out. What is that about?) Mr. Yeo looks completely different from his Hotel Del Luna days. The shape of his face used to be triangular; now it's more round. Triangle or circle, he usually plays a square, & he's pretty uptight as Link opens. FL, NDH, is brought to life by Mun Ka-Young (Welcome to Waikiki, True Beauty).
"These aren't my tears I'm crying right now." EGH is 😭 and 😝 all at the wrong moments. He's been through this before. He once had synchronicity with his sister. He experienced her emotions and reactions as if they were his own. Now it's happening again. His sister couldn't be aIive, could she? No, he's certain she's gone. He felt it. He could feel her terror, and then the connection broke; that was 18 years ago. Now, he must get himself together in time for the Gourmet Fair.
'You shouldn't be too perfect or you won't be approachable,' NDH's mom points out. Little does mom know that NDH is far from perfect. That company job that mom is so proud of? NDH quit that a long time ago. She scrambles to work part-time jobs and she is behind on all of her bills. Hopefully she'll bring in some good tips from the Gourmet Fair. Soon she's slinging too many trashbags and dirty 🍽 to even think. Love? Notta thought. NDH has never had a good man in her life.
Link is cotton candy, not gourmet fare. It's loosely linked together, but it will pass the time pleasantly for many. It wasn't until the later episodes that it started wearing on me. Here's yet another show that suffers from too many bread crumbs in the meatballs. They don't have enough good content for 16 episodes, but its problems go beyond a good edit. After 10 eps or so, it degenerates into decline & collapse mode, like a botched soufflé. The supposed premise of the show, his synchronicity with her and his ability to feel what she's feeling, adds very little excitement through ep11. It's almost besides the point. Perhaps it helped draw him to her, but people fall for eachother anyway. Synchronicity need not apply. They don't clearly lay out how he knows he's feeling /her/ emotions. The first couple eps are slightly haphazard. The logic behind some of the actions, reactions, and motivations is weak, unconvincing, and downright tasteless. I was stuck in Link's terminal lukewarmness - it wasn't bad enough for me to abandon but neither was it good enough to enjoy. By the end I lost hope that it would recover and was dreading watching the 1 ep/day I forced on myself like bad leftovers. Worst of all, Link attempts to lighten the load of heartbreak, but it comes right up to the line of making light of heartbreak. The plot is sad, and what happens stings. What's most sad is that it could have been better.
It's ironic that this show features a top level chef, yet the show itself is barebones. No extras. No garnish, no special sauce, no BAM. The premise of the stalker and the refrigerator is a tad weak. Jingeun is irritating. How does NDH's family even make enough to live? Nobody is ever in the restaurant. They should have some weirdo regulars. They don't do a good job building up the tension. This is a town where everyone should be a suspect. We should get to know each one and be shocked when the true killer is revealed. The bad guys shouldn't drop from nowhere when the show is 60% done. It feels like cheating. We don't know this person. We know this person has done bad things but we are detached. We don't hate, like, or fear this person.
Formulaic is a criticism, but there are formulas for good storytelling. If show creators want to deviate from the formula, it had better be good. Link isn't all that good. Ep15 is VG. It starts out weak because it must clear up a mess left by previous eps, but it puts the show back on track. Ep16 is also good. It's mostly a wrap-up, something sorely missing from many prior years' Kdramas. They also had more opportunities for laughs and better romantic moments. Hong Jong-Chan also directed Her Private Life-8 and Live Up To Your Name-7.6, two shows that are rock solid with few deficiencies. Writer Kwon Ki-Young's Hello Monster & Suspicious Partner are quite popular. This is just an off project for them.
Link Is not fusion food; it will only feed romance junkies. It doesn't cross genres well and it will not attract new regulars to Korean programming. Anyone who doesn't like romantic and somewhat sentimental features might want to skip it. Still... I believe it's worth watching once. Some of the tastier selections include NDH's Oma and grandma, who seem like they have a dark side🔩. Grandma turns out to be a profoundly good person. They manage a plot twist or two. Their first date: Urgent care and a CT scan. We learn that we can't bury everyone who bothers us - the problem is there's not enough land. I like the secondary relationship with the cops.
"I don't have the courage to be happy," EGH admits. Truth is the 1st step in healing. The average person tells three lies a day, and some psychologists say that we lie more than 200 times a day, we're told. That includes the lies we tell ourselves. The most common lie that men and women tell is: "I'm okay."
"Some people don't look forward, they look backwards. They live with regrets, bitterness and longing." It occurs to NDH that these people do not see her, they see someone missing from their past; NDH is just a placeholder. In ep15 they cover if, if, IF ~>> Endless self-reproach, accusations, and regret. One character had faced cruel and entirely unfair judgment and cannot forgive h/hself. There are a couple of characters who feel a weight of responsibility when they did nothing wrong. In a vat of self-absorption, they feel compelled to turn themselves in, and it is less than convincing.
The vibe is somewhere between offbeat and strange. The characters are only half-baked. Mom and grandmother are a bit inconsistent but they grew on me. They're somewhat ridiculous but charmingly ruthless (Ye Soo-Jung from Stranger and Mine(8) is always good, and she's clearly having the time of her life in this role). This is not Gordon Ramsay's kitchen, it's more Flo's diner. However, I appreciate the good, which outweighs the bad. It does contain some of the most romantic words I've ever heard: "Do you want anything to eat? Whatever you want, I'll cook for you." Whew. 'Scuse me while I sit and fan myself...
QUOTES📢
Yummy food brings you joy.
Life is a comedy in the long-shot and a tragedy in close-up. ~Buster Keaton~
Questions are more important than answers ~Einstein~
〰🖍 IMHO
📣6.5 📝6.5 🎭7.5 💓5.3 🦋5 🎨6 🎵/🔊7.3 🔚7.7 ♦ 🌞4.5 ⚡5 😅2 😭6 😱4.7 😯3 😖3 🤔4 💤3
Age 14+ Scary and violent elements; Language: $h!+
Re-📺? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again....
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Mad For Each Other 7.8 ~silly fun;
Crazy Love 7.8;
Love to Hate You 8.9;
Touch your heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
Private Lives 8.1;
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9;
Love Struck in the City 7.3;
When the Camellia Blooms 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
My Mister 9.5;
Flower of Evil 8.9;
The Man from Nowhere 8.9;
The Cursed 8.3;
Black 9
🗺
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