This review may contain spoilers
STORY: It's a melodrama with a tragedy in the mix. There is your typical family competition and hatred, but what stood out to me was how lukewarm the drama was. Lukewarm in the sense, there's no action, love rival, murder, none of those things, yet 'Chocolate' was such a beautiful and must-watch drama. I especially loved the fact that the two main leads met when they were children and how they were, in fact, more connected they thought they were, which added to the emotions when they finally discovered said 'connections.' I loved how the drama started and ended, and I have no complains whatsoever.
CHARACTERS: No complains for any of the casts, too. They played their roles exceptionally. I loved Kye Sang's and Ji Won's characters the most. Kye Sang's who seemed cold at first, but is actually the warmest and kindest person. He's not your normally played cold character in kdramas. Kye Sang's was respectful, soft and full of love to the very end. He was never disrespectful and always treated everyone with kindness. You rarely see that nowadays in dramas, so I appreciated it very much. Ji Won's character was as kind and selfless as Kye Sang's. She lived everyday for the sake of other people's happiness, and did so happily. The love between these two was so beautiful and soft, I didn't want the drama to end. They matched each other so perfectly~
The other side-characters were also as excellent. They each had a story worth listening to, and every time a person died, my heart broke and my eyes filled with tears. They were all incredible people.
MUSIC: I loved all the songs and instrumentals used. They were all winsome.
I really recommend this drama. It would really heal one's heart and soul~
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I hope you enjoy this drama as much as I enjoy it.
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This review may contain spoilers
The first thing you should know about this drama is that it is very emotionally heavy. So, if you don't enjoy sad/somewhat depressing stories, you might want to pass on this one. On the flip side, if you don't mind tragic stuff, then ABSOLUTELY give this show a watch! Story:
The premise isn't something original, but I didn't feel like I was watching something super cliche. I was invested from the very first episode (which is unusual for me). The way the series was put together (writing, cinematography, editing) from the very first scene is just breathtaking to me; I can't say that I've seen a drama story unfold in such a beautiful way. The story never fell flat at any point and it was unpredictable for the most part. The side stories fit naturally into the main narrative, I never had the urge to skip anything. Endings can make or break a drama for me and I gotta say that I was satisfied with this one. I appreciated the realistic feel and subtle ambiguity that was left at the end; not many writers can pull this off in a way that is natural; I was impressed.
Something else I noticed was how the first part of the show is mostly from the POV of Cha Young and slowly transitions into Kang's POV as the story progresses - that's one of my favorite things about this show.
Characters:
Loved them all! As the show progressed, I found myself caring about characters I didn't like at first. The side characters add to the story better than I anticipated - that's a plus. I liked the character development of the main characters the most (particularly Joon's character arc) because it was hard to tell just how they were going to react to the challenges presented - I was surprised at times, actually. I don't want to get into spoilers here, so this is where I'll leave it.
Acting:
10/10 - No complaints! Everyone was great, especially in the emotional scenes (and there are a lot of them).
Music:
I added the OST tracks to several of my Spotify playlists. That should tell you how I feel about the music. :P
Overall, if you like emotional melodrama stories (with medical and cooking aspects, as well) and touching side stories with excellently written characters, then yeah, WATCH IT.
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Side note: this was my first time watching this writer's work - I'm officially a fan now.
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Sound like a mess yet?
The romantic interest in Moon Cha Young, who falls in love with Lee Kang because he made her food once in their childhood.
In essence, it is the typical story of a male lead with a complex background who is otherwise saved by the love of the great character of a normal female lead.
That said, the way the drama executes this mess is actually quite well done, at least for the first few episodes. Enough so that it makes me want to keep watching.
Production quality is also top notch, some beautiful cuts of food being made and some parts being filmed in Greece.
However, at its core, I believe the episode structure, where it opts more for a TV series (to meet Netflix standards?) is flawed for a drama where the main premise is centred around love.
Even more so because I believe the writers made the mistake of being too experimental and the drama can't figure out whether it is supposed to be about food, hospital drama, or love, and it just becomes painfully slow to the point where the story or characters just do not progress.
To reiterate, the main story in itself is interesting enough to watch, but I simply do not care enough to hear the story of a random grandpa, boy, or long lost love that finishes in the span of one episode. One drama that executed this well is "Suits" where it actually feels like each story is utilised to develop the character of the main leads. Here.... they're just filler episodes.
I'll leave it at that for now and come back to update when, and if, I finish the drama...
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Justifies - Don't Judge a Book by it's cover
Chocolate isn't any extraordinary drama.The writer of this drama is sly and cheeky.
I'm dropping this due to inconsistent plot development.
There really isn't anything much to it.
The starting first 2 episodes are great which might make you think! Ohh wow!
And then after that, the writer simply drags it like nothing, nearly zero plot progression, and starts playing with deaths one after another.
For sure it has phenomenal cinematography but you can't solely depend on that.
The plot is scattered here and there.
This drama has a straight target for the female audience, it just somehow forces you to like it since it's brimming of sadness.
Everybody is sad in this drama, like seriously.
I liked it initially but halfway stage it's enough,
Or maybe people have become too much of an emotional fool to like this.
Only watch it if you've nothing to do and just want to pass the time.
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This review may contain spoilers
For the most part this series was pretty good! The cinematography was quite good with beautiful backdrops and scene locations. All of the characters were believable and some were very colorful. My only disappointment was the last few episodes as the story arc came to an end. I thought it left too many unfinished subplots and I really wanted to see a more deserving ending for Cha Young and Kang. The ending felt incomplete and left me with vague but well founded notions that perhaps things did not work out ideally for the two main characters. I can't say I'll watch it again but who knows? There was a lot of sadness in some of the subplots but understandable and not overdone. Some of the carefully choreographed cooking scenes could have been replaced with more emphasis on the relationship between the principle characters. I started out not liking Jun but toward the end the character seemed to find himself and became more and more likable and added to the one of the more pleasant endings. This series was well worth watching and I recommend it highly. I wish it had been afforded more episodes for more completeness. Was this review helpful to you?
Beautiful, sentimental but overall underwhelming
If you require a quick emotional fix, this show has what you need. However, If you want a show with flushed-out plotlines, no cliches, and lots of romance and you might want to skip this one.There are several storylines with many characters experiencing their own unique issues. The characters and their vulnerabilities really grasped my attention for the first 6 episodes. However, it eventually led to its own downfall. There was too much, which inevitably left us feeling like there was too little. There were too many plot lines which made the viewer felt like they needed a flow chart to keep up. Additionally, there was not enough time to fully flush out each plot device, so the result felt choppy and fast. However, it also felt agonizingly slow as the main plots dragged on and on.
Perhaps this is simply due to my own taste, but I found it redundant the number of times the main female lead would consistently getting into unnecessary danger. This danger only happens before the main couple becomes a couple, so it came off as a cheap plot device to push the male to "notice" his feeling. It's a cliche drama device, so I can't be too mad at it. She eventually experiences something that impacts a major part of her character and gets over it relatively quickly, and it's rarely addressed afterwords. Additionally, the main couple hardly gets any screen time, and although they have great chemistry, it really didn't showcase the joyous feelings of being in love.
The food and cooking aspects were great. The stories of the patients were beautiful and sentimental. I cried quite a bit, honestly. The acting was amazing, and the character's backstories and personalities were given as much depth as possible, given the vastness of the cast. Additionally, the visuals were beautiful and emulated the peaceful nature of a hospice.
Overall, this is a good drama, but I won't rewatch it. There was too much going on, and I wished they would've cut down on the subplots and invested more time on the major characters and the major plot lines. I got bored often and honestly fast-forwarded some of the more boring subplots :////
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This review may contain spoilers
If You Have Time
I would suggest watching this show if you have a little time to waste.Story: Though it can feel kind of slow paced the storyline really progresses quite quickly. I enjoyed how problems were not dragged along for to long except the ones from their backstory like them being first loves and the mom being the one she was trapped with at the department store. This show reminded me of “Hotel Del Luna” with the characters coming to the hospice before their death and helping to teach the main character a lesson. One thing that angered me was this man got into a car accident and lost it surgeon status yet he still driving with one hand on the wheel leaning on the window. Like my guy have you not learned your lesson.
Acting: The acting was phenomenal even in some scenes where I was like why are you crying it still made me feel bad. The cast was great and made you love them or hate them (especially that brother god he should have been in that department store)
Music: The songs were greatly composed and added to the story I never felt like it was unnecessary.
Rewatch: I honestly wouldn’t rewatch because this was not a show I would typically watch. I tend to enjoy shows like “Goblin”, “He is psychometric”, and “Tale of The Nine Tailed” to give you an idea, but if you like sad mellow drama you would enjoy this.
Overall: The drama is quite forgettable and doesn’t even touch my top ten drama list. It’s just a chill drama to relax and watch (maybe cry a little).
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Great acting but mostly depressing
This is another KDrama that is hard to rate. It is so well done, but whether you would like it is very dependent on what you are looking for. For example, are you looking to be subjected to hours of sadness? Then watch it. :-)I usually point out the good before the not so good, but I’ll reverse it this time since the not so good is the determining factor for me.
Sub-Optimal
- Sadness. Hours and hours of sadness. Too much for me, honestly.
- The writers were like, “We gave ‘em a few minutes of happiness, time to kill off someone!” Gads.
- Inexplicable choices by the leads in the last couple of episodes. Even for a KDrama, and their normal tropes, the leads’ choices seemed to not fit the characters as we knew them. So unnecessary and did not add to, but only detracted from, the story.
- What we were all waiting for pretty much came in the last couple of minutes. Too late.
The Good
- Great acting! By absolutely everyone.
- Great cinematography!
- Ha Ji-Won is the reason to watch. So beautiful and so talented. Her small and subtle, cute and comedic scenes made the series. There was just not enough of them.
So, all in all a 7. With less depression and less buffoonery at the end, would have been a 10.
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This review may contain spoilers
Life, Love, Death and Chocolate
I passed on chocolate so many times and I'm glad I stopped and actually gave it a try. The first few episodes are hard to get into and through, but once you make it past the overall setup for the drama then it gets pretty good. Chocolate is about hospice care and the people living out the rest of their lives in them. The romance itself is EXTREMELY slow burn and is a back burner story to the several other plot lines going on.Cha-Young has been through a great deal of trauma in her life and finds herself becoming a chef after coming across Lee Kang when they were younger who is now a neurosurgeon. He also has childhood trauma and is very cold and distant as a result. Their paths always seem to cross at different stages of their lives and they always seem to find each other even when Cha-Young left South Korea. As the drama goes on, they both begin to open up and Kang becomes more open and caring.
The huge piece that kept me coming back to this drama were the people inside of the hospice and the food. They each have beautiful stories that play out and are each given the last dish they want to taste by Cha-Young. So many episodes had me crying and mourning with everyone. It feels like you are a part of their last few months as well and really helps drive home that they are people who live there and aren't just in the hospital. They are cherishing their every moment and everything in it.
As well as all of the hospice patients, the director of hospice and Ms. Han, were such incredible characters that pulled at my heart strings every moment they got. It really hit home for me personally and just had me feeling for the both of them. Life gets in the way so much and sometimes you only have the moments before it's too late. They were such a beautiful story in the world of chocolate. I felt the same way about Cha-Young's brother Tae-Hyun and the woman he meets while in hospice. So many beautiful people and stories linked together through food and love.
--Spoilers in this paragraph! --
I rated this drama an 8.5 because of their relationship mostly. I was rooting for them from the beginning and even more so towards the middle of the show and the burn is very slow. I could appreciate this entirely because it made it even more worth it when they finally did get together, but the ending made it fall flat for me. It felt as though the writer felt they had to keep going when they could've just stopped. We didn't need to see Cha-Young meeting her mom again after 20 years... It was really unnecessary in the story and only added to the weird ending that we got. We spend almost 14-15 episodes waiting for them to get together and when they finally do, Cha-Young just dips again to Greece? Leaving behind Kang AGAIN after waiting for him to love her back... right after they were talking about running away together and eloping. It just didn't give me the conclusion I felt was good enough for the love story I had watched. The show could've been so much better had it just ended with a cheesy marriage scene. Sometimes the happy ending is the better one versus trying to tie in more of this "We always find each other" stuff. It really ruined the overall vibe of the last episode for me. Episode 15 would of been a perfect ending point.
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This review may contain spoilers
It hurt so good until it didn't
This will be the first drama that I take time to review because it had the potential to be one of my favorites, yet ended up turning into one of my greatest disappointments.What starts out as a tragic romance ends on an incredibly dry and bland note which I'll get into in the spoilers below. I still give this 8 stars because I enjoyed the overall story, and when I did enjoy it I had so much fun with it. The angst of the leads was addicting and left me anticipating new episodes every week since I watched it as it aired. Outside of the romance, the setting is interesting and allows for some heartbreaking but worthwhile storylines, and a lot of the characters that could have been very one-note were developed in interesting ways, especially the male lead's cousin.
I recommend if if you're ever feeling in a masochistic mood (look into trigger warnings first), but personally I was left feeling disappointed and betrayed by an underdeveloped relationship and unexplored plotlines.
Mild spoilers ahead:
One of my favorite aspects of the drama, as mentioned above, was the ANGST. There was so much longing and anticipation building up for their inevitable relationship, which at the time felt like it was leading up to a fantastic and passionate romance. I'm not typically into the childhood connection and shared trauma tropes but it worked so well here, and as they continued to face hardships it just felt like we were building and building before getting to a satisfying conclusion. I also usually hate when things keep going wrong for the leads, but again, it just worked here. I mean a surgeon who can't use his hands, and a chef who can't taste? CINEMA. I was hooked. And then...
And then they got together. Finally. And everything just. Fizzled. All this lead up and there was no passion. There wasn't much of anything. I'll be fair and note that I haven't watched this in four years, but I remember being so disappointed in their relationship once they were actually together. At one point he throws her a little birthday party, and it should have been so cute. But it just felt so awkward. Once they were together there just weren't any sparks left, and the female lead just seemed to lose all personality, just standing around blank-faced while he seemed happy enough. It never really felt like they connected. I ended up kind of hoping that things would pick up between the FL and the ML's cousin because at least they felt like they connected on a real level rather than just "Oh, we liked each other as kids." Even the tragedy of their careers (surgeon who can't use his hands/chef who can't taste) wasn't explored as deeply as I had been anticipating. I just wish they had taken more time to develop the relationship once they were actually together, as well as more development as they worked to overcome or accept their past and present trauma as a couple.
I still give it a high score because there is so much more to this drama outside of the romance, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't my main reason for me to watch it, as well as the main reason for my disappointment.
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Slow-burn Romance
I didn’t expect this drama before I watched .I watched this because of Oppa ( main lead actor ) I knew him from current Kdrama “kiss sixth sense”.
this drama is quite nice , meaningful scripts , nice ost / music , main lead actor can act micro-expression !!
I like the actress too. It is slow-burn romance .
Their love story is made me nostalgic and heart-warming .
Main lead actor and actress have great chemistry!
This drama also included foreign country scenes and was largely filmed on location in Greece and Wando Island, setting up a series filled with postcard-perfect scenes.
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