InspectorMegre

The actors in this drama had a blast, it was visible they really enjoyed horsing around, as most of them usually played villains and here they were good guys having fun with food.
It was nice to see their comraderie
it was nice to see positive messages about trusting yourself and doing your best, honestly
and... the drama was a miniature cooking class lmao

It also showed something really important - military as a place for broken/poor people to receive training, gain work skills and perhaps even life calling, and a community.
ML was a depressed grieving young person and this cooking job in the military gave him something to do and led him to discover his life calling. That has always been one of the major draws of joining the military and ... still is :)

The drama pushed 5-star cooking too much as if that food is to be expected in the military but ... after all.. why not? That will prevent any wars and keep peace. Everyone will be happy staying in their barracks and living a good life, eating well and having fun. Why not. I think we found the solution to world peace :)

The military corruption was showed only on the low level, and resolved in a ... rosey way ... but ... why not. The drama did not attempt to bite more than it could chew. The problems were appropriate for the situation - a new military cook in a far outpost.

Personally, imo there was too much cooking scenes, so I had to fast forward although I am a passionate cook. I am not really interested to LOOK at food. But there was some useful stuff that will help me cook :) I am interested in a cookbook with recipes from the drama. The last dish was awesome.

and yeah -
Ah finally someone puts French cooking where it belongs - in France.
Korean food is amazing, so nutritious and healthy and yummy, produces lean and healthy ppl, and I am glad the drama got to celebrate it.
Imo the real French cooking is the French village cooking. and that ... resembles Korean food in so many ways... all kinds of stews and soups, lots of veggies.... and that is the kind of stuff good to eat.... and is NOT served in French restaurants bc it is "too plain" lmao . The French restaurant stuff shown in this drama is for the show lmao Those pastries look like they are gonna clog your intestines in an instant. That's why French eat so little of that "French cooking"

I got tired of kdramas peddling foreign stuff. it is ironic that both in kdramas and cdramas the military had to step in to remind ppl of their roots :) But someone had to stop some French restaurant or fried chicken, sandwich or whiskey shop etc sponsoring a product placement ... (in cdamas, the military reminded ppl that men shouldnt wear too much makeup i.e. look like anorexic teenage girls with tons of makeup on. Right on, Chinese military!)

So the proper salute to Korean food and the fact we learned to cook rice properly and to assemble a Korean dish is enough to make me feel satisfied, pun intended.

KSJ got his lady - and he was a lot more ... suave and experienced than real KSJ should have been lmao
The commander finally stepped out...
and it all ended well, with an entry to Season 2. Yay.

But I think the next step is to have that KANGLIN COOKBOOK with recipes in digital form with all the scenes from the drama. This drama was a miniature cooking class. I am interested only in the Korean recipes :)

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The drama was an advertisement for joining the military, but it was realistic and showed military faults that everyone knows about - corruption, rank dominance, bullying, red tape, etc.

It also kinda showed the military as a place for gourmet meals, as if the military were a vacation with 5-star food service, and all the high ranking officials being gourmets lmao eating gourmet every day in the officer's cafeteria..... So if they go to war... what will they eat? lmao

As for the soldiers who are there bc they have to be there, imo it is ok they eat gourmet stuff and get fat, since they are not really going to any war any time soon - well we hope, since there was like ... 200,000? Korean troups in Vietnam war. Korea had most soldiers there after the USA.

But sure, this might be a solution to world peace - all military globally should be eating luxury gourment 5-star food and being fat and happy, and refusing to go to wars etc bc they couldnt eat such nice food. I am all for this plan. Start now!

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The character of the commander portrayed by Lee Sang Yi was
a perfect "spice ingredient", without him the drama would not be it. Each drama needs AMAZING support roles or else it doesnt work. So he is that in this drama. He is portraying a super complex character with total mastery and conviction. The plus is his "beautiful" well kept sleek-urban baby face, which adds to totally convey the absurdity of that character. HE IS PERFECT IN THIS ROLE.

His role is that theoretician, that sofa general without common sense and skills, that someone who wants to get promoted no matter what happens to soldiers, that suave as# kisser, that someone who pretends to stick to the books yet does NOTHING and then takes all the credit, that someone who hides behind the "rules" to do nothing and throw soldiers under the bus.
He is portraying it *perfectly*.

****** His role is calculated, greedy, ambitious, cruel nasty SLIMY henchman and indirect-villain on one hand, and on the other hand, a naive little good boy***** Someone willing to do anything to benefit himself, and delulu enough to convince himself it is ok bc the superior said so; someone who HAS some compassion for his comrades but does not move a finger to help the situation. Someone who puts HIMSELF FIRST regardless of the post and soldiers, while not being a truly bad guy.

This is a complex role. And Lee Sang Yi is so good at it!!! it is fun to watch him! he portrays so many layers of this role.

His role is not just a comedic element. The commander is a satire on such military... ppl who went to military school but have no aptitude for it, and enlisted ppl who try to climb higher. Why did that soldier decide to become a commander, is a good question. He is certainly a fish out of water - however, he is there, chasing some fame honors and ranks, and the soldiers are stuck with him.

The drama is clearly portraying some core issues with the military - the corruption of stealing food supplies, the pecking order, the bullying by rank etc, lack of women, etc etc and Lee Sang Yi's sofa general character is one of chronic military problems.
The sofa general problem is a huge problem for military bc a sofa general is TOTALLY incapable of solving anything and only causes problems.
In this case, he let soldiers starve under the previous chef, he had no idea about bad food supply, in the mock battle he was useless, in a real battle he would cause deaths of millions of people. He is ... a clumzy naive dumb greedy guy in a wrong job.

Plus they let Lee Sang Yi keep his sleek urban look. So... the commander's manicured perfect baby face is a visual of what he stands for :) His face is like the visual signal from the drama as to who this character is :)
In the same way they picked the ML actor bc he looks so young, feeble, frail and vulnerable, a skinny tiny guy
Also, Lee Sang Yi's character face provides a stark contrast to the other guy in charge of the barracks, the big fat guy with the round wrinkled face who always plays villains and here plays the typical "rat" soldier who goes against the rules, keeps eating everywhere, and keeps cutting corners, while maintaining alliances with people he needs to be friendly with to continue going. In this drama, he turned out to also be someone who actually cares to do something to help when the times are rough. The visual for that soldier, the actor's face and body, are also picked to visually signal what kind of character he is.

The complexity in Lee Sang Yi's character - and thus the MASTERY of the actor in portraying many layers of it and thus the FUN of watching him in the role - is that he is not a bad evil guy, like the guy above him who is the master mind of stealing food supplies and who used that other soldier - The Inspector - for his purposes.
He is a naive genuinely decent honest guy but a COMPLACENT guy and also a GREEDY guy, SO HE ACTS LIKE THOSE 3 MONKEYS - no see, no say, no hear -
a pion who feels kinda helpless and also super ambitious. So, he deludes himself that everything is all right as long as it comes from the top. So he deludes himself that the lower level guys are justly scorned.
--> So he actually cares about the female Platoon Leader, but on the other hand, keeps shutting her up and going behind her back and doing things that harm the soldiers... He is concerned that the food is bad but he says nothing and even scolds ppl who bring it up .... he does NOTHING ever to help anyone, although he sees them suffering and even feels some concern - but it does not matter to him - bc HE WANTS TO GET PROMOTED.

He is too dumb to think about what he is seeing and to think ahead
and he is smart enough to see what he needs to do to get ahead
and he is slimey enough and ah so eager to please so that he gets promoted, so he is totally willing to ENTHUSIASTICALLY act as an umbrella and fit into the as@ of his commander and then open inside and never come out... He keeps bowing down and obeying blindly and ENTHUSIASTICALLY, no matter what
He is naive enough to believe his superior
He is evil enough to just throw the soldiers under the bus so that he can get promoted
He is slimy enough to delude himself that everything is ok bc the superior said so

And he is good enough and smart enough to remember what happened to Major Lim and to feel bad about it, and native enough to ask questions and dumb and naive enough to believe the answers

So he is like a babe in the woods, like a Little Red Riding Hood meeting the Big Bad Wolf - but the complexity is, he is also Little Red Riding Hood who willingly jumped into the wolf's mouth and willingly burned grandma's house bc the Wolf said so

And so this commander is a PERFECT example of what really exists esp in the military - a similar type is common to every hierarchy/red tape organization and big corporation, but in the military bc of ranks and order to blindly listen to superiors it is even worse.

Military has to take in essentially everyone healthy enough to qualify, bc they need meat in numbers, so then they are stuck with so many ppl being below par, and so the whole situation is quite tricky... and this ineffective sofa general commander realistically exists in that environment bc SOMEONE has to watch over the post and a few soldiers. That is why military is ok with losing ppl here and there .... as it is impossible to ensure quality everywhere.... and so ppl are just numbers.... This is a sad and realitic quagmire of military... Companies lose money but military loses lives... . So it is in their interest to somehow ensure that proper people are commanders - but ... as you can see in this drama, it does NOT always happen...
and esp when some evil dude realizes how much space there is for personal benefiting and then starts exploiting the system... e.g. the Pentagon's $14,000 for individual 3D-printed toilet seat lids and $1,280 for single utility cups... the higher commander here who steals money on food supplies... and a lot lot more a lot bigger amounts..... This drama is only about essentially petty stealing...

Lee Sang Yi is a perfect example of such a sofa general commander, he really brought it to life, made it real.
So, imo, without Lee Sang Yi, the drama would have been so bland. He spices it up ah so well.

And the ending is actually quite a fantasy low probability event, but heck, this is a drama, why not :)