Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle
You know what is most disappointing about Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle? The title! While it is not inaccurate, the title definitely makes this movie sound like a comedy, which it most assuredly is not. This movie is hard core Korean soap opera, a weepy weepy drama at its most weepy weepy. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; I just want to make sure you know what you are getting into before you watch it.
Jang-eun (Jeong-eun Kim) is a world renowned chef who has now achieved success after years of climbing her way through a mostly male-dominated profession. Now one of the best chefs in the world, she wants to return home to Korea. Her ailing mother owns a little traditional restaurant that is in danger of going out of business. But Jang-eun doesn't want to help. Oh, no. She harbors deep and bitter resentment towards her mother because she wasn't married when she had Jang-eun. All her childhood, Jang-eun suffered the social stigma of growing up in a one parent home in a society that frowns upon bastards as improper and wrong. So now Jang-eun wants to force her mother to retire, tear down the traditional restaurant that means so much to her, and open a fancy new high-end Asian fusion restaurant. The only thing that stands in her way? Foster brother Seong Chan, the good son who is also an incredibly amazing cook.
Conveniently, Korea is staging a nation-wide contest to see who can make the best kimchi. Both Seong Chan and Jang-eun enter, agreeing that whoever wins gets to do what they want with mother's restaurant. And the stage is set. Both are masters of their craft, their foods perfectly representing their characters: Seong Chan's food is as traditional and calm as he is, while Jang-eun's cooking is bold, experimental, and ruthlessly ambitious. This sounds like a lot of fun, right?
Well, it's not. I just described the setup. But the movie is really all about people with mommy issues. And there is so much crying. There is even a random side plot with an escaped convict who misses his mother's cooking that exists in the movie just so a few other actors can get a chance to cry. Wow, does this movie get depressing.
I don't want to say this movie is bad, because it isn't. The characters are interesting, the acting is terrific, and the cinematography is rock solid. And wow, when there is cooking going on, the film explodes with life, color and excitement. The food in this movie looks fantastic and should inspire the hopeful chef in all of us. And I also admire the fact that Koreans are making films about families with real three-dimensional people with real emotional problems. Hollywood doesn't really do that often anymore. My wife, an avid lover of Korean soap operas, loved it.
But, it just isn't my type of thing. When a movie calls itself Kimchi Battle, I expect to have some fun. Oh, there are some half-hearted attempts at comedy, but I know the director's not interested in that. He wants his characters and his audience to cry. Me? I just wanted a Kimchi Battle, damn it!
MVP:
I am going to have to go with Jeong-eun Kim as Jang-eun, an over confidant and bitter woman. She is the villain of the film, make no mistake, but Jeong-eun Kim never plays her that way. The best villains are the ones whose motivations we understand. And her performance shows the pain that led her to become this way, how she had to develop a cold exterior to deal with childhood hazing, how she had to fight tooth and nail to work up the ladder and become one of the greatest chefs in the world. No matter how bitchy she gets, no matter what she says or does, you just can't hate her as a human being. You might even find yourself admiring her grit and creativity. I think this is all due to the fine performance from Jeong-eun Kim. She gets my MVP.
BEST LINE:
Kimchi Judge: This tastes like cabbage.
No comments:
Post a Comment