Formerly known as Desecrated Soul. Just one blogger providing you with reviews of all sorts and stories to boot.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Drama Review: Dinner
On my search for Cantonese dubbed j-dramas, I came across Dinner. It was next on my to-watch list anyways after Higashino Keigo Mysteries, which I am almost finished with. It's a food related drama about the staff and chefs that work at an Italian restaurant named Roccabianca. They were one of the best in Japan except that now their head chef suddenly collapsed and the restaurant is falling into ruin. The manager, Tatsumi Saori, hires Ezaki Motomu, a former apprentice at the renowned restaurant, Tereza, in Italy as the new head chef. I kind of wish they named the drama something else because Dinner sounds extremely generic and only refers to the fact Roccabianca does dinner service.
So initially, I was ready to give up on the series from episode one. It wasn't anything special and there was simply too much exposition crammed into one episode. Ezaki as an important character in the story actually makes an appearance at the very end of the episode. It felt very predictable as to where the story was going to head. After the first episode, things began to pick up better. I think the rewarding part of the drama is the portrayal of different relationships in the restaurant. Compared to Bambino! the drama adaptation, Dinner is so much better. It is very realistic for the most part, but still packed with positive sentiment. Italian cuisine I think for most people is comfort food because it always gives a sense of home and nostalgia. I think Dinner accurately captures that perspective with its story. The various characters working in the restaurant somehow relate to family and home issues for the most part with few exceptions. By the end of the drama, you see that the restaurant itself operates very much like a family filled with love and dedication. Despite Ezaki's equation about how Ingredient x Cooking method = Taste, he still operates on an emotional level with his unique set of morals.
I liked a lot of the characters in the story, but I think my favorite is the head waiter, Segawa. He has a very nice charisma and he has a strong sense of responsibility willing to sacrifice himself for the restaurant. You can tell that he is one of the few people that Ezaki respected from the very beginning while everyone else was called unprofessional. Ezaki is that typical character in j-dramas that is eccentric and hard to get along with, but in the end everyone likes. Even though Ezaki says that he doesn't do things for the restaurant, I'm pretty sure deep down inside he does care and it's also his responsibility as a chef to do certain things. For instance in the tenth episode when Ezaki refuses to lower the spending on ingredients when the restaurant is suffering, it was Ezaki's duty as a chef to provide his customers with the best and not sacrifice the quality of the dish for the sake of earning more money. In the end, they see it through that the true value lies not in the money earned from work, but dedication as a chef that earned a promising amount of new customers. It stays true to today's society where many businesses choose to sacrifice quality in order to earn quantity. The moral of the story goes, if you serve good food people will come back.
Each episode gives a very positive outlook on the various issues given. You have Imai the sous chef who is actually talented, but lacked confidence and leadership skills to become a head chef. Ezaki realizes his potential and pushes him further as he does with the other chefs. Hazuki is also just as talented, but gives herself a lot of pressure due to the fact there's very few female chefs in the industry and the gender issues surrounding women in the workforce. Later she deals with her father whom she hated so much at first, but in the end rekindles that relationship. Hamaoka was initially ashamed of his past given that he had went to jail for a murder and blamed himself for ruining the reputation of Roccabianca. But knowing that he is a kind man and that his antipasto is the best, the members of Roccabianca hold no prejudice against him because of his background. Hiromi the dishwasher is scared of being a burden on others, but is very diligent. He learns that everyone has their newbie phase, even Ezaki. Because of the variety in characters, Dinner covers a wide range of social issues.
It's a family friendly drama and I think the humor used is very tasteful, not some crass show to put on. Sometimes dialogue can be a little redundant in terms of putting on a positive show, but it's not too bad. The soundtrack was ok, but a little bit too exaggerated with the classical. I want to compare it to Bambino! again because Dinner did a similar story so much better. With Bambino!, the acting was so stiff and the timing was so awkward. Everything in Dinner flowed reasonably well. The story is actually simple enough, but had enough complexity to create the actual drama. With Bambino! on the other hand, it just felt very superficial. Please give Dinner a try and stay away from Bambino!.
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