#2023 Round Up Day 5 : OTP you didn’t think you’d adore
Kang Chan-wook and Jung Da-jung:Recipe for Farewell

I knew I was going to watch this drama. But for a drama that informed me right fron the start that it would bid farewell, I didn’t expect it to handle its leads story in the way it did. They were a couple who were tethering on divorce. They were already living separately. And the need of outpatient care had her husband coming back to provide care and support for his wife.
From a man who knows absolutely nothing about the kitchen or taking care, we get to see him learn, put effort and by effort I mean great effort +practice without complaining, always ready to acclimate to the next drama his wife’s terminal illness brings up with respect to her meals, until these actions become a part and parcel of him.
I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this OTP when it finished, cause their story continued after her demise – there was a recipe she left for him to prepare. Just as Chan-wook hesitated, a bit of time passed before he made that particular meal, I could resonate with why – he wasn’t ready to finally bid farewell.
Somehow despite the heavy tone of Recipe for Farewell, I look back on the OTP’s story with a smile plastered ony face. I actually watched a few favorite scenes some hours ago and I must say that feeling hasn’t changed.

Kim Myeong-jun x Ro-hee:The Kidnapping Day

I’m sorry but I can’t relegate this to an honorable mention.

Once again, had they dangled the world as a prize to get me to watch this drama, there was no way that I would. It had all the ingredients I liked…
Yoon Kye-sang ✅✅, a chance to finally watch the wonder that is Kim Shin-rok✅(All I’ve known is praises about her excellence), Park Sung-hoon ✅. What immediately soiled my mood for the drama was one of the teasers… Ro-hee hitting Myeong-jun’s head with a back scratcher.
Do I regret the fact that this teaser would have made me miss out on this gem? No. It was a harrowing experience having to sit through that scene so the forward button helped.

Getting to watch the dynamic between Ro-hee and Myeong-jun unfold was sweet and bitter. Sweet because it was a long time since kids struck great chemistry with adult co-stars. Bitter because it was not easy to see Ro-hee finally experience what it means to be a child. And whilst this two had a sometimes parasitic sometimes symbiotic until it became an entirely mutual relationship, it was fun to Myeong-jun help her navigate and grow as a functional member of the society. And when it all the love, bond, emotional attachment had been layered in properly, it was all let loose in the emotional scene of Myeong-jun’s arrest in Episode 11, a way I didn’t feel since Ji Sung’s character’s arrest in The Devil’s Judge EP 15. It was raw. Such was the kind of OTP that they created.

And now, to the pictures…