[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Drama Stage - Our Place's Tasty Soybean Paste"

A-yi (played by Yoo Eun-mi) is a precocious middle school student still coping with the death of her grandmother. By chance, A-yi and her mother Jeong-hee (played by Myung Se-bin) go to a small soybean paste stew restaurant across the street from their apartment. Jeong-hee notes that the singular dish prepared by proprietor Gi-bok (played by Lee Chun-hee) is nearly identical to the one prepared by her departed mother. From there, A-yi is relentless in trying to discover Gi-bok's recipe.

Advertisement

"Drama Stage - Our Place's Tasty Soybean Paste" is centered on the evolving relationship between A-yi and Gi-bok, which gets to be so intense it's easy to forget how mundane A-yi's goal actually is. Gi-bok is mostly just bewildered by A-yi's excessive interest in an old family recipe. Of course, that's because he thinks of it more as a recipe than as a representation of Gi-bok's relationship with his grandmother. Over time, and bolstered by the unexpected financial success A-yi brings to the restaurant, Gi-bok starts to think of A-yi as a daughter.

A-yi does not actually have a father. Dwelling on this point proves to be the drama's main weakness. While Jeong-hee is frequently lionized as being a noble spirit who struggled through adversity to bring A-yi into the world...we never actually see any evidence of this. To the contrary, they live in a very nice apartment, and Jeong-hee has a veritable dream job as the writer and illustrator for a popular series of obviously autobiographical children's books.

The plot device of A-yi spending so much time with Gi-bok also calls attention to how Jeong-hee doesn't do that much mothering. Of the two A-yi comes off as the more mature one. When Jeong-hee has issues with medical emergencies or burning the house down, she reacts with the same awkward nervous laughter she uses in casual conversation. A-yi is old enough to know that this is not appropriate, yet is surprisingly forgiving of her mother's more obnoxious quirks, considering that she is a middle school student undergoing puberty.

"Drama Stage - Our Place's Tasty Soybean Paste" itself reflects that in A-yi's relationship with Gi-bok. A-yi is mistaken for Gi-bok's daughter in part because customers to the restaurant observe that he is unusually patient with her intentionally antagonistic behavior. Considering how much more important Gi-bok is to the drama's bickering family chemistry than Jeong-hee, I'm disappointed we didn't get more of his backstory, especially since Jeong-hee's ends up being so generic.

Review by William Schwartz

"Drama Stage - Our Place's Tasty Soybean Paste" is directed by Kim Sang-ho-III, written by Yoon Jo, and features Myung Se-bin, Yoo Eun-mi and Lee Chun-hee.