“Let’s Eat” (식샤를 합시다)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
April 3, 2020

☆☆☆☆
Lee Soo-Kyung (played by Lee Soo-Kyung)
Goo Dae-Young (played by Yoon Doo-Joon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I’m giving “Let’s Eat” a slightly higher rating than “7 First Kisses” (which was probably the worst Korean-related series I’ve ever watched.) Why? The plot in “Let’s Eat” is negligible and the way women are treated is just sexist and sad. But the food in this series just looks so mouth-wateringly good. While the cast isn’t given much to do, when they are directed to eat, they make everything look so delicious, especially lead actress Lee Soo-Kyung (playing a character of the same name). She eats with such gusto that it almost hurt to watch … because I wanted to eat whatever she was having, too.

Soo-Kyung is a divorced woman, who lives in an apartment complex where one of her neighbors is an insurance salesman, who sleeps all day in his pigsty of an apartment. She’s also flanked by a cute college student, whose father is in prison for embezzling and whose mother ran away to the U.S. to escape the scandal.

A foodie who loves nothing more than to try new dishes, Soo-Kyung also has a phobia about eating along in public. She gives a so-so blind date a second chance, because he invites her to a seafood restaurant she had been eager to try out.

SPOILER ALERT ABOUT THE MAN: Because he bought her dinner, he feels obligated to have sex with her and attempts to rape her. It’s stunning that this is played off as a little thing, when it should’ve been a bigger part of the plot that ended up with her chopping up his body and serving it to her dog. Wait, did I say that out loud? Sorry? I meant it should’ve ended up at the police department. But let’s be honest. It would’ve been a case of he said/she said and nothing would’ve happened to him.

Anyhow… So when her neighbors suggest they create their own dining club of sorts, she couldn’t be happier.

Though she’s probably in her early 30s, she is labeled with the old maid tag and she buys into the theory that she doesn’t deserve much in life, because, why should she deserve any happiness? Maybe this is one reason why food provides such comfort for her. When she is eating, she can enjoy a few moments of true happiness without anyone trying to bring her down. Especially her weirdo boss, an attorney who treats her like dirt, but also likes her, but still treats her like dirt. (Ew to all of this.)

There are two subplots that had potential, but fell flat. I’ll discuss more of that in the Spoilers below. In a nutshell: The only thing that encouraged me to watch all 16 episodes was the drool-worthy food. There are two more seasons of this, but I have no interest in watching those.

Airdates: This 16-part series aired from November 28, 2013 to March 13, 2014 on tvN.

Spoiler Alert: So, the lawyer has had a crush on Soo-Young since their college years. A nerd back then, he mustered up the courage to give her a gift. When he saw the hairpin he gave her in her friend’s hair, he vowed revenge. Psycho, much? Everyone expects her to reciprocate his crush because (1) he’s handsome (2) he’s an attorney and (3) he’s loved her for years. No one seems to care that she has no romantic interest in him.

One of the subplots involves a man who goes around assaulting woman. The showrunners were trying to get viewers to think it was Dae-Young (the insurance salesman). But the side views of the attacker’s face clearly showed it wasn’t him.

Then there was another subplot that showed promise that involved a package deliveryman (played by Feeldog of Big Star). He came across like a cute, country bumpkin, but hinted at a malicious side. There are shots of him hiding under the college girl’s bed (she had befriended him), lurking about in her apartment, opening her mail… You get the picture. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. He lures her to a building that her father had designed and that his father had worked on. But when his father went bankrupt (after her father’s embezzlement), his dad jumped off the building and killed himself. He wanted to exact revenge for his father.

I’m not even sure how this happened, but instead of being scared to death of him, the college girl forgives him. She contacts her dad and tells him he is not to accept the parole that was offered to him and…he listens to her. (No way would that ever happen!) She takes her lunch bunch with her to a restaurant, which is owned by the deliveryman’s mother and where the young man now works. They all sit down to enjoy a meal together and are besties.

Girrrrrrlllll…he was in your house without your permission and was thisclose to pushing you off a building. This is not how nice men behave. You. Can. Do. Better!

Anyhow, watch for the food porn (which is soooooooo good) and not the plot.

The. End.

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