Baker King
With My Girlfriend is a Gumiho still developing, and after finishing Shining Inheritance, I watched King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo (which is also known as Baker King, Kim Tak Goo or Bread, Love, and Dreams). KoB had been beating MGiG in the ratings and achieved "national drama" status (40%+ ratings) so I was curious to see what it was.
I also thought I'd get some awesome baking action/food porn.
King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo felt a lot like Shining Inheritance. They're about the same length (KoB has 30 eps.) and revolve around the disputed succession of a lucrative company (which I'm realizing is a favorite trope of mine, up there with ladies cross-dressing as men). In the case of KoB, the wife of the bread company president has only been able to give him daughters. Desperate for a male heir, he cheats. She cheats. The president's (illegitimate) son is the titular Kim Tak Gu and her son (who she passes off as the president's) is Gu Ma Jun. The wife is determined to have her son become the heir to the company and will do anything to keep Kim Tak Gu from interfering with this plan.
The series follows the two boys through their childhood and then their adulthood.
I wasn't too impressed at first, particularly because I thought the adults were boring. I couldn't care less about their stupid games except that it wrecked the lives of the young ones.
The president is this absent-even-when-he's-there kind of figure. I initially felt sorry for the president's wife (Seo In Sook) because the pressure for her to have a male heir was medieval, but she turned out to be so spiteful and petty. I also think her minion character (the president's manager) could've been better somehow. Like I had trouble believing he was a diabolical mind. Other than that, I guess the actors did a decent job with their characters. I really hated them. In Shining Inheritance, I was able to sit back and appreciate the actions of the bad guys, but not here. I just hated them and wanted her to get hit by a car.
*cough* So it takes awhile, but the show really starts winning once it starts focusing more on the children (and the affects of their parents' machinations on them). The kid actors turned in such solid performances that I started out disliking the actors that represented them as adults. Kid!Kim Tak Gu had a particularly cute accent (that he lost as an adult) that I could barely stand Yoon Shi Yoon. (It didn't help that adult!Kim Tak Gu was childish and kinda dumb. The epitome of country bumpkin. Which was what he was supposed to be. So really, props to Yoon Shi Yoon for expressing that to the hilt.)
Joo Won, as the adult Gu Ma Jun is also very interesting. It's his acting debut, but he's very on point. He's also attractive in a really strange snaky way. It's weird because I like looking at him (as I do all beautiful people) but I don't really want to see him smile.
One of my favorite things in Kdramas is if they swap the love square from your expectations, and I was delighted, first of all, because you could see each couple combination as a viable option. Better yet, yes they did, yes they did! They did swap them!
Gu Ma Jun and Shin Yu Kyung (Kim Tak Gu's childhood sweetheart) were probably my favorite two characters. Shin Yu Kyung had all the makings of a Mary Sue (troubled childhood to make us pity her, top of her class, good looks) but her goal throughout the series was to cause harm. Gu Ma Jun too was also this wonderfully complex character who loved his parents, chafed under their control, and fought a full rivalry with his "brother."
My favorite scenes involve him *SPOILERS!!!!*:
Scene 1: Kim Tak Gu and Gu Ma Jun won't stop fighting so their baking teacher binds them together with a ribbon and orders them to live like that for a couple of days. Their relationship doesn't improve until Gu Ma Jun gets a nosebleed and Kim Tak Gu, in an act of ultimate brotherly love, rushes to aid him. Besides nodding at the potential for a fulfilling brother relationship, it underlines how much Gu Ma Jun (for all his bluster) is a younger brother. (Also, the scene then segues into the brothers bathing together and sleeping with their arms around each other. In a non-gay way at all. Korea has very interesting notions of masculinity that I need to explore further...) This was also the scene that made me believe the show was a national drama.
Scene 2: Granted, Gu Ma Jun is often violent in his handling of Shin Yu Kyung (it's a turn off for me, but it's everywhere in Kdramas: the wrist grab and haul), but there is just this sweet scene where Shin Yu Kyung is recovering from meeting her abusive father for the first time in years. She wakes up to find herself in his arms (skinship!). They talk about their plans, and he asks her to marry him. When she agrees, he reaches down for a kiss and she reciprocates for the first time (which is big because she is Kim Tak Gu's childhood sweetheart, and the show needed to give her a convincing turnaround. They delivered.)
Scene 2.5: I also love the ending scene where Gu Ma Jun admits that he loves her and that he was scared of it.
Scene 2.75: I also like the scene where Kim Tak Gu and Gu Ma Jun together, present the eldest sister with the presidency and promise to back her up every step of the way. This recalls the beginning very well, as the entire scenario was caused by desperation for a male heir.
SPOILERS END!!!!
There wasn't as much epic baking as I had hoped. They were usually left to heartwarming montages (which weren't bad, just not very detailed), so I guess the bread aspect is best taken as a metaphor for life. By the end of the series I was tearing up (I have trouble crying at these things so this is kind of amazing) and I felt very full. Like I'd just eaten a lot of excellent bread.
The Dramafever Blog's Review (which is admittedly my review's hyung)
I also thought I'd get some awesome baking action/food porn.
King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo felt a lot like Shining Inheritance. They're about the same length (KoB has 30 eps.) and revolve around the disputed succession of a lucrative company (which I'm realizing is a favorite trope of mine, up there with ladies cross-dressing as men). In the case of KoB, the wife of the bread company president has only been able to give him daughters. Desperate for a male heir, he cheats. She cheats. The president's (illegitimate) son is the titular Kim Tak Gu and her son (who she passes off as the president's) is Gu Ma Jun. The wife is determined to have her son become the heir to the company and will do anything to keep Kim Tak Gu from interfering with this plan.
The series follows the two boys through their childhood and then their adulthood.
I wasn't too impressed at first, particularly because I thought the adults were boring. I couldn't care less about their stupid games except that it wrecked the lives of the young ones.
The president is this absent-even-when-he's-there kind of figure. I initially felt sorry for the president's wife (Seo In Sook) because the pressure for her to have a male heir was medieval, but she turned out to be so spiteful and petty. I also think her minion character (the president's manager) could've been better somehow. Like I had trouble believing he was a diabolical mind. Other than that, I guess the actors did a decent job with their characters. I really hated them. In Shining Inheritance, I was able to sit back and appreciate the actions of the bad guys, but not here. I just hated them and wanted her to get hit by a car.
*cough* So it takes awhile, but the show really starts winning once it starts focusing more on the children (and the affects of their parents' machinations on them). The kid actors turned in such solid performances that I started out disliking the actors that represented them as adults. Kid!Kim Tak Gu had a particularly cute accent (that he lost as an adult) that I could barely stand Yoon Shi Yoon. (It didn't help that adult!Kim Tak Gu was childish and kinda dumb. The epitome of country bumpkin. Which was what he was supposed to be. So really, props to Yoon Shi Yoon for expressing that to the hilt.)
Joo Won, as the adult Gu Ma Jun is also very interesting. It's his acting debut, but he's very on point. He's also attractive in a really strange snaky way. It's weird because I like looking at him (as I do all beautiful people) but I don't really want to see him smile.
One of my favorite things in Kdramas is if they swap the love square from your expectations, and I was delighted, first of all, because you could see each couple combination as a viable option. Better yet, yes they did, yes they did! They did swap them!
Gu Ma Jun and Shin Yu Kyung (Kim Tak Gu's childhood sweetheart) were probably my favorite two characters. Shin Yu Kyung had all the makings of a Mary Sue (troubled childhood to make us pity her, top of her class, good looks) but her goal throughout the series was to cause harm. Gu Ma Jun too was also this wonderfully complex character who loved his parents, chafed under their control, and fought a full rivalry with his "brother."
My favorite scenes involve him *SPOILERS!!!!*:
Scene 1: Kim Tak Gu and Gu Ma Jun won't stop fighting so their baking teacher binds them together with a ribbon and orders them to live like that for a couple of days. Their relationship doesn't improve until Gu Ma Jun gets a nosebleed and Kim Tak Gu, in an act of ultimate brotherly love, rushes to aid him. Besides nodding at the potential for a fulfilling brother relationship, it underlines how much Gu Ma Jun (for all his bluster) is a younger brother. (Also, the scene then segues into the brothers bathing together and sleeping with their arms around each other. In a non-gay way at all. Korea has very interesting notions of masculinity that I need to explore further...) This was also the scene that made me believe the show was a national drama.
Scene 2: Granted, Gu Ma Jun is often violent in his handling of Shin Yu Kyung (it's a turn off for me, but it's everywhere in Kdramas: the wrist grab and haul), but there is just this sweet scene where Shin Yu Kyung is recovering from meeting her abusive father for the first time in years. She wakes up to find herself in his arms (skinship!). They talk about their plans, and he asks her to marry him. When she agrees, he reaches down for a kiss and she reciprocates for the first time (which is big because she is Kim Tak Gu's childhood sweetheart, and the show needed to give her a convincing turnaround. They delivered.)
Scene 2.5: I also love the ending scene where Gu Ma Jun admits that he loves her and that he was scared of it.
Scene 2.75: I also like the scene where Kim Tak Gu and Gu Ma Jun together, present the eldest sister with the presidency and promise to back her up every step of the way. This recalls the beginning very well, as the entire scenario was caused by desperation for a male heir.
SPOILERS END!!!!
There wasn't as much epic baking as I had hoped. They were usually left to heartwarming montages (which weren't bad, just not very detailed), so I guess the bread aspect is best taken as a metaphor for life. By the end of the series I was tearing up (I have trouble crying at these things so this is kind of amazing) and I felt very full. Like I'd just eaten a lot of excellent bread.
The Dramafever Blog's Review (which is admittedly my review's hyung)