Delicacies Destiny (2022)

It's good until it reach ending. I don't get both the ending.

this movie have 2 endings. but, I don't really get both the ending. I don't know if I am just dumb, but both the ending is kinda forceful for me. I actually quite enjoy the shows (episode 1 - 15). For episode 17, it's basically just a re-run from previous episodes. I think they want to emphasize the alternative ending.

It's funny and don't have much politic involve even though the setting is in kingdom. It's also a good thing the emperor and empress both are easygoing.

Actress wise, I don't know why, her hairstyle looks so weird. People around her have similar hairstyle, but in my opinion only her hairstyle looks a bit silly. She is pretty, though.

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An okay break for the usual.

This is my first review, I'm not sure why. We watched this for the cuisine, because we're foodies. We usually watch xanxia, wuxia dramas and take short breaks from them. We went back to this as when it had originally dropped on Disney+, it was dubbed over, with no way to fix that. Well, they eventually fixed it and we gave it a go.

The food scenes were amazing, however as we watched more and more. You start to pick up on why the show was placed on Disney... Which I can't stand anything Disney usually, the new live action Mulan was hardly a pass, just as this is/was.

When you present Chinese culture and history to Americans, or those watching from Disney, of all places. You begin to wonder why, they don't depict it like a real Chinese Drama is presented, in China. From the social norms, to the personalities, to the general lifestyle.

They show the entire duck presented at a table, normal in Chinese culture. But off-putting to Western culture with their soft-mind and heavily judgmental minds.

They present the duty of the Crown Prince to marry someone and how men are not equal to women. But then the ML prods the FL in public, for a kiss.

People just nonchalantly walk in and out of spaces as they please. The Crown Prince easily giving up his position. The Empress allowing him to do so. His brothers being in on it. Leading the emperor more than likely, also in on it. Seeing the Crown Prince's Eunuch hold back the other Princes. The obvious eavesdropping on the Prince. I could just could go on and on and on.

It was literally a westernized romance, with ideas taken from the Korean drama, with the premise of food and wrapped up to be an acceptable fairytale for Westerners to watch. I just couldn't by the end of it.

Which is another issue. That ending. Her starting up her own hostel, no. But just when all that is occurring, you're cut off midway with an alternate ending of her choosing the Crown Prince. So you're left not knowing the outcome of her final competition, or if she even comes back 6 months later.

Finally, you watch the "alternate" ending and you're re-capped with everything that just occurred in the last 2 or 3 episodes and you've wasted half an hour of your life rewatching more inaccurate fictions to Ancient Chinese culture. Yikes.

The saving grace was the casting, which had a lot of familiar faces. But the rest was a let down.

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Mouthwatering food for an unsatisfying story

It’s an easy watch, the story is simple enough, the acting is good and the food looks great; I didn’t like some of the soundtrack choices (it sounded too modern if that's possible) and I actively dislike the last part of the drama.
The main draw of the drama, for me, is the female lead. She’s independent and smart. Nothing seems to faze her and no matter what she always lands on her feet. She also cares for the people around her, even if she doesn’t show it openly. She is very goal oriented in the first half of the drama and I really liked that. She’s basically a watered-down version of one of mi favorite cdrama heroines, Wei Yingluo (Story of Xanxi Palace).
Unfortunately, the moment they start to develop the romance more, my interest waned a little, the male lead is very unlikable in the first few episodes but melts down fast and is all about the fl all the time which is ok, we never saw him doing much anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My hot take is (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) that I would have prefer a sad ending. The last few episodes are about how the fl is asked to sacrifice a huge part of who she is in order to be with the male lead, and her having second thoughts about it is bad actually. But this happened to other female characters throughout the story; they are the ones who have to sacrifice something in order to be with their male love interest. And what’s worse, this is treated like the only correct choice.
And make no mistake, at no point the narrative asked the same from the male lead, he doesn’t have to make any sacrifices, he gets to have the cake and eat it too. Thus, their relationship is never equal and I hate that, but more than anything I think the ending does a great disservice to the characters as they were presented throughout the drama. Maybe it’s a me problem, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

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If you love Chinese foods , you have to watch this drama

This was an unexpected fun drama with great cookings and foods scene with romance. I was watching ROYAL FEAST first, but then I found this drama. Well I ended up finishing this drama before Royal Feast. It was only 16 Ep + extra episode. So it was easy to watch and I simply couldn’t stop watching it. ( Royal Feast is good too but it’s getting tedious and this one was more fun to watch .)

It’s a light romance comedy. ML who is a bit spoiled 世子(Crown Prince) is well played by Wang Cing Shou Kui. FL is played by He Rui Xian who is also in Royal Feast. There are lots of cooking scenes and variety of great looking Chinese foods. I really enjoyed watching these cooking and visually delicious dishes. At the same time the sounds and the scenes of eating these foods made me hungry and I had to go get some Chinese foods each time I watched this drama.

The romance is quite cute between ML and FL. ML is handsome and nice to watch him being jealous. FL is probably more experienced actress and I really liked her a lot. Their chemistry is very good and side actors played well. In the beginning some of serving maids were bit mean to FL, but they all got along right away due to FL’s skilled cooking. Story is very hart warming and funny.

The only thing I didn’t care is the last episode. They even made extra alternative ending, so I am happy the way it ended with extra episode, but I just don’t get it why they don’t make this ending as alternative ending from the beginning instead of ep 16 ? Ep 16 ending was bad.

Anyway as long as you can watch the extra episode, then you will be fine and you will like this drama a lot for sure.

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Carino ma senza gridare al miracolo

Breve serie cinese romantico-culinaria con aneliti di femminismo in 16 episodi da 44 minuti, per la regia di Guo Hao.

Ling Xiao Xiao è una bravissima cuoca, che aspira a diventare “il” miglior cuoco in un mondo dove tutti gli chef di una certa levatura sono maschi. Riesce conquistare il palato del principe ereditario Zhu Shou Kui, un giovane capriccioso ma di buon cuore, e si installa nelle sue cucine superando anche col suo aiuto via via tutte le difficoltà, mantenendo sempre bene in vista il suo obiettivo.

Ovviamente, fra i due nascerà un sentimento che, per una volta, non sarà osteggiato dalla famiglia reale di turno. No, quello che verrà proibito non sarà l’amore, ma il mestiere di Xiao Xiao: come futura moglie del principe ereditario e, in prospettiva, imperatrice, dovrà rinunciare completamente alle cucine, che sono la sua ragione di vita. O rinunciare al principe. Una scelta traumatica per tutti gli interessati.

Si tratta palesemente di un progetto a basso budget. Tutto, dai costumi alle ambientazioni, dal numero relativamente limitato dei personaggi alla realizzazione dei piatti, è decoroso ma certo non memorabile. Soprattutto, trattandosi di cucine imperiali, le ricette proposte sono apparentemente poco ricercate e raramente decorate.

Il commento musicale, invece, è piuttosto azzeccato e sicuramente contribuisce al successo dell’opera.

Gli attori, senza troppe eccezioni, hanno recitato ben sopra il minimo edittale. In particolare la coppia principale chef-principe, interpretata rispettivamente da He Rui Xian e Wang Xing Yue, ha saputo reggere la scena in modo ammirevole. Specialmente il giovanissimo Wang Xing Yue, classe 2002, pur con un’esperienza tutto sommato limitata, è già in grado di dare dei punti a tanti colleghi ben più navigati, ma che magari fondano la propria fama più sull’aspetto che sulla bravura.

La coppia principale funziona molto bene, sono entrambi inesperti e combinano tutti i pasticci del caso ma, quando finalmente arriva il momento di darsi un bacio, Wang Xing Yue non si tira certo indietro, pur tenendo a mente che il bacio alla francese è sconosciuto nei drama cinesi.

Lo svolgimento della vicenda è piuttosto semplice e lineare, affidando tra l’altro molto schermo alla preparazione dei cibi e al consumo degli stessi. E qui entrano probabilmente in campo le differenze culturali, visto che per il gusto occidentale è piuttosto disdicevole focalizzare l’attenzione in primissimo piano sull’atto del mangiare, specie perché, contrariamente a quanto si vede in buona parte dei drama asiatici, da noi parlare a bocca piena è un deciso no-no. Se ci aggiungiamo che, nel momento in cui si pone il cibo in bocca, la produzione ha pensato bene di aumentare gratuitamente il volume dei relativi suoni, si ottengono sequenze piuttosto sgradevoli, almeno ai nostri occhi e, soprattutto, alle nostre orecchie. Vogliamo dire che è [i]asmr[/i], come qualcuno ha suggerito? Ma se è così, su di me non funziona…

Il [i]polLiticamente[/i] corretto in Cina non è ancora arrivato e si vede: nel cast ci sono due donne sovrappeso e, delle due, una è inizialmente un personaggio negativo e l’altra è pure una povera di spirito. Ed entrambe non fanno altro che mangiare, anche se in questo stanno in buona compagnia. Io stessa sono in sovrappeso e questa cosa mi disturba sempre.

I personaggi soffrono di una caratterizzazione un po’ monodimensionale: la chef parla sempre solo di cibo, nelle cucine si pensa sempre solo a mangiare e il principe, per quanto di cuor gentile, è piuttosto egocentrico e non pare rendersi conto dell’importanza dei punti di vista diversi dal suo. Per contro, la famiglia imperiale è molto fuori dai cliché, molto alla buona, addirittura e, per quanto si parli tanto di regole, alla fine quella veramente importante pare essere che le principesse non devono stare in cucina (eppure nei primi episodi ce n’è una che cucina quando le pare).

Ad ogni modo, la serie si lascia guardare senza opporre troppa resistenza fino alle ultime puntate, quando la nostra Xiao Xiao viene messa di fronte a un aut aut: la cucina o l’amore. La scelta sarà molto sofferta sia per lei che per il principe e si protrarrà per un paio di episodi, fino ad un finale solo apparentemente insoddisfacente e confuso, che viene spiegato negli ultimi minuti.

Tutto sommato, una visione gradevole e di poco impegno, non stellare ma di onesto intrattenimento, da cui potremo trarre ispirazione per qualche ricetta, magari nell’attesa che vada in onda il prossimo kolossal che stiamo aspettando.

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