New Netflix Korean drama Chocolate is a love story with taste
- Food plays a central role in the romantic drama, which triumphs thanks to no end of winning performances
- Plus, the third series of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel returns to Amazon Prime Video with all the wit of previous seasons
Here’s a novelty: a love story that’s about food. Viewers who are sweet of tooth, as well as those who enjoy a potentially cloying romantic drama, will lap up Chocolate on Netflix, the first series of which promises 16 poignant instalments kicked off by a powerful pull on the heartstrings.
It’s 1992 on scenic Wando Island, South Korea, where cheerful, diligent single mother Jung Su-hui (played by Lee Un-jung) runs a simple but popular harbourfront eatery. Sharing his mother’s happiness is Lee Kang (Oh Ja-hun), who, barely out of short pants but already on the road to being a chef, prepares a meal. This, however, isn’t just a meal: it’s a love letter to the pigtailed, seemingly lost girl who wanders hungrily into the restaurant yard.
The food of love makes its own sweet music, and the girl, Moon Cha-young (Kim Bo-min), is equally smitten and resolves to return soon, for Kang as much as his promised, signature chocolate dessert.
But the course of true love never did run smooth, especially when adults feel obliged to muck things up, and Cha-young is fated to return far too late. Enter a family of well-dressed strangers, led by an obnoxious matriarch, and Kang finds his life steered towards Seoul – and way off beam. Inheritance squabbles and family fights will do that to you.
Soon enough, the pair for whom we’re already rooting are leading wildly different lives, each ignorant of the other. One is a neurosurgeon, the other a chef, although which is which comes as a surprise. But will the gods of romance guide an adult Cha-young (Ha Ji-won) and Kang (Yoon Kye-sang) together?
This is a melodrama with taste, and no end of convincing performances, which you can enjoy through the magic of new episodes every Friday and Saturday. Talk about having your (chocolate) cake and eating it.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel returns to Amazon Prime Video for its third season
Some superheroes pick up their mighty powers from mysterious cosmic rays. Others are bitten by spiders, fortified by super-soldier serum or zapped by a frightening lightning bolt. And still others, dumped by husbands in favour of their secretaries, turn to stand-up comedy as a means of astounding the world with their unsuspected talent.
Take a bow The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, starring Rachel Brosnahan in her breakthrough role as Miriam (“Midge”) Maisel, comedienne extraordinaire, mother, former housewife and glittering star of the American underground club circuit.
Year zero for Midge was 1958, when a drunken, impromptu onstage rant about marital infidelity (which prompted an impromptu flash of flesh and subsequent arrest for indecency) accidentally propelled her to celebrity status, where she remains for series three, which has just landed on Amazon Prime Video. Not that it’s all one easy punchline after another for the talented Mrs Maisel, who faces some tough career and domestic choices in the eight binge-worthy episodes now available.
Then again, having accepted star vocalist Shy Baldwin’s invitation to open for him on tour, Midge, resplendent as ever in high-fashion garb, finally finds herself in Miami for sunshine, cocktails and a dose of showbiz glitz of the sort that aggressive manager Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein) envisaged two series ago in New York. Next stops: Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and more. But all that comes after a triumphant turn entertaining the troops, despite Midge’s not knowing the lyrics to White Christmas, which isn’t usually a hit at Hanukkah.
The action is often breathless, the visuals sumptuous and the sly comedy routines unerring, so expect further Emmy and Golden Globe overload for this television triumph come awards season.
