Prend un morceau (2021)

Quite good in some ways, but ....

Because of the title, I thought at first that this would be a BL about vampires with some low-brow references to kinky sex. But because I had forgotten everything I had seen in a trailer I watched long before stumbling on the series, perhaps I started watching with different or no expectations than others who have found it a total disappointment.

Unlike many who complain about the slow pacing, I only started disliking the pacing in the last two episodes. The series takes its time to show the character of Aek, letting us know of his interests, background and personality. We may see that he has a certain complex about his humble background, and does not want people to do things for him out of pity--he really wants to be appreciated for his talent. We also see how close he is to his mother and his unwillingness to cause her to feel disappointed in him, even if it comes at the expense of casting aside his own interests and studying accountancy. So when he realizes that Aue is in love with him, he finds himself having to handle many issues like whether Aue has been grooming him as a chef because of a romantic interest in him rather than a true admiration of his talents and how his mother would feel seeing him caught in such a situation. This is despite his own feeling towards Aue, which he himself hasn't become conscious of.

The characterization of Aek is rather interesting, and I think Mark Siwat has done a fine job in this role. Rudklao Amratisha, the actress acting as Aek's mother helped a lot by being very good with her role in the scenes she appears with Mark Siwat. I've seen him in a number of shows, and he seems to be able to take on a good range of roles. It's not an easy role for him in Bite Me, for he has to bring out the character's personality (sweet and innocent but also somewhat headstrong and assertive) without much dialogue to help show it. His growing affection for Aue can be seen, but in ways that don't make it clear whether he is aware of it. Some of the scenes of mutual gazing between Aue and Aek are overdone (they don't even do that so much when they are finally together), but there's little the actor can do about it.

On the other hand, the characterization of Aue isn't half as good. We can tell that he likes Aek quite early on, but the back story about his apparent feuds/tensions with Eve, Moo and Chef Viphob suffer from an utter lack of elaboration. I suspect there is a lot more going on in the book that the series is based on, but somehow the scenes are deleted or not filmed for the series. (Given that the series is 11 instead of the more common 12 episodes, I wonder if there are scenes that have been sacrificed due to budget constrains or some other reason). In a flashback, he is shown clearly telling Eve that he only regards her as a friend, but since he has made it clear to her and not dumped her or anything, it doesn't explain her animosity towards him. Chef Moo is another character whom Aue has worked with in the past, but it is not clear why Moo would suddenly appear to taunt Aue. Viphob is yet another character who seems to have a huge back story that has largely been left out: when Aue tells Aek what Viphon's character is like, I was surprised that he even knows this guy. I do like the way Aue is established as the boss and chef of a restaurant where the workers seem to be working quite happily, especially with Aue's support for Nuna when she faces relationship problems. (I was really glad that the toxic-but-somehow-charming CEO trope wasn't used.) Unfortunately, this ability of bring out aspects of the character and his past is largely lost when it comes to the Aue's relationship with those who seem hostile towards him.

In short, I loved how the story took its time to develop the aspects of the story related to Aek and his background and didn't mind the slow pacing at all. But if the same development had been done for Aue, the story would have made a lot more sense. Even Aue's longstanding friendship with Prem, the chef who makes desserts in his restaurant, leaves one wondering what is going on between them because Aue is obviously closer to him than to other colleagues. The fact that they are old friends is eventually revealed in Episode 11, when it doesn't quite matter anymore.

What weakens the series is also the strangeness of the pacing in the last two episodes. I wish it had some of the maligned (IMO) slowness of the earlier episodes. The part of the story about the chefs' competition, which is like the climax that the earlier episodes have been building up to, is confusing and rushed. (Why is Aue suddenly able to take part in the competition? Are there two different competitions? Huh? Aek has recovered from his injury to take part in the competition when he earlier on seemed to be saying that he could no longer go on with the competition because of his injury? What affected his performance?) Aek realizes that he likes Aue and comes out to his mother, but before we know it he is hugging Aue in the kitchen (huh?). And yet, after rushing through things in Episode 10, someone decided to make Episode 11 one consisting almost entirely of filler scenes. The part of the story about Aek's talent for cooking, so integral to the story, could have been followed up on but wasn't.

My complaints about the series may differ from those who dislike it from the start. I liked it quite a lot and was hoping that Episode 10 and 11 would help to reveal the right back stories and end the story well. It was possible but somehow not done. (And can you believe that the only kiss between Aue and Aek is a forced kiss, with Aue acting very much out of character after Aek has just said that they cannot be lovers? I don't need them to even kiss at all throughout the series, but tis is rather awkward.)

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Good Start for the Director

Good Start for the Director. In the special - he mentions it is his first Y drama. It showed.

Let's get all the good stuff out of the way...Great casting. And, everyone behind the scenes did a wonderful job. After watching the special, I was saddened to see that the restaurant wasn't real. The detail was amazing. Having worked in kitchens most of my life, they didn't miss anything.

Storyline and direction suffered...I would have to say mainly because the writers left too much to the imagination. I honestly felt that there were whole scenes or, an entire episode that was shown to the regular viewers but, we didn't get to see them on Viki. To fix most questions/issues - this easily could have been a 16 episode series.

The chef contest stuff was a mess. Why would only a dozen people enter a contest that was that important? Why was it one dish and you are gone? This could have been solved with simple conversation and a flashback or, two. "Congratulations Aek for making it past the preliminary rounds. I always knew you could do it. Good luck in the Semifinal." Anything like that.

Totally agree with those longer than life staring at each other moments. That was the director's fault for not knowing how to end a scene or, transition to another. For those that don't know what I mean - watch the Director's commentary for the American movie - Sleepless in Seattle. She shows the scene and discusses how Tom Hanks gave her the perfect moment to end the scene - he helped her and the production.

Being American and relying on the subtitles - it appeared that the conversation in the first couple episodes was different than in the later ones. More formal that grew to relaxed? Every sentence in the beginning ended with the same sound but, that went away as the characters grew closer together.

Did Aue lose the contest on purpose for Aek? Or, did he decide to do his best and still lose? Why was Wiphob's victory so hollow? He got what he wanted and stands to move forward in the family business. When Aek decided to go for it - after getting his Mother's blessing, what did that have to do with someone renting out the whole restaurant. Aek would not have been able to do that - that would cost the business too much money. And, did Aue have an inkling this was to happen to just allow Aek to stand behind in the kitchen while food was being prepared - such an odd badly shot scene. Chef Mu's and Nuna's side story was incomplete and could have been left out.

My only squabbles in the kitchen was putting Aek on his own station starting first day and letting him have at it. True, the trust from Aui could have been that strong but, still - let him get used to the kitchen. How did he even know where anything was? Next was the lack of detail in food prep - did anyone ever wash their hands? LOL Did the couple that spoke in unison do all the prep work?

And, those knife cuts - eeeehh - how did they not cut their fingers? Another note that they did lean to in one scene - I have noticed that many Asian restaurants offer a shower for the staff. They understand that they can't put their own clothes back on after a hard day in a hot kitchen. Just lockers?

Loved the food delivery tie in - it actually helped keep the story focused. Fill those orders. How do they order? How much does the restaurant rely on that business? All that was covered. The Tea product placement was irritating. And, to open the show with a Tea commercial when the two main characters had just fought - did not make any sense. It should have been towards the end when everyone is happy and they are tying up all the story lines.

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A wonderful realistic drama with brilliant cinematography

I found this BL to be spectacular. There is something so totally different about it and we might not see another like it. It’s unique character is attritutable to the distinct directing style of David Bigander. I think that he has crafted this BL like a great director that puts his own personal stamp on his work which some have described as Bergmanesque with a fusion of Thai cultural influences.

I’ll address the main issue that people have with this series – the pacing. The director has chosen to go with a very sedate flow for this very unique drama and I think it works in most places. It lends this work a sense of spaciousness and tranquility that you’ll seldom see anywhere else. Directors are always under a lot of pressure to trim out any excess filler because every minute of production costs a fortune, so I’m sure that this was something David Bigander fought for, and I appreciate his decision to keep the drama moving at this stately pace.

This is a mature work where we have virtually no tropes and a mostly adult-acting cast. It has a very trouble-free plot that always supported the narrative, and the strong realism in the drama. There was just a lot of beautiful cinematography which includes a lot of the brilliant shots of food. Even though it is a show based around food, the central love story is by no means submerged under the culinary thematic material. There was definitely a compelling drama, but it was not your normal one. It was just more a drama depicting unconscious struggles between the main characters.

The actors all performed magnificently and Mark Siwat comes into his own perhaps later in the series, but was performing well throughout – his character was just directed in such a way that he expressed very little emotion in most of the earlier episodes. There was a lot of time spent on character development which was done in nuanced ways. We see Mark’s deep connection with his mother in the series with many scenes that occur in flashbacks and in their trip to Nan. We see a slow progression with Mark as he gradually breaks out of his shell, fearing his mother’s non-acceptance of his relationship with Zung. His face was a mask in the earlier episodes but David Bigander did this so we could see the difference when his mother finally gave him permission to pursue his interest in being a chef and going after his love-interest. The internal struggle comes to a head in episodes 8-10 with some visceral acting from Mark Siwat that conveys all the incredible turmoil that he was experiencing while trying to finally confront his dilemma between being dutiful and pursuing his two passions [Aue and cooking].
Zung does a wonderful job conveying his feelings with just his eyes. His interactions with Mark are how his character is unveiled and those interactions are very internal, like an inner monologue that occurs between people that are closely tied together. Every time we see him struggling with Mark we see how sensitive and compassionate he is. His interactions with his staff members and his former “girlfriend” Eve also portray him as a charming and considerate individual. The supporting cast was also depicted beautifully and vividly. I think Nuna’s character is really well rounded. We see her effervescent, comical, and gregarious side in the first few episodes, and also witness her completely serious personality when we see her interactions with her former boyfriend. Almost all of the main characters are kind and considerate people which makes the drama very uplifting and almost spiritually pure – this is again a mature drama with adults confronting their hardships with seriousness and a simple nobility of character.

Throughout the series, David Bigander has infused a lot of other thematic material including art and religion to create a holistic landscape, more complete than any other BL I’ve ever seen. There is a sense of realism that is also unmatched. The natural interactions of people without histrionics even when deep emotional turmoil is being depicted is just unique to BL’s that rely so heavily on Hollywood-like drama. The settings are also so realistic: Aue’s kitchen, Mark Siwat’s dorm room, Wat Phumin temple, Mark’s room in house at Nan, and the restaurant in Nan are all examples of this.

Overall this is a magnificent series that I would consider to be among the best BL’s ever produced. It has probably the best cinematography of any of them, and it’s realism is also unrivalled. It’s certainly worth watching and rewatching because it’s a series with considerable depth. Congratulations to David Bigander on crafting this wonderful drama, and I hope to see many more from him in the future.

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Another disappointment

What a shame!
This series looked like a promising and original BL series with a plot that was centered around chefs/cooking (which we've seen recently in several Korean BLs like "The Tasty Florida", "My Sweet Dear" and to a lesser degree as only one of the main characters is a chef in "To My Star" and the Taiwanese "Craving You"). It also departed from the typical BL scenarios we’ve seen in the past that mostly include university students going through the usual plots/storylines of misunderstandings, tears, a crazy female character, a jealous ex-boyfriend or a male character that wants to create a love triangle, parents that are either super against or super in favor of their son being gay, weird/useless characters, bizarre/unreal situations, sex scenes with actors that most of the time look uncomfortable doing them, among many more... but "Bite Me" ended up being a big disappointment.

The many negatives of this series outweigh some of the positives.
a. The pace of this series has to be the slowest in history. I’ve skipped some parts of other BL series in the past that included bad acting or very predictable scenes (crying, arguments, etc.) but never had to skip this much because NOTHING happened on screen! All the actors moved and talked at a glacial pace and it was clear the instructions from the acting coach and the director were to let the stares linger into oblivion with many scenes having 15-45 seconds of dialogue and 2 minutes of plain staring. Somehow, we ended up with 11 episodes of over 45 minutes each… I bet that if we take out the wasted silent moments in all the episodes, we might end up with only 5, maybe 6, episodes at the most.

b. The storylines made not much sense.
First, Aek was the only naïve and oblivious one in all of Thailand because he couldn’t realize that Chef Aue liked him from the very beginning.
Second, Chef Aue had the unresolved past relationship with Eve that made no sense as we have very little background of their story. During the first few episodes she seems to be a character that could be the series' villain because she looked like she wanted Aue back. However, she slowly fades into nothing relevant, appearing in the cooking competition and not doing much there and then she ends up being courted by Aek’s friend Bie (played by Gameplay) also without any background as to how/why they end up dating.
Third, Chef Aue also had a previous conflict with Chef Moo who seemed to be his mentor and ended up being a bully and psychologically abusive until Aue finally had enough. Chef Moo also plays the role of a villain but there is not much background as to why their relationship deteriorates so much and then he suddenly appears at Aue's restaurant before the cooking competition to remind him how bad he thinks he is. Chef Moo also has his relationship with Nuna and we can imply that the background of this relationship is that Nuna was fed up with Chef Moo for putting cooking and being a successful chef above her, then she also realizes that she doesn’t love him anymore and in a calm manner tells him that and leaves despite his attempts to get her back. Then, we had a delivery girl flirting with Nuna and asking for her phone number but that leads nowhere as it was not brought up again after it happened.
Fourth, Aek is conflicted about going to work at a restaurant at first but his mother always knows his son better than him so she provides some solid maternal support, that was fine… the issues in here are all the sudden doubts inside Aek about his feelings for Chef Aue. The plot just comes and goes and explodes in episodes 9 and 10 and magically Aek’s mother solves it by telling Aek that she knows his true feelings and that everything is ok.
Fifth, the cooking competitions for both Aek and Aue end up being solved in portions of one and a half episodes with barely any cooking being done, judges that don’t speak Thai and look awkward when complimenting food that was clearly not made by Aek or Aue (or any other actor), and the appearance of another villain, Chef Wiphob. He comes basically out of nowhere and feels like he wants to seduce Aek at first but only acts very friendly towards him and then turns around to provoke Aue by showing Aek’s clothes to him and telling Aue to lose the cooking competition... but Wiphob is not even competing in the same competition with Aue, so maybe it was to help Chef Moo, but we don't know for sure. Wiphob has also some issues with his father who pressures him to win but nothing more is made of that.
Sixth, the secondary couple of Prem and Vich is all cute but we don’t see much of them until episode 11 when Prem is trying to fulfill his dream of opening an all-dessert store and Vich is there to help him accomplish it. Aside from that, their relationship progresses mainly off-screen as we get some bits and pieces of their interactions.

All in all, the plots seemed weak and some came out of nowhere, without any explanation or logic as to why the writers decided to include them, and most were solved rather easily after a conversation or two. Most of the support characters like Chefs Moo, Wiphob and Eve, Wiphob’s father, Aek’s friends (except Vich) and the other sous-chefs do not have much dialogue and do not provide much in terms of content. The three “bad” chefs are not that evil to be classified as villains and their stories are not mentioned much (if any at all) to really make me care about them or understand them more.

Some of the positives (just to be fair).
a. The chemistry between Mark Siwat (playing Aek) and Zung (playing Chef Aue) and between Paam (playing Chef Prem) and Toon (playing Vich) was very nice. Mark is 8 years younger than Zung (21 vs. 29 years old) but both were able to develop some good rapport between them. In this series, such large gaps between dialogues caused the actors to rely heavily on expressing their emotions through their eyes and both Mark and Zung (who has a lot more experience acting) did a decent job on navigating those moments. Paam and Toon are closer in age (23 vs. 19 years old) and they showed some nice chemistry as well. Toon was a nice surprise in this disappointing series as he was making his acting debut but had some nice moments when his character gave advice to Aek and also being so sure of his feelings towards Chef Prem. His acting was not flawless but it was better than other more experienced BL actors we’ve seen recently (like Gun Napat in “Golden Blood” for example). The two girls, Noon (playing Chompoo) and Zani (playing Nuna) also provided some funny moments and banter between them so that gave the slow show a bit of a break from all the boring scenes we had to watch.

b. The food was a high point for me because being from a country so far away and very different from Thailand, it was an interesting moment to see them prepare all the ingredients and cook them to create visually attractive dishes. Sadly, the cooking competitions were so short that we got deprived from some more tasty dishes and images. I know Thailand has plenty of desserts as well but Prem’s creations do not get the same screentime as the savory dishes.

In the end, another Thai BL series that has been a disappointment in 2021. What started with a promising trailer ended up being a very slow and sometimes boring show that just dragged along the 11 episodes with not many memorable moments.

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What's more scrumptious: the food or the young men?

This was an exceptionally well-made series with meticulous attention to detail that went from the depth of all the main characters to the making of the mouth-watering food that was shot with such precision, often in slow motion which amounted to food porn. It was a joy to see how the story of Aek, his love of food and one day wanting to be a world-class chef melded so perfectly after he met Aue, the owner of a high-class restaurant called Im-Aue which he came across as a delivery boy and the instant attraction they had for each other. Parallel to this is the story of one of Aek's three university buddies, Vich, with whom he shares a dorm room, a charming and playful young man who is a talented photographer and through Aek gets a job at Im-Aue photographing their food after completing an assignment on the creation of the desserts by their dessert chef Prem who he eventually falls in love with and which is immediately reciprocated, unlike the more troublesome love affair between Aek and Aue which takes most of the series to resolve.

One of Aek's buddies is Bie, a handsome and rich young man who doesn't take his studies seriously. He is played by Gameplay who starred in the foodie BL mini-series Ingredients and graduated from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. He is the only well-known actor in the series and the only main character with real cooking credentials though you wouldn't know it from the skills shown by everyone else. Im-Aue was actually built from scratch and demolished after filming finished. Everyone who took part in this series did so because they believed in the story and had the same vision for its outcome. The result is nothing less than superb and it's hard to decide whether the food or the two main actors, both very dishy and desirable young men in their own way, shone brighter.

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workplace romance, friends to lovers

Thailand gave us Korean style slowly simmering ultra soft and sweet BL only at a Thai length so the pacing was... not good. Slower than molasses and full of insane subtext, long gazes, missing dialogue, abrupt mood swings, and one very pretty kiss.

It curdled around episode 8, the sauce split, and there was no saving it.

It did have some of the best food porn I’ve seen in my life, and I watch cooking shows. It was beautiful, the leads were decent, it should have right up my alley, and yet... it left me with a feeling of disaffected ennui - bland and boring and unsatisfying.

11 courses of tasty tasty pacing issues.

SERIOUSLY FLAWED BUT RECOMMENDED WITH... RESERVATIONS...

(reservations... restaurant set BL.... GET IT? Ha.... Ha....zzzzzz)

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Well...it was one of those who had high expectations but...

Bem...era um dos que tinha expectativas mas... Uma coisa posso dizer, para quem não gosta de Fanservice é seguro ver.

Este BL, que parecia mais um Bromance .
Tem 3 protagonistas, para mim o principal foi mesmo apresentação da comida Tailandesa, que sempre ela parecia dava água na boca…
Aek x Aue, tinham olhares que por vezes nos derretiam o coração, isso é verdade, fora isso esperava um pouco mais, principalmente no final.
Musica e cenários, não existe nada a dizer.
Agora os diálogos, alguns deixavam a desejar, poderiam ser bem melhores.
Em todo conjunto até não foi mal, poderia ser melhor? Decididamente, sim.

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Beautiful visuals but missing a plot...

This review will not contain any spoilers because even if I try there really is not much to spoil... for this combination travel and food show and Line Man commercial... The Shots are slooow and I can not complain the least bit about the visuals in this whatever it is, beautiful food, beautiful people and beautiful potential...

The acting or is it the lines I do not know... ranges between really bad to pretty okay from 1 side character that feels natural and fun and all round interesting (Bie) the rest just fall short in both skill (shown, they may be great actors just not here) and seem to just be there to show off food and the beauty of Nan (not the bread, the place).

The character are pretty flat and uninteresting, and I can't decide if the son daughter relationship is good or just odd... They actually start off with great potential during the first half of the show so I was hopeful but then just did not develop at all + made an out of character move that just felt all off... I did however enjoy the voice of reason in the show even if his lines where awkwardly delivered. But the poor guy was subjected to quite a bit of sexuall harasment from most of his colleagues yet not a single person seems to react to it why?

Then it also turned plane boring with under developed side stories that seemed to just be there to take up space but did not really lead anywhere, come to think of it so was the main story, underdeveloped and well I am not really sure if it did lead anywhere other then to Nan... ok this is back to making me hungry...

They also seem to use the words we will always be together more than the song from Grease, If it weren't for the beauty of the shots and the first half this would have gotten a lower score

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Umm...ehhh...hmmm

Well, I have completed the series 'Bite Me'. When I heard about it the first time, I was so excited, because we were getting a setting that was not solely based in school. And I will say that they were a few handful good episodes, but I personally felt that they were A LOT of not so good episodes. And that's why this series really did not resonate well with me.

Story-5/10
When I read the synopsis, I went to myself 'Hey! This sounds cool. This series may actually be interesting.' However, after watching this series for eleven weeks, I personally felt that it was a bit slow/ draggy. Yes, they were some good moments. I do remember like the first two episodes were good as well as episodes seven and especially episode ten with Aek and his mother. But otherwise than that this series really did nothing for me. Especially after reading the synopsis< I was thinking 'Yeah, we gonna see a food competition.' And then where only two episodes were dedicated to the competition- one to get in the competition and the finals. Also, I really did not see the need for some side characters, but I guess they were there to add something for the competition.

I felt that at times that the scenes seemed a bit not put together in the correct place, thus making it a bit off for me, especially episode eleven. I have no idea what the heck happened in that episode cause it left me feeling a bit loss and confused (for example- since when did Bie meet Eve and likes her? Did I miss something or...?) The secondary couples were not developed good, so I honestly did not care for any of them outcome if they were happy or sad at the end. But I will say this- the food in this series looked phenomenal.

Acting/Cast-5/10
The amount of long pauses in this series from ALL of the characters is really nerve racking. And some of their acting just had me blankly watching the screen and having no emotions from watching it and wondering when the episode is going to end. I mean, for the last episode, I checked the time three times cause I felt that it was going on too long for a 46:37 episode. I was originally going to give this a four or something even lower cause I just wasn't feeling it. However, due to Mark's performance as well as Rudklao's (Aek's mom) performance in episode ten, I'm going to give them a 5.

Music-9.5/10
I can safely say this- the music was one of, if not the only, good thing about this series. The songs are addictive and I can be singing them from days to come. 9.5 from me!

Rewatch Valu-2/10
I honestly do not want to watch this series again. It really did not keep my attention or desire when I sat down and watch the episodes (except for the four episodes that I mentioned). So, just because of those four outstanding episodes for me, I will give it a 2.

Overall-5.5/10
Overall I give this series a 5.5. I really did try to enjoy it and it did start off good. But something just wasn't there for me. And while episodes seven and ten were good, these four episodes really can't make me enjoy the whole series.

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Bite Me is terrific!!!

The pace is slow, but I believe that's something that the director wanted to set for the series. I have no problem with it. I am just loving that I am seeing a BL story that is attempting to show gay male characters as professional working adults. That Aek is bridging the gap between college and establishing a career in a field that he loves. That Aue has been basically in love with him, from the moment that Aek stepped inside of his kitchen. I don’t doubt Aek's love for Aue at all. It makes sense that he has doubts about his feelings, because he's never let himself focus on anything else other than getting his college degree to make his Mother happy. Also, it's great to see the younger gay male character having issues with his own acceptance. If it's too slow, challenging to understand, and it seems, not enough sexual scenes, please do yourselves a favor, put yourselves out of your own self-inflicted injury and stop watching.

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What just happened?

When directing and script does you dirty, you get this show...I felt the chemistry but it was brought down by the fact majority of the screen time was spent on stares and no lines being said, I love slowburns but the pacing was just ridiculous. Lots left without explanation and by the end the second couple pretty much became main? Also that montage was edited better than the entire show... Feeling bad for Mark and Zung cause I know they're great actors but the way things went didn't really let them show that till basically the last two-three episodes, where really I hated Chef Aue for being too pushy on Aek and not giving him space to process his feelings. Also the no apology? I don't blame Zung tho, script just sucked. I wanted to know more about Aek's friends and their lives, especially Bie and Pock. Also wanted more about Nuna cause seemed she might've been hinted at as Bi or I interpreted it wrong. Also Chef Viphob & Chef Moo relation? Eve & ___? Anyways leaving it at that. Loved the ost and liked what I got to see with the acting, especially with the mom and Aek together. Would I recommend it? Eh maybe I dont know, I've seen worse so there's that..maybe read the novel after to feel complete.

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