The Director Who Buys me Dinner (2022)

I'm left frustrated because this just needed more time ?

Does this series deserve an 8/10? Probably not. But will I give it an 8? Absolutely.

Hear me out. There is seriously only one real annoying flaw with this production that's hindering it significantly: the runtime. The two minute recaps at the start of every 15-minute episode was too much. We only really got around 11 minutes of content (give or take) because of those recaps, the intro, credits, and the next episode's teasers.

The issue is that this storyline has too much depth for 110 minutes. It needed longer to really develop the characters and the depth of their emotions. Not going to lie, the only reason I ended up connecting to their relationship is because of how great the acting was. Denis' character also didn't get the development or explanations the audience needed. I'm 99% sure the reason he started acting out the way he did was because he was the one to kill Dongbaek in his past life (based on his eyes and his present actions). However, their are certainly people who simply won't come to that conclusion themselves since it wasn't fleshed out enough.

I didn't mind the ending. I would have loved if Yoodam recovered his lost memories but I also like how they concluded the show, so I'm not too upset.

This k-bl is honestly a lot better than some others which have been airing recently... (*cough* oh my assistant *cough*) because at least we got better kisses--well one great kiss and others that were mediocre--and great chemistry and great acting and a unique plot. But it definitely could have been SO much better with a longer runtime 😭

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Tasty though not completely filling

It's always interesting to see high concepts play out for romantic dramas, immediately kicking into action with high stakes, date or die. For a fantasy to be immersive without too much distraction, there needs to be in world explanation for important story elements.

Setting up the rules for kissing the birthmark that was the wound site from a previous life to calm some sort of pain that activates is interesting. It is unclear if it's their proximity only that sets off the pain or if Dong Baek always had that pain and only Yudam can cure it. And so much more like a there needs a clearer explanation exactly what went wrong and got Yudam and Dongbaek cursed, was Yudam alive for 300 years consequtively or was he reborn with the same memories, who's the spirit that possessed Dong Baek, did Dong Baek have other life times in between the first and the current, is the heart shaped mark from a different stabbing from one of those other lives or else how did Yudam know about it, is Denis the assassin that killed Dongbaek, why is Denis calmed by Dongbaek, why is he obsessed with him...etc. It's a really fascinating premise, but a lot felt like it was left on the cutting room floor. I like how the past life scenes show Yudam as warm and kind, juxtaposing with his self 300 years later after he has been living on autopilot, how he's been thawing with his time with Dongbaek, and finally he's back to how he was in his first life after he forgets Dongbaek. It's a bittersweet ending that Dongbaek gets to remember first by keeping his memory in this second loop, but Yudam is already interestested so they can start over with Dongbaek explaining what happened to him eventually. They're even that way with Dongbaek not remember their first life either, neither will have the trauma from that life, though Dongbaek will have some from dying in the first loop of the current one.

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Nebyros

the story has a lot of gaps, the characters don't make much sense and the ending is horrible if you consider that they are no longer cursed it's still sad to think that one has forgotten and the other will keep remembering.
(if you ask me still looks like a curse)
I still wonder why Denis exists since nothing about him makes sense, why does he hate the director? Why does he kill the guy in the past but fall in love with him in the future? so many unanswered questions.
In the end, if you are looking for a quality BL I would say that there are better options, this one is only for those who have already finished watching all the good BL that exist.

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AMAZING STORY LINE ...but~

Personally I love the plots of the story. It does have great potentials; like how they are destined for each other, no matter how many curses they encounters. What's more the throwing to several dynasties before was simply on point!

That being said... it was freaking too short! <15minutes long? With recap & OST included?! Seriously! not enough.

I absolutely love the ending; the tension, sadness, worry, heartache, everything! C'est tres bein.

As for the acting concerns, still need more work. Sure they're handsome and cute BUT their chemistry isn't there. Not to mentions the cutting & editing of the drama, /sigh.

I really think this drama could be really nice, if extra time given, better directing and acting skills. Yup, it is a love hate review. welp~

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Felt kind of rushed

Ok so before I get into this review I want to say that I did like the drama. I may not score it the highest, but that's mostly because it felt like the drama was kept as short as possible and kind if rushed. If the makers had made the episodes a bit longer and explained some stuff a little more I would've probably rated this show a lot higher. The majority of this post will however be me explaining what's wrong with the synopsis, and what it actually should've said.

Now then. I'll start with the story. Like I said above, the story felt kind of rushed. Some things were left to your imagination while the series would've made a lot more sense if these things were explained a bit more/better.

Also, the synopsis is wrong. Let me explain.
In the synopsis it says that "a child was named after god and was cursed" this is not correct. The child(Dongbeak) was a child of god (so not named after god but just not given any name) and named by his lover(Yudam). Because names hold destiny in this drama, this started a new series of events, which got Dongbeak and Yudam cursed.
The synopsis also states that "after 4 reincarnations the child finds his love in the form of an employee of his company" this is also wrong. Yes, the director finds his love in the form of an employee, but this was not after 4 reincarnations. This was after 300 years of living. And more importantly, it wasn't Dongbeak who was the director, but Yudam.
Dongbeak was reincarnated however, but not 4 times. As far as us was told he was reincarnated only once. While Yudam had to wait 300 years for Dongbeak to be reincarnated.

As said before, this drama felt like it was kept as short as possible. Because of this it felt like a lot of things were left unexplained or just slightly explained. This explanation was sometimes very confusing, yet somehow still enough that you could understand what happened to them and why Yudam is rondomly clinging to Dongbeak. Also because it was kept as short as possible it felt kind of rushed. For example, they fell for eachother way too easy. Like yes, I understand that you had feelings for eachother in the past and seeing each other made you remember these feelings again. But it felt weird to me. I can't properly explain why though.

As for the acting, I loved it. These two had pretty good chemistry. Tho like I said just now, at some points it felt kinda fake to me, that why I only scored it a 7. But since I am used to the acting from Thai dramas, where the acting feels kind of stiff a lot of the time, the acting felt really good to me.

I will probably not watch this one again, though there is still a small chance I would. But I think I'd probably prefer to read the manga again instead.

Considering all of this I score this drama a 7. Because even tho it felt kind of rushed, it was still pretty good. And like I said at the start the majority of this post is just me saying what's wrong with the synopsis, not the story.

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I'm being lenient with the ratings??

the story was literally FLAT I did not feel any connection between the characters..if the backstory (the 300 yes ago) part of the story was shown first and then the present time .I could've probably liked it better..since I felt everything was too fast without any development whatsoever...

and also tbh I was actually supporting Denis and seol (I knew they weren't going to be together at the end but still cuz I felt there was a little more depth to their feelings a ) not to mention I only supported Denis until he became too obsessed to the point of killing the Director

I felt nooo no no emotional connection with the drama probably coz it was too fast paced...I haven't read the webtoon yet so I cannot say if it's adapted nicely or not

I literally fast forwarded thru most of the eps..also first 2 or 3 eps were like literally plain fansercice

moreover the romance between the couple also felt bland with no depth to their relationship whatsoever...I never got butterflies watching them kiss...while on the other hand..seol just supporting and helping Denis through a panic attack felt very nice to watch
usually I'm more interested in kissing scenes and wd blush even at the sight of them holding hands but this time I never blushed🙄🙄

and the acting wasn't bland but I feel if the story was better or more nicely executed I wouldn't have anything bad to say about the acting because again there was no connettionnnn

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The premise is great; the runtime too short.

The idea to blend an office setting / a boss-employee-dynamic with a fantasy plot of reincarnation and curses which have to be broken, is interesting.

Unfortunately, the boss-employee-dynamics with its inherent power imbalance is only kind of important in the beginning -- for me, Dong Baek was much too accepting of Yu Dam's story. But that may be because I did not feel a connection between the director and his employee. The director was so standoffish at the beginning, and then suddenly, he is concerned annd worried? The employee is confused and more than a bit uncomfortable, and then, suddenly -- love? A bit more time for character development would have been nice.

I think there's a lot of more character back-story and world-building here than we get to see; and this is what makes the whole series feel unfinished. It is as if we get an incomplete puzzle and are asked to fill in the missing pieces ourselves, and the pieces that are there are just the people, and none of the surroundings.
We don't know why it was so important that the "child of god" / "the kid who grew up in the shaman's house" not get a name. We don't know who it was who shot Dong Baek (looked like Dennis, maybe?) and why. We don't know what kind of curse it is and how exactly it can be broken. And we don't know how Yu Dam knows. We don't know who is was who possessed Dong Baek that one time. We don't know anything about Dennis, and why he thinks so lowly of Yu Dam.
The list could go on and on.

I don't understand why those who were responsible chose this story when it was clear that there's not a lot of time to fully explore it. Even a 10-episode drama of 25 to 30 minutes per episode would have been enough to at least explain the most pressing questions.
But if you know that you don't have the time, then why not choose a much simpler story?

As it is, most of the episodes felt rushed or disjointed (or both); which is a pity since the acting and most technical aspects were fine.

The ending .... is probably something people love or hate. It's open-ended bt hopeful; and I think it fits so I like it.

If you're interested and have the time, you could watch it -- it's short enough and certainly not bad enough -- and form your own opinion.

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Всего три актера, три лица, но как играют.. Манхву еще не читала, думаю там будет более открытый конец и главное, что все живы. Ю Сон прекрасен как всегда, не ожидала такой мощной игры от него честно. Чон У видела впервые в игре и я теперь его фанат. Но вся моя любовь и страсть к Ён Уну. Боже как я люблю этого парня. выворачивает игрой все нервные клетки. Такая мощь. Корея как всегда: красиво, четкая работа и кастинг. Коротко о главном. Меня часто спрашивают, что я люблю больше: сюжет или игру. А чаще выбираю игру, но не в этот раз. Здесь в очередной раз идеально все. Однозначно в любимые и еще пересмотрю не один десяток раз. Спасибо всем за прекрасную работу.

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At first I said, "Let's hear about the director." Now I no longer want to hear

At first, I said, "Let's hear about the director." Now I no longer want to hear

I just had some sort of midlife crisis. Because I texted my boyfriend that I love him and that I want him to be real.

Typically dramas do not mess with my head this bad. And the acting in this drama was in no way the best I have ever seen. But something about this fuck me up. Like bad. Like I have been crying bad.

I'll try to be quick. The whole plot and the ending. Where it was all a dream was fucked. It was all a dream that Dongbaek had to remember. Why does he have to carry the burden now? How is this freeing him from Min's graph?

The line: "a name binds you" was so damn deep. Had me rethinking everything I have done until this point. Is it because of the name I was given at birth? How different would my life have been if I were given a different name?

There were a lot of lines that I felt just sat inside my soul...none of which I can directly quote at the moment.

Finally, the background story was soul-crushing. He couldn't save him and now he is paying the price.

However, one thing I noticed is there has to be some sort of age gap between the two of them. I mean bro was a teenager/child when he was def a bit older.

The actor of the director had this soulless look on his face for 75% of the show. I feel like that fucked with me a lot. But I think he just has a lot of Botox to the point where he struggles to pull an expression other than stone-cold. (i could be wrong though since i did not research this whatsoever)

My final verdict is an 8.5/10. I cant go any higher because I wanted more romance and all I got was trauma.

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enjoyable with a certain uniqueness

This was alright! I enjoyed watching, but the characters didn't really grow on me. Which is unfortunate because shows of similar length got me to relate or sympathize with the characters in the same amount of time. As I finished this show, my only thought was "Well, this definitely is an ending." and I was ready to move on.

The story in of itself is quite unique for BLs, but fell a little flat as it requires a lot more depth than these short productions, I believe. So as a viewer, we don't get enough time to explore Yu Dam's pain and understand his despair. This being said - Yu Dam's intentions/memories from the beginning vs the end of the show seem a little iffy and kind of just made to fit the narrative. The Plot: Hole.

I was also disappointed in the character writing of Denis. What the hell ): I would've loved to see more of his character. I feel like he was just a plot device. Side characters usually are, but they really just... made him do things u know? No reason, no explanation. We just kind of have to think our part.

Overall, the acting performance of the cast is average but definitely enjoyable. The production is very good as well, which enhanced the viewing experience for sure. I loved all the little scenes of slight touches and movements.

Let me summarize this review and give you a recommendation:
It's alright. It's worth a binge if you're looking for something lighthearted.

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Wasted potential

The storyline was not new but I personally still liked it. But the finale? I don't think it was well presented. It left me with a "that's it??" (on the negative side).

The problem with this drama is the plot holes:

-Who was Denis truly?
-How/why did Dongbaek fall in love with the director?
-What happens with Denis after the time skip?
-Does the director recover his memory?

I saw a post where it explained everything about the manhwa and it was so much better than the series finale. It explained everything very well so, if you are not watching because you specially like the actors, I recomend to directly read the manhwa.

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