The Director Who Buys me Dinner (2022)

I liked it but...

This is truly one of those dramas that you'll almost need to read the manhwa in order to appreciate it and understand. I read the book first before watching and without the context of what I'd already read, it would've been a bit hard to grasp some of the plot-points in this drama. I also agree with others that said the drama needed more run time. It did. There's a lot missing that would've made the viewing experience better. And the backstory about Denis is explained so much better in the manhwa whereas the drama skips over it completely and makes it seem like he's just crazy and obsessed.

As far as the actors go, I absolutely loved both of the mains. I think they were good choices. I do think because of the short runtime, we don't get to see exactly how much they both love each other like we do in the manhwa.

Overall, if you want to watch this then I recommend you read the manhwa first. Otherwise, you'll miss out on most of the actual storyline. Plus, the manhwa is crazy good and the characters are far more affectionate and loving.

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The ending made me raise the rating

While I felt like the series could have used more time to better show its multiple elements (everyone's characterization, the romance between Yudam and Dongbaek, Denis' overall situation and feelings, the details about the curse, etc.), I also feel that the time this series actually had wasn't used properly.
Every episode lasts about 15 minutes, yet 5 minutes are always spent for the opening sequence, a very thorough summary of the previous episode and the next one. When I say "thorough" I really mean it: I feel like one could easily just watch half the episodes (the even numbered ones) and not miss anything about the plot. The remaining 10 minutes of each episode are used showing the actual story, but the pacing is way too slow for the time an episode has: I often felt like I was watching multiple snippets of a much longer drama. I believe that they could have done a better job picking what was worth showing and what wasn't.

The only redeeming quality of this drama is the fact that Min Yudam and Seol Dongbaek make a very cute couple, one that made me sob out loud as I watched the last episode. That's the only reason why I would recommend this drama: if you're looking for a solid plotline that is properly shown, this is not for you.

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Though the storyline was a bit rushed, I feel the actors really brought the best out of their own characters and each other. I felt every bit of emotion from the actors which kept me engaged as a viewer throughout the 10 Episodes. The music was a nice addition but I felt the actors emotions brought more to the story. I liked how both characters embodied their characters perfectly where it felt genuine. One small personal preference I would have hoped more of ; was that the music could have a bit more dramatic to help draw more emotions during certain scenes, but overall it was nice. I truly enjoyed the drama and will definitely rewatch it and am hopeful for Season 2.

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Interesting Premise but Felt Rushed

It is hard to dislike this cute but rather short series. It absolutely is all fluff with very stilted love scenes. But there is something enticing about the story. I am, admittedly, a sucker for continuing love stories reincarnated from the past if you will. And this is one of those stories. There is an odd mixture of characters in here that make it entertaining for sure and had it been longer, they could have expanded on the story and made these characters more interesting and entertaining. Interestingly when it reverts to the past, it becomes a way more interesting story and better acted.

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TDWBMD

I've completely fallen in love with this drama. For me, it's in the top 3 of my favourite K-BLs to date. Everything hits the spot: acting, storyline, chemistry, visuals, and emotions. I also love how they changed up a few things from the webtoon but simultaneously followed the baseline. And the lead actors are just chef's kiss! They're a delight to watch not only in the drama but off-screen as well! The emotional scenes are so well done that it actually surprised me. It's one of the very few live-action adaptations that outsold the manhwa. The production itself was definitely above my expectations.
The only thing missing was time; I really wish we had more eps. Desperately hoping for a 2nd season!

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Oh! come on series, I need answers

I was pretty excited when I read the synopsis of the series as you don’t find a lot of BL series with a supernatural theme. Someone who enjoys such storylines, this was certainly a must watch for me. That being said, although there is some hint of supernatural, it is so vague and sprinkled so far between that you forget about it after some time. In fact, even the show forgets about it mid-way and brings it back in the final episode

The story is about Min Yu Dam, a man who has lived for 300 years waiting for Seol Dong Baek his long dead lover to be reincarnated. Seol Dong Baek returns as an employee in his office and they have to fall in love again in order to break the curse. As a plot synopsis this had all the ingredients of being a great BL series but somewhere the ball was dropped and with the short run time the story moves at a fast pace and leaves you with a lot of questions.

With a series like this, what you need is a well established back story of the two characters. The series spends just 1 episode going through that and it is a rushed version. We want to know more about these characters to make sense of what is going on in the present. The questions that the series fails to answer through this backstory are
1. Why Min Yu Dam decides to name an unknown person?
2. What is the problem in naming that person? Mind you the series does try to give a half-baked answer that makes little sense and has no bearing to the following events
3. Why does Seol Dong Baek die but Min Yu Dam gets to live eternally?
4. Who is the entity that possesses Seol Dong Baek briefly?
5. What is the curse and who placed it and how does Min Yu Dam know how to break it?
6. Why does God interfere in their life to this extent where they are punished?

If the decision was made to make this a full fledged series instead of a mere 15 min each episode, they would have had enough time to explain what the hell is going on and we would have been saved from the effort of trying to figure out the answers ourselves

In conclusion, this series isn’t one of the best although it had all the potential of being one. You can give it a watch as it isn’t that bad but be ready to leave this with many a question answered.

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only bad thing about the drama is that its so short

i had no expectations going into this since i didnt even read the summary nor watched the trailer, i went in blind and i gotta say i was pleasantly surprised

first i'd like to say i may be biased towards the story because im a sucker for "lovers in a past life that ended tragically". id say this bl did a good job with the little time they had on their hands. their past life is explained just fine for the viewers to understand it, although it is not explained why the curse happened. i think the actors did a good job in portraying the characters and surprisingly i didnt find their acting cringey like i do with most bl's i watch.

the ending. i loved the ending because it just felt right because of the whole situation. first dongbaek didnt remember anything and the director needed to bear the burden of his past memories and dongbeaks tragic death in his past life, but at the end it was the opposite. i really loved the ending because in some ways it is an open ending because we dont know how their relationship would develop afterwards and its up to the viewer (although we all know they would end up together either way with or without their past memories)

whole time i was watching this i was kicking my feet because of how cute it was. i love the soulmates trope and to me they really felt like soulmates because even after 300 they still found a way back to each other

only thing bad about this bl is that its so short! i really wish the episodes were at least 30 minutes because it would give time for the characters to fully develop and show more of their relationship

i would recommend this for people to watch because its short and very easy to watch. the fluff was just so cute !! (although i did shed a tear at the end nonetheless i love bittersweet endings!)

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I hate everything. :'(((

What was that ending??? I just finished the last episode and I am so....frustrated. And upset. That doesn't mean it's a bad ending. On the contrary, it was a very good ending. They get a reset. But at what cost?

If you take out all the credits and previous episode scenes and such, you get maybe an hours worth of scenes. Honestly, that's not enough to flesh out what could be a really good story. Like Denis. What's up with him? There's so much more there than we get to see. And whatever fate that decided to make a "child of God" have to suffer as he did, not to mention the suffering of Yu Dam.....I mean, I could come up with parallels between this story and Christianity, but I don't think that is where they were going with this. There's so much of the story missing or only hinted at, and you have to fill in the blanks. I honestly feel that I wouldn't be quite so upset if I had more of Denis' backstory and an explanation of his current role within their work and private lives.

The acting was phenomenal in my opinion. Especially Jang You Sung, the actor who played Denis. I've never seen someone actually make me feel like I was watching a caged animal in human form. And the pain and anger and panic that he portrayed was amazing! But also, Park Young Woon and Park Jeong Woo did fabulous jobs in emoting so many different emotions, just in that short time frame.

I have so many questions......

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I had high hopes for this!!

Unfortunately, I think this show was just too short to really give the story enough life. They're was such an interesting premise, but I wanted them to go deeper into the story. I'm also not completely sure why the artist has the issues that he does, that wasn't explained at all. I suspect he was the archer in the past, but that alone wouldn't explain his anxiety or why the employee can calm him down and seems to share his energy with him.

For the most part I enjoyed the series, it just felt like so much was missing and felt incomplete. I'm not sure if that's because the writer never fully fleshed it out, or because the series didn't the the budget to do more than a basic representation. I haven't read the source material to know.

I would still recommend it though, there's enough here to keep you entertained for the hour and a half run time for the entire series.

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you will smile, cry and blush

the beggining feels a little rushed, some scenes that won't be developed, but after the third episode it becomes making more sense. the final episode is so unexpected, it was a surprise and plot twisting. the last scene melted my heart and made me run out of tears.

it is a good drama, for me it's the one that had more similarities with the hetero general dramas. an amazing experience.

don't let the others reviews scary you, watch it and see it by yourself, it's worth it!!!

why this review has to be that long? I will add that the actor that plays Min YuDam is SO pretty.

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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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