The Director Who Buys Me Dinner (2022)

Half-Cooked, Dont Eat

A hard pass, unless someone buys you dinner to watch it. The plot synopsis here in MDL is a little bit different from the actual story, in the series Yu Dam has lived for 300 years and Dong Baek was in fact a man in his first iteration. And no, they dont die, only Dong Baek is bound to die.

The format for Korean BLs are just too short to be properly appreciated. I just dont understand why they cant just increase the episode runtime to better tell the story.

There is an ambitious premise hidden somewhere. It is a fantasy romance and yes, they were trying to do something different from other BL by telling a unique love story that spans hundred of years. It reminded me of another Korean BL "First Love Again". However, just like that series, this story looks good on paper but has failed in execution. What we got are 10 16-minute episodes that spends the first 2 and a half minute recapping and showing the opening credits and another minute and a half end credits. The problem is there is just not enough story in the 12 minute remaining time for me to chew upon. There wasnt enough to savour the characters, it wasnt even enough to taste their chemistry.

The title says The Director Who Buys Me Dinner, but after the first 2 episodes the dinner between Director Min Yu Dam and Soel Dong Baek stopped. I would have loved to see it every episode like some sort of closing credit.

The fantasy side also wasnt fully explained, there wasnt any proper explanation about how the curse happened, or how the director lived for hundreds of years? Do we even really consider living a long life a curse? Did he meet any previous Dong Baek aside from the first and the current one? Who was that who possessed Dong Baek? Was the curse lifted by the end of the story or if he is still aware that he is or was immortal? Did he just suddenly also forget about his long life? What happens to Dong Baek at the end?

Also, whats the point of the Denis character?

What's sad is you can actually see the making of a good series under all the ingredients they were trying to shove in your mouth. If they just spent a little more time baking the story, and maybe just adding a little more sugary sweetness it would have been great.

I used to like short series but after a few duds i am starting to hate the format. It is very evident that in this series , the short runtime worked against their favor. Open ended stories are good way to end stories but here it just felt lazy.

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needed more runtime to better develop the plot and characters

Overall: I liked the unique premise but it felt rushed. I think they should have cut out Dennis' character if they didn't have the budget for a longer runtime. Aired on iQIYI.

Content Warnings: attempted violence/murder, murder*, bullying, shove, dub/non con touching, past violence, past death, mental health struggles, power imbalance with boss/employee dynamic

What I Liked
- made me laugh several times like trying to drink but not holding anything
- I appreciate how different that first scene was from pretty much every other BL
- chemistry between the leads
- cute moments
- interesting premise
- was happy it was m/m in the past

Room For Improvement
- there just wasn't enough screen time to fully explain the plot, an example is why/when did Min Yu Dam's feelings change? or in the past, a line says they've been meeting at a certain spot but the audience has only seen them just meet, what exactly was/is the relationship between Min Yu Dam and Dennis (in the past and present)?
- Min Yu Dam has had that much time and he comes up with that stupid approach?!? why wouldn't he meet him as a friendly university classmate, there's never any explanation and it doesn't make sense
- the dead fish lip press kisses and even the 1 that wasn't still wasn't a good kiss
- in episode 2 they should have continued the flashing lights/noise thru that scene to show it was an ongoing problem and then put things back to normal once Min Yu Dam did what he did
- a 2 minute recap is too long for episodes that are under 15 minutes
- *this is a kind of murder but I won't be too spoilery

The Ending
- I actually didn't mind it as I didn't love that he forced him to be his secretary and go on dates with him however, this needed to be 16 episodes 1 hour each and what we saw took up the first 6-8 episodes and then they continued the story for the second half, otherwise it kind of ruins everything else before it

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