REVIEW: Temperature of Love

Re-watch value: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

*partially taken from Dramafever*

Lee Hyun Soo (Seo Hyun Jin from Doctor Romantic, Another Oh Hae Young) is confident, honest and the graduate of a prestigious university. After 10 years as an assistant writer, she is finally getting some well-earned recognition as a screenwriter, and unlike the theatrics in dramas, the pragmatic writer doesn’t believe in concepts such as “love at first sight.”
Jung Sun (Yang Se Jong from Duel, Saimdang: Light’s Diary) is a French food chef and the owner of the highly-regarded restaurant Good Soup. He is competitive, charming, and immensely talented. Having attended culinary school in Paris, Jung Sun is also very confident in his own intuition and doesn’t believe in the traditional hierarchy typically found in the kitchen. Past his exterior confidence, though, is a man scarred by his relationship with his mother, who lives her life with cold practicality, whereas he lives on passion and instinct.
Ji Hong Ah (Jo Bo Ah from Sweet Stranger and Me) is the daughter of a successful CEO, and is also an aspiring drama writer. Unlike her friend, she has little need for money and lives life with the knowledge that everything will be handed to her. Whenever she is with Hyun Soo, she gets all the attention–until she meets and falls in love with respected chef Jung Sun, that is.
Park Jung Woo (Kim Jae Wook from Voice) is the CEO of a successful entertainment agency. A huge fan of Jung Sun’s cooking, Park Jung Woo was actually the primary investor in Good Soup. He shares a good relationship with Jung Soo, until he falls for Hyun Soo and starts seeing the chef as a rival.

Together, these four wildly different friends and budding lovers try to navigate life, butting heads with each other along the way. But even in the digital age, Google can’t provide all the answers. As they soon learn, online-only acquaintances can’t handle the temperature of love.

Rambling

*beware of spoilers*

Well, I didn’t mean to take a more than two-month break from writing, but here we are. Work has been absolutely life-sucking, so I haven’t had the time nor inclination to write—although I haven’t stopped watching dramas. I watched Temperature of Love weeks ago, and I remember enjoying it. It was an easy watch.

I’ll try to frame this review as best as I can, as it’s been a hot minute since I watched the show and it isn’t as fresh as it should be.

The beginning of this drama was quite unique. We enter in on some sort of TV show being filmed in a mall or public place, with a hot chef cooking in front of a crowd of extras and talking through the sizzling meal. No surprise, the hot chef is Jung Sun, our male lead. But there’s also Hyun Soo, our female lead, drinking solo nearby. Major drama happens between the TV show director and Hyun Soo, whom we find out is the writer for the show. Jung Sun comes into her view, and the framing makes you think this is their big “love at first sight” moment. But it’s not. There’s history here that we know nothing about. And so we get propelled back in time.

I quite liked that entrance into this drama. Time jumps are nothing new, but I liked the imperfection in our female lead, the way she is—despite her strength and bravery—in a vulnerable, embarrassing situation right from the get-go.

Our couple have their first meeting while out exercising in a large group of runners, introduced by mutual friend Hong Ah. The night run was sort of magical. The lighting and the mood, the lighthearted banter between the friends, how Hyun Soo inspects Jung Sun, and the way Jung Sun is drawn to Hyun Soo. It felt very natural.

One thing I liked tremendously throughout the drama was that significant moments between Hyun Soo and Jung Sun were emphasized in black and white. Literally, they would throw a little slo-mo in there and switch from color to black and white. The first time they did it, I instantly smiled. It wasn’t hokey at all; it was a classy, sophisticated method of getting around the typical seeing the same moment from multiple angles repeatedly.

Jung woo’s second male lead was so suave and composed that you almost didn’t believe he was madly in love with Hyun Soo. But besides being insanely good-looking, that actor has a way of communicating so much with his eyes. I thought he was emotive without screwing up his face. Super effective.

Let’s talk about Jung Sun’s mother for a sec. Lots of K-scandal here: She divorced Jung Sun’s physically abusive father, and now serial-dates younger men, leeching off her son whenever she can. Yet the ageless Lee Mi-sook is just so charming. She had fits of rage and showed signs of mental illness, but I couldn’t stay mad at her character for long. You gotta admire someone who just doesn’t give a shit anymore.

I think the biggest problem I had with the show was the push and pull of the romance between Hyun Soo and Jung Sun. He actively pursues her initially, asking her out on a date while they were still out on their run. She later rejects him for no real reason at all. He leaves the country to study under a prestigious chef, and she refuses to pick up her phone when he calls her one last time before his departure, then proceeds to regret it for years.

Jung Sun later expresses reservations at getting into a relationship with her, saying something along the lines of, “how can I trust a woman who rejected me and shit on my feelings before?” And he’s absolutely right! I thought she was extremely fickle and prone to self-pity and selfishness. It didn’t help their relationship, although I guess it gave them something to work through, but it just annoyed me to no end.

Last thing I’ll touch on is wild child Hong Ah. She is Hyun Soo’s best friend and industry colleague. Hyun Soo rises to the top first, and her success incites Hong Ah in a way that I haven’t seen often in K-drama. Yes, she’s jealous, but she actively sabotages her relationship with Jung Sun and stays close to Hyun Soo as her junior writer. She comes to despise her friend, and when she finally wins the end-all-be-all writing contest, she shows everyone her true colors. Our second female lead was a bitch, y’all! Vindictive, manipulative, rude, and entitled. Her treatment of Won-joon was pretty cruel, too, stringing him along for years all while knowing he adored her. If the show did anything wrong, it allowed sweet Won-joon to end up with the now-reformed Hong Ah. They should have just left Won-joon with the wine sommelier girl.

All in all, if you’d like an effortless romantic drama with interesting characters and plenty of food-porn, Temperature of Love is just the ticket.

Did you see Temperature of Love? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!