Song Il-kook and Park Jin-hee in Fermentation Family
Fermentation Family (aka
Balhyo Gajok), starring
Song Il-kook and
Park Jin-hee,
may have an awkward-sounding title (at least in English), but the
stills from the upcoming cable drama are quite easy on the eyes.
Pictured together here are series stars
Song Il-kook (
A Man Called God) and
Park Jin-hee (
Giant)
from the drama’s open set day, and already the chemistry is crackling
between them. Take the above shot: They look like they’re either about
to bite each other’s heads off or start making out, or maybe both.
Normally I’d find the drama’s unwieldy title off-putting (even if
it’s apt given the traditional (fermented) Korean cuisine milieu), but
in this case I don’t even care, since what has my attention is the
credentials of the producers: Writer
Kim Ji-woo and
Park Chan-hong have paired twice before, and both
Devil and
Resurrection were standouts — tightly written, dark, and gritty.
This drama is aiming lighter than those previous projects, though, so
I’m expecting less in the way of dark crime material and more of the
heartwarming variety. The drama is centered around a family that runs a
Korean restaurant who bumble through life, as well as the oddball
characters who gather there, and promises to tell a “cheerful, touching
story.”
The romance between the leads described as one of those bickering
relationships that graduates to friendship, mutual helpfulness, and then
a “family-like, warm romance.” Now, that’s an ill-thought-out simile:
Familial is just about the
last quality I look for in a
romance, myself. (I’m going to write this one off as a promotional
foot-in-mouth moment rather than an actual faux-incest motif.)
The broadcaster, jTBC, is another of the new cable channels that has
yet to premiere. It is preparing an impressive drama lineup with which
to launch:
Fermentation Family joins the list along with others like
Padam Padam: The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats and sageuk drama
Queen Insu starring
Chae Shi-ra.
Fermentation Family premieres on December 7.
Via
TV ReportCredits:dramabeans.com