Dinner is GTO in an Italian restaurant. Famous Italian Chef Tatsumi goes into a coma and his restaurant is in trouble. The restaurant keeps losing customers and the daughter/manager Saori (Kurashina Kana) seeks out Esaki (Eguchi Yusuke) to be the new head chef. Of course Esaki turns out to be a maverick and is hated by everyone.
WHAT I LIKED
- In the beginning you see the kitchen in action and the head chef doesn't even cook, just stands around and gives directions which makes me think why should it matter that the chef is in a coma. I like that they got the conductor character to explain that it is similar to the conductor's role.
Though everyone is a pro and they can follow the music sheet/recipe you still need an overseer of the music/food will seem hollow. Great writing there. Sell the audience the premise. Doesn't have to be convincing but it makes it easier to buy into it.
- Kurashina Kana's smile. :)
- A lot of actors I like including Kodoku Gurume and Santamaria Yusuke although his role seems redundant. I guess the high number of recognisable faces just means the GTO formula of solving one staff member's problem per episode and leaving our GTO, Esaki's secret for last.
- I love the directing and choreography of the cooking 'action' scenes. There's only so much you can do with spectators commentating on someone is so skilled at peeling apples. Showing is always better than telling even when the showing is just to look cool.
- Italian is easier for Japanese to speak. I don't know Italian but it doesn't sound like the cast were struggling with pronunciation.
- Kurashina Kana in a decent dorama for once.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
- Too many whinging staff even after the sudden down in customers and the new chef proving that he knows what he is talking about. Yes, it is a necessary evil of the GTO formula but having ALL of them protest makes them look like idiots. If everyone on a team is an idiot, then they are going to be hard to root for.
- Do they really need that many staff? I've never been to expensive Italian restaurants but they've got as many staff as customers. My problem is not really the number of staff but the number of characters with major supporting roles that feel redundant.
SUMMARY
- Dinner is a very familiar dorama with a fresh and dazzling new coat of paint. Whether it can reach the heights of Oishii Kankei or Lunch no Joou remains to be seen but its a possibility. Its pretty much going to depend on the one supporting character's secret is revealed per episode formula. Let's see how the next few episodes go before proclaiming this a must watch. Very watchable first two episodes.
I'm italian, and from Turin (where the restaurant Teresa should be in italy as the drama says).
ReplyDeleteThe italian pronunciation in this dorama is far from perfect, but i can understand almost everything's being said: the sentences make sense in italian, sounds like they hired someone with decent italian knowledge to write the script.
The one that surprised me the most was Kurashina Kana's italian! She really has a great pronunciation. One of the worst italian i heard in the dorama so far was by her otousan, Tatsumi-san. Almost impossible to understand.
Oh and i've never heard of a famous "Teresa" restaurant here in Turin. Still, it was great to hear the name of my city in a Japanese Drama.
Thanks for the info on the Italian! Looks like it should be the foreign language of choice in Jdoramas and not English or Mandarin. cough. Tokyo Airport. cough.
ReplyDeleteWow, it's great to hear the opinion of a native Italian speaker. I think we are so used to bad English and Mandarin in Japanese dramas that the idea that a foreign language can be done well in one is quite surprising.
ReplyDeleteTokyo Airport: Unfortunately airport English is the standard language so no chance of that happening haha.
Hey IzyData, like i said the italian is not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm a native speaker so i guess i have the right to say it. ;)
Of course they have a heavy japanese accent and some actors struggle more than others, but it's good enough, especially Kurashina Kana. Add the presence of some Italian actors like the annoying ambassador wife and here's why they could pull out some decent italian.
The only thing that really annoys me is the "Comanda per favore!" repeated at the end of every order in the kitchen. It doesn't sound right in italian. You could say "Comandi" or "Sono al suo servizio" to express the concept of "I'm at your service" but Comanda per favore doesn't sound quite right. In ancient italian, maybe.
Oh and another thing that doesn't quite right it's how they say yes. It's not like the japanese Shi, it's Si! But well, I can't complain. It's still ten thousand better than the usual Engrish in doramas.