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The Witch's Diner (Initial Thoughts)


Fantasy dramas are always fun to watch, giving viewers an escape from the monotony of the real world. At the same time, the most interesting entries in the fantasy genre oftentimes have just enough realism thrown in to make for an engaging story. This is the case for The Witch's Diner (or directly translated to Come to the Witch's Restaurant), an 8-episode web series that was met with strong viewer reception. Based on a novel of the same name by Goo Sang-hee, demands for a season 2 have seen this drama moved to television, where it'll begin airing on 5 Jan. Starring Song Ji-hyo (Lovely Horribly, Was It Love?) and Nam Ji-hyun (Suspicious Partner, 365: Repeat the Year) as female leads JO HEE-RA and JEONG JIN respectively, the first episode has been pretty intriguing thus far so let's get right to it. 

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

As the drama's title suggests, this show revolves around a witch's diner, namely one run by Hee-ra. From the little we've learnt from episode 1, Hee-ra is a witch who grants people down on their luck wishes after they eat food she's prepared. Described as the most delicious food they've ever eaten, her grantees will have their wish fulfilled but there's always a catch, for Hee-ra will take something of theirs. For example, in granting a man his wish to win the lottery, she steals his eyesight and renders him blind. While her wish-granting seems benevolent in nature, she gives off a somewhat malicious vibe, fulfilling people's desires only to snatch away something precious from them. After granting the wish of the aforementioned man, Hee-ra closes up shop, stating that that was her "last customer".

This brings us to our other female lead Jeong Jin, who might be one of the most pitiful drama leads out there. Working for an abusive boss who constantly chews her out for the smallest things, Jin's life is a mess and she hates her job, only staying in it because she needs the money. That's not the worst of her problems though because she ends up getting fired over an inane reason and her boyfriend of 5 years breaks up with her. Even then, she's not at the lowest point in her life yet. After her mother finds out about her recent firing, the pair decide to take over their neighbour's cheonggukjang business, spending a ton of money (including her mother's instalment savings) in the process. Unfortunately, it's too good to be true because the mother-daughter pair were scammed, with their neighbour opening up a new restaurant right next to theirs and functionally stealing their business.

When Jin and her mother confront their neighbour, they're kicked out of the restaurant and charged with obstructing a business. With an expensive lawsuit looming over her head, Jin rents out their shop space in the hopes of at least making some money to tide over this rough period. Now officially at rock bottom, she meets Hee-ra, who approaches her with an offer she can't resist. She'll grant Jin a wish in exchange for the shop space and Jin readily accepts. Her wish? To get revenge on the woman who conned her and from the moment Jin consumes Hee-ra's food, in this case a steak, the spell takes effect. Her neighbour finds her new restaurant infested with rats and suddenly collapses in pain, with figurative shadows piercing her entire body. Jin's wish has been granted but at what cost?

Apart from Hee-ra and Jin, we're also introduced to male lead LEE GIL-YONG [Chae Jong-hyeop (Sisyphus: The Myth, Nevertheless,)], a high school student and track star. Coming from a single parent family (his mother having presumably passed away), Gil-yong works hard to bring home some money, working part-time at a convenience store and also doing his best in track so that he can get to college on a scholarship. Kind and good-natured, our male lead stands up for his friends and takes care of those around him. When a drunk Jin breaks down in front of his workplace, Gil-yong runs over with a tissue box and checks on her. Later on, he also stands up for a bullied classmate, getting into a fight with the bullies. After he gets hauled to a police station for that fight, Jin (who was at the same station for the earlier obstruction charge) inadvertently helps him out by chewing out an officer for commenting on Gil-yong's "broken family". When the pair leave the station, Jin advises him to not be such a nice person and that the cruel world will only walk over their heads. So far, that's all we've seen from Gil-yong this episode.

As of now, I don't know where this drama is headed. From a scene early on in the episode, it's quite obvious that Hee-ra will have more interactions with Jin and Gil-yong, among other characters, and this is further supported later in the episode. Throughout the episode, the witch spies on Jin, observing her day-to-day activities and it's also implied that Hee-ra has interacted with Jin at some point in the past, although the younger woman likely doesn't remember it. To be fair, we don't know a whole lot about Hee-ra either, although we do get a little in the way of her backstory. We know that at some point she made a wish herself, which presumably ended up with her assuming this role of a wish-granting witch. Also, we find out that if she makes another wish, she'll disappear, along with a scar that she has. Lastly, the episode's epilogue shows us that Hee-ra has been observing the two other leads for some time, having pictures of both Jin and Gil-yong. This will definitely be important in future.

I'm quite curious to see how this drama turns out because it could literally go in any direction. What will happen to Jin after being granted her wish? How will Gil-yong end up meeting Hee-ra? What's Hee-ra's backstory? All this and more will likely be answered as the drama progresses and since it has half the airtime of most 16-episode dramas, I'm sure we'll get it done in no time. For now, this fantasy drama has thoroughly drawn me in and I hope you'll join me in entering The Witch's Diner.

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