The Director Who Buys me Dinner (2022)

Sweetness overload!

I wish that the drama was longer because it was really good and very sweet. I enjoyed the couple. I enjoyed the storyline, and I even enjoyed the ending. Right now my heart is full and I have the biggest smile on my face. I truly just love these two actors together and they’re chemistry was great.

It’s a short watch, so I really encourage you to check it out. You won’t regret it definitely I wish the show would be remade to be a longer drama maybe a producer somewhere else will pick it up in Thailand or Taiwan or somewhere and a create this, because it was truly a beautiful story.

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Must have been on drugs when writing this drama

If I meet a stranger and they tell me that I must date them or I will die, I would probably start looking for the nearest exit. When they tell me that they are 300 years old and have been waiting for me to come back, I would probably pick up the phone and call the nearest mental hospital.
Seol decides to keep working for his new boss who is batshit crazy, he even goes out for dinner with him later. Very few questions are asked by Seol, but Seol is slightly retarded and believes everything he is told ( which isn't much ) and then starts dating his new boss.
Denis the popstar who also has mental problems takes an interest in Seol , they do say birds of a feather flock together, so all the loons together makes sense. Denis is very problematic but Seol doesn't seem to notice but then the lights are on dim most of the time.
Min Yu, the very old, crazy boss/boyfriend who waited 300 years for Seol to come back to him, also doesn't seem to mind leaving Seol with oddball Denis, but then he doesn't seem to mind leaving him a lot of the time.
Maybe it is just me but if I waited 300 years for someone to come back to me, I would probably clear my calendar and spend all my time with him.
It turns out that Seol is the son of God ( I didn't think God made mistakes ) and because Min Yu gave him a name it caused a big problem and got him killed. I don't know why Min Yu is still alive after 300 years or why Seol came back, who's Denis or why anyone allowed this drama to be made. Maybe they had a competition on who could write the worst BL drama, this is top ten for sure.

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Love that transcends time.

I’d never watched a show with such short episodes before and it took me a couple episodes to get used to it. The cast was wonderful. I think they made great casting choices. When I saw the actor that played Denis I thought it was Changbin from Stray Kids they look very similar. :)

This show was everything I needed right now. I laughed and cried. I will absolutely binge this show again. I hope they have another season, but if they don’t I’m fine with this ending too. <3 I would love to know more about Denis and his role in the story so I’d be open to a spin-off too.

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Not that Bad

TDWBMD was pretty decent. It had its moments, but for the most part, I was fucking with it. I think its only problem is that it's too short so the plot kind of falls on itself and doesn't correlate a hundred percent with what it's trying to be. But nonetheless, it was an okay watch, not very memorable, but I was entertained for the moment and that's all that matters.

Let's Dive In.

The series is pretty short, so the story is rushed perse, but something's kind of off. I really started to enjoy the series the closer we got to the end because it packed in a lot more than the beginning did. The romance feels a little dead between the MLs, it picks up in some parts, but it's not the best. I really stayed for the plot cause that's what intrigued me the most -- especially Denis. The only thing about denis is that we don't get a proper explanation as to who he was, or who he was being controlled by. We can connect the dots to see, but I'm not entirely sure if we're correct. They might've set that up on purpose for a season 2, which, in my rare cases, I'd be happy to see.

The ending was left ambiguous, so it works out if there's to be a second season. I want to see what happens to Denis since some of the people who read the manhwa said he plays a major part in why Dongbeak doesn't die.

Rating:

Story: 7/10 - Decent The plot is intriguing which is why I was kept entertained. Some holes here and there, and I'm not all that interested in the romance part of this.

Acting; 8.5/10 - Youngwoon is hot, but his acting is only okay. It might've been cause he has to play this stoic boss person, but his acting doesn't connect for me. On the other hand, Jeongwoo did an excellent job.

Music: 6/10 - I wasn't paying attention to it.

Recommendation Value: 5.5/10 - Personally, there are better K-BLs to recommend, so this wouldn't be first on my list. But it's pretty good, just really short which is its downfall.

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Tropes: fated mates, reincarnation, PNR, office romance, boss/employee, kill the gay

A new employee whose director claims to have lived 300 years and insists that they have to date (eat, hug & kiss) if baby doesn't want to die. Office, fated mates, and that’s kinda my jam.

It has a lot of Japanese elements to it not the least of which is the office setting, but also the personality of the uke character. Is every character in this show slightly insane? Yes. Is every actor in this show slightly too pretty for my emotional well-being? Also, yes.

I did not expect Korea to go there with the lipstick mark AND an actually gay idol. What alternate reality are we currently living in? Oh. Right. One where they kill the gays. Of course it is. No HEA.

Featuring a gorgeous & stellar cast, TDWBMD should have utilized them less for melodrama and more for chemistry. This BL is a unique twist on an office romance if NOT a unique twist on a doomed red thread trope, resulting in it feeling less than the sum of its parts and ultimately unsatisfying. Possibly this had to do with the fact that this was one of those KBLs where I felt how very short it was the whole time, like I was missing something constantly, in every episode.

Worth watching for some but seriously flawed.

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A good idea, but not enough time to execute it

This bl surprised me a little, I hadn't read the synopsis and I thought the story would only be about a CEO who is obsessed with his secretary, however the story turned out to be a story about past lives, involving mystery and fantasy, which I liked it, because I love stories that involve these elements, however, despite the story seeming to have a good script, the lack of time hindered the progress of the story.

If the episodes had at least 15 minutes more and weren't recapitulating past events all the time, maybe the story would have a better development, because in fact, the most important events and the most surprising revelations only happen in the last 4 episodes, not leaving space for the story to explain certain events and have a less rushed course.

Another problem in this bl was the couple's lack of chemistry at times, the actors' performance is good, especially if you compare it with the performance of certain actors in Thai bls, however I felt a lack of chemistry between the couple, especially in the kissing scenes, sometimes it seemed that the two were being forced to kiss.

The ending was very rushed and despite being a happy ending, I didn't like how things happened, nor how some events and facts were left without explanation.

In conclusion, I think this is a good drama to pass the time, but I think if you want to see a drama with a really good story, you'd better watch other Korean BLscouple, especially in the kissing scenes, sometimes it seemed that the two were being forced to kiss.

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Great cast, missed potential

With the development and increased attention + interest in gay kdramas, this series has the potential to be re-visited with a more passionate producer and studio. The lack of a good budget is evident in things like bad takes, missed editing, bad audio, and the lack of imagination or care to actually get the story across to viewers.

A lot of things within the storyline were abandoned or completely skipped. From the curse, their dinner agreement, and even Dennis himself. A viewer can eventually deduce some aspects of the story yet it leaves far too much room for development.

I hope this can get picked up by a better studio in the future and maybe give this cast the true opportunity to make a great series.

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Leaves you wanting a bit more

One thing I love about Korean BLs is that they break out of the norm of how queer love stories should look like and make it much more than just acceptance or coming out or anything stereotypical attached to queer cinema.

"The Director Who Buys Me Dinner" also does something similar. It takes a storyline filled with fantasy and angst and adds queer characters into the mix. Imagine "The Tale of Nine Tailed" with MLM leads in it.

But despite this you are left with wanting much more. Knowing the fact that the production value of BL dramas in Korea is much lesser compared to mainstream ones, this is kind of expected. But with a short span of episodes and with a taut storyline it is possible to be done. Something like Semantic Error also came out of a very long Webtoon adaptation so why not expect the same from this too?

Nonetheless, this is fun to watch. The adorable factor of the series sticks around and the acting also does justice to it ( maybe next time kiss a little bit more erm passionately, the love didn't feel emanating from those kisses ). Watch it for a fun ride and for a relaxing watch.

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Another fairy tale romance - why do I love them?

Adored it. I hoped for a happy ending but realised quite early on that we were doomed to a sad ending. I was not able to work out what the happy ending could possibly be.
From Tomorrow to Again Life to Reborn Rich and many other shows there seems to be a growing interest in stories involving relived lives. Nine-tailed Fox dramas are now almost a genre in themselves. Unrequited love and unhappy endings to love affairs in previous lives are clearly good material for writers of romance drama.
Strange how the BL format lends itself to the telling of such fairy tales. Consequently. we are beginning to see more and more such shows. So clearly the real attraction of BL is fairy tale romance!
Not sure what that says about my motivation for watching is. I suppose I really should have been aware that this is the real attraction for BL among the core audience. Is it also the moral issues that much of BL raises are so glossed over.

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Everyone, aside from Denis, eat your dinner!

Am I one of the few people that actually liked this series? It had many shortcomings but I did enjoy this. I would've preferred if they lessened Denis' screen time and if not, his backstory should've have been told clearly. He was just acting the same every screen time he had. Also, I wanted to point out that Denis was the one who shot the arrow, right? Or am I just trippin' here?

Story wise: It's good. Not original, of course, but it had potential to be great. The script was so-so.
Acting wise: They both did a great job for a piece of crap script.
Music: It's okay.
Cinematography: It's good, esp the forest scene.
Rewatch value: I'd rewatch this again.

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Great adaptation

I loved what they did with this one!
Having read the webcomic prior to watching this one might have helped me to get into the story more easily, but it surely was not necessary; meaning that even if i had watched this without reading the webcomic i would still give it the same rating i'm giving now.
The acting is great. Specially the main leads. The kissing is a bit awkward the first time but nothing that will make it impossible to watch this drama.
I specially loved what they did with the character of Denis. In the webcomic he is very much different but i like the drama version way better. It gave a new and different meaning to him and his actions.
Overall, i think this is a nice drama with a fantasy-like thematic that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it was mine and i loved every second of it.

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Good idea. Just not executed well enough

I'm proud that BL's/ Korean Bl's especially try to move away from the real of what is expected from them. The Director Who Buys Me Dinner was a mix of supernatural and fantasy which is good because BL's deserve more themes and different stories. Yet since it was only 14-16 mins an episode, less by all the summaries and the previews in the beginning and end of the episodes + the normal 8-10 episodes, it really affected the plot. Since the episodes are so short there really isn't an opportunity to tell the story correctly. The series suffers from a lot of plot holes that left me confused and I still don't really understand the curse or their past connection. The ending is bittersweet too, I liked it enough but I feel like it could have had a better finish.
While I liked the performances of the cast in the last two episodes there's still room for improvement esp if they are going to stay in the BL industry. Some of the acting in the intimate scenes left me feeling awkward too. Still it's important for Korea to tell these stories as much as the writers and producers tell the male and female romance ones. For that I'm happy that Korea has done that and are giving fans more BL's lately. The Director Who Buys Me Dinner was another step in the right direction.
Overall I ive this series a 6.0 because I enjoyed it and thought it was cute. Is there room for improvement? Yes, but I'm satisfied enough for what this series gave me. Loved the OST tho.

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