Great food, Korean heritage, and tension. What more do you want in a movie?

"Le Grand Chef" does what no episode of "Iron Chef" could have done. It neatly tied in great food, suspense, story, and characters to create a delightful and impactful film that is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for our hearts. Seong-chan (Kim Kang-woo) is a heartfelt and cheerful guy that has resigned himself to a mundane life as a produce seller. It isn't until a cooking competition is announced that he get's motivated to clear his name. The tension and conflict between Seong-chan and Bong-ju (Im Won-hee) shows great dynamics, although having him sweep in and take the fruits of Seong-chan's labors becomes frustrating. The movie did a great job in setting up the plot by showing brief flashbacks of the history of the knife, and the cook as well as his grandfather. They might have done some scenes that would have made a more direct connection as i felt some viewers might not have gotten that the young man in the flashback was his grandfather.

The movie had some random subplots such as the charcoal maker that i felt could have been cut out as they didn't really contribute to the main storyline and only made the movie seem a bit long. Also there was a noticable lack of any romance interest between Seong-chan and Jin-soo (Lee Ha-na) - i felt that they could have at least made some small hints at a budding romance between them. Without that, Jin-soo felt more like a passive narrator than a supporting character. I think one way to tie her importance into the film more would have been if at the ending the "true" story she heard about why Seong-chan's grandfather poisened the Royal Cook would have been published or aired.

Nevertheless, these are minor points and the movie did a brilliant job of holding our interest and using colorful visuals and quick camera changes to capture the tension and pressure that competative chef's must face on the ground floor. Now let's go get some Yuk-gae Jang!