Season 1 |
Episode Guide
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
Episode 14
Episode 15
Episode 16
Who doesn’t love Moon Ga-young playing a cute, innocent character? The actress recently shot to fame with the K-drama ‘True Beauty’ and has finally made a comeback with a new show. ‘Link: Eat Love Kill’ (also known as Link: Eat, Love, Die) is a 16-episode K-drama starring Moon Ga-young and Yeo Jin-goo in the lead roles.
The story really begins when Eun Gye-hoon (played by Jin-goo) starts feeling a link between himself and Noh Da-hyun (played by Ga-young) which takes him back to the last time he felt this same connection. Back when Gye-hoon was a child, he lost his sister after she was abducted.
Since his feelings were linked to hers, he realized what she was going through during that time and comes to terms with the fact that she is dead. Since her remains were never found, Gye-hoon’s father sets out to look for the lost child, while his mother often blames him for not looking after Gye-young (his twin).
Years go by and Gye-hoon has come to terms with his loss but all of a sudden, finds that he is linked to another person – Noh Da-hyun – and wonders why. Gye-hoon loses his job as a chef and sets off to open his own restaurant in his hometown; the place where he grew up and where his sister was abducted.
Just across his site is another local restaurant owned by Da-hyun and her ‘suspicious’ family. She is raised by her single mother and grandmother. While in University, Da-hyun is a part-timer who is stalked by a boy – Jin-geun. The stalking gets so obsessive that one day, Jin-geun follows her around to her restaurant to attack Da-hyun for turning him down.
Trying to defend herself from the attack, Da-hyun ends up killing Jin-geun, while her mother and grandmother help clean up the mess. They use an empty refrigerator to dispose of the body, but are shocked to learn that it belongs to Gye-hoon who has placed it inside his restaurant. Over the course of the show, Gye-hoon starts realizing that there must be a reason why he keeps feeling Da-hyun’s emotions, finally understanding why he was linked to her after all.
The show is a normal-paced K-drama that does not have much spectacle about it other than the story. The narrative is largely about how the two characters are linked and over the course of the 16 episodes, we learn just that. The plot is interesting and tries to share a social message by following the lives of the people living in that town.
Despite all this, I am still not sure why the kidnapper did what he did and that sense of resolution seems incomplete. The reality of women being stalked by men and the law not doing enough to protect them, certainly hurts.
How Jin-geun was able to ruin a life and was on his way to ruin another proves why there need to be stricter laws around stalking. Seeing Gye-hoon cook for Da-hyun every time she had a nightmare was soothing, and extremely romantic watching them fall in love over the food that they made and ate together.
Yeo Jin-goo is a treat to watch and seeing him in the final few episodes of ‘Link: Eat Love Kill’ made me respect him as an actor even more. The sheer passion with how he shared his heartbreak towards the man who had a chance of saving his sister but did not want to help, shows how talented Jin-goo is.
However, it seems like Ga-young is still holding on to Ju-kyung from ‘True Beauty’ when I hoped to see a Soo-ji from ‘The Tempted’ in this show about ‘murder’. The chemistry between the main couple is palpable but the side couple of Won-take and Mi-joo takes the cake with ‘Link’.
The way in which the two continue to protect each other had me swooning. Among all the songs on the OST, the single, ‘Saying Hello’ is one of my favorites. The track runs through the background during the scenes where Gye-hoon and Da-hyun have just started falling in love. ‘Pit a Pat’ by Seungkwan of Seventeen is an endearing love track that hits all the romantic bones and makes one want to fall in love.
The beauty of MeloMance’s voice is unmatched and the main theme song from the OST of the show, titled ‘Link’ sung by the band, just takes fans back to the romantic scenes from the series. Janet Suh’s ‘Unknown World’ is morbid enough to send shivers down one’s spine and will likely send fans back to the chase scenes in the show or anytime Da-hyun was in danger.
‘Link: Eat Love Kill is a refreshing K-drama that hits all the right notes. It is not atypical, but a show with an interesting concept about two people feeling the same emotions. However, it is the emotions of distress portrayed by characters that steal the show. With the complex K-dramas that exist in the present time, ‘Link: Eat Love Kill’ is a sweet, feel-good series tackling some complicated issues.
Season Rating: 8/10
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Verdict - 8/10
8/10