All of us have wishes, whether it’s for riches, success in career, everlasting love, fame, revenge or continuous good health for family and yourself. So what if you could step into a restaurant, offered to be served one very delicious meal and be granted a wish guaranteed to come true BUT the price for that wish is very heavy. It could be taking away your sight, two fingers or your voice. This is the premise of ongoing Korean drama, “The Witch’s Diner” which only opens from sunset to sunrise and it serves one customer at a time.
Every episode has a food theme/title which tells the viewer what food is going to be served to the guest (or should I say victim). Episode 1 is “Bloody Steak of Revenge”, episode 2 “Mind Comforting Tomato Soup”, episode 3 “Chicken Soup for the Youth” and episode 4 “Chocolate that lets you Fall in Love”. All the food served looks sublime and once the guests take the first bite, they gobble down everything and declare it’s the most delicious food they have ever tasted.
The first episode opened with a man who has lost everything in life and his one wish is to win the lottery. He’s in The Witch’s Diner and the owner of the restaurant is preparing a scrumptious dessert. If he wants his wish to be granted, he has to eat the food prepared and pay the price but what a price to pay. The Witch wants his eyes. At home, the man is watching the lottery results and sees that he has won. He gets into his car and suddenly his vision becomes blurred. He has paid the price for his wish.
I was curious about this drama as it’s dark fantasy so I watched all four available episodes last night and it’s wonderful in every way. Jung Jin has a run of bad luck as she is fired from her job, her boyfriend ditches her, her mother buys over a restaurant from a friend but got scammed & their restaurant is losing money. Along comes the beautiful and mysterious witch, Cho Hee Ra who offers to take over Jung Jin’s failed restaurant in exchange for a wish.
Jung Jin agrees as all she wants is to exact revenge on the woman who scammed her mother of her life’s savings. Jung Jin eats the mouth-watering steak prepared by Miss Witch and thinks of how she wants the scammer to suffer. That same night, the scammer dies, ostensibly of a heart attack but the dark/occult arts were responsible for her demise.
The second guest at the restaurant is a high school student, Lee Gil Yong whose wish is for someone to be happy. He’s a good kid who takes part-time jobs at night and after eating the Mind Comforting Tomato Soup, he becomes the latest recruit in The Witch’s Diner. At school, Gil Yong and his classmate are constantly bullied by 3 other classmates. Gil Yong is a good kid and gets along well with Jung Jin despite their at least one decade age difference.
Then comes Bae Yoon Ki, the third guest who has a sick mother who needs surgery. He has sent in many resumes to companies and always failed to get the job. He’s turned out of his rented room and in desperation, he takes a knife to The Witch’s Diner to rob them. He holds Jung Jin at knife point but faints when he hears the mandrake plant speak. He begs The Witch for mercy and she grants him a wish. All he wants is to land a good job. He devours the Chicken Soup but the price he has to pay is very heavy for his kind of reasonable and not greedy wish. The Witch wants two of his fingers. As he walks away from the restaurant, he encounters a woman being abused by a man and he gets into an altercation with the man. The man cuts off two of Yoon Ki’s fingers and just like that, he has paid the price for his wish.
The fourth guest, Jin Sun Mi is a stage performer who has a beautiful singing voice. Her boyfriend of seven years breaks up with her abruptly but she thinks he was going to propose. In despair, she goes to The Witch’s Diner and asks for her love to come back. The Witch prepares the Chocolate that lets you Fall in Love and in return, she wants Sun Mi’s voice.
Sometimes wishes can really backfire and in Sun Mi’s case, her love does return but she realises that he is a loser. She’s beginning to lose her voice for a man who is not worth the price of her career. The moral of the story here is “Be careful what you wish for”. This drama is definitely worth watching as it makes the viewer think of whether any wish is worth the price exacted. I wouldn’t want to lose my sight, fingers or voice for any wish.
