The Recipe (film)

Plot

Jang Hye-jin (Lee Yo-won) is an ordinary woman whose doenjang jjigae (soybean paste soup) is to die for. Yet Jang is not famous for her recipe and lives a quiet life.

When a notorious murderer on death row requests Jang’s soup as his last meal, television producer Choi Yoo-jin (Ryu Seung-ryong) starts looking for Jang and the recipe. But Choi is not the only one looking for Jang.

Kim Hyun-soo (Lee Dong-wook), Jang’s old flame, decides to return to his hometown to look for his first love. At the same time, three people die after eating Jang’s soup. What is the secret behind the soup and how many more people will have to die for it?

Production

Twelve years after her last film Rub Love, director Anna Lee wonderfully mixes two different genres - the thriller and the love story. The English title "The Recipe" contains a lot of meaning: a record of a person’s life, a memory of taste, an experience of loss and a chronicle of hurts. In this sense, the film is a recipe for everything. With his original touch, Lee illustrates the obsession with unforgettable memories of love and a fatalistic point of view. The soybean soup recipe contains pain, longing and salvation. In a sense, the recipe is the very history of Korea’s memory and tradition.

Cast