The Recipe (film)

The Recipe
Film poster
Directed by	Anna Lee
Produced by	Kim Jin-young
Written by	Anna Lee Jang Jin
Starring	Ryu Seung-ryong Lee Yo-won Lee Dong-wook
Music by	Han Jae-gwon
Cinematography	Na Hui-seok
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum Kim Jae-bum
Production company	Film It Suda
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date	October 21, 2010 (2010-10-21)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Box office	US$293,898

The Recipe (Hangul: 된장; RR: Doenjang; literally "Soybean paste") is a 2010 South Korean film about a television producer who finds out many surprising truths while tracking down the story about a mysterious bean paste stew. Behind the captivating taste lies a woman’s unfortunate life and love story.

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?

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.