Best Chicken

Best Chicken (Korean: 최고의 치킨; RR: Choegoui Chikin) is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Park Sun-ho, Kim So-hye and Joo Woo-jae. It aired on MBN and Dramax from January 2 to February 7, 2019, every Wednesday and Thursday at 23:00 (KST).^[1]

Best Chicken
Promotional poster
Hangul	최고의 치킨
Genre	Romantic comedy[1]
Written by	Jo Ah-young Park Chan-young
Directed by	Lee Seung-hoon
Starring	Park Sun-ho Kim So-hye Joo Woo-jae
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language	Korean
No. of episodes	12
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Production companies	iHQ May Queen Pictures
Original release
Network	MBN Dramax
Release	January 2 (2019-01-02) – February 7, 2019 (2019-02-07)

Plot

Park Choi-go quits from his office table job to open a chicken restaurant in a middle-income neighborhood of Seoul. Renting a plot of land where a sauna stands from the landlord, Seo Myung-dong, he has to face Myung-dong's temperamental granddaughter and the sauna's owner, Bo-ah. For the past five years, Bo-ah, a failing webtoon artist, has been holing up in the sauna after a conflict with a popular webtoon artist over ownership rights led to her being shunned from the community. Myung-dong asks Choi-go to admit Bo-ah as a part-timer in his restaurant in exchange for a lower rent fee, hoping that she can regain her spirit.

Bo-ah is hostile at Choi-go for disturbing her peace and regards him as simply a rich bourgeoisie who wanted to experience the life of a commoner. Helped by her childhood friends: Hwang Min-ah, Oh Yeong-ho, and Kim Kyu-man, they try to sabotage the joint through various means, such as handing out scathing flyers, which backfires when it turns viral and therefore garners attention. However, Choi-go's seriousness at his job and unfailing kindness to Bo-ah cause her to begin questioning her first impression. Since Choi-go never studied cooking, the restaurant operates at a loss until he hires Andrew Kang, a bum with a tremor who used to work at a three-star Michelin restaurant.

Around the time when Bo-ah softens and falls in love with Choi-go, two adversaries come into the scene. The first is Choi-go's ex-girlfriend, Moon So-dam, who works at a food TV program and wants to reconnect with Choi-go by doing a free publicity of the joint. During the broadcast, Min-ah, Yeong-ho, and Kyu-man successfully do a sabotage, causing its suspension for two months. So-dam becomes suspicious of Bo-ah, who did not participate in the plan, tries to warn Choi-go, who refuses to believe her, and attempts to catch the trio off-guard when they try another sabotage. However, Andrew bails them at the last minute and makes them promise not to do it again. The second adversary is Choi-go's domineering mother, So Oh-sook, who is angry at him for quitting his previous job and attempts to reduce his chance of winning big by opening a chicken joint down the street after tricking Bo-ah into giving her his recipe.

Feeling guilty, Bo-ah admits her previous actions to Choi-go and considers resigning. While upset, Choi-go comes to realize that he has grown to love her and confesses, begging her to stay. Min-ah, Yeong-ho, and Kyu-man are initially livid at Bo-ah for not telling them to stop harassing Choi-go sooner, but quickly make amends when a tragedy strikes her: the death of Myung-dong. During the funeral, Bo-ah's deadbeat father, Gong-cheol suddenly appears to take his legal inheritance, despite the fact that his father had left all his possessions to Bo-ah, and redevelop the neighborhood, which would raze the chicken joint to the ground. Assisted by her friends, Bo-ah manages to convince the neighborhood not to sell their land.

Several months later, Choi-go's chicken joint is growing popular. Oh-sook chooses to stop bothering Choi-go and sell her joint. So-dam has moved on and is dating Choi-go's brother, Joon-hyuk, with whom she grew closer while investigating Bo-ah and her friends. Thinking that he has nothing more to offer to Choi-go, Andrew resigns and opens a restaurant nearby. Bo-ah, meanwhile, finally decides to draw webtoon again, having made a promise to Myung-dong to live her life to the fullest.

Cast

Main

• Park Sun-ho as Park Choi-go (28 years old)

An employee of a large corporation who quits his job to open his own chicken restaurant, which he considers a dream project.^[2] He is a very optimistic and idealistic man, sometimes outrageously so.

• Kim So-hye as Seo Bo-ah (25 years old)

The owner of a public bathhouse that her grandfather rented out without her consent who dreams of becoming a webtoon artist.^[1] She has a negative view of the world after her work was rejected five years ago because of a feud with another webtoon artist, regarding everyone new to her as a nuisance.

• Joo Woo-jae as Andrew Kang (33 years old)

A once promising chef who is currently homeless.^[3] A serious person at all times, Andrew has a bad case of tremor which discourages him from doing physical work for a long time. A running gag in the series is characters mispronouncing his Western name, such as Edward or Alexander.

Supporting

• Lee Seung-hyub as Park Joon-hyuk

Choi-go's older brother who is an Oriental Medicine doctor. He excels in academic studies, but is bad at table waiting, as the chicken joint find out when he substitutes for Bo-ah while she is on vacation.

• Son Min-ji as Hwang Min-ah

Bo-ah's friend who is smart and does all the planning.^[1] She works as a secretary at the neighborhood's real estate firm.

• Jeon Seong-hwan as Oh Yeong-ho

Bo-ah's friend who likes to fool around.^[1] He runs the neighborhood grocery store.

• Yoo Moon-chi as Kim Kyu-man

Bo-ah's friend who runs the neighborhood butcher shop.^[1] He has an identical younger cousin who is still a high school student.

• Myung Kye-nam as Seo Myung-dong

Bo-ah's paternal grandfather and the landlord of the neighborhood. Though appearing grumpy, he is very caring to Bo-ah, having raised her by himself since young after her mother died and her father left.

• Hong Soon-chang as the real estate manager and Min-ah's grandfather.
• Ahn Young-chae as Kwon-hyuk

A legendarily fast delivery man from the neighborhood who speaks very little. Near the end of the series, he is hired by Choi-go to become the chicken joint's delivery man.

• Na In-woo as Lee Jin-sang

A popular webtoon artist whose feud with Bo-ah over ownership rights led to her being excluded from the community.

• Sora Jung as So Oh-sook

Choi-go's and Joon-hyuk's overbearing mother and a retired restaurant manager. When her husband was unable to find a job, she became the family's sole breadwinner, which the brothers speak of positively, but it also caused her to develop a view that only she knows what is best for them.

• Ah Young as Moon So-dam

Choi-go's ex-girlfriend who works at a TV station specializing in food programs.

• Hongseok as Bae Ki-bum

A part-timer at Choi-go's restaurant.^[4] He is hired by the chicken joint as additional manpower when So-dam's TV crew is about to shoot.

• Choi Sung-kook as Seo Gong-cheol

Bo-ah's father. He abandoned the family when she was young and only reappears in her life after Myung-dong's death.

Production

Filming began in September 2018.^[2]

Original soundtrack

Best Chicken OST
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Recorded	2018
Genre	Soundtrack
Language	Korean English
Label	Warner Music, Forest Media

Part 1

Released on January 2, 2019 (2019-01-02)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Artist	Length
1.	"Sweet Stranger"	Kim Yoo-kyung	Oh Joon-sung	Kim Eun-bi (EB)	3:28
2.	"Sweet Stranger" (Inst.)		Oh Joon-sung		3:28
Total length:					6:56

Part 2

Released on January 9, 2019 (2019-01-09)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Artist	Length
1.	"Dr. Dream"	Kim Jin-ah	Oh Joon-sung	Sohee (Elris)	4:04
2.	"Dr. Dream" (Inst.)		Oh Joon-sung		4:04
Total length:					8:08

Part 3

Released on January 10, 2019 (2019-01-10)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Artist	Length
1.	"Chicken Song" (치킨송)	Oh Joon-sung	Oh Joon-sung	Chick Choir	2:35
2.	"Chicken Song" (Inst.)		Oh Joon-sung		2:35
Total length:					5:10

Part 4

Released on January 16, 2019 (2019-01-16)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Artist	Length
1.	"Heaven"	Kim Yoo-kyung	Oh Joon-sung	Seven O'Clock	3:58
2.	"Heaven" (Inst.)		Oh Joon-sung		3:58
Total length:					7:56

Part 5

Released on January 17, 2019 (2019-01-17)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Artist	Length
1.	"Lucky"	Oh Joon-sung, Eun Jong-tae	Oh Joon-sung	J. Mee	4:07
2.	"Lucky" (Inst.)		Oh Joon-sung		4:07
Total length:					8:14

Ratings

Average TV viewership ratings (nationwide)

Ep.	Original broadcast date	Nielsen Korea[5]
1	January 2, 2019	1.267%
2	January 3, 2019	0.927%
3	January 9, 2019	1.207%
4	January 10, 2019	0.939%
5	January 16, 2019	0.995%
6	January 17, 2019	0.941%
7	January 23, 2019	1.270%
8	January 24, 2019	0.781%
9	January 30, 2019	1.249%
10	January 31, 2019	0.714%
11	February 6, 2019	1.000%
12	February 7, 2019	0.710%
Average		1.000%
In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings. This series aired on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).

References

1. ""The Best Fried Chicken" Tells of Chicken and Revenge". HanCinema. Newsen. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
2. "박선호X김소혜, 한일합작 드라마 '최고의 치킨' 캐스팅 확정(공식)". Newsen (in Korean). Newsen. Archived from the original on October 4, 2019. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
3. 드라맥스 '최고의 치킨' 측 "박선호·김소혜 출연..내년 1월2일 첫 방송". Naver (in Korean). MK Sports. Archived from the original on August 18, 2023. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
4. '최고의 치킨' 펜타곤 홍석, 지옥에서 온 치킨집 알바생 '기대'. Naver (in Korean). Tenasia. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
5. "AGB Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu". Nielsen Korea (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2018-05-03.

External links

• Official website (Dramax) (in Korean)
• Official website (MBN) (in Korean)
• Best Chicken at HanCinema
• Best Chicken at IMDb