When “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier” was selected as the only K-drama in the Special Screening section at Series Mania in Lille earlier this year, it marked an early signal that something unusual was happening with a show that had started life as a calculated creative gamble. By July 31, when the series took best drama series at the Fifth Blue Dragon Series Awards, that signal had become a verdict.
The 12-episode series – produced by Studio Dragon and released as a TVING original on CJ ENM‘s Korean streaming platform – follows Kang Seong-jae, played by Park Ji-hoon, a young man who joins the military to escape a difficult reality. His trajectory shifts when a virtual quest screen appears before him, redirecting him toward life as an army cook. As he completes each mission, buried secrets within the military base begin to surface.
The show’s international performance has been striking across multiple platforms. It reached No. 2 overall on Disney+ Japan, ranked among the top three Korean drama titles on HBO Max across 17 countries and territories – performing especially strongly in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines – and landed in the Rakuten Viki top five across the Americas, Europe, Oceania and MENA. On Sept. 15, chief producer Kim Tae-hoon will take part in a creator talk at K-Brand Week in Poland, extending the show’s reach into a new European market.
