Chicken Nugget, a Netflix original Korean comedy-drama, is all about a woman turning into a chicken nugget after entering a weird machine. The protagonist of the story, Baek-Joong, is in love with Min-Ah, his boss’s daughter, but tragedy strikes when Min-Ah enters a weird purple machine and turns into a chicken nugget. Chicken Nugget is a satire on our society, where it’s hard to find a single generous human who’d actually care about others, but Baek-Joong proves that love matters for him the most, and that’s why, above everything else, he decides to bring Min-Ah back to her human form in any way, even if this means risking his own career. Let’s recap this ten-part series, Chicken Nugget, to know how Baek-Joong would bring Min-Ah back to life.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Series?
Chicken Nugget opened with Baek-Joong, a simple guy with dreams of becoming a world-famous singer, dancing and singing on his way to his workplace. He worked for a company called “More than Machines” as an intern and was in love with Choi Sun-man’s daughter, Min-Ah. Even though Min-Ah liked Baek-Joong for the way he was, he tried to work hard on himself to look like a stud. As Min-Ah arrived in the office with a box full of chicken nuggets in her hands, Baek-Joong picked one and started eating. While having a conversation with Baek-Joong, Min-Ah’s curiosity drove her to discover a purple machine in their factory. It was a machine that Baek-Joong had found in front of the factory, so he’d brought it inside without even knowing what it was.
As Min-Ah went inside it, a switch appeared out of nowhere, and after pressing it, Min-Ah suddenly turned into a chicken nugget. Sun-man also arrived at the place and found a flabbergasted Baek-Joong looking at the chicken nugget, which was nothing but his daughter, Min-Ah. Baek-Joong initially struggled to make Sun-man believe that the nugget was his daughter, but the latter eventually believed him because he felt her presence inside it. The two of them managed to separate that one special chicken nugget with three sesame seeds from the others and kept it inside a box to preserve it. Meanwhile, as the two of them started to dig deeper into this weird machine’s history, they found that it was invented by an award-winning mad scientist named Professor Yoo, who had also gone missing, with the police having no clue where he had gone. In the meantime, Yoo’s evil nephew, Tae-man, became a great threat to both Sun-man and Baek-Joong’s lives because he was after that machine. He wanted to look like his younger brother, who was stunning and handsome, unlike him, so he stole the machine as well as the chicken nugget preserved in the box from the factory of “More than Machines.”
What Happened To Professor Yoo?
After Tae-man was all set to get transformed into a young stud of a man with the help of this machine, his uncle, the mad scientist, came back to his human form and emerged from the machine. He’d turned into a caterpillar a few years ago, and he was finally back to his original form, which shocked Tae-man. However, in the meantime, Sun-man and Baek-Joong had managed to find Tae-man’s hideout and confronted him about the machine, but they found Yoo there as well. Yoo explained that he had turned into a caterpillar because it was the last thing he looked at before entering the machine, suggesting that if someone enters this machine, they will turn into the thing that they last saw. This explained everything, but things went terribly wrong when Tae-man and his uncle, driven by their personal agendas, locked Sun-man and Baek-Joong in his shed because they simply wanted to use this machine, totally overlooking the fact that a young woman’s life was in danger. While Tae-man wanted to look young like his brother, the professor wanted to use the machine to change the world.
Did The Aliens Return To Their Home Planet?
The chicken nugget shop from which Min-Ah bought those delicious nuggets played a significant role in this story. It was revealed that the restaurant had a similar-looking machine in their possession, and they had been using this machine for years. Shockingly, the humans who ran this restaurant weren’t actually humans, but aliens from a different planet who had turned themselves into human beings with the help of this machine. However, the owner of the restaurant, whose name was also Baek-jung, had accidentally killed a man, and now the guilt had been eating him from within. However, after Sun-man and Baek-Joong were finally freed from captivity and resumed their search for Min-Ah, they stumbled upon the aliens who wanted to leave this planet. These aliens had been living on earth for 200 years, and after tasting the delicious chicken nuggets, they’d opened a restaurant in this area. In their home planet, one day is equivalent to fifty earth years, so to them they’d lived on this planet for only four days. But now they wanted to return to earth, as humans were foulmouthed, self-centered beings. Baek-jung claimed these machines to be theirs, and Professor Yoo agreed because he didn’t invent these machines, which could only be owned by the aliens from the other planet. Baek-jung told them that only he could fix these machines, and turn everything back to its natural form. After a dramatically funny fight among them, in which Baek-Joong and Sun-man actually helped these aliens thwart Yoo and his nephew’s attack, the aliens finally got their hands on these machines.
However, as the machines had stopped working, there was no way Min-Ah could be reverted to her own shape, so the alien leader, Baek-jung, told Sun-man that if he could take the chicken nugget form of Min-Ah back to their home planet, she could have a chance to live and turn back into her original form. Sun-man, initially hesitant, agreed to Baek-jung’s proposal because he didn’t have any idea how he could get back his daughter, so it would be better if his daughter would live for more years on a different planet. Baek-jung assured him that they would soon return to earth 50 years later with Min-Ah, and Sun-man would be able to get his daughter back. As Sun-man and Baek-Joong agreed to it, the aliens returned to their home planet along with Min-Ah in her chicken nugget form.
Did Baek-Joong Find Min-Ah?
Fifty years had passed, and everything had changed drastically. Baek-Joong had become a globally famous singer, called “Yellow Pants” because he was always seen in yellow-colored pants. Choi Sun-man had abandoned his company, “More Than Machines,” and disappeared into the wilderness, focusing on his spirituality and health. Meanwhile, the machine company was now owned by Tae-man, who hadn’t aged a bit in fifty years, so he started working in the company to advance a technology that would stop the aging process and make people look younger. The company was a huge success, as was Baek-Joong’s career, but he still recalled his unrequited love, Min-Ah. One day during a concert, he was shocked to find Min-Ah amongst the crowd and followed her to know who she was. He was heartbroken to find out that it wasn’t Min-Ah, but the granddaughter of one of his fans from his early years, when he used to post jingles on YouTube.
However, the good news is that Baek-jung was once again back on earth, as he knew how to keep his promise, but sadly, Min-Ah didn’t turn into a human. She was still a chicken nugget, so Baek-jung had come up with a solution. He gave Baek-Joong a button to press so that he could go back in time to that exact day when Min-Ah turned into a chicken nugget, but that would cost him and everyone in the world their memories of the last fifty years. Baek-Joong was okay with that, even though it meant that he would have to forget his successful career as a singer and leave everything behind.
How Did Min-Ah Come Back To Her Original Form?
At the end of Chicken Nugget season 1, we saw Baek-Joong agreeing to Baek-jung’s proposal, and he finally went back in time to that exact day when Min-Ah turned into a chicken nugget. However, all of them had lost their memories, and we saw Min-Ah entering the factory with the chicken nugget box in her hand. Baek-Joong was in love with her, just like he had always been, but this time, it was uncertain if he would be able to stop Min-Ah from going inside the machine or if the same series of incidents would be continued once again. The series didn’t clarify if the same loop would be repeated or if it would be a good start for Baek-Joong and Min-Ah’s love story, which hadn’t been fulfilled previously. Chicken Nugget might be a bizarre and funny show that doesn’t make any sense till its ninth episode, but in the final episode of this series, it gives a beautiful social commentary on human connections and selflessness when it comes to love. Baek-Joong stands out as a genuine lover who chose to abandon his own career just to get his loved one back and to make sure that she lives as a human being.
