KDrama Addicts Anonymous (#7)

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the Kdrama-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, but there other sources, including Dramabus (non subscription, possibly dodgy) and AmazonPrime.

The previous thread is linked below, but our ‘Addicts Recommend’ list is cumulative so includes recommendations and favourites from all of the previous threads:

Thread 6

Shows marked with asterisk(s) are more uniformly loved or admired. In categorising series, its important to note most Korean dramas have multiple strands - e.g. romance and thriller; supernatural, romance and a thriller, crime series with blossoming relationship aspects. Genre-busting mash-ups are normal. Series that are tagged as dark may also have moments of comedy or the absurd, likewise fluff can have heavier elements. View the categories below as best approximate & ask if you need guidance, eg about suitability for younger teens.

Comedy (with a side order of absurd)
I picked up a celebrity on the street (Viki)
My Fellow Citizens (Viki)

Crime/Thriller
Healer (Netflix)*
Heartless City (Viki)
He is Psychometric (Viki)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki)
Life on Mars (classy remake of BBC series, Dramafast)
Live (Netflix)
Pride & Prejudice (Netflix)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)*

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
Crowned Clown (Viki)
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)

Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)*
Happy Once Again (Netflix)
Her Private Life (Viki)*
His Master’s Sun (Netflix)
Love from a Star (Netflix)*
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Radio Romance (Netflix)
Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)**
She Was Pretty (Dramabus/Netflix)*
The Beauty Inside (Viki/Netflix)
Thirty Not Seventeen (Viki)
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Netflix/Viki)
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)**
You are my Destiny (Netflix)

Romance - heavier weight/more grown up themes
Because This Is My First Life (Viki)*
Chicago Typewriter (Viki)*
Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Fight For My Way (Viki/Drama bus)*
Just Between Lovers (Viki)**
My Strange Hero (Viki)
One Spring Night (Netflix)
Red Carpet - film (Netflix, very adult content)
Search: WWW (Viki)*
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
The Package (Viki)

Supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi - fluffier
Goblin (Viki)*
I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
While You Were Sleeping (Viki)*

Supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi - darker
Black (Netflix)*
The Guest (Dramafast)
W (Viki & Netflix)*

Zombies
Kingdom (Netflix)*
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)

Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable
Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
The Last Empress (Viki)

Not Korean but just try it
Regulars occasionally branch out into Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese drama. The Chinese & Taiwanese stuff is much more variable quality-wise, so we’ve noted anything decent here:

Love O2O (Viki - Chinese)
Morning Call (Netflix - Japanese)

We have some lovely occasional posters who have lived in Korea, are Korean or have Korean partners/family members who pop in from time to time to provide the context for some of the more baffling cultural references. (Although its possible we have scared them all away since our early threads with the fangirling. If you’re still reading, please say hi.)

We are generally fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean food/cookery, film and kpop when the mood takes us. To get to grips with the lingo, try dramaloveaddicts.proboards.com/thread/24/korean-word-day?page=1

We have a few frequently used acronyms:
FL/2FL = female lead/2nd female lead
ML/2ML = male lead/2nd male lead
SLS = Second Lead Syndrome (where the FL/MLis too dense to realise how much better the 2ML/2FL is)

We also abbreviate titles if they’re long, but usually only after using the full title & acronym together or an obvious shortening. Some of the regular favourite actors & actresses have been abbreviated too for speed/efficiency, eg Lee Jong-Suk (LJS), Park Min Young (PMY), Ji Chang Wook (JCW) and his hotness Kim Jae Wook (HH KJW). Don’t be afraid to ask for help/clues if we’re not making sense or have descended into acronym soup.

If you want to join us down the kdrama rabbit hole, welcome! Pull up a chair, say goodbye to early nights and get stuck in…

Back to cdrama now with I Hear You and again there’s been a menstruation-related situation where the FL was in agony with period pain and ML took her home from work. If the kdrama bingo sheet has white trucks of doom, the cdrama one needs ‘period/sanitary towel scene’. Are tampons not ‘a thing’ in China? Its always pads.

I'll give Hotel del Luna it's dues, the CGI is amazing. I'm just really hoping that it won't be a case of 'true love sets her free' because jeez that's icky.

I don't care if they have a love line that's an added extra or if he helps he work through her guilt and that's what helps her move on but if it ends up that she can't move on until she realises she loves him, I'm out.

On cdrama/menstruation, I saw a something in the drama Go Go Squid. One of the MLs has a daughter whose mother is absent. They meet up with her mom and the young girl (11/12) complains how she has period pains and her mom was never there to help. It was quite nice to see.

There was a similar moment in the Taiwanese drama Between, a workaholic mom argues with young teen daughter and daughter brings up how mom was never there to help deal with periods or teach her how to use pads. It's refreshing to see it quite openly discussed.

I do wonder if it is slightly taboo and whether its dramatic shorthand for growing intimacy. Or maybe its just talked about a lot more in Chinese society.

Cdrama has medically necessary piggybacks. ✅

What never fails to amaze me is how bogging many of the designer clothes are when ML and FL do the whole shopping/dressy up scenarios. In this cdrama they just bought outfits in the designer boutiques that look straight out of Primark, but probably cost 500 times as much. ML in this makes for a lovely clothes horse, mind. 😆

I can't keep up with you lot, I can only manage to watch one Kdrama at a time and then I need a break

Finished Abyss and pretty much loved it! We're having a break to watch some non-Kdrama series (I'm a heathen, I know ) then we'll jump into another. Gonna have a look at your immense OP for recommendations!

I haven't heard the phrase 'he make a lovely clothes horse' in a while. It reminds me of home. Is he a lovely clothes horse with pony legs though? 😂

Wok of Love finished!.
. It seemed to find its quick feet towards the end!... The food looked scrumptious and just made me absolutely crave sweet and sour.. So will make it at the weekend! Hmmm! Junho is equally scrumptious! FL found hard to like (her character was lovely!.. Just actress hard to like v... Too many wide eyed faces!)... Her mother was awful (character wise!)... Still enjoyed though! Could easily have been 5 eps shorter... Felt like it really didn't know how to get to the end v

Hotel Del Luna looks promising though fell asleep during ep 1... Late nights catching up on me!

Watcher... Still to catch up on!

Need to find something really binge worthy! 😂

I read that Wok of Love was actually cut short of a couple of episodes due to ratings. Agree with you on FL, she was one reason I dropped it.

Noting that ML in I Hear You has excellent English, assuming it is him. It isquite obviously dubbed and overlaid, as the lipsychhing slips now & then.

While I am enjoying Love O2O , I’m wondering if the innocent way love is portrayed is due to the age it’s aimed at, or is just the way it is done in cdrama. It feels very similar to Meteor Garden, admittedly both were campus dramas. Is it like that in I Hear You? Thankfully the kissing has got less one sided though FL still seems surprised every time 🤔

I think it's pretty similar in all cdramas. Thinking on it the only time I've seen more 'passionate' relationships have been in dramas which ultimately got banned/cut short by the government for containing gay couples. Even in those, the passion they cited was sexual assault. It aimed to further demonise gay relationships within the country.

Obviously these can be compared to Taiwanese dramas where they're able to show more passionate relationships between straight couples as the government is a little less harsh on censorship.

I’m up to ep 19 of 24 in I Hear You and its so, so chaste they’re barely beyond making eye contact less shyly and handholding. The ML and FL are in a reality dating/couples show, but as a favour to their respective TV producer friends, so a fake couple. There have been a few fake romantic moments for the show, but no real kisses yet despite her having moved in with him many episodes ago. 😴 The ML is seeing an opportunity to push things on a bit by ‘practicing’ so they’re more convincing on set, but its no saucy kdrama. Actually, seeing this all written down I’m wondering why I’m crunching through it rather than catching up on Watcher, Angel and Absolute Boyfriend. 🤯

Also, someone needs to have a word with the writers about the wisdom of introducing a (very cute, wee) kitten to the story, as weeks are passing and the kitten is not growing. Plus they must have done so, so many takes because it is pretty flighty and legs it at every available opportunity.

Are you sure you’re not watching for the kitten?? 🐱

I did wonder about the kitten factor, but its not that cute. Its like BWGM, a mystifying conundrum, although the ML and FL are rather gentle and courtly in this. There’s been no shitbag underhandedness, wall-pinning or sexual assault on the poor, startled FL by the ML in this one so far. It’s quite refreshing for a cdrama from that point of view. Still some questionable workplace stuff (the coffee shop where all the young, exclusively female staff wear French maids outfits 🙄) but rather more in line with what we’d expect.

2ML stepped up to take on wrist-grabbing/possessive nob duties. 🤦‍♀️

Alert! Rookie Historian on netflix!!

Hey! I'm getting ads on viki! How come?... Anyone else???

That was very odd.. I cancelled my subscription then relogged on... All sorted...

It did that with me! I had to log on again then it was fine

Alert! Rookie Historian on netflix!!

Bea - You beat me to it.

FL’s mum in IHY making pigs brain soup in this episode. 🤮

Finished Love 020 - very sweet and so nice to have a couple that don’t waver oe suffer from noble idiocy/ misunderstandings.

Losing patience with WWW - did a quick sweep sans subs and really not interested in ML/FL anymore, just both 2nd couples

Had instant tteokbokki for dinner - like chewing spicy lumps of wallpaper paste. Possibly not the best way to try it for the first time 🤣🤣

We have some instant tteobokki (no sauce) in the fridge. The last lot of bought sauce was heavy on the gochugan and a bit ‘shock and awe.’ We are building up to round 2, though the ML in Korean Odyssey requests mild tteobokki in a tteobokki restaurant because he doesn’t like spicy food and they are served with a creamy sauce. I haven’t been able to find a recipe online yet, so I may just try them with my usual chicken, mushroom and white wine sauce (for pasta). As DH said, they’re pretty much Korean gnocchi.