MsLatte’s Daebak Cybercafé (kdrama #8)

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the Kdrama-curious. (MsLatte is a Her Private Life reference.) Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, with a sprinkling of Dramabus (non subscription, maybe dodgy) and AmazonPrime.

The previous thread is here, but our ‘Addicts Recommend’ list below is cumulative so includes recommendations and favourites from all previous threads.

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. supernatural, romance and a thriller; crime series with fantasy elements. 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 moments. 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
Come and Hug Me (Dramafast)
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)
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/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - lighter & fluffier
Goblin (Viki)*
I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
% Orange Marmalade (Netflix)
While You Were Sleeping (Viki)*

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - darker/more grown up themes
Black (Netflix)*
Hotel del Luna (Viki)*
Kingdom (Netflix)*
The Guest (Dramafast)
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)
W (Viki & Netflix)*

Guilty Pleasures (for the joy, not the quality)
Hwarang (Viki/Netflix)
The Last Empress (Viki)
Sassy Go Go (Netflix)

Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable
Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)

Not Korean but just try it

We 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 with links to Korea who pop in from time to time to provide the context for some of the more baffling cultural references. (Although we may 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 cookery, language, film and music when the mood takes us.

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)
🥾🍑 (boot, peach) = kick up the arse to go to bed

We also abbreviate titles if they’re long, but usually only after using the full title & acronym together or an obvious abbreviation. Some favourite actors & actresses have been abbreviated for speed/efficiency, eg Lee Jong-Suk (LJS), Park Min Young (PMY), Ji Chang Wook (Ji Chang Wook) 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…

I've been trying to learn a little Korean. Picked up some hangul from the pdf that 90dayKorean.come give out, then I've installed some aps, Drops is my favourite. And I just found a course on Coursera, basic steps in Korean which I'm going to try. I tried the course Learn to speak Korean 1 first but it was much too advanced and confusing. So basic steps it is!

Now when I'm watching K-drama I'm getting distracted trying to decode hangul...

Loving watching Pinocchio which has a fun amount of k-drama checklist items. Dd, watching it with me, now eats crisps from a back to front hoodie.

We spent most of Oh my venus saying 'she's not even that fat!' And on the recent on Beautiful Gong Shim asking 'Why does she wear that wig?! Her natural hair is perfect!' Its kind of fun though.

I do this too. In She Was Pretty, the FL just had skin trouble but was otherwise very pretty and slim. 🙄

Dd, watching it with me, now eats crisps from a back to front hoodie.

Fab!!

OMG the first episode of Voice is so tense! Strong FL, Jang Hyuk on form as a maverick but no sign of HH KJW yet.

Reading the synopsis of Voice on Viki, Betty, I think HH KJW may be playing against type. Look for the missing information...

I’ve seen clips previously of the character he plays 😱 so I kind of know what to expect, he just hasn’t appeared yet.

My afternoon kdrama plans have been abandoned because DS2 wants to watch old Kate Bush MVs on YouTube, which is just fine by me. 😄

This educating the younglings in 80s music greatness through the medium of MV is a lot of fun. YouTube is throwing up some excellent googlies. The Communards segued into the Flying Pickets’ Only You. This is worse than the kdrama wormhole... 😂

Love Kate Bush she is proper bonkers.

I brought the cable extension out to the garden so have spent all afternoon sitting outside watching kdrama, reading the Rough Guide to Korea and eating mini Magnums.
I am up to ep 3 of Voice it is very dark & tense, so much so that I had to have a break & watch Melo on dramafast. There is a great nightclub scene; Jin Joo’s dancing Is decidedly off the wall 🤣👍😎

DS2 seems to have got into 80s music in a big way through Spotify.

Your afternoon of kdrama and Magnums sounds great. What gems have you gleaned from the Rough Guide?

It says the best time to visit is autumn, and suggests 3 itineraries which all look interesting, and makes it clear that there is a huge amount to see outside Seoul.

justsomebody1 I can recommend Voice !!

I tried an alternative stream for Melo but it had 2 sets of English subs and the dominant (overlaid) one was out of synch. 😡 Hurry up Viki!

It's fine on dramafast, I just had to sit through a couple of commercials

I now have a VPN ad on this thread.

Took a quick break while at the services to check in. Only an hour more to go before I'm home.

Just starting Melo ep 5

Oh no, just realised EN means the % that has been subtitled? I'm not that familiar with VIKI yet. Will revert to coffee prince

I now have a VPN ad on this thread.
My ads are for Bohea Tea on my phone, and baggy linen blouses on my laptop, not sure what that says about me

Pssst. Aesops: dramafast.com/drama/be-melodramatic/episode-5/

Viki is driving me nuts with the go-slow on subs recently. Do you think they are struggling to get enough volunteers?

Yes I think they are struggling for volunteers, there was a message to subscribers on there asking for people to petition that volunteers should get exempted from regional restrictions. There was also a dire shortage of volunteers for Level Up and they had to put a call out.

Such a shame because volunteers do sterling work and keep the subs down, but it is frustrating when they are so slow.

I'm home finally! I was going to catch up on Hotel Del Luna but I'm honestly shattered. I'm going to try but I think I'll fall asleep before the end of the first ten minutes

Lol!! It’s a reward after all that driving 😀

Dramafast keeps crashing on me in ep 6 of Melo around the 35 min. But I’ve had a top up to keep me going until Viki catches up.

Exempting subbers from Viki’s regional restrictions seems like a smart move to spread the load & provide a small reward for effort.

bettys It is! Stuck in a car with two men lecturing me on my driver (neither has a license) and a hot baby! Must have been mad agreeing to do it! Settling in to HDL right now with a wispa gold.

I keep thinking ill become a subber but I think I'd just be a bit slow so it's a bit pointless. Maybe I'll have to look more into it, because my Korean isn't bad, I'm just not very fast and translating.

Gosh hello your Korean must be good to even consider it! Could be fun to do, and also get a sense of achievement from it.