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…

Child in a sweetie shop I am!

Currently watching,
Let's eat
Hotel Luna
Melo

Today I started viewing Let's eat at 5 and just on last episode now.

Is it weird that I now want to;

Eat noodles with chopsticks and slurp LOUDLY
Drink Soju
Wear lots of makeup ??

I know that feeling Aesops! You just need to add some grilled meat and you'd be set

Yes to slurpy noodles, soju (plum is my fave) and bbq.

We also went through a phase of flagging up the best soju bomb scenes on earlier threads. There was a really good domino-run style one in Hospital Ship which must have taken an aaaaaage to set up. I really hope for the props team they got it on the first take. There’s also a fun one in Don’t Dare to Dream where the soju shots are balanced on chopsticks and everyone drums on the table until the shot glasses fall into the beer.

MMmmm plum soju

Aesop I know what you mean! I want to wrap grilled pork belly in lettuce leaves and eat peeled cutted up fruit for pud. I take issue with the slurping though as I have misophonia and will probably have to take bumper packs of earplugs if I ever go to Korea.

When I first watched Let's Eat I was a bit baffled by the ML but I really liked him by the end (and also in Splash Splash Love and Radio Romance ) There are two more series, did you know? I think he finished the last one just before he went off to the military.

I watched the ML in Radio Romance and thought he was v strange on the eye in that-not so in this?

May have mentioned that I visit Hong Kong on business and have a lot of Asian colleagues (all wonderful) that I avoid sitting next to at breakfast in hotels due to their noisy slurps - not so now me thinks!

I watched the ML in Radio Romance and thought he was v strange on the eye in that-not so in this?

Yes, he had an odd hair colour & cut in that

If you're going to Hong Kong any time soon Aesops please be safe! We've just had family leave their home over there and come back for a while as its safer for their children.

The slurping took me ages to get used too, but now I feel funny if DP doesn't slurp when I make noodles. Almost like he's telling me I did a bad job on them. It's strange how you notice these things creep into your life.

Hello's question of the day: have little things in dramas slipped into your daily life? do you find yourself saying aigoo or aish? do you ever look at your cordless Dyson and wish that Park Morgan came with it? do you console yourself with soju and karaoke when things are tough? Tell me all about the small ways dramas have influenced your daily life!

I just started In TIme With You but then had to stop immediately as there were SHOES ON TABLES!!! 😱😱😱😱

There's a scene in episode 10 or so where she has to remeasure hundreds of pairs of shoes and puts then on the table to do it. I don't care whether they're brand new and clean, stop putting footwear on tables woman!

have little things in dramas slipped into your daily life?

Ooo good question let's see..

I've caught myself talking out loud occasionally - so the viewer knows what I'm thinking

I like to eat cutted up fruit when drinking wine or soju/gin (anyone remember cutted up pear from early MN?)

The other day I caught myself flapping my hand in the go away motion instead of the come here motion (to the dog so it made no difference as he just stared at me anyway)

I have a Miele and feel vaguely disappointed

Oh yes, I sometimes catch myself doing this gesture 🙅🏼‍♂️ to emphasise a no.

I am watching sub-holey Melo because I can’t wait & I know I’ll be happy to watch it again in a couple of days. 😄

Melo has quickly become my most anticipated on air drama. I'm glad you gave me the kick up the butt to actually watch it boatyard

Hmm. That emoji went strange. It’s the making a cross (an X) with your forearms one.

Just ffwrded through the last episode of Level Up. Sung Hoon is very good at the physical comedy but thought the romantic element fell flat.

Holey or no, I thoroughly enjoyed my Melo catch-up. It’s rather endearing how hard the awful director has fallen for FL.

That took longer than expected - people kept ringing and interrupting my viewing 🙄.
Anyway I was glad Goblin had a happy ending (especially Sunny and the Grim Reaper). The half hour before that was too sad.
And I'm up to date with Watcher, I still can't work out who is bad or not! Seo Kang-joon is doing an excellent job of glowering and beating people up, while being gorgeous.
And I watched the first ep of Melo.
Really need to go to bed now!

Looking at that timestamp, it looks like you have passed the initiation phase and are now a fully-fledged addict TheGirl.

Ha yes totally addicted! Knackered now though 😂

I feel the same TheGirl I waited all night for episode apparently airing yesterday on Viki, they finally arrived just after 1, I watched about half before I fell asleep and now I'm shattered.

Just getting ready to go out & I realised after Hello's question of the day yesterday, that I have adopted a couple of kdrama fashions .
I wear very slim thread rings on several fingers & just tuck in the front of a big baggy blouse leaving the rest to hang behind
Plus in photos I have done the occasional peace sign - I like to think ironically as an in joke to myself.

Also in response to Hellos question, I definitely say "aish!" In my head. I've not progressed to saying it out loud yet.

I went on holiday to Seoul six years ago and I did have a great time but I really feel like I'd enjoy it more now. I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of Korean culture after 6 months of Kdramas 😂.
Annoyingly current finances mean no repeat visit is likely so it's dramas all the way for me. Aish!

The agonising wait for the last episode of a drama to be released is killing me. The Untamed has got quite suspenseful in the last 10 episodes. One of the problems I have with Chinese dramas is they always seem to be 40+ episodes when 20 would have sufficed. You could easily cut out 25 episodes of flipping and flappy hair and have a really good series.

Finished Let's eat last night. Really enjoyed it. Will give it a few weeks before I try the next series of this though

So, have now watched 3 full series and ready for next recommendation please !

Loved Oh my Venus so so much
Really enjoyed Something in the rain

looking for something lighthearted with funny characters again. Bit stressed with work at the mo and want a giggle.

Prison Playbook on Netflix is good, Aesops. More of a focus on friendship than romance, but really well done. Bonus of Jung Hae In (Something in the Rain ML) in brooding ripped abs soldier mode. 👌