MsLatte’s Daebak Cybercafé (kdrama addicts #9)

[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 AmazonPrime and search engine-accessible content available on shady non subscription streaming sites (listed as ‘alt site’ below). The subtitling on alternative sites is variable in quality and the pop-ups can be adult themed...

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, alt site)
Live (Netflix)
Pride & Prejudice (Netflix)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)*
Watcher (Viki)*

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

Romance - lighter & fluffier
1% of Something (Viki)
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)*
Morning Call (Netflix - Japanese)
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)**
Melo is my Nature (Viki)/Be Melodramatic (alt sites)**
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
Absolute Boyfriend (Viki)
Are You Human (Netflix)
Goblin (Viki)*
I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
Love O2O (Viki - Chinese)
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)
Before We Get Married (Viki -Taiwanese)
Hwarang (Viki/Netflix)
The Last Empress (Viki)
Sassy Go Go (Netflix)

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

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 (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…

Bettys! 😂😂😂... I'd sussed it!... How lucky! Lovely Eyes Junho and now GRR JCW!... 😍

Phew! All done. I need a break from sageuk drama for a bit. A bit of Vagabond tomorrow with all the shooting and hand to hand combat should recalibrate my settings. All I can think about watching everyone in those beautiful hanboks is how much ironing must go on behind the scenes. Everything is so immaculate - not a crease to be seen or a smudge of make-up on the collars. The laundry effort must be immense. Here’s a grateful nod to the wardrobe team - may your silks be ever glorious!

Kwak Dong Yeon as Chief Kim!! 😱😱😱😍😍... Thought he was nice enough in My Strange Hero and gangnam Beauty!... But his character in Love In the Moonlight! Long hair doesn't normally entice me! But it must be the brooding!! Lovely!!
Sigh!!... Taking me a while to get through Moonlight... Not because its not very good but keep getting distracted by the lovely Bangtan Boys and especially Jhope with his

... And the Chicken Noodle Soup dance Challenge... I'm especially enthralled by the Maknae Line (jungkook /jimin/guy from Hwarang 😂) effort!

BTS at this time of night? Like having a G&T for breakfast! I’ll save it for the morning.

I’ve already seen the Jhope version, how go they do those moves?😆

😂😂😂😂... Boatyard! Breakfast will be a feast then! 😂😂
Bettys... No bones! 😱👍

Love the maknae lineup!!💜💜💜

I made DH and BIL watch the Chicken Noodle Soup video on Saturday night. They weren't particularly impressed 😂.
I'm on night shifts for the next couple of nights so my drama watching is limited 😭

Ottoke is probably 어떡해 (from 어떡하다) is a contraction of 어떻게 하다) which is like "omg what should I do" but used a lot more frequently than we use in English.

Frequently confused (even by native speakers) with 어떻게 which actually means more "how?" or "what?"

Nine times out of ten, it's the former that's being used.

Thank you WatchingtheMoon. I’ll pay close attention now to see which of those two explanations fits.

I just did a quick search to see if WatchingTheMoon was one of our earlier visitors that we managed to scare off by seeing shallow. I found your chat with Helloswellow on the foreign language thread and realise how far I have to go! I really need to study harder. Nice to see you on here Watching!

Seeing = being

boatyard considering how long I've been in Korea, my Korean is really bad and I am daily ashamed by it. I really wish I could just take a year off to study properly, it's definitely a language that needs a massive effort to get rewards.

Ashamed to say 어떡해 slipped my mind! Clearly not studying verbs hard enough. I'm blaming it on the fact there's too many of them. Lovely to see you again Watching

I'm sure Korean is a level 5 language along with Arabic, Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin. They take 2200 hours to become proficient in, compared to languages like Italian and Swedish which take about 600 hours.

I have limited drama viewing today, so need to decide whether to start on When the Camellia Blooms or Vagabond. Does anyone have advice to offer?

Vagabond if you are feeling shallow and want good visuals; Camellia if you want something gentle to soothe frayed nerves.

I currently prefer Camellia to Vagabond .
Both very different, depends what mood you are in

Although I find all the colours in sageuk drama beautiful, I frequently wonder how historically accurate they are because many colours in the west came from industrial advances in chemistry. I’d love to know whether Chinese/Japanese/Korean textile manufacturers were ahead of the game or had access to dyes and pigments we didn’t. I saw some very faded Samurai armour in a National Trust house earlier this year that hinted at some very vibrant dyes.

Caught up with Vagabond over breakfast and found it amusing that the female assassin seemed to enjoy the generous amount of shots of Lee Seung-Gi working out minus shirt 👍🤣

Wouldn’t mind seeing Goo Yoo’s new film that seems to have stirred up anti-feminism feeling - SK for all its modernity seems in equal measure to be behind in equality.

I would really like to see this film, but I’m also interested in the nature of the societal objection to feminism in South Korea. Is it that it is seen as a threat to family values and the ‘natural order of things’ (ie men on top/patriarchy)? I recall that some western criticism of feminism, usually from religious or political conservatives, focusses on challenge to family structures/values.

I’ve just read a synopsis of the book. It’s described as almost diary-like, a collection of everyday anecdotes showing the kind of casual misogyny that all women have to put up with. I can see why it might have ruffled feathers. Men don’t like people (women) pointing out that stuff they consider as OK might not be received in the same way they perceive it and that 99% of the time it is unwelcome. My FIL is quite touchy-feely and we got into a heated discussion about #metoo. I can’t repeat what he said about an experience I had in sixth form which I related in that discussion because, well, this is a public forum, but I have thought less of him ever since.

It's being released in October. It's the film I was really excited about.

I remember reading something about Confucianism being used as an reason for not viewing women as equals. There was a statement from my reading that stayed with me 'Woman are to be obedient to someone. To the father when young; to the husband when married; and to the son in old age.' I don't think I buy Confucianism as the reason though as the rates of religion are ever declining.

Bettys Love in the moonlight (netflix).... Chief Kim!! All in black! Very handy with a sword!.. Brooding and angsty!.... Long mussy tied back hair! Fringe covering eyes!... Swoon! 😍😍😍👍😂

Boatyard! If you feel the need to go back to Joseon times and slip back into your hanbok... Highly recommend this one! 😍👍

I shall note it, but I feel like smashing things today (perimenopause sucks) so I’ll be starting with Vagabond after I’ve changed out of my wet clothes (fucking rain!) into my pyjamas. I don’t think I’m in the right headspace for dainty manners.