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…

Righto. 🥾🍑 I could watch Tunnel all night but I have an early start. I should be back to something approaching regular viewing soon & will be able to contribute more. Night all!

Glad you’re enjoying BTIMFL Aesops.

Whenever I think of Lee Min Ki I never think of him as he is in BTIMFL. I always remember him as a student with way too much eyeliner in Shut Up, Flower Boy Band and somehow he made it work.

I will have to check that out hello, I have a weakness for a man with eyeliner, and Lee Min Ki in general. He is looking quite different in the stills for the upcoming The Lies Within as he was told to put on weight to look more 'normal'

I am very excited about The Lies Within. Now I’ve seen You-Young Lee (says wiki) in a couple of things, I think she’s really good. She brings quite a different energy to her work, similar to Lee Min-Ki in many respects. I think they’ll be an interesting pairing, provided the script gives them enough to work with.

boatyard looks like The Lies Within is coming to Netflix in Saturday! Woohoo!!! 💃🕺👌😎

I've watch med another few episodes of When The Camellia Blooms and realised why it's going to 32 episodes long. It's because it takes 5 episodes for anything to happen, or get talked about. I wouldn't mind 32 episodes if they were half an hour each but 36 hours of this drama may be too much for me.

32 hours?!?! I’m now questioning whether I catch up.

I’m kind of glad The Lies Within will be on Netflix, because the paint-drying timescales on some of the Viki subs do my head in. At least on Netflix it drops fully-formed. Now I know and recognise the Korean honorifics and relational terms (hyung, unni etc), I listen for them on Netflix even though they’re not subbed so it doesn’t frustrate me or spoil my enjoyment. as much.

32 hours of this slow moving show must be worse than watching paint dry. I've had to turn it off because its even too slow for background noise.

This might be a first for me. I don't know how to feel about it

hello where are you getting 32 episodes from? It's only showing 20 for Camellia on Netflix.
I'm really enjoying it, I like the slow pace.

My Drama List said 32, maybe it's got it wrong? I'll go investigate!

It's 36 on MDL, but the episode length is 4p minutes. So explains the difference. I take back my complaining! I was wrong, at 20 episodes the pace isn't as bad as I thought.

That should say 40 minutes. I don't know why I kept getting 32 and 36 mixed up either. I think I need to go back to bed, my brain has clearly decided to take a holiday today.

I need to go back to bed, my brain has decided to take a holiday today.

I am so going to steal that phrase

Watching Signal netflix ep2.... It's good!! 👍👍👍👌👌👌

Me too I'm on ep 9!!! It's very well done, much better than the American series that was done recently after the film.

I've watched the latest 2 episodes of Flower Crew . Nice, fluffy silliness 😁
I've got some episodes of Vagabond downloaded for a train journey tomorrow

I managed to crack in another hour of Tunnel and have just got past the second tussle with the killer in the tunnel and the consequences. I’m itching to see how everything shakes down. It’s a great set up.

I'm 3/4 of the way through Good Morning Call and can't figure out if I've seen it before. It's so familiar that I either watched this exact drama or something very similar but I can't figure it out. Either way it's enjoyable.

Good morning call was one of the very first dramas I watched! It was crazy! Not sure what I think about the dynamics! But I loved the difference in culture (the warm blanket table thingy I found fascinating) and how uniforms included a school bag!! 😂 😂

I have a love hate relationship with Good Morning Call and similar dramas. I hate the way the relationships and power dynamics work but can't help but be a fan of contract marriages/forced roomates/fake relationship plots.

Hello - I feel the same 😀

Hello.... 😂😂😂😂

Bea after finally looking around on tumblr for the first time in ages I've seen Jungkook's long hair. I must say, it looks good on him!

also saw this and think it's a fairly accurate description of my feelings towards My Country right now