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…

I am slightly jiggling with excitement about The Lies Within starting tonight & it being Netflix so no delay for subs. It helps that Gogh, The Starry Night was only 4 episodes and do-able as an evening’s deep dive, so my weekend is not ‘lost’.

I am slightly jiggling with excitement about The Lies Within starting tonight & it being Netflix so no delay for subs

Me too!! Have just watched a bit of Shut Up Flower Boy Band to see LMK with heavy eyeliner - I do like a bit of guyliner 😉 He looks very different in this, but am anticipating a great story (I read the cast didn’t know how it ends) with good leads

The first episode is good. Lee Min-Ki still mighty fine carrying extra weight.

Ooooooh have gin and tonic going to head in now!

Ahh I can't wait to start it! Positively buzzing now I know it's boatyard approved too!

It starts slowly, but I think it will get twisty and complex in fairly short order.

I just finished On Your Wedding Day. I’m not sure I liked the ending. It was sad. I was hoping for a different ending.

It is sad, but realistic. I think that’s the difference sometimes between a drama and a film. In a drama he would have swept her away, but in real life timing cocks things up for good.

Loving LMK in The Lies Within - proper acting and even with the extra weight still mighty fine as you say boatyard!

Am watching with headphones on & really enjoying the background music too

I liked the way the hacking tech guy deflected LMK and lady cop’s questions about what he heard when he stood up from behind the mountain of paperwork. LMK’s transfer to his sleepy hometown ain’t gonna happen, is it?

No way, they need the visuals 😉🤣

Due to my inability to leave dramas unfinished I can tell you that manservant and FL bff in Well Intended Love do in fact end up together. It was a rather sweet confession.

Considering it's already spoiled, I can have a little moan about the ending. ML and FL has sex once and made a baby, then she got kidnapped and he started sleeping with anything that moved but its okay because it was just his plan to find her. Oh when will I find my Prince charming like that?

The only barely positive thing about this drama is Xu Kai Cheng is attractive, and he's shirtless often enough to keep me awake.

The only barely positive thing about this drama is Xu Kai Cheng is attractive, and he's shirtless often enough to keep me awake.

That kept me watching for longer than I should have. I don’t suppose you remember which episode the manservant’s sweet confession fell in?

I had awful insomnia last night & with it not being a school night I stayed up watching Black Night. It’s going heavier on the supernatural now and, because of their past life difficulties, is now switching between modern day Seoul/Slovakia and Joseon-era sageuk.

Night = Knight, obvs.

Oh when will I find my Prince charming like that?

Yes, he’s every girl's dream 🤣🤣🤣

boatyard I've got no idea, but the gist is ML tracked FL with GPS to a hospital, she lied and said she was there with bff cause she was sick. ML mentioned it to manservant he got all worried and started calling her then when they met up again he said something like 'I miss you when I don't see you. I'm sad when you're not happy, so don't be sad. when you're sick my heart breaks, so don't be sick anymore. lean on me when you need someone ill always be here" or sweet words to that affect. I'll have a run through a see if I can find it, I'm sure it's about 15/16/17 ish

The sweet manservant had more integrity in his pinky finger than the ML has in his whole body. Pushed to choose, it would be manservant FTW. There are some behaviours so heinous that even killer abs and visuals can’t compensate.

I don't think I've ever seen a more deeply unlikeable character than the ML. Even 2ML was quite sweet and warm after the first couple of episodes.

There characters I didn't like because they were just badly written, for example, everyone in She was Pretty but this is a new level of dislike. hellos question of the day: which characters do you dislike? or what types of characters do you dislike?

Kim Young Kwan’s hideous designer tracksuit at the company athletics meet in Secret Life of my Secretary just made me laugh out loud. No one, I repeat no one, could look attractive in that horror - so the slo-mo just makes it funnier.

(I can’t get on to Netflix because our ‘screens’ have topped out. DH made me start a KYK spiral!)

hellos question of the day: which characters do you dislike? or what types of characters do you dislike?

I dislike eeevil chaebol MILs and Stepmums like in Graceful Family but then we are supposed to.
However characters we’re probably not supposed to dislike but I do are:

the son-obsessed mums who neglect the FL/ daughters (Cheese in the Trap)

The quirky badly dressed BFF who is there purely for comic relief/plot exposition (male BFF in Extraordinary You)

The ex-girlfriend of ML who just can’t let go (You’re My Destiny, Hospital Ship, funnily enough it’s the same actress)

boatyard nothing wrong with a KYK spiral he is adorable in SLof myS

which characters do you dislike? or what types of characters do you dislike?

PSJ’s character in Secretary Kim is the worst example, but ‘Master of the Universe^ young male senior exec characters really grind my gears. They are the archetypal ‘enabled man’ on steroids. The more of a cock they are, the more I hate them. Sadly, they are everywhere in kdrama or Mandarin drama. They have to shape up fast or I spend the whole thing (if I stick with it, bif if) hating them and wanting the inevitable servile female to find her spine and kick them hard in the bollocks & tell them to fuck off. But that never happens. 🙄

I persevere because sometimes they are misunderstood, rather than just plain awful. Sung Hoon in Level Up was misunderstood and a bit odd, rather than awful.

That should have been ‘facilitated man’ and biG if.

I've been ruminating on Well Intended Love for a little longer and it's so bizarre how different the 2 relationships are in the show. Clearly the writer's are capable of making sane, consenting, cute relationships. Hell, manservant sings his proposal to FLs bff in the last episode and its all blushing and wonderful. So why is the relationship that's in the limelight so batshit? She was kidnapped twice because of him!

I haven't felt this annoyed by a drama since She was Pretty. Even that relationship was 150% more sane than this one.