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…

Hello... Absolutely agree... There have been (and probably are} problems but I like to think the really really bad practise is in the past shd and that there are better safeguards these days... However what I get cross about is the lazy journalism of (usually) the western press... If they can't be bothered to research their story properly they'll resort to the training programs / and the recent scandals... I've seen reports where they've even pictured groups in the main headline when reporting about the burning sun scandals when it's nothing to do with the groups they've pictured (also happened recently when reporting death of Sulli) ... Never mind the endless wrong picture of the group or never getting names right.. It irks me.... as I see it as nothing but thinly veiled racism!... Sorry! Getting all ranty! 😳😳😳😱

Meanwhile... Looking forward to catching up with Melting this evening (as long as subs up) and flower Crew... Though it seems to be dragging on....

I have started watching Giri/Haji the BBC Japanese co-production and just had to pause and say how much I like the Yakuza gangsters asking for slippers when they turn up at the cops house!

This just reinforces for me how shocking Healer would have been to a domestic audience. He not only wears his boots indoors, he put his feet up on the furniture still wearing them!

You’ll have to let us know if Giri/Haji is any good, Betty.

I get what you mean Bea lazy journalism is rife when it comes to East Asian entertainment industries and beyond. Its the butchering of names that gets me. No one expects perfection but it takes one Google search to learn how to say them.

I'm hopefully settling in for Flower Crew after the dog walk. I've been distracted by 1920s China in Arsenal Military Academy and fell behind on everything. Oh the shame.

Am sure as hello says there have been dodgy practices and would hope they have changed, and agree with your points Bea about lazy journalism and probably casual racism/xenophobia too.

Also agree that Flower Crew has stalled a bit. Also while I am loving Grrr JCW and Won Jin Ah who are working their socks off, I am disappointed in the story of Melting. It feels like Abyss all over again 😞

This afternoon having been virtuous and swept up the leaves I watched Long Live The King (film dramafast) with Kim Rae Won and Won Jin Ah. Good little film and he is zooming up the Gangman Leopard rankings (however no shirtlessness in spite of doing loads of training to portray a gangster boss)

Pausing Giri/Haji again to say that at 34 mins in there is already casual sex just not used to that in drama any more

I’m disappointed we didn’t get a shower scene after Lee Min Ki’s workout in today’s The Lies Within. 😩

My word episode 12 of Vagabond is tense!

boatyard I'm not sure LMK does shower scenes, was there one in The Beauty Inside?

I seem to remember his being damp and tousled in a bathrobe after a shower when she was was the schoolboy and staying with him, but not actually the shower bit

In some respects, I quite like air of mystery. I absolutely love that we’re seeing him smile in this, even if its only wry smiles or mild amusement. He usually plays such buttoned up roles. I’d love to see if he can pull off outrageous like Kim Jae Wook in Antique Bakery.

As hello said he pulled of an outrageous amount of eyeliner in Shut Up Flower Boy Band but he was straight in that

off

Where can I find Shut Up Flower Boy Band?

I watched the first couple of episodes on dramacool - he only has a cameo at the beginning, so maybe just make do with this snapshot

Thank you Betty. 👍

Please tell me that Doctors moves on from FL getting in a fight every 5 mins. I’m still on ep 1 but its getting wearing. At the start, I was thinking “where are the security staff?” In the nightclub: “do they not have bouncers in S Korea?” In passing, I’ll note that both Kim Rae Won and Ji Soo have improved with age. Ji Soo is oddly angular in this, like Groovejet era Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Has anyone watched "It's OK that's love"? I quite liked it but haven't seen it mentioned (maybe because noone else liked it...😒)

Brambly I think boatyard has seen it.

Doctors does improve, especially Shen they get past the school bit

I watched it a while ago, Brambly. Its starts well, but takes a darker turn and it drags later on. I found the reveal of an important twist annoying, because anyone paying attention would have been able to guess it ages before it happens. Gong Hyo-Jin is somewhat underused and a little flat in it. I am also belated realising Sung Dong-Il (supporting role) is the Dennis Waterman of kdrama, in that he can only do one character (himself).

Sorry - that’s a tad damning. If you’re enjoying it, keep going. But I’ll fill you in with the bits I can remember if you get fed up.

I’m finding the corporal punishment a bit - teenage girl, male teacher who has already hit on her, the other students sent out of the room... My prediction for the next episode, as this one cut with him taking a swing with his cane, is that he won’t actually spank her. And that would be a whole lot less weird. 🙏

Send a St Bernards with whisky or a 🥾 for my 🍑 pls. I’m in a Doctors-shaped whirlpool and I can’t get out. My only saving grace is the extra hour tomorrow...

🤣🤣 a Doctors shaped whirlpool is not a bad place to be!
Woke up delighted that had an extra hour in bed catching up with Grr JCW then remembered it’ll be dark an hour earlier 😞

I love the bit in Doctors where he says ‘Are you married?’ ‘No’ ‘Got a boyfriend?’ ‘No’ ‘Okay!’ Had to rewind a couple of times it made me smile so much

And Jisoo on a bike 😍

The action has moved to the neuro hospital now. I’m struggling with credibility because of her ridiculous skyscraper stilettos when she’s doing ward rounds, but hey...

New thread in case this one fills up this morning while I’m getting on with life admin: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/streamed_tv/3728194-MsLatte-s-Daebak-Cybercaf-kdrama-addicts-10?watched=1