Ms Latte’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama Addicts #12)

[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 [[
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/streamed_tv/3758420-Ms-Latte-s-Daebak-Cybercaf-Kdrama-Addicts-11?topicid=16582&threadid=3758420&pg=1 here]] but our ‘Addicts Recommend’ list below is cumulative so includes recommendations and favourites from all previous threads.


Shows marked with an asterisk 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)
Graceful Family (Viki)
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)*
The Lies Within (Netflix)*
Tunnel (Netflix)*



Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
Crowned Clown (Viki)*
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (Netflix)
Tale of Nokdu (Viki)*



Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)*
Gogh, The Starry Night (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)
The Secret Life of My Secretary (Viki/Netflix)
Thirty Not Seventeen (Viki) or as Still 17 (Netflix)

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

Another Miss Oh (Netflix)*
Because This Is My First Life (Viki/Netflix)
Chicago Typewriter (Viki/Netflix)
Crash Landing on You (Netflix - still airing)
Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Doctors (Netflix)
Fight For My Way (Viki/Drama bus)*
Go Back Couple (Viki)

Just Between Lovers (Viki)*
Melo is my Nature (Viki)/Be Melodramatic (Dramafast)
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)
Bride of Habaek (Netflix)
Hwarang (Viki/Netflix)
The Last Empress (Viki/Netflix)
Sassy Go Go (Netflix)



Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable

Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)

Not Korean but just try it

Regulars 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:

Before We Get Married (Viki - Taiwanese)
Love O2O (Viki - Chinese)
Morning Call (Netflix - Japanese)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix - Chinese)

Thread Regulars’ Top 5 Dramas of 2019 (courtesy of Hello’s kdrama spreadsheet, scores range from +10 if very good to -10 for truly awful)

1. Her Private Life - 9.40 (5 votes)
2. Melo is My Nature - 9.00 (5 votes)

3.= Crash Landing On You, The Crowned Clown, The Lies Within, and The Tale of Nokdu - 8.75 (4 votes)

1. Hotel del Luna - 8.50 (4 votes)

5.= Romance is a Bonus Book, and Search: WWW - 8.17 (6 votes)

The Most Disappointing Dramas of 2019

1. Melting Me Softly -4.17 (3 votes)
2. Abyss -3.33 (3 votes)
3. When The Devil Calls Your Name -2.33 (3 votes)
4. Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency - 0.33 (3 votes)
5. Vagabond 1.25 (4 votes)

Honourable mention for the worst drama of the year goes to Chinese/Mandarin Well Intended Love on Netflix, which scored -10 (2 votes). It beggars belief that Netflix commissioned a second series, but there you go. 🤷‍♂️

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.

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 don't much like that Chairman in Are You Human Too - I've seen him in that role in something else, Cinderella and the Four Knights maybe? For some reason I just don't like watching him and fast forward his scenes. He's probably a perfectly nice bloke in real life!

The actor that plays the Chairman, I mean

Dh not back till late this evening so he doesn't need to be fed (cereal! 😂 😂) ... Ds and dd are going to be fed now...
DS always liked to go upstairs after dinner as he likes early nights (surfing the Web!)... Dd will be happy to draw and read...

Am I sad that I'm really looking fwd to 7 (when they'll all be packed away upstairs! 😂😂) where I'm going to put my Jim jams on... Fire up a drama Dr Kim -( if subs up!) or Itaewon Class... And finish off the delicious oxtail stew I made yesterday with a big bowl of rice 🍚... All by myself!! 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁.... Roll on 7pm! 😂

... And I'll be sitting on the sofa in the sitting room eating my dinner!!.... 😱😱😱😱😱😳😳😳😳

OMG! I've just discovered how to look up my viewing activty on netflix.... I can see what my viewing has been like since i started this recent account (i've had ones in the past)... It's hilarious and it's quite nice as i can see the order of how i've watched things.... it's hilarious as you can really see when the dramas kick in!

If you're interested... just go to account and then viewing activity...

shame can't seem to do the same for viki...! or maybe that's a good thing!

Where’s that function on Netflix, Bea? I know a year into this madness, I’d clocked up conservatively ~800 hours of krama.

Log in to netflix... Goto my account... And then viewing activity (I think you can only do this on a pc thought)... You can either call them up screen or download!! 😂 😂 😂

That's also how you take things off your continue watching list. When you go to viewing activity if you press the 'hide series' button or the 🚫 button, the show will disappear from your continue watching list! Excellent for when you don't watch to be reminding of the crap shows you half finished.

I can do it on my phone! I'm just downloading it now 😂

Ha I watched Strong Girl Bong Soon and Mr Sunshine over a couple of months at the end of 2018. When 2019 started it was wall to wall dramas 😁

Thanks for that tip hello, I'll be taking a few off my continue watching list now

Yep, resistance is futile pagansophie - you will be assimilated. CLOY is our indoctrination material. Mwah ha ha ha!
Well I only managed half an episode before I was interrupted, but I'm definitely going to watch the series.
My netflix recommendations are all Kdrama now!

Gasp! I've just clicked that FL in Dr Romantic 1 is FL in Beauty Inside!... I'd never have recognised her! 😱😳

Good to see you back pagansophie.

I fell asleep on the sofa last night and missed most of the last episode of Terrius, but I’m nearly done (early waking not always a bad thing). I need to start catching up on Stove League and Dr Kim tonight. It’s suddenly overwhelming how much good stuff there is.

What the flip?!.... On my twitter time line! 😱😱😱😱
No way!! 😳😱😳😱

Prompted by what Bea said about netflix, I've had a poke around on the viki website. If you go into your profile and click on your watch list, you'll find a list of everything you've watched on there

I'm both impressed and slightly staggered by the amount I've been watching!

Ah, having said that, mine only seems to go back to last month. Still a rather long list for that amount of time though!

OMG noooooo. Cutting CLOY short would be a travesty. Let’s hope someone in government can talk sense into them. Surely the key takeaway is that we are all human and, as Jo Cox said, we have more in common than divides us. That said, a colleague was telling me about a conversation he had with friends from SK where they said there was nervousness in SK about NK collapsing & a reunification as bail out, that this would be disastrous for SK’s growing prosperity. I’m not sure how much truth there is in that, but it would explain why the SK government is nervous about portraying North Koreans sympathetically.

😱😱 No way!! CLOY must go on!

I’m back by the way 👋👋 having eaten my my own body weight in mountain cheese and celebrated the end of Dry January with a multitude of local wines and liqueurs. Now to catch up with this thread and all the important news of the day ie Soompi

I meant to comment on So Ji Sub’s beautiful hands, that being one of my recurrent obsessions. They were wonderfully showcased in the final episode.

Now to catch up with this thread and all the important news of the day ie Soompi

I felt a bit bad listening to R4 on Monday morning that I’d missed the foiled terrorist attack over the weekend, but then decided that some respite from the news is probably better for mental health etc.

I like his hands too I've been put off an actor I otherwise liked in the past because they had sausage fingers

I get put off by weird nails, on feet or hands. If they're too wide at the tip of the finger/toe, I can't carry on watching. That's my pettiest reason for skipping scenes in dramas.

I'm back with another hello's questions of the day. What's the silliest/pettiest reason you've given up on a drama? (or skipped past scenes if you're part of the skippity do dah gang)

What's the silliest/pettiest reason you've given up on a drama?

I can’t remember the name but it was a CDrama where THEY PUT SHOES ON THE TABLE 😱😱 I gave up after 5 minutes