MsLatte’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #13)

[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 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)
My Secret Terrius (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)**
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)
Romantic Dr Kim - seasons 1&2 (Viki)
Search: WWW (Viki)*
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
The Package (Viki)



Straighter ‘Slice of Life’ dramas on universal themes
Live (Netflix)
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*

Stove League (Viki)

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - lighter & fluffier

Goblin (Viki)*

I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
My Holo Love (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)

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/ML is too dense to realise the 2ML/2FL is better)
🥾🍑 (boot, peach) = kick up the arse to go to bed



We also abbreviate titles if they’re long, but usually with an obvious abbreviation. Some favourite actors & actresses have been abbreviated for speed/efficiency, eg Park Min Young (PMY), Kim Jae Wook (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…

BTW Marriage not Dating is on Viki.

Any Dori Sakurada fans, Coffee and Vanilla also available on Viki. I don't often rewatch, but I loved Love 020 series (Netflix) and Go Go Squid (Viki). Both gaming but Li Xian is my bias. The interviews that he does are so funny compared with the characters he plays, total tsundere vibe 😍

Ah yes Dori Sakurada 😍 He needs a decent drama to be ML in.
Go Go Squid is in my list, and has anyone watched Some Day or One Day TW yet?

Welcome monkeywrench... Looks like you ain't no newbie to this k/j/c drama lark! 😂 😂 Enjoy! 😂

Ahh MonkeyWrench a person of my own heart. Li Xian is a wonderful human and I'll watch anything he's in.

bettys Not started Someday or One Day yet but I'm hearing mixed things which doesn't give me much faith.

In other news, I have been sucked into a terrible drama called My Contract Boyfriend/To Love is To Heal and I can't stop watching because of an Oppa like man, a GeGe so to speak. Do I continue to watch or is there more interesting shows I should catch up on?

Welcome MonkeyWrench! I would be fascinated to hear about the Viki subbing process from a subber’s perspective.

I love it when another lurker delurks. It’s shut DH up when I point out there’s about 20 of us now.

My SIL is fed up of the standard English language fare on Netflix and has asked for kdrama recommendations. She watched a bit of Goblin with me 2 years ago and liked it. DH is appalled that I’m infecting other people. What can I say? Everyone needs a hobby! 🤷‍♂️

It’s going to be great having you in the thread monkeywrench. I just looked up tsundere and it is great word. From Wiki: “Tsundere is a Japanese term for a character development process that depicts a person who is initially cold before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time.” Kdrama is littered with them, as is life!

Subbing can be fun but a pain if you can't get into the drama. Once the drama drops the team of segmenters will chop it up into smaller segments so that the subtitles can flow seamlessly (most of the time). This is the most tedious part and having tried it, I'm happy to leave it to others. Then the episodes are opened to the English subbers followed by the translation editors before being opened to other languages. I tend to edit as I go along and leave notes if there are any glaring mistakes. My pet hate is inconsistency in subs, so I try to encourage only one subber per episode because you can tell when there have been multiple people working on an episode because each person has their own "voice" that tends to come through.

You can often find me shouting at my screen if they mumble and my noise cancelling earphones are a must (that's what I tell the people who dare to disturb my viewing lol)

I think the fastest I've ever had a drama subbed is 3 days for the Flower and the Beast (J-drama Viki), but sometimes you read the comments complaining about how long it takes and feel like shaking people. I'm in awe of the subbers who do the Chinese dramas, some are 50 episodes that are 45 minutes long!😱

That's one of the main reasons I haven't got into subbing MonkeyWrench It seems like such a thankless job. Although having watched episodes you've probably subbed, thank you for your brilliant work!

Even the thought of attempting a 50 episode Chinese drama is overwhelming. Well Intended Love was my first foray into Cdrama and, well, I’ve posted extensively about how that turned out for me. The thought of getting 30 hours in to something and another shit-bomb like that dropping has probably killed cdrama for me permanently.

Which reminds me, how is Well Intended Love 2 working out for you, Hello?

In terms of C-drama, I liked "When a snail falls in love (Viki)" "Dare to love me (Viki)" "Crocodile and the plover bird (Viki)" amongst others. Netflix K-drama would be "Korean odyssey " "Vagabond" "The K2" "Black" "Possessed" "Tunnel" etc. I watch far too much lol

boatyard Well Intended Love Take 2 is surprisingly nice. A lot less creepy and lechy, more sweet scenes. It's like a solid 5 though as I can't get over the original even though there's nothing of the sort in this. The MLs assistant has a much better role in this one too!

I also misjudged who in the episode preview was staring at a pregnancy test. If this Well Intended Love had aired first, without the first season I think I would've really liked it.

I’m amazed all the brothers and their friends in My Mister aren’t the liver transplant list. They are bordering on alcoholism, if not full blown, and some more functional than others. Is alcoholism a big problem in South Korea? There are a lot of messy drunks in their drama and films.

The scenes at the state-funded nursing home had me blubbing. It’s very well written and acted.

boatyard it is beautifully written & acted, and I love the music too! It is so well crafted, and I was rooting for everyone (apart from The Rat) All the friendships are so well portrayed. Even the little tippy van the brothers drive seems to be a character and made me laugh out loud when they did an emergency stop and it went right in the air.

I have started Go Go Squid but am finding it quite hard to get into. Why are the FLs always so overly ditsy & cutesy it's very annoying.

I would say it's a cultural thing, especially since the FL is meant to be around 19/20 but basically a child genius in love for the first time.

I did enjoy Love Me If You Dare, I don't remember the FL being quite so ditsy in that. Although the ending was a little ambiguous

I agree Betty - everything about it is done with such care and attention.

I also think that when they adapt dramas based on web toons or manga, they try to please the readers and sometimes it grates. I'm shallow enough to enjoy Go Go for Li Xian and gloss over the FL

TBF having lived in Japan for a while, the cutesy thing is very much the desired characteristic for young girls/women, and I found it annoying especially if it was blatantly clear that it was being put on for effect rather than being the person's personality. It sometimes makes me sound bitter, but even when I was a teen I couldn't bring myself to act ditsy, so I wasn't considered to be approachable (resting bitch face and dry humour didn't help) or cute.

I remember a rumour going around for a cross over between Love me if you dare and When a snail falls in love, but I think it was fueled by Wang Kai love

TBF having lived in Japan for a while, the cutesy thing is very much the desired characteristic for young girls/women, and I found it annoying especially if it was blatantly clear that it was being put on for effect rather than being the person's personality. It sometimes makes me sound bitter, but even when I was a teen I couldn't bring myself to act ditsy, so I wasn't considered to be approachable (resting bitch face and dry humour didn't help) or cute.

I can't imagine having to act cutesy all the time, that would wind me up horribly, in fact I don't think I could do it either. Aren't women supposed to have a brain? I think the only JDrama I've seen where I liked the FL was Pretty Proofreader, and the FL in Scum's Wish was interesting, if a little twisted. And the most interesting Cdrama FL was Love O2O as she was unashamedly clever. There is a much wider range of female types in kdrama.

I took a look at Mood Indigo last night goodness me that must have been errrrrmmmm interesting to sub!! V racy after kdrama !

I would totally struggle with acting cutesy too. I'm a big, clumsy oaf at the best of times 😂.
Ive binned off Beautiful Mind for now. I just didn't care about anything that was happening in it 🤷‍♀️. I've moved onto Holo Love which is much more fun.

I took a look at Mood Indigo last night blush goodness me that must have been errrrrmmmm interesting to sub!! V racy after kdrama !
Sounds interesting!

TheGirl It has quite graphic gay sex and male anal play scenes. Nothing you'd ever see in Korean dramas. There's also a companion drama to it called The Novelist/Pornographer