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…

I am having trouble settling to anything at the mo, although I could quite cheerfully let Weather wash over me gently and bathe me in its warm glow if the whole thing was up.

Betty’s additional detail about PHJ’s management company making Forest explains so much. It’s basically a PHJ product placement writ large. The forest comes off reasonably well, the rest of the cast less so. Still purty to look at. 😉

DD was sent home with a streaming cold so got to start a binge weekend early. Descendants of the sun and CLOY over a long weekend has left me with no tissues 😭 Enjoyed CLOY but really wanted a perfect ending for them. I suppose it's slightly more realistic in drama terms but I guess you can't have it all.

My secret terrius is now on Netflix so I'll get my So Ji Sub fix 🥰

That’s a brilliant binge collection, Monkey. 👌 Terrius should round things off nicely.

I’m catching up on Dr Kim 2. I’ve just got to the bit with the Head Nurse ‘settling things’ by yelling at poorly Dr Kim.

Finished Love 020 with a bit of skippidydoodah- they were actually quite sweet together in the last quarter not so stiff and wooden as they started out. Not a favourite but I did enjoy it.

Watching Extraordinary You now. I do like Dan Oh, she's fab, all bounce and energy and fun. But that fiancé of hers is like an overtired toddler who hates everyone for no reason and Dan Oh's the cutted up pear someone had dared to offer him The ML is so restful in comparison

Frogs.... extraordinary You is really good fun... yes! grumpy fiance (whos the lovely geeky bloke in WWW - which is a real change of character!)... could do with a slapping... he;s sooo sulky and grumpy and ML is sooo calm ... Dan Oh is a great character... refusing to sit by an dlet it all happen!!!!

the cutted up pear someone had dared to offer him
🤣🤣🤣 I love that expression frogs , I haven’t heard it for ages you must have been on MN for quite a while 😉

Fiancé was indeed the lovely awkward actor in WWW and is currently the nice school friend of SKJ in Weather

I like Weather. The book group scene gave me warm fuzzies like the latter episodes of My Mister with the odd alliances and sense of community. Do we think PMY will fix up the guest house & make a go of it? I like it when shows get out of Seoul and you get the villagey/small town feel.

I finished WIL 1 with a great deal of 😱😱😱 and skipping . I think it was trying to be makjang but failed miserably (they should take a lesson from The Last Empress )
I am now going to have to soothe my frazzled nerves by rewatching WIL 2, or maybe Tiensin Mystery. Having a bit of a Cdrama phase

I have, although I was a hard core lurker for years before I got the nerve to post for the first time

Both those other two dramas are on my list, this is the first time I've seen him I think, be interesting to see him be less of a grump!

Agree ré Weather . I like PMY in less chic style and well, I like SKJ in any style including baggy chinos though it is a crying shame.
Ep 3 just as good for warm fuzzies but not actually warm - lolled at the sister singing Let It Go ☃️🌬

PMY looks really odd in the school flashbacks, though. She’s - what - mid 30s now? She is not carrying off the school scenes well at all and her stillness gives her a strangely robotic air. She’s so lively and sparky in HPL that I’m finding it more difficult to warm to her in this. Once she loosens up
a bit and the backstory is out of the way, I’m sure it will be fine. Either way, I’ll be watching for SKJ so it matters not a jot.

SKJ is 26 and PMY 33, agree she is maybe not suiting the school scenes so well, though she carried them off in HPL. You may be right, the lack of animation is a little stilted.
I like the aunt, she is mad.

Yes, I agree the aunt is a good character. The reveal that she is a fêted writer was good - she initially just comes across as barking. I am fearful that the headaches are indicative of worse to come.

I just watched the latest Itaewon Class and Ahn Bo-hyun looked much better without his suit on and hair slicked back! (being a bit vague to stop spoilers 👍)
I'm on nights at the minute and I sometimes get weird dreams when I sleep in the day after a night shift. I had a really vivid one today where BTS came to visit the hospital where we work to tell us how well we are doing with our Corona virus preparation 😂😂😂. I even chatted with Jungkook!!! I was thinking I can't wait to tell you lot about this!! Then I woke up 😂😂😂

Bea will be so jealous.

Speaking of the dreaded Coronavirus, I guess some world tours & gigs may be disrupted - especially with travel disruption and isolation requirements. Likewise, ongoing filming schedules...

They’ve halted the filming of Weather for a week cos PMY went to Milan Fashion week. Selfish cah.....

I was thinking I can't wait to tell you lot about this!! Then I woke up

So we were in your dream too? Splendid!🤣

It sounds more like it was a lucid dream if Girl was aware she was dreaming whilst in the dream, which also means she could control the direction of the dream. C’mon Girl, spill? What else did you get up to with BTS in that dream?

They’ve halted the filming of Weather for a week cos PMY went to Milan Fashion week. Selfish cah.....

Can’t they just tweak the script to send her character to Seoul for a week or something? I’d be more than happy with double SKJ screen time to make up for it. Even lingering shots of him making coffee in his bumpkin chinos and padded waistcoat works for me.

C’mon Girl, spill? What else did you get up to with BTS in that dream?
Unfortunately it was really work based! I was mainly thinking "Wow! How lovely of them to come all the way here to tell us we were doing well!" It could have been so much better!

🤦‍♀️ What a missed opportunity! Next time you have a lucid dream, remember you’re in charge of the narrative. 😉

😁🤞

Dreaming of things from this thread must be passing through a few of us. I've been really fatigued and on strict bed rest. I ended up dreaming we were all sitting in a coffee shop, just having a chat about dramas. I can only assume I checked the thread in a half asleep state and it entered my dreams.

we were all sitting in a coffee shop, just having a chat about dramas

That sounds nice!!