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…

Is there a second season of Signal in the offing? It was satisfactorily concluded, but still open-ended. I liked the photos of the cast & crew at the end. It looks to have been much more mixed behind the scenes than usual, which is sort of ironic given the macho police teams.

Oh yes, a 9 for me for Signal please - great cast & acting, classy production and plot.

Hello!... come down the rabbit hole with us! It's nice and cozy with Min Yoongi whispering "Suga" in that soothing way... where you can break out into a dance move and impress everyone with your body rolls... a la JK during the mic drop dance break! and then share a nice cup of tea with tae.................

hello you know you want to really.....💜

Well, that means I'll have to be glued to Ticketmaster with everything crossed. DD doesn't often ask to go to gigs and the last time she wanted to go it was to see her God Dave Ghrol, so DH and DS will be on ticket duty as well. She didn't speak to us for 2 weeks when we went to see the Foos without her because she couldn't get into the venue due to seating restrictions. Thankfully they didn't take long to tour again so DH managed to nab 2 tickets to take her, which made her year. If I manage to get tickets she's going to burst!

I’m struggling to square the Foo Fighters-BTS circle. They seem like diverse interests.

Which I’m all for, to be honest. DH and I like good music and are less precious about genre.

boatyard wrt a second series of Signal this is what the ML said on Soompi recently:

Lee Je Hoon was asked about the much-anticipated second season of the hit 2016 tvN drama “Signal,” which has been mentioned as a possibility for years. He said, “I think it would be difficult to do it this year because the cast is all busy, but from what I know, ‘Signal 2’ is being produced. I’m waiting for it too.”

I saw super junior in 2013 and I know bts would be 200 times as energetic so I'm tempted to try get tickets. Although 7 years ago, I didn't have DS so I'll have to figure out what to do with him.

How old is he Hello?

I think it will just be me & partner jn crime going to see BTS, although DS2 started making FOMO noises after I found someone else to go with. Up until then I’d been trying to persuade him to go with me, without much success.

The child likes everything from A-Ha, Rick Astley, Micheal Jackson, Whitesnake, Nirvana, Bon Jovi etc to Billie Eilish, EXO, GOT7 etc. Her spotify is the most random playlist with musical theatre to parodies to punk The whole family has very diverse taste, so hardly surprising.

We find it funny when her classmates think she's cool for knowing Bowie songs, she considers him as music she slept to.

Watching Hospital Ship after watching Attention Love (Taiwanese on Netflix). It's been a while since I watched Taiwanese drama, so it was nice for a change.

boatyard he's only 18 months so not exactly prime concert age 😂

MonkeyWrench I enjoyed Attention, Love. It was a really simple love story but it was done well.

Yes, at 18 months he’ll be more wriggly than BTS. Hmmm. Not a compatible combination.

Adding Attention Love to the list

Tientsin Mystic is a visual treat with lots of interesting side characters although perhaps a little long...

Sounds like quite a few of us are interested in the upcoming BTS events, it'll be interesting to see who manages to get tickets. I reckon the demand will be huge!

Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese drama that I enjoyed on Netflix.

1. The Perfect Match 2) Lion Pride 3)See You in Time 4) Just You 5) Love,Cheque,Charge 6) Love Around 7) The King of Romance 8) Accidentally in Love 9) Refresh Man 10) I Hear You 11) A Love so Beautiful 12) A Little Thing Called First Love

Rewatching Hyde,Jekyl, Me for a Hyun Bin fix. My First, First Love and The Liar and His Lover are also nice fluffy romances. All on Netflix.

I finally have a space to reveal the extent of my drama binging 😂 A combination of insomnia and working night shifts in elder care means I can get through loads 😂

I confess I couldn't get on with A Little Thing Called First Love but am adding the others to my list!

I have just rewatched the last episode of Kingdom as a refresher before series 2 drops on Friday - although I am away and don't know whether I will have enough broadband to download I may have to pre-download Hyena as a Joo Ji Hoon substitute

I struggled through A Little Thing Called First Love. I still can't believe they painted her yellow in the first episodes. Why?!

The ML in A Little Thing annoyed me towards the end, but I liked the way they depicted the growth of the FL. I liked watching the ugly duckling to swan growth of the FL and her friendships. My DD watched some of it with me and she got annoyed at the FL mother dictating which course she could choose.

I liked The Perfect Match, but DS said it was because it was all about food 😂 Laurence Liu's character was funny and he pops up in Lion Pride as well.

I think it was to show that she wasn't as pale as the others because she spent so much time outdoors. I guess they weren't going to risk fake tan lol

Can we add Spy (viki) to the list! It was good fun and zipped along quite nicely! Some obvious plot holes and questionable behaviour... But on the whole it was a good watch... 👍👍... Though ML 's mother was Highley irritating in terms of character and also hammy acting.. I was tempted to skippitydoodah when she appeared on screen...
Right! Heading back into Holo now!..

I had some left over kimchi that needed to be used up so added it to some pho. If DP asks it's fusion food.

Sounds bloody delicious, fusion or not.

I have been stocking up on a few bits just in case, mainly flavoursome sauces & spices to bring our giant box of sushi rice to life if we are on lock down. I started buying it in 10kg sacks because it is so much cheaper. Did I mention before how much I love my rice cooker? So, so much. 🤪

I see there’s a week’s delay on Weather as forecast by Betty. Thanks PMY! (Hope she’s not poorly.)

It was delicious. I always seem to misjudge the spice though, so now I'm doing a pretty good impression of a tomato.

I need to buy a rice cooker! I keep getting rice cooker jealousy on this thread whenever the topic is bought up.

Our local Korean store changed kimchi supplier recently. I don’t mind as it comes in bigger packs now, so fewer trips needed for restocking. However, the new version has a lot more gochugaru flakes in it. Our first kimchi stew post-switch nearly blew all our heads off. I’ve reduced the added gochugan paste now accordingly & all is well. DS1 has recently told me that if I “keep making kimchi stew all the time, it won’t be special any more.” I’ve told him I don’t care - DS2 and DH are also in favour of it being a weekly staple.