MsLatte’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #14): Special welcome to any MNers stuck at home who need escapist boxset recommendations

[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)
The Fiery Priest (Netflix)

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)*
Signal (Netflix)*
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)*
The Lies Within (Netflix)*
Tunnel (Netflix)*

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
100 Days My Prince (Viki)
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)*
Where Stars Land (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)
I’ll Go To You When The Weather is Nice (Viki - currently airing)

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)
My Mister (Viki)**
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*

Stove League (Viki)

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

Extraordinary You (Netflix)
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: Two Worlds (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)
Go Go Squid (Viki - Chinese)
Instead of Tipsy Why Not Get Drunk (Viki, Chinese)
Love O2O (Viki - Chinese)
Morning Call (Netflix - Japanese)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix - Chinese)
Tientsin Mystic (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…

Cheers

Checking in!

monkeywench my bathroom cleaner definitely says let sit for 10 minutes, which inevitably means let sit for long enough to watch at least one episode.

Hi Bellini & welcome!

Kakafukaka is coming to Viki tomorrow and is a short, binge worthy Japanese drama about a two ex lovers in house share. It's definitely worth a watch if anyone is looking for something like that.

I'm watching Because of You 2020 which is a Taiwanese drama. There's 6 men, 3 of whom are brother. 5 men (including 2 of the brothers all speak Mandarin, the last brother only speaks Korean. Apparently this causes no issues at all and everyone understands everyone...

Hello bellinisurge! Do join in with the chat!

hello - only in dramaland! Although I have seen some mainland Chinese dramas where they continue speaking Chinese even when the other person is speaking English/another language ( Love Me If You Dare is a prime example). I think you're supposed to take a leap of faith with it

Right, have done chores for the day (yawn), am wondering whether to continue with current addiction for web dramas or finish Itaewon....maybe save Itaewon for cocktail hour

I’m watching Hyena. It’s been great fun, though the way they treated the hedge fund manager Kevin at the start of ep 10 stretched credibility. The live octopus was a bit ewww too.

Just finished Click Your Heart (K-web drama Viki) which is all kinds of fluffy but I liked the format. You get to watch all the episodes but it's set up as a "what happens if you make this choice" for.at, like the books that you got that had multiple e dings depending on your choice. 15min episodes, so my bathrooms are clean and the laundry has been loaded into washing machine and dryer. Rather productive if I say so myself 😂😂

Really need an edit button...

It’s OK monkey - I got the gist of it. Basically the short format web dramas can be worked around chores, which provide the pretext for sloping off to quiet bits of your house. As a consequence, the web drama sneaks now have cleaner homes Did I get it Betty & Monkey?

The dainty china is still making me laugh - in Hyena the senior partner and his CEO client sipping their tea from the chintziest, daintiest Cath Kidston cups on this occasion. The production designer for this definitely has a thing for English bone china. I’m starting to wonder how much of it actually made it back to the props store post-filming. 😄

I've just watched the 2nd to last Itaewon . The bit with his Dad made me a bit teary. Lots of PSJ looking handsome (they were doing closeups of his face so you can't see the haircut!) I'm going to have to save the last ep till tomorrow because I need to go and sort out tea.
We are getting Korean food! The Korean bar near us did a FB post saying they were shutting as they had had some people be really unpleasant to them re Corona Virus. Lots of people posted in support of them and now they are staying open so you can order food and collect it from them. Yay!!

No fair Arab!
Tell us what you had 🍛

I'll report back Cassini 👍

That's it boaty. I don't smoke, but I'm guessing this is what smoke breaks feel like 😂

Much as I love my lot, enforced space sharing means more mess, so we've agreed that communal areas are to stay tidy and in exchange I won't look in their rooms. We have now identified DH as the biggest creator of mess because we're all hanging out in our own rooms once the downstairs is tidy, yet it gets messy once he gets in. The kids have been really rubbing it in after he gave them a hard time about the mess downstairs. Now all I need them to do is to actually put the washing I to their rooms, if not their wardrobe instead of stepping over their respective laundry baskets at the bottom of the stairs 🤔

I had a feiend who had moved over from Japan for 2 years, came with 1 shipping container, left with 2. She hit Cath Kidston, Brio and the kids clothing section of Next hard, shipped them home and made an absolute fortune because some of the patterns were limited to the UK. We still laugh about her getting the Avoca in Dublin to keep several Cath Kidston tea sets for her poor husband to collect during a work trip. He was not amused to pay for 2 cases to be put in the hold when he had gone with hand luggage 😂😂

That’s interesting about the china, Monkey.

We are getting Korean food! The Korean bar near us did a FB post saying they were shutting as they had had some people be really unpleasant to them re Corona Virus. Lots of people posted in support of them and now they are staying open so you can order food and collect it from them. Yay!!

It’s sad they’ve been targetted, but great they’ve had so much local support. I am jealous of your dinner.

I went to our local Korean store to stock up on sushi rice and gochugan for the next few weeks. I’m also going to have another go at homemade kimchi as there’s been a run on it in the local Korean & Chinese grocery stores recently and we need a steady supply for our kimchi stews. It’s usually staffed by students, but it was the owner and his wife today. She kept addressing him as “yobo” while she was helping me find the ingredients I needed. I made an awful mistake with my kimchi last time, but I think it’ll be fine this time.

Yes boatyard web dramas are handy for all sorts of reasons! It's like a pocket version of kdrama

Did you ever post your recipe for kimchi stew? It sounds v tempting.

I am halfway through the penultimate ep of Itaewon avec glass of wine but have to stop and cook dinner

No Korean tea for me! 😭. When I rang them to order they said that it turns out they don't have the correct licence to do take out food. They are trying to get one but it will take a week at least. They were pleased I rang though.
So we are having Lebanese instead.

What was your big Kimchi mistake boaty ? Mmm Kimchi 😋

Ah that's too bad TheGirl!
I made a ridiculously easy kimchi with Waitroses's kimchi paste. Not the real thing at all but suffices when you just want a kimcheese toastie

What was your big Kimchi mistake boaty?

I julienned the daikon radish and carrot while I was waiting for the chinese cabbage to salt in the brine, decided they might dry out or go curly, so filled the bowl with cold tap water. The julienned veg absorbed enough water for the level to drop below the top layer of veg. When I added it to the brined cabbage, which had been rubbed with the lovingly prepared seasoning paste, I upended it into the cabbage box, water and all. 😱 I managed to pour most of it off, but it took flavouring with it & was soggier than it should have been. As a result, I suspect the fermentation stage was more anaerobic than it should have been. It smelt promising after a few days but quickly went weird and slimy. 😞 I was too scared to try it.

(I should have drained the julienned veg first.)

Awwwweeeee Park Saeroyi and his dad!! 😢

So impressed with PSJs acting skills in this 😍 Only kdrama can tug at your heartstrings like this! (Ep 15 Itaewon)

So impressed with PSJs acting skills in this
Yes, he's so good!