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…

Nah. Just turn it down and enjoy the visuals, Betty.

My affection for SKJ is growing. He comes across as a lovely young man. I would be really disappointed if I heard he was a bastard in real life.

I would have to have a serious think about sharing a discount code for alcohol 🍸 😉

We seem to be much quieter this week. I thought I’ve more time to do fun stuff WFH, but it turns out it is much more tiring at the mo & meeting kids’ needs around/during the working day means I don’t have much juice left for concentrating on kdrama in the evening.

Oh boatyard I would be seriously pissed off to find out that SKJ wasn't lovely. I'm also not getting through much drama at the moment. Just watched a couple of episodes of Where Stars Land, which is still lovely and unserious. Just what the Dr ordered.

Unfortunately DD requires a cattle rod to get her to do her class work and some subjects have uploaded everything in one go and we're trying to figure out deadlines. I'm still in job limbo because my new job requires approval from the health trust to get the staff moved and that's currently on hold. It's difficult to know whether to agree to other work in the meantime because I would have to be able to go once mobilised.

By the time I pretend to spend some time with DH I don't have the mental capacity to binge. It's very disappointing 😆 Hopefully we've got the hang of home school so I can indulge, although I find myself being drawn back to old favourites like Coffee Prince just so I don't have to think.

I have just watched the first episode of 365 Restart the Year and am hooked! Premise seemed a little dodgy - 10 people go back in time one year with their memories intact - but it's very well done!

Sounds interesting Betty. Viki, Netflix or one of your famed boobage sites?

I am working my way through Extraordinary You, which is getting progressively more gripping. FL is ace at crying prettily and tugging at the heartstrings. And Rowoon? Well, visuals...

Impatient for this week’s Weather to drop & be subbed.

APOYM - finding I have be in the right mood for this. Seeing as how the shit is going down, it might be August. How I would love to be let loose in a snowy Norwegian forest right now! (In isolation) Quit your whining HutLadyLove!

Oops! Is that the time? All that commute time I was supposed to be using for useful stuff? Sleeping in!

It’s on a boobage/ annoying ads site, so it’ll have to stay good to keep me watching.
Weather raw was rather restful. PMY keeps flinging her arms round SKJ.....well you would, wouldn’t you?

I don’t think yoy are limited in how many times you can fill out that Netflix form asking them to buy it & stream it.

Well Intended Love S2 is fully subbed & on both Viki & Netflix now. Frivolous fun without the 🤮plot twist of S1

Excellent news Betty, that is my weekend wine 🍷 drinking entertainment sorted 👍

Ohh Ahn Bo-Huyn has just posted on IG about ?series 2 Itaewon Class!!

This had better be an April fool rather than Netflix wanting more series 🙄

I don't know if i should say it... but i'm finding Weather too slow...

nothing is happening!!!!!! I want something to happen!!!! There's nothing else happening in my house apart from the usual... what can i eat ? etc etc so I need something to Happen!!!!!! Please.... let there be a flurry of gangsters marauding through the town? An earthquake? Alien invasion? A coffee Bean lorry crashes into his house!!!!

Apologies... it's the isolation... it's the isolation!!!!

The trick to the boobage sites is to get an ad blocker. It saved my sanity. I fell asleep at 8pm last night, I planned all this drama watching and saved some white chocolate buttons for it. Instead I ended up stripping wallpaper in the afternoon and wore myself out.

I planned all this drama watching and saved some white chocolate buttons for it

😫 I feel your pain!!

Bea I don’t mind the pace of Weather as long as SKJ or Lee Jae Wook are in shot, it’s APOYM that is dragging for me. I am looking forward to the next fluffsome episodes of Miaow & am still enjoying 365 though only 4 eps are up. I couldn’t place the ML but he was the unfortunate husband in Lies Within (I couldn’t watch those bits)

Haha Bea you never know!

Having said that, I've just watched ep 4 of APOYM and I'm warming up to it (and JHIs restful gaze) but I'm not that interested in the AI storyline & I've no idea how long they can spin the slender narrative out for.

Maybe its one of those that goes off at an unexpected tangent and blindsides us all, Betty.

Have just finished watching Bride of the Century. Enjoyed the first half more than the second half and kept thinking of the ML as Piggy (from Korean Odyssey) which kinda undermined his gravitas as Mr Important CEO Mostly though it was about the women - lots of passive aggressive and just outright aggressive manoeuvring. Fun for the actresses to get their teeth into I imagine.

What to watch now? I fancy something with a fantasy element - unrealistic to take me away from what's happening outdoors - and a nice, predictable happy ending. Swashbuckling would be good too. What though? Have seen Extraordinary You, the Great Doctor, Are You Human Too, Hotel Del Luna. I'm a little unsettled so couldn't settle to anything too serious. Any recommendations?

I am not a robot is loveably dippy and sweet, Frogs. The FL is the same one as Where Stars Land.

OK then boat I'll give it a looksee, thank you

Have you seen Bride of Habaek frogs? Might fit the bill

Ooooooh Tale of Nokdu!! Tale of Nokdu!! Not really fantasy but swashbuckling 😍

Bettys Ive seen Bride of Habaek, he bathes on the rooftop doesn't he? And cooks, mmm, as well Tales of Nokdu is the one where ML dresses as a woman to live in Widows Village with the assassins isn't it? He was a bit too tall for that iirc I got to the bit where he did the fan dance she kept messing up then stopped, can't remember why. Will go back then, after I'm Not a Robot. A lovely Kdrama is just what I need right now