MsLatte’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #15): Tiring of your usual telly during lockdown? Want to be transported somewhere else? Try our escapist boxset recommendations

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the K-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. 

We also dip into Japanese, Taiwanese & Chinese drama as & when. 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)

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
Hospital Playlist (Netflix)
Itaewon Class (Netflix)
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. Quite a few of us are learning Korean, Japanese and/or Mandarin (some more diligently than others admittedly), so we swap tips and links to language resources. Basically, anything topical goes.


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…

Accidentally in Love is sweet and fluffy. Not outstanding but good all the same.

Gank Your Heart is on dailymotion. You've just reminded me it's got Wang Yibo in. Versitile actor, singer and motorbike racer who excels in sexy dancing. He's also really young, I think he's 26 too.

He's 22! I knew he was young but wow. To think he debuted in Korea around 2014, he was a baby!

I was thinking about the observation earlier that more of the 2020 dramas are pulling in good scores on the spreadsheet. Is it that with more of is on the thread that we are pooling info about duds and avoiding? Is it that we are getting more discerning and ditching duds at the shuffle/first couple of episodes before scoring? Is it groupthink? Or confirmation bias (I’ve watched 20 hours of this damned drama, I can’t give a lame score because I look silly for watching it all)?

Wow just checked out Wang Yibo's dancing on Youtube - amazing!

Maybe we're just watching the good ones.....although you haven't scored Forest yet I see boatyard!!

I abandoned Forest rwasonably near to the end*. I feel I watched enough to score it fairly: 4.

• Yes, I am stubborn, don’t like to admit defeat and fall victim to ‘sunk costs fallacy’ thinking.

See, Forest is quite a good example. You and I both sampled it and warned everyone else off. I did enjoy the forest scenery and lovely rivers. There must be some beautiful hiking country in SK.

Just popped on to the spreadsheet to add Extracurricular (I gave it an 8) and there is no red on it at ll - there's loads on 2019 & pre-2019. Mind you i haven't gone back to Born Again that might end up in the red.

Quite enjoying Gank Your Heart though I have no idea what the title means

Started Hospital Playlist... What an unexpected pleasure!... Thought it was going to be standard hospital drama with wrangling for power over the hospital (basically all hospital dramas have this!).... But it's been lovely! With heartwarming characters... And friendships... Very much enjoying it... And it's quite quirky! Love the nuns and priests siblings ... The drunken "I'm a bad doctor I'm going to quit" flashbacks in ep 1 were hilarious!... The out of the blue "band".... Just very easy watching! 👍👍👍

I want Captain Ahn to get the girl.

Wang Yibo! 😂 😂 He is very handsome! 😂 😂 😂 I keep trying to watch The Untamed because it seems to be sooo well loved on my Tumblr Timeline... But I can't work it out...! It just seems to be all over the place... But the bromance seems lovely! 😂😂... Maybe will give it another go sometime! 😂

I now have a handful of cdramas under my belt and I still struggle to follow them sometimes. The beginning of Squid was like that - I watched the first episode twice before this attempt and gave up. I don’t know whether its shonky subbing or they approach the narrative differently at the start, but I often feel like I’ve been dropped in part way through & its assumed you know the lie of the land. I can’t remember if I felt like that at the start of my kdrama immersion. If anything, those dramabeans women were all WTF at the start of King which shows even the good stuff can challenge attentive viewers, but in kdrama you have faith it will be explained in good time.

Quick question for Betty: Does LibXian spend the whole of Tientsin Mystic in hippy tunics and harem pants, or does he shift to suits at some point? 🙏

It’s mostly the tunics & harem pants although at some point they dress up to investigate at the fancy schmancy hotel so he wears a suit and a rather fetching peaky blinders style cap 👌

I think a lot of Cdramas, especially historical/wuxia/xianxia expect you to know something. It's never clear what that something is though.

A good example is The Untamed. It's a minefield of time line errors where you're never sure if they're 16 years in the past or in the future. It doesn't help that his soul is inhabiting a body that isn't his but looks exactly the same as he used to in order to not confuse the viewers.

Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms expected you to understand the mythology surrounding the heavenly realm and the gods without explaining it. Even when it did add in little notes, translators missed them for the sake of keeping dialogue on track.

bettys Gank means to defeat in the gaming world. Usually via underhanded means. I guess defeat your heart sounded less appealing?

I think this is where the literature culture comes in to play. I grew up being read Tales of Song Goku, otherwise known as one of the 4 classic Chinese novels Journey to the West. This is what A Korean Odyssey is based on and the story is as familiar as Snow White to most Asians. It's a bit of a sweeping statement but there are variations on the same text all across most Asian regions.

I would say that C-dramas (especially the fantasy/historical) are based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber, Rulin Washi and Jin Ping Mei. Likewise, folklore about kitsune is well-known, so My Girlfriend is a Gumiho would be one that people would be familiar with. There are so many shared cultural/literature/folklore links that make it not as confusing if you've been brought up with it.

I guess it's like knowing about the gingerbread man or the story of Santa. I can't think of anything totally Eurocentric, so hopefully you'll understand what I mean. I suppose European literature is well-known, but classic Chinese/Japanese/Korean literature isn't, so it can be confusing at times without that knowledge. Shared folklore is one if the things that make it easier to understand the plots.

Actually, in terms of not explaining the mythology, it would be similar to Norse/Greek/Roman stories of their gods. I would presume that most people have heard of Thor, Loki and Odin, and the basic bones of their story. Dramas like The Almighty Johnsons are based on those tales and work off the assumption that people would have an understanding of those stories.

I always tell my kids that's why it's important for them to at least glance at the classics. If you have even a basic grasp of Shakespeare, then you can see how many films and dramas are influenced by his work.

I need coffee...

monkeywench I totally understand what you mean. It's just an inherant knowledge you get from growing up in the culture.

I've found it fascinating to read around the topic. After playing a video game about Japanese folklore, I ended up reading about Amaterasu and found it so interesting how the stories can be mirrored in western mythology. It does make me wonder if they all stemmed from a single person telling a tall tale.

You can actually follow how the tales spread around Asia by following the Silk Road. It's actually very interesting to see how much they have in common. The stories in CBBC's Tinga Tinga Tales are mostly based on African folklore, predominantly Tales of Anansi the spider (another trickster) , but again, variations on the theme are found throughout Africa. Grimm's/Anderson/Aesop's fables all have that thread of commonality and most Europeans would be familiar with them.

This is where I consider myself lucky to have parents who read and travelled extensively, and my dad always encouraged reading books from different countries. He always says that reading authors from different cultures gives you a different perspective, it might not resonate with you or you might not understand it, but you'll be able to recognise your differences and commonalities.

I am interested in folk tales, European fairy tales and Norse mythology. The Icelandic prose eddas are interesting. The opening section of Snorri Sturluson’s prose edda is fascinating - it starts with the creation myth, but he tries to reconcile Norse mythology and creation myths with Christianity. The Vikings’ historic trading links with the Mediterranean and the middle east are also evident in his creation mash-up. He pulls it off with a degree of success, though the contortions required to get there are amusing.

This discussion has prompted to buy the first book of Journey to the West on my Kindle. The full 4 book set of the translation by Anthony Yu is >£50 so I’ll see how I get on with the first one.

I totally agree that reading literature from other cultures brings insights & I try to read widely. Well, I did before kdrama swallowed up my free time. 😩

I love Tolkien and can see the heavy influence of the Bible in his work. The Silmarillion is essentially the tale of creation (and you can tell where there was a change in author)

It's interesting to see how common it is to have trickster gods and how stories of their comeuppance are tied in with common morality tales.

I'm trying to build DS a mini library of books from other countries. Finding European books is relatively easy but as soon as you leave the romance languages it's so difficult to source them. (If anyone has any recommendations for books from different countries, let me know)

What age group? Tinga tales (Tales from West Africa) and the abridged version of Journey to the West would be good. There are various versions of JTTW but look for the Monkey King stories because they are a bit more fun.

I am a cat by Natsume Soseki is a firm favourite. It's written from the cat's perspective and it always makes me wonder if my cats make similar observations