MsLatte’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #16): Serving up guaranteed corona-free escapism throughout lockdown to lurkers, passers-by and regulars.

[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 AmazonPrime. There are also platforms streaming content illegally if you go looking, but we don’t promote them.

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, no major site yet)
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 (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/Netflix)*
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 (other sites)
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/Netflix from June)
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 (no mainstream platform yet)
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 decent quality
Regulars also 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 Scoring Dramas of 2019
(courtesy of Hello’s kdrama spreadsheet, which are updated by/for thread regulars)

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…

Just found out - Jan 21!
On another note - is anyone watchingFix You? I find Shin Ha Kyun very attractive and not sure why.

Madam Antoine is a good choice and I enjoyed it. I won't do spoilers but the relationships do make you think about how the past has an impact.

The best tool for making rolled eggs is chopsticks. They make it so much easier to control the rolling and oiling the pan. I make mine with a pinch of powdered dashi, soy sauce and sugar. I make the first roll a slightly thicker, omelette layer which keeps the rest of the roll moist.

hello it has survived my clumsiness and DS cooking, the thing is indestructible 😂😂 I might have to resort to MIL, she broke hers by dropping a full pan of potatoes on it and cracking the glass.

My Netflix now has a section called Kdrama for beginners, obviously based on my viewing choices 😂😂 It's all seen that, on my list, ditched that lol
I wish they had a better way to organise the watch list, especially on the app. It can get tedious scrolling through. DS says that the answer is a shorter list, I have no idea what he's wittering on about. 🤔

monkeywench, can you remember if it has a satisfactory/happyish ending?

the answer is a shorter list, I have no idea what he's wittering on about. 🤔

Me neither what nonsense! I have a list of lists on my phone eg watched, currently watching, plan to watch etc etc

I am supposed to be working today but of course I am on here monologuing and debating my own personal drama scoring system in my head, which goes something like this:

10 - OMG just amazing in my top 5 of all time
9 - VVVVVV good everyone should watch this
8 - Thoroughly enjoyable would strongly recommend
7 - Watched all the way through and enjoyed
6 - Watched most with some skipping
5 - Variable in quality
4 - Disappointing
3 - Not really worth watching
2 - Don't bother - turkey
1 - Why did they bother making this? Waste of everyone's time

Anything with a minus score is beyond the pale
Anyone else got a scoring system?

haha bettys, are you in my head. That's very similar to my thinking about scoring dramas.

fifi it has a happy ending. Autocorrect tried to make you Fiji, now I want to be lying in a hammock on a beach with umbrella drinks served by oppas

I want to be lying in a hammock on a beach with umbrella drinks served by oppas

....brain has gone somewhere else...... still haven't started work yet..

Are we sure that bettys isn't really just our collective consciousness? You seem to get all our thoughts spot on. My scoring is very similar, apart from 2 and 1 have a lot more exasperated sighing and swearing in their definitions

@bettys

the answer is a shorter list, I have no idea what he's wittering on about. 🤔

Me neither what nonsense! I have a list of lists on my phone eg watched, currently watching, plan to watch etc etc

I am supposed to be working today but of course I am on here monologuing and debating my own personal drama scoring system in my head, which goes something like this:

10 - OMG just amazing in my top 5 of all time
9 - VVVVVV good everyone should watch this
8 - Thoroughly enjoyable would strongly recommend
7 - Watched all the way through and enjoyed
6 - Watched most with some skipping
5 - Variable in quality
4 - Disappointing
3 - Not really worth watching
2 - Don't bother - turkey
1 - Why did they bother making this? Waste of everyone's time

Anything with a minus score is beyond the pale
Anyone else got a scoring system?

Can we have a separate tab in the drama spreadsheet to work up some kind of consensus around scoring. We can tag our own scores with comments if eg a particularly fine oppa sways us to a more favourable score, so others have fair warning.

a particularly fine oppa sways us to a more favourable score, so others have fair warning.

Indeed, I think I placed a note on Tempted to say that it was only worth watching for gazing upon WDH & KMJ. In fact now that WDH is off to the feckin' military it may persuade some to take another look.

.......I am really going to start work now....oh look it's nearly lunchtime....

@helloswellow

Are we sure that bettys isn't really just our collective consciousness? You seem to get all our thoughts spot on. My scoring is very similar, apart from 2 and 1 have a lot more exasperated sighing and swearing in their definitions

We are Borg - the collective hive

I think having another tab is a great idea boaty. I always think that I need to explain my score if it's so different from others. Lots of sighing and swearing, and go to and fro with the decision.
This is such hard work

Loving the scoring system. I haven't managed to watch much this week. Just yesterday's episode of Mystic.
Also I want to show off that I have got up to a 70 day streak in Duolingo Korean, and no one else will be interested apart from you lot 😂

Basically the 5 or 10 shows I truly love get 8.5 or above. Only two 10s from me: My Mister and CLOY. Her Private Life lost half a point for the unecessary plot twist in episode 14/15 that took focus from Deok Mi. I'm sure you can all guess the one I mean.

I have scored things 5 or 6 that I only watched episodes 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, and 16 (my standard pattern for poorly paced/boring shows with some mild charm to them). Or they are fine but just not my taste, like, I really don't enjoy the comedy of embarassment - I have a huge squick for that - but I am capable of seeing that a show is well made despite my VAST HATRED of it so I sort of uprank those a little above my actual feelings.

Or there are some things I watched obsessively (Empress Ki) but I don't know why. I can't say it was that good. So I knock that down from 8 to 7. I think I might second guess myself a little too much!!

I ranked Forest 4 because I thought it was boring as shit but I wasn't enraged by it or anything. 3 is probably the lowest score I would give, which means I hated it but I can see that others might stand it in some way....

I don't think I've gone lower or minused anything but that is because I rarely remember things I really hate. I dump them and erase them from my mind! (This is actually a problem sometimes when I insist to DH I haven't seen a film when I've made him sit through it at least twice and complained all the way through ).

I have nothing useful to say except it's bloody hot... just checking in !!!!

I have actually started watching the package on viki... which is sort of like Love Boat but with koreans and in paris!... everyone has their individual stories unfolding... it's quite sweet and nice to while alway the evnings until Netflix It's Ok new eps drop!!!

I liked The Package too.

I have little to contribute, as aside from Oh My Baby and It’s Okay, I am rewatching Nokdu in short bursts and falling asleep on the sofa lots.

I am not currently winning at kdrama, or anything else. I had an online catch up with friends recently and they are all doing constructive things in lockdown and have many accomplishments they can point to. Not me. I felt like the class dunce. Oops.

Now it’s hot, I am embracing my inner mañana.

Aw sweet end to Mystic! 🐝

I was oddly worried that the Cinnabar wouldn’t get her girls’ nights out!

And the young ML has also gone off to do his military service!

bettys!.... Mystic only 12 eps! Didn't realise it was finished... Off to meet stay with our social bubble tonight so might not be able to catch up until we get back! Booo! I think I've got lockdown angst! It's like coming out of hibernation! 😂

Thanks for the rolled omelette tips. I shall experiment with my round pan this weekend.
Started Radio Romance again and shall persevere til no 5.
Sooo hot here and spending evening in garden for the breeze 🥵

Aw, The Romance of Tiger and Rose also ends nicely 🐝

NEXT!!!!

Did you get any work done today Betty?