MsLattés Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #19): Our noona days may be behind us but the ajummas of darkness will unleash their inner Gangnam leopards as the festive season approaches

[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 as they are peppered with pop-ups of “Olga” and friends offering a good time, which gets in the way of the drama.

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/Netflix)
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)*
Stranger - 2 seasons (Netflix)
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)*
The Lies Within (Netflix)*
Tunnel (Netflix)*

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
100 Days My Prince (Viki/Netflix)
Crowned Clown (Viki)*
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (Netflix)
Tale of Nokdu (Viki/Netflix)*

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)
It’s OK Not To Be OK (Netflix)

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 Handmaid (film, Netflix - content warning: explicit sexual content)
The Package (Viki)



Straighter ‘Slice of Life’ dramas on universal themes
Hospital Playlist (Netflix)
Into The Ring (Viki)
Itaewon Class (Netflix)
Live (Netflix)
Misaeng (Netflix)
My Mister (Viki/Netflix)*
My Unfamiliar Family (Viki)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*

Once Again (Viki)
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)
Kiss Goblin (Viki, webdrama)
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/Netflix)*
King: The Eternal Monarch (Netflix)
Kingdom (Netflix)*

Mystic Pop-up Bar (Netflix)
The Guest (Netflix)
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)

W: Two Worlds (Viki & Netflix)*
Zombie Detective (Viki)


Guilty Pleasures (for the joy, not the quality)
Bride of Habaek (Netflix)
Hwarang (Viki/Netflix)
My Secret Romance (Viki)
The Last Empress (Viki/Netflix)
Sassy Go Go (Netflix)



Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable

Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
School Nurse Files (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)
Find Yourself (Netflix - Chinese)
Go Go Squid (Viki - Chinese)
Instead of Tipsy Why Not Get Drunk (Viki - Chinese)
Lost Romance (Viki - Taiwanese)
Love O2O (Viki - Chinese)
Morning Call (Netflix - Japanese)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix - Chinese)
The Romance of Tiger & Rose (Viki, 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…

There’s a Signal 2? Where?

Bea I love good word play in lyrics or literature. As a teen my favourite (and still is the one band that I would probably squeal at, which it totally out of character for me) was The Blue Hearts. The word play in some of their songs was epic! There is a lyric in one of their songs that goes

君、ちょと逝ってくれないか hey you, will you go
捨てゴマになってくれないか will you become a pawn
いざこざにまきこまれて get involved in this mess
死んでくれないか and die willingly
The kanji 逝く (iku) is means to die, and is a play on the homonym for go, which is 行く(iku)

I love reading and I always said that my ideal job would have been in a library or bookshop, but my family say that just sitting and reading books is not part of the job 🤨 I couldn't have gone into publishing or editing, there are books out there that you couldn't pay me to read 😂

@bettys Yes I'm pretty much down the line agreeing with you. I am a huge LDW fangirl so I'm surprised but actually you know maybe he just can't QUITE carry the lead? Kim Bum was just more interesting overall and got better over time. Whereas LDW sort of fizzled out and dragged, though I did enjoy his swagger!

The main romance was a bit dull, despite all the high drama and I can't really put my finger on why? Maybe they just hit it too hard. They didn't really seem to have anything in common apart from their fated 4eva love.

I wasn't hugely bothered by his fate and I totally expected the final frame 'twist', but conversely was totally swept up in Kim Bum's fortune teller scene!

In my mental list of 2020 this goes below Mystic Pop Up, It's Okay..., but above King: Eternal Monarch, I think?

I actually enjoyed it quite a lot! I liked granny, I liked the snail wife, I liked the rescue fox, I LOVED the theme park. I feel like I would read a ton of fanfic in this universe.

OK, MN is gaslighting me 🤔 i had another post before about my lurv for Namgoon Min, especially the bromance in Manager Kim. Definitely prefer his brand of gurning to Siwon 😂
Very productive week off merging with my bed watching Dating in the Kitchen and Signal 2. Bloody freezing 🥶

It posted, ‘cause I replied and I still want to know where I can find Signal 2. 😄

@jojomolo yes the theme park!!! when we saw it again I sooooo wanted to know more about the supernatural characters that were working there with the magistrate! they were very underused.

And that look that Kim Bum gives rescue fox at the end......such utter love and care

I think Jo Bo Ah was the problem with the romance. LDW pulled off romance twice with Yoo In Nah

I don't think there's a Signal 2.....unless there's a Japanese version?

I just finished nine tailed, very much agree with everyone's comments. I liked most of the characters and it nearly had me sobbing when Yeon did his final video for his brother. But the main romance was off for me, and I wasn't very keen on the FL throughout, not sure if it was her acting or it just wasn't a great role.

The things I liked were

*Lee Rang's relationship with the little kid (plus, the fact that they just kept him!)
*Mrs Snail Bride's outfits
*The elders at Samdocheon River

• The Russian fox *The vet fox who inexplicably got more handsome and stylish in the final episode *Lee Dong Wook... Although I gent similar when watching him in Life... Do I like him or not?

I just started Itaewan clas, only watched one episode so far though.

That was meant to be Stranger 2 🤔 WTF is going on today??? Lol Can anyone else see that post or have I lost my mind?? Not that it's difficult to do that these days...

It's true - LDW did carry Touch Your Heart. That was a very solid, well made drama and his chemistry with Yoo In Nah was lovely.

His other 1ML that I can recall well was Scent of A Woman, which I watched, yes, I totally watched it, but I think we can all agree it was absolute balls.

Compared to Goblin - man - I loved him in Goblin. It's not actually one of my deepest loves but I love LDW so much in that drama. I just rewatched that with a friend I am painstakingly addicting for the cause and maybe Nine Tailed suffered for the comparison.

The theme park filled with real mythical creatures working as fake versions of themselves for minimum wage was absolutely brilliant. I'd watch that show.

I got my hopes up for Signal 2 there Monkeywench

@jojomolo and @Rowdythree just finished the last nine tailed and completely agree- eared up at the bit with the video for his brother and with the fortune teller, and when the brother just curls up whilst she's screaming and crying at the end of episode 15.
Definitely wanted to know more about the theme park, in fact I loved all of it apart from the romance, i thought it was ok at the begining where she asks if he likes her or his memory of her past life but then she seemed to get a bit wimpy and passive and it just didn't seem to work?

The shackles of hell remained much the best part of Nine Tailed. Only romance I was remotely invested in was the Snail Bride.
In (half hearted) defence of the FL - it's a hard gig to pull off part imugi/part human/part 600 year old reincarnation/part obsessed with missing undead parents (who were just fine after 20 years in a Chinese lantern)/part totes happy to say hi and bye after getting dad to make his bimibap.

That's true @Polkettle 😂 also why were her parents not at the wedding? We didn't see them again after her birthday when she received gifts! Also her work colleagues/past life servants. Their characters were just abandoned

Agree about the shackles, totally the best part

Yeah, I think 1FL was the problem largely. It's like, she had all the usual pieces of a character but it was disconnected.

I'm thinking about something like Her Private Life, where every person in Deok Mi's life helps create her character - her quiet, brokenhearted father curating his rocks, her stroppy, energetic mother and her knitting knitting knitting, her foster brother and his twin strands of competitiveness and nurturing, her best friend and her exuberant fangirl love --- it all makes her into this particular person that particularly WOULD be like that, think that way, love that way.

In Nine Tailed Nam Ji Ah had more character notes (a whole character sheet of them) but none of them worked together to make her into any kind of person. She was just there and so were also all these people. Flob.

@jojomolo Excellent analysis. That's the nub of it. It did what Western drama does all of the time - sacrifice full character coherence in favour of action and plot. I'm not sure even the strongest actress could have made it a convincing journey.

One thing I love about kdrama is the way each person expresses the themes of the story - it's so rich and emotionally complex. I was just thinking how Se Ri in CLOY really is (thematically) South Korea - incredibly stylish, rich, powerful, but also wounded and sad - with a piece missing and a suppressed, half forgotten longing to be whole again. A feeling of never being properly accepted by her family, of being mistreated and exploited, while also being spectacularly successful on their terms (I think it's no accident that her evil half brother hatches all his schemes in a Japanese restaurant), and that Jeong Hyeok is the one that brokers her reconciliation with her stepmother (who is playing... China? in this analogy ).

But you can do this with any character in a good kdrama. Everyone is so interwoven. I love it!

And yes... shackles of hell. Koff. Those too.

Excellent analagy jojo

@jojomolo Spot on! Both analogies. Really enjoy reading everyone's insights, that's why I love these threads!

Uncanny Counter is my current favourite. It is rather more violent than I expected, but building very well.
As a side note the ahjussi counter is 51 - so in Gangnam Leopard range but unlike Korean Dennis Waterman has an impressive physique - they managed to add in a random shot of him working out (ep 4). Not that I've seen Korean Dennis Waterman working out....in Reply 1988 he spends most of the time drinking and playing Go.

I just signed up for a Korean language class starting in January! I'm so excited🙌 I need a teacher to build up my confidence with speaking as I can only get so far with apps

@Rowdythree

I just signed up for a Korean language class starting in January! I'm so excited🙌 I need a teacher to build up my confidence with speaking as I can only get so far with apps

Is it an online or an in person class Rowdythree? I am 2 days away from a year duolingo Korean streak, and still can only pick out the odd word from the dramas.

It's over zoom with an actual teacher. It would be in person if not for Covid. I've been doing Lingodeer and Talk to me in Korean for 2 years and feel like I've not got anywhere really. I was considering a private tutor, but found this class to see if I can progress to the next level.

Thanks for the recommendations bettys. I have watched Fall in Love with Me and didn't think it was that good and skipped a lot of it, they kept adding more and more drama! I do like Aaron Yan, and he does like his CEO roles . Refresh Man was better, and even Just You - at a push!
Bromance keeps popping up as one to watch on my Netflix so I will give it a go. Saving Falling Into You until all episodes have dropped.

@Rowdythree Well done you! I really want to do one but I'm going to wait until it can be an in real life one as I think that's the only way anything will sink in. How's your scarf wrapped baby growing up?

@jojomolo excellent analysis. Really interesting.
@Rowdythree that's exciting about the Korean lessons. I'm very impressed

[quote polkettle]@Rowdythree Well done you! I really want to do one but I'm going to wait until it can be an in real life one as I think that's the only way anything will sink in. How's your scarf wrapped baby growing up?[/quote]
To be honest, I'm not sure I've done it correctly. It just looks like a jar of rice 😂 oh well, I shall keep it wrapped up and continue to monitor it!