MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #32): Spring is in the air, it’s blossom season and the BinJin wedding was lovely. Happiness abounds!

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the K-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, with a sprinkling of AmazonPrime, AppleTV and Disney+. There are also platforms streaming content illegally if you go looking. We don’t actively promote them as they are peppered with pop-ups of “Olga” and friends offering a good time, but we can point you in the right direction. We also dip into Japanese, Taiwanese & Chinese drama as & when.

The previous thread is here but our list 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. Writer/actor Simon Pegg referred to it fondly as “tonal chaos” - it’s part of kdrama’s charm. View the categories below as best approximate & ask if you need guidance about suitability for younger viewers.

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 Name (Netflix)
My Secret Terrius (Netflix)*
Signal (Netflix)*
Snowdrop (Disney+)
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/Netflix)*
Mr Queen (Viki)*
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)
Pachinko (AppleTV)
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (Netflix)
Tale of Nokdu (Viki/Netflix)*
The King’s Affection (Netflix)
The Red Sleeve (Viki)*

Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Business Proposal (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Dali & the Cocky Prince (Viki)
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)
Hometown Cha Cha Cha (Viki)*
Love from a Star (Netflix)*
Lovestruck in the City (Netflix)
Monthly Magazine Home (Viki)
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Radio Romance (Netflix)

Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)*
Run On (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)
To My Star [BL] (Viki)
True Beauty (Viki)
Twenty-five Twenty-one (Netflix)*
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Netflix/Viki)

What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)*
Where Stars Land (Viki)*
You are my Destiny (Netflix)
You Make Me Dance [BL] (Viki)
Yumi’s Cells (Viki)


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)
Doom At Your Service (Viki)
Fight For My Way (Viki/Netflix)*
Go Back Couple (Viki)/Couple on the Backtrack (Netflix)
I’ll Go To You When The Weather is Nice (Viki)
It’s OK Not To Be OK (Netflix)

Just Between Lovers (Viki)/Rain or Shine (Netflix)*
Mad For Each Other (Netflix)*
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, Netflix)*

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)*
Hospital Playlist 2 (Netflix)*
Into The Ring (Viki)
Itaewon Class (Netflix)
Live (Netflix)
Misaeng (Netflix)*
Move to Heaven (Netflix)
My Mister (Viki/Netflix)*
My Unfamiliar Family (Viki)*
Navillera (Netflix)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*

On The Verge of Insanity (Viki)
Once Again (Viki)
Stove League (Viki)/Hot Stove League (Netflix)
Racket Boys (Netflix)
Would You Like a Cup of Coffee (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
#Alive (Netflix)
Black (Netflix)*
Happiness* (Viki)
Hotel del Luna (Viki/Netflix)*
King: The Eternal Monarch (Netflix)
Kingdom (Netflix)*
Kingdom: Ashin of the North (Netflix)
Mystic Pop-up Bar (Netflix)
Peninsula - film, Train to Busan sequel (Amazon Prime, iMovies)
Sisyphus (Netflix)
The Guest (Netflix)
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)

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


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 ‘You May Also Like’
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)
In House Marriage Honey (Viki, Japanese)
In Time With You (Viki - Japanese)
Instead of Tipsy Why Not Get Drunk (Viki, Chinese)
Lost Romance (Viki, Taiwanese)
Love O2O (Viki, Chinese)
Million Yen Women (Netflix, Japanese)
Morning Call (Netflix, Japanese)
My Little Happiness (Viki, Chinese)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix, Chinese)
Rinko Wants To Try (Viki)
Some Day or One Day (Viki, Taiwanese)
The Romance of Tiger & Rose (Viki, Chinese)
To Fly with Me (Viki, Chinese)
Tientsin Mystic (Netflix, Chinese)
You Are My Hero (Viki, Chinese)*

AVOID aka “the shit list” 💩

Melting Me Softly
The Birth of a Beauty
Well-Intentioned Love season 1 (S2 is fine & stands alone)

Posters’ Top Scoring 2021 Dramas
Courtesy of Hello’s kdrama spreadsheet, updated by thread regulars. Marks out of 10.

1. The Red Sleeve - 10 (2 votes, more pending)
2. Happiness - 9 (6 votes)
3. Devil Judge - 8.75 (3 votes)
4. Squid Game - 8.63 (12 votes)
5. Navillera - 8.57 (7 votes)

2020’s top scoring dramas
1 - Mr Queen - 9.4 (5 votes)
2 - Parasite - 9.05 (10 Votes)
3 - It's Okay To Not Be Okay - 8.88 (9 Votes)
4 - The Uncanny Counter - 8.50 (4 Votes)
5 - Once Again - 8.42 (6 Votes)

2019’s top scoring dramas:

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, writers, film and music when the mood takes us. We have some ARMY (BTS fans) among our regulars. Some 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 sometimes resort to acronyms and/or abbreviations of show titles or favourite actors’ names. 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!

Bank holiday viewing here was Oscar winner Drive My Car. If (and it's quite a big if) 3 hours of Japanese art house cinema is your bag it's terrific.
Proud to get significance of last scene which I think would have passed a lot of UK viewers by.
Also always intrigued by international differences/nuances in sign language. Movie featured Korean Sign Language and it did feel very Korean! Quite succinct, formal and precise.

Musique I agree about 16 hours of your life for Itaewon Class! I did like the camaraderie of them running the bar though. We nearly gave up on it, but haven't given up on any dramas yet! Bea I do love PSJ but Sae ro-yi is a bit miserable (understandably so!). There's a couple of amazing songs on the soundtrack though.

Rowdy I loved the knitting 😂 Knitting as anger management 😳

pol I really want to see Drive My Car but DH already watched it for my brother's pretentious film club 🙈

Is it actually called 'Pretentious Film Club' Sakura? Sign me up!

I enjoyed the first 10 episodes of Itaewon Class, but after that I couldn't have cared less about about any of them. I stuck it out though. There's not many dramas I have given up on! I agree that the sound track was pretty good though.

I've had a lovely day listening to BTS with DD1 today. I'd forgotten how many of their songs I really liked.

@polkettle

Bank holiday viewing here was Oscar winner Drive My Car. If (and it's quite a big if) 3 hours of Japanese art house cinema is your bag it's terrific. Proud to get significance of last scene which I think would have passed a lot of UK viewers by. Also always intrigued by international differences/nuances in sign language. Movie featured Korean Sign Language and it did feel very Korean! Quite succinct, formal and precise.

What on chum? You know I love my Murikami!

Had to rent it FedUp. Worth it though!

I'll bite the bullet and do the same...

Or else DH could get me a "library copy"

Also (a message that will blow like tumbleweed if ever I've sent one) watching it has made me really want to visit Hiroshima to tour their waste incinerating power plant 😍

@polkettle

Also (a message that will blow like tumbleweed if ever I've sent one) watching it has made me really want to visit Hiroshima to tour their waste incinerating power plant 😍

ooOOOHHHhhhh!!!

There's a pretentious film club Sakura? I think we need a sister thread to this one

My DH has also watched that film Pol but behind my back, the swine. I am having to watch the Quo tonight instead of Reply 1988. Similar fashion at any rate. I can see the rich dad being a fan of all the leather blouson jackets.

Pol one of the more enjoyable experiences of my life was a tour of a nuclear power plant, I understand your desire to see a waste incinerating power plant.

I can get on board with the power plant tour, I once spent an incredibly enjoyable day at Dairyland in Devon learning about dairy farming 🤷‍♀️.

I was in the mood for something daft and started the Uncanny Counter today and am already on ep 4 and getting strong Buffy vibes, it's tremendous fun, big thumbs up so far. Saving next ep of pachinko for tomorrow.

Larry every day can be a school day if you open your mind (to the joy of nuclear dairy farms)!

Uncanny Counter is good fun apart from all the whacking of people.

I loved Uncanny! It was lovely! And I blubbed lots!!, 😢😢😢

All the thumbs up for nuclear dairies my thread chingu soulmates. #MyHeartFluttersForLargeScaleIndustrialMachinery

@MusiqueAutomatique

Pol one of the more enjoyable experiences of my life was a tour of a nuclear power plant, I understand your desire to see a waste incinerating power plant.

Some of the geothermal plants in Iceland allow visitors. This one’s within an hour’s drive of Reykjavik, has a visitor centre and a coffee shop where cups jiggle on the tables because of the sheer might of the turbines in the adjacent turbine hall: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellisheiði_Power_Station

I would too be interested in touring a nuclear power plant. It’s the sort of offbeam attraction we’d make a special detour for on holiday. 😂

Blue Re: DH and BTS. He keeps wandering in when I'm playing their music and asking 'What's this? It's good'. But just grunts in a non-committal fashion when I tell him. Clearly more work needed 😁

Musique Congrats on membership! I feel the siren call too...

Sakura Another here who's up for joining the Pretentious Film Club 😂

Pol I will pass your London tips on a friend from my course who will be visiting soon 🙂 And Drive My Car - yes! I was also really happy to get the significance of the final scene. The friend I was with didn't. It was only when we discussed it that I realised how second-nature it's all become.

And yeah - industrial heritage 🙌 I'm the kind of person who visits steam pumping stations for fun. I'm feeling you all 🤩

Reason number 462 to have Iceland on the destination bucket list.

Hahaha we are total hive mind, visiting a power station is exactly the sort of thing we do on our holidays. We are planning a trip to France in the summer and we are still deciding where to go, but we had found a power plant to visit so now the trip is being planned around that 😬

Soviet bunkers of Latvia may have been a highlight of Baltic holiday when DS's were preschoolers...
(Perhaps a little too close to the bone to visit enthusiastically now)

Haha! Loving the love for Pretentious Film Club. That's my slightly mean name for my brother's film club. They watch a lot of art house MUBI stuff. Not my cup of tea. I watch a few if they take my fancy, but I'm not in it myself (DH is though).

Pol loving the fact you want to visit the waste incinerating plant We were just in Copenhagen and I keep pointing out the one there.

Hiroshima is very interesting. The city devotes itself to getting rid of nuclear weapons now. I didn't visit the waste plant when I went there though!

The nuclear power plant I went to was first built in the early 60s but looked a lot older, it wasn't the modern, sparkly place I had in my mind. It looked like a Thunderbirds set on a huge scale that had been left to decay for sixty years.

Ooh, a geothermal powerplant sounds great Boaty. It would be a highlight of any holiday I am sure!

Anyway, I've always wanted to go here:
Not-So Secret Nuclear Bunker

I'm off to bed for a nap. As well as getting up to watch BTS at 3.30am, I also have a real life show to go to tonight. I am going to be a zombie tomorrow.

Honestly, Hellisheidi is the business. There is a pushbutton earthquake thing that replicates the rumble of an earthquake and a young engineer on hand to patiently explain geothermal power generation to endlessly questioning kids poor guy was so hungover he was sweating alcohol. 😂

@Metheven

sakura06 I think I loved the second lead couple even better than the first in Business Proposal. The dimples had a lot to do with it.

I'm with you on that. The second couple storyline just seemed to have more depth.