MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #35): Autumn - season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and Woolly Wookiee oppa

[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 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)🌟
My Liberation Notes🌟
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)
Our Blues (Netflix)🌟
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
Alchemy of Souls (Netflix) 🌟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)
Sweat and Soap (Viki, Japanese)
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. Happiness - 9
3. Devil Judge - 8.75
4. Squid Game - 8.63
5. Navillera - 8.57

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

2019’s top scoring dramas

1. Her Private Life - 9.40
2. Melo is My Nature - 9.00

3.= Crash Landing On You, The Crowned Clown, The Lies Within, and The Tale of Nokdu - 8.75

1. Hotel del Luna - 8.50

5.= Romance is a Bonus Book, and Search: WWW - 8.17

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. 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 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!

I couldn't get into that one at all Boaty, it makes sense now the non-baguette version lacks the critical <ahem> thrust of the plot.

I started Dear Door on bato but wasn't massively hooked. I have up when I realized there were still over a hundred episodes to go 😂 I think I'd had my fill of demonic bonking
I'm enjoying A Love So Pure on bato. It started off with quite a lot of sex but has now become a really cute rom com about cute boys exploring their sexualities (with highly muscled beef cake types)

I second a Love So Pure, it’s rather heartwarming. I’ve also started My Bias Appeared and am frustrated to be up to speed and waiting for new ones. I gave up on both versions of Dear Door for some reason

I have reached peak demon bonking too. Back to the tamer stuff with more story.

Started Gaus Electronics It's promising! Actually funny (even if some things undoubtedly lost in translation).

Quick! Booking has just opened for London Korean Film Festival and if anyone fancies Alienoid on the 3rd I think it will sell out FAST. I've just got two tickets...
www.koreanfilm.co.uk/schedule/

Was is das?

On Viki. New thingy. I likey.

Danke!

Was flipping through the normal channels there. Sky sci-fi was showing Train. Is cable/terrestrial tv getting on the k-drama bandwagon? Squid Game zeitgeist?

I'm going in, day off today and this afternoon is all to myself 🍿🎉

One episode in and it is bonkers for sure.

The great grandmother looks younger than the grandmother and the mother. The daughter looks older than the mother. not sure if that is due to poor casting or excellent surgery?
Still trying to work out who the daughter is trying to expose or if she knows about her 2nd husbands affair with his student 🤯
Bonkers I tell you, I'm going to give it one more episode then switch to the new workplace drama on VIKI

I rue the day FedUp sent us down the filthy manhwa rabbit hole. I swear my IQ has dropped 10 points in the last month.

<Magic Roundabout music plays in head>

Look I'm currently on the bus going to hear a Korean poet and translator in conversation so in the grand scheme of things it's all the yin and the yang innit? I may or may not be reading baguette filled fanfic on my journey...

I can't see One The Woman on the spreadsheet. Anyone seen it, if so is it good?
VIKI drives me mad sometimes as it's much harder to rewind and pause. I've decided to wait until more episodes of Gaus Electronics drops before starting it.

Pol That sounds like an interesting evening!

I’ve obvs been reading too much manhwa as I mentally superimposed ✨✨ SHA LA LA ✨✨ while watching Love Is For Suckers on Viki (ep 1 time code 54:41 )

It was Aesops. Inevitably a bit clunky when you have two way translation going on but still so interesting and the poems are beautiful ( the collection is called Unexpected Vanilla by Lee Hyemi). Amused that the first one they read was all about sharing an umbrella in the rain. And the poet talked about her formative experiences of violent bullying at school. KDrama not so far off the mark.

Her Peculiar Visitor on Manta (gluten free) is shaping up brilliantly and would make a great TV adaptation. It has a Black vibe but with more strands to it.

We’ve just finished Suspicious Partner which was quite enjoyable but could have been 16 episodes rather than 20.
The psychopath was brilliantly acted - genuinely sinister and repellent.

Having read comments on here, we’re going to watch Once Upon a Small Town as we fell in love with the Korean countryside while we were there and this will be a nice reminder.
Our plans for a return next May are underway - a few new places including Jeju island and a return to the fascinating and beautiful Hahoe village.

No your dinner was half an hour late because you discovered a really well written fan fic which is retelling every Hospital Playlist episode but including absolutely FILTHY friends with benefits sex 🤣

I feel like filthy fan fic might get me back reading regularly again, but it would not help me clear the book pile on my bedside table anymore than naughty manhwa does. Naughty manhwa makes me really belly laugh though. It’s so preposterous.

A new alpha/omega manhwa has dropped on bato, one episode only. Anyway, now I know it’s a “thing” I am less wowed by the originality of the other one although it gets points for internal coherence and a reasonably rounded alternative universe. I liked that the FL in the longer running one commented last week on how little research had been done into the side effects of the drugs the female omegas take vs the male alpha’s drugs. I got a faint whiff of feminism/Invisible Women.

I have a social commitment this evening so Love in Contract will have to wait. However, PMY has lost my sympathy by not being a cat person. I like cat Jamie way more. I’m starting to find PMY less likeable in romantic roles lately. She has a hardness about her.

Oh the stairwell lighting joke in LIC is genius.

I agree PMY rarely exudes much warmth. I didn't like her much in Healer and she hasn't grown on me much since, although she was ok in Her Private Life. I haven't seen What's Wrong With Secretary Kim, though.