MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #39): February sees the Filthy Noonas warmed by the smouldering embers of Jin’s leather trousers

[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 a star 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)
Little Women (Netflix)
My Name (Netflix)
My Secret Terrius (Netflix)🌟
Signal (Netflix)🌟
Somebody (Netflix, content warning: sexual & violence)
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 Forbidden Marriage (Viki)
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 (Netflix)🌟
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
Gaus Electronics (Viki)🌟
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)
Sell Your Haunted House (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)
First Love (Netflix - Japanese)🌟
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)
Meet Yourself (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 Makanai (Netflix, 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)

Top Scoring 2022 Dramas
Courtesy of much-missed Hello’s kdrama spreadsheet, updated by thread regulars. Marks out of 10.

#1 My Liberation Notes 9.45

#2Alchemy of Souls 9.10

#3 First Love 8.88 (Jdrama)

#4 Our Blues 8.83

#5 Gaus Electronics 8.75

Top Scoring 2021 Dramas
#1 The Red Sleeve - 10
#2 Happiness - 9
#3 Devil Judge - 8.75
#4 Squid Game - 8.6
#5 Navillera - 8.57

Top Scoring 2020 dramas
#1 Mr Queen - 9.4
#2 Parasite (film) - 9.05
#3 It's Okay To Not Be Okay - 8.88
#4 The Uncanny Counter - 8.50
#5 Once Again - 8.42

Top Scoring 2019 dramas
#1 Her Private Life - 9.40
#2 Melo is My Nature - 9.00
#3 tied: Crash Landing On You, The Crowned Clown, The Lies Within, and The Tale of Nokdu - 8.75
#4 Hotel del Luna - 8.50
#5 tied: Romance is a Bonus Book, and Search: WWW - 8.17

We are fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean cookery, language, current affairs, film and music when the mood takes us. A few of us are learning Korean, Japanese and/or Mandarin (some more diligently than others), so we swap tips and links to language resources. Basically, anything topical goes.

We often resort to acronyms and/or abbreviations of show titles or 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 went to a work conference when I was 7 months pregnant with DS1. Factor in the olfactory powers of a bloodhound when I was pregnant and the no drinking. There were two men sat in front of me in the next morning’s plenary who’d clearly had a skin-full and were still sweating alcohol (not a scientifically based statement). It was not pretty. When I watched that scene in DAS, that’s the smell that came to mind.

Haha! Prob that exact smell boaty 😂 no wonder the noodle shop lady called them losers.

@boatyardblues @polkettle

Fancy an ugly cry?

mto.to/title/75347-umarekawatte-mo-mata-watashi-to-kekkon-shite-kuremasu-ka

Thanks FedUp. Is it going to break my heart? Not sure... Should I be brave and try anyway?
I have heard that there are a lot of early morning vomit puddles in Seoul - suspect the smell of last night's soju-ing may be pretty strong on the morning trains.

Belated Happy St Patrick's Day for yesterday! 💚

Also enjoying Jimin's new track. I agree TheLoup, most BTS-sounding of the latest solo releases. All time favourite solo for me (and up there in top five chunes of all time) is AgustD's 'People' (in Korean: Saram 😻) closely followed by Daechwita and Moonlight. Also love J-Hope's 'Hangsang' (in our vocab list for this week 😁 'always').

Pol Pools of soju vomit 😂 Authenticity at its best 😁makes a change from remnants of kebabs and Diamond White.

AgustD's 'People' is one of my favourite tracks on my playlist, all genres all artists. Love it.

Are there vomiting scenes in Divorce Attorney Shin? As an emetophobe I like to check these things out before I watch the drama.
The prolonged drinking scenes are one of the things I like least about K drama - that and actors in their 30s playing schoolboys.

I don't think there was any vomiting Andante (but someone correct me if I've forgotten). They're seasoned drinkers. A certain amount of heading to toilets for the opposite end.

Andante no vomiting - just sore stomachs and plenty of regrets (+ sustained disapproval from the noodle shop lady).

'People' is a great track, I was just listening to it in the car.

Thank you Pol & TheLoup - now I’m looking forward to watching the show.

It's very moving and sweet. Some of it is set during the war.

I am saving Pol’s heartbreak for another say. After the amusing fast food restaurant translation Pol(?) posted earlier this week, here’s a hot take on Ubereats. 😂

This is adorable - love in a time of lockdown, a manga for the COVID generation: batotoo.com/title/113607-telework-yotabanashi-knox-scans (gluten free). Same author as Sweat and Soap. It’s still on weekly release so not yet complete.

The student meet-up thing was a blast! I was matched with a film studies student from Busan. We had an hour to get to know each other and come up with four activities to do together in the coming weeks. So we talked the hind legs off of the proverbial donkey (in English...) and have decided we want to go to a concert together, cook together, see a film, and visit a museum. I'm looking forward to it!

My course chingu's match was really nice too. A group of us ended up going to get bubble tea together. We were all talking about K-pop and the concerts we'd been to, and the girl said we were all way more into it and knew alot more about it than her 😂She hadn't even heard of some of the bands we liked. I had heard this before - that groups that sell out stadiums in Europe/the US can be more or less unknown in their home country.

Only embarassing moment was when I couldn't work out how to access the toilets (fancy concealed door in a architecturally complex wall) and a nice young male student jumped up and helped the confused noona/ahjumma 🙈😂respect for your elders and all that. His mum would be proud 😁

That. Sounds. WONDERFUL!!!

It does sound great. What did they make of your k-obsession? Were they bemused? Flattered at your interest in their country? It must be quite strange.

DH and I met an American when we were on a road trip in our 20s who was really into English tea and having afternoon tea. DH and I were perfectly friendly as she held forth about loveliness of our delightful British tea traditions. Afterwards we agreed she’d be appalled if she knew we used Sainsburys red label teabags 95% of the time and our teapot was almost never used.

Brilliant Saram! I'm so glad it went well and it sounds like some fun activities lined up over the next few weeks 🙂

I remember going to a bar in Edinburgh years ago that had the toilets concealed behind a fake bookcase - more confusing than you might think after a few drinks 😂

That sounds amazing Saram.

Excellent Saram!

What fun is in store for you Saram!

What about the special toilets in Harrods that you get an invitation to use and the stall doors just look like part of the wall, leaving you very confused and bursting?

That was a few years ago, mind, they are probably more inclusive nowadays.😁

Happy Eomma Day!

I just shouted at DS to make me toast and now he is huffing so that's good.

Glad to hear I'm not only person who struggles identifying/accessing places to wee. And delighted to hear of the shared love here for 'People'. This is why I am on this thread. You are well and truly my tribe 🙌😻

boaty What did they make of my obsession? Well I did ask them about that 😁 They didn't seem at all phased. Even the BTS bit 😂 They seemed delighted that we knew so many things that were familiar to them and could speak a bit of their language. After all they're young people a long way from home, sometimes for the first time. Most see their family not more than once a year. And it's difficult for them to meet local people as their courses are taught in English, so they only meet other foreign students. I mean it's quite possible they've gone back to their halls of residence and said 'I met this crazy lady who thinks I'm actually going to go and have dinner in her Korea-obsessed den, like RIGHT'. But I don't think so 😁

Hope your toast arrives FedUp - I got a coffee in bed and a card where ds has crossed out everywhere it says 'mother's day and changed it to 'monkey's day' and a purple box made by dd at school with a photo of herself inside and a cute message, apparently it also used to contain a chocolate but she ate it 😂 .... Ds1 has just also brought me some yogurt and fruit and a card with a chimpanzee (what is with the monkey theme??!)

FedUp Result 😁 It's not Eomma Day here, we have a different date. But happy Eomma Day to all eommas anyway! 😍

A few other takeaways from the student meet-up. I might have mentioned this before, but all Koreans I know here operate, or have operated, under two names. Their Korean name, and their self-appointed Western name. Of course Korean names seem pretty familiar to most of us by now, but thinking about it I would probably struggle with pronouncing say a Cambodian name and would certainly be unable to write it correctly in Khmer. The names they choose all sound weirdly dated/old-fashioned to me (enormous apologies if I offend anyone here when I give examples - I mean in the context of a 22-year-old Korean girl). Like Tiffany, Susan, Lesley. It was so nice when they said we should use their original Korean names, as we can actually write and pronounce them properly.

And K-pop concerts. I think it was you @Dragonrock who said what a positive experience the BTS concert was. Inclusive, woman-friendly and supportive. That's been my experience so far too at the three K-pop things I've been to. BUT another student from our Korean school that I got talking to had been to the same ATEEZ concert as us, but got VIP tickets. That means you get early entrance, stand right at the front and sometimes get group photos/one-on-ones with the idols. For an enormously inflated price. She said it was grim, girls jostling for attention from the idols and being bitchy to each other. Shame to hear that. Our experience was 100% positive. But I guess there are delu-lus and toxic fans in all fandoms, not just K-pop.