MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #40): The Filthy Noonas’ rapidly expanding flock gambol into spring with a giddiness only matched by Junkook’s drunken vlives

[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)
Our Blooming Youth (Viki)
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/Netflix)
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 Course in Romance (Netflix)
Crash Landing on You (Netflix)🌟Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Doctors (Netflix)
Doom At Your Service (Viki)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)
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
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)🌟
Delivery Man (Viki)
Happiness (Viki/Netflix)🌟
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’
We 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
Coutrtesy of much-missed Hello’s kdrama spreadsheet, updated by thread regulars. Marks out of 10.
#1 My Liberation Notes 9.45
#2 Alchemy 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 - 9.42
#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!

Saram out of interest what was your Korean exchange students' take on the meaning? I read something online about it sort of representing the fractured sense of time during the pandemic - so time simultaneously seeming to stand still and fly past.... The 'right' time having not yet been and gone..... That could be a bit of a reach tho ...

Good dream - I bet Tae indeed smells nice and fresh! I'm going to try to persuade DH to watch Beef .....

Moved to look up the lyrics in question and hate to be the bucket of cold water chingus but that is just not interpretable. Take it as Art mate and let it go.
I spent quite a lot of yesterday on 69 episodes of Heart Crush on some dodgy manhwa site. No regrets 10/10 good time for the medical romance lover.
Liked the speedy switch over from sobfest 39 on DAS. Agree stepmother is evil cow - bit uncomfortable with the association with class and implication that she's basically "common".

Oh and Beef is totally brilliant.

I am out in the sticks for Easter. The tv here only has free-view and the wifi isn’t all that. There wasn’t even mobile reception, let alone 3G (4/5G only in our dreams) when we were out walking yesterday. I’m making do with my kindle and a bit of manhwa when we’re back at our cottage. Thoughts & prayers please chingus. (Thankfully MN is OK.)

pol 😂 🙌 keepin' it real 😁The contrast between the beautifully crafted, complex Korean lyrics and the English 🙈 yes I need to let it go 😂All over the internet all I can see is people gushing about how wonderful the new track is. Overall, it's a good + really, not more than that. In fact I think it's the weakest of the first releases from the four solo albums. I see from his promotional schedule that this not the lead single 🤔

Glad you're enjoying Beef too!

TheLoup Re: interpretation. She didn't go into details 😁 I was in a group hug with Taehyung 😃he smelt like freshly-washed cotton that's been drying on the line in the sun 😍 thanks subconscious 😁

boaty thoughts and prayers indeed 😨

Haha Pol it's going to bug me forever like the song on the Korean Odyssey soundtrack that belts out "ALWAYS BEHIND OF YOU" in the chorus 🫣😱

Saram yes, I like Yoongi's part and it's an ok track, but I found it just made me want to go back and listen to the original 'People' ...

Adding to the thoughts and prayers boaty - but at least the kindle is working, phew!

TheLoup I really love the video too (funny that 😄). But at the same time it reminds me of when we stayed with family friends in California years ago. They had a similar (though smaller) house. Lovely view over the valley, decking, water feature. And two dogs..... As there was no garden, the dogs did their business in a courtyard decking bit with a separate entrance off of the main house. It was like poo central, and some poor devil had to clear it out everyday 😬. I'm sure Yoongi would have staff for this. But still. I'd want to know what the score was before I turned up to hang out with whisky, takeout and honey butter chips. Mate I'll help you with your English lyrics, I'll bring alcohol and snacks, but you are on poo clearance duty. Just sayin'.

Ahhhh, stinky poo on the decking baking under the California sun - definitely not as nice an aroma as Tae Tae 🤣 & would detract from the appeal of hanging out with whiskey and chips.....

I have the eternally incomprehensible "Always Behind of You" stuck in my head, now, thanks for that, TheLoup 😂. As for English lyrics that don't make any sense, it never seemed to do David Bowie's career any harm so I suspect Yoongi will get away with it. When DH was younger some French friends who were in a band asked for help with some English lyrics but he said taking something someone's thought of in French, translate it into English and then make it fit the music was almost impossible, you need to write it in English from the start really. The Korean band Say Sue Me mostly sing in English and their lyrics make perfect sense so I suspect the occasional nonsensical English lyrics in k-pop are probably the equivalent of nonsensical English words on t-shirts - intended to be decorative rather than meaningful. Fine for a domestic audience but occasionally mystifying/hilarious to English speakers!

Cobol you are welcome for the earworm 🤣 share my pain - I have been humming it all day!!

Just remembered the artist's name is Bumkey 🤔. I'm not sure that really works in English either😂. I do quite like the song, though.

Awww it's all come flooding back to me - I like the song too and I LOVED LSG in that role, Son Oh Gong is such a good character & I'm so fond of that show despite its flaws 😍

'Bum Key' definitely lost a little something in translation ...

It also had this on the soundtrack by Jimin and Yuna

Wholesale massage chairs in Beef 😂

I have a very puerile sense of humour and BumKey is pressing all my buttons 😁

pol The Shelf of Happiness boasts last year's Korean Vogue BTS edition. Quite apart from the BTS content, I bloody love looking through it for all the random adverts. Like this (apologies for crap photo) 😁

D-Day tracklist is up 🙌 I'm looking forward to the collab with J-Hope and the tracks whose Korean titles translate (according to the Papago app) as 'Extreme Night' and 'Lifting of the Ban' (lead track) 🤔

That lad is certainly enjoying his massage chair 🤣

< Sniggers > "bum key"

I'm looking forward to Sope collab as well .... I really hope we get Hobi on Suchwita.

"BumKey"

<sniggers>

I love that his girlfriend has to sit on the floor. She can only dream of a turn in the chair of bliss.

FedUp!!!! I love your holiday pics in the other place. It looks like you are maxing out your days with amazing sights and sounds.

A friend just sent me this. Haven't explored it myself yet, but it looks promising

Korea Deconstructed podcast

I was chatting with an online chingu about the album release and she found somewhat different interpretations of those Korean titles. Apparently the one about the lifting of the ban is a reference to a traditional Korean instrument 👀 So maybe what I found relates to what the music traditionally signified? Like Daechwita? I am SO excited! (Or, 'exited' 😁 as I keep reading online.
Alot of exited people out there 😁.)

Catching up after a day off, you know, doing Easter things with friends 😁and so many varied posts!
The first time I heard People pt2 I was like "yes, R&B!" (It also made me search for the first People). The Eng lyrics are certainly generating confused comments on sm, with some seeking deep meaning to them!
I started but dropped Korean Odyssey, but now want to finish it.
Spring is here because all the baby Highland cows (about the size of a golden retriever) are out in the fields with their mums and they are super cute.💖

Saram, thanks for the link, it looks very interesting.

Spring is here because all the baby Highland cows (about the size of a golden retriever) are out in the fields with their mums and they are super cute.💖

This image is really pleasing. There are lots of lambs here, still quite small. The weather has turned atrocious so our lovely sea view is now a rain-blurred haze under gunmetal grey cloud. We have to be out of our cottage at 9am tomorrow, a big ask of two noon-snoozing teens. DH and I have had tentative conversations over breakfast about enjoying the local sights, weather-lashed, then packing up the car and driving home tonight. 😂

Cobol one of my absolute favourite things in the world is spotting unintentionally funny English on clothes. The best so far was on the sleeve of a would-be 'street' black puffa jacket. All in caps: IMPROBING EXERCISES FOST THOSE DOING SPORTS. 😁 In my hood (major European city). At least 15 years ago and still lasered into my memory.

Around the same time there was a guy with a mullet who walked around in a similar jacket (though with accents of grey) with the bold slogan 'GARY MEN' on the back. I always wondered if the manufacturers had seen that episode of Only Fools and Horses. 🤔😂

Although I can't speak. When I was trying to say 'this year' in Korean conversation I apparently said 'you bitch' instead 😬🙈 Of course if I'd meant to say 'you bitch', I no doubt would have said 'this year' 😂

And I agree 100% with your DH re: translating lyrics. Much much better to write in the target language first off. Clearly Yoongi needs a native English speaker on hand at all times to consult on these kinds of matters. [Daydreams about career switch.]