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!

Saram13 - think you might be right about him seeming to be more comfortable in his own skin. I wonder if the shoulder surgery helped? Moving away from the constant pain which is not only physically but mentally debilitating might have given him relief finally. Maybe getting that time away from the spotlight as well before the others got the chance this summer might have helped?

Saram I've not had a good bangtan dream since the one where I was driving Jimin cross country in an SUV and had to stop at the work canteen for snacks - come on subconscious : - you can do better than that!!

Suga isn't my bias at all but I still love him of course (along with all the members, gosh can't leave anyone out). I'm feeling extra appreciative of his genius today though 😉

I am addicted to AMYGDALA.

It's just so good. Those middle 3 songs are great.

‼️Makang drama alert‼️ Rape, 2xmurder and it's only Ep1.😁
Queen of Masks

I've just found it on Viki and added it to my watchlist migs.

waaaah my exam was so hard! I hope I have done enough to pass 😬 am off today, thank goodness. Am decompressing by comfort watching k-drama - The Real Has Come : bloody hell that old dragon halmeoni! Why does everyone pander to her? And why is wannabe wife acting so upset when everyone knows it was an arranged marriage?!

Secret Romantic Guesthouse - I'm enjoying this show and Ryeoun is very pretty, but his OTT facial expressions/emoting really reminds me of JK in ep 120 run BTS when he's imitating Suga's dad!

This episode

Just started Love in the Moonlight. I do like a Park Bo-gum smile and big eyes drama. Well done TheLoupGarou on the exam. I have both Real and Guesthouse on my list for the future.

That one is on my ever growing watchlist Dragon 👍

Park Yer Bum does nothing for me. I was totally rooting for the other fella in Reply 1988. 😄 Still, we are legion on this thread now, so able to form friendly oppa factions and disagree agreeably.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230426000700

School bullying records to be considered in uni applications from 2025. How on earth can a teacher's recommendation letter even be given any weight when corruption is rife. What about a possible personal bias?
But I guess every little step to end school violence/bullying should be celebrated.

KLAXON the Seoul D-Day concerts will apparently be livestreamed 😻I guess ticketing will be via Weverse, but there's no specific info on that yet.

Dragonrock I think you're spot on re: Yoongi's surgery and the added benefit of the 'extra' time off.

TheLoup fingers crossed the exam all went well! At least it's done. I have had some brilliant dreams recently 😁but not since the album was released. I wait in hope. When Yoongi went off to Thailand for filming (which we now know was for Haegum) I dreamt he was doing a performance in what was a cross between my local shopping centre as a kid and one of the malls in Las Vegas, organised by the municipality of the city I now live in. Dancing on stage by himself wearing his airport outfit, a knitted waistcoat and a very nice beret 😁 I rushed there to watch with my real-life photographer friend, who turned out to be his official photographer. Unpick that one, Freud 😂

I caught up on Suchwita episode 8 and Suchwita 9/R-chwita, enjoyed both. Laughed out loud at the guy from Tomorrow x Together unable to hold his drink. I hope he didn't have an early dance practice the next day 🤔😁

The 8th Sense is complete and is really a very sweetly done BL with some lovely natural ensemble performances, good chemistry and a great sound track too.

Back in dramaland:

Rowdy I have now found The Cursed on Netflix. I swear it wasn't there when I last looked. Korean Dennis Waterman bonanza here we come!

Will start The Good Bad Mother tonight.

Loving DAS more and more as the story progresses. It gives me the same feeling as CCIR 😊I am slowly progressing through Be Melodramatic and Goblin and continuing to enjoy both.

Pol I looked up The 8th Sense on Netflix. No joy, but it suggested The 8th Night instead which looks like it might be quite good (Korean horror film). Anyone seen that?

I decided to give that Risqué Business: Japan a go. OK it was a bit sensationalist, as I expected, but there were some genuinely interesting insights (not least how Koreans respond to Japanese culture, as opposed to say how British presenters might). And have to admit I laughed out loud when Shin Dong-Yeop did a comedy sad old man voice for a sex toy that looked like it had been left on the shelf for too long 😂 Add in the short episode lengths, key words in Korean up on screen and the kind of Korean talk/game show editing I think we're all familiar with - thumbs up so far. (That innocent phrase may take on a different meaning if you watch the show 😳🤔😁.)

Saram, we finished The Curse last night, we really enjoyed it, loved the shamanic rituals and the spiritualism. I think the young actress in it is excellent, I hope you enjoy it.

We're starting Taxi Driver 2 tonight. I feel like I might be pushing my luck with DH getting him to watch all my shows, but he keeps saying yes! 🙌🏻😬

Interesting article about a SK talkshow for NK Defectors - sounds like early days of the show were quite over the top, but interesting!
www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-27/north-korea-defectors-television-show-seoul/102267464

Great article AmVa and sounds like the documentary will be worth watching too.
The 8th Sense on Viki or HiTV Saram. I'm too much of a scaredy cat to be likely to be recommending a horror film 😁
Also really enjoying Dinner Mate from 2020 on HiTV. Totally under my radar until I saw a mention of it elsewhere but proper good fun one so far.

The noraebang runs in the veins of every South Korean
https://twitter.com/jeffmason1/status/1651418886447693824?t=mOELCvoCXTY6LQHMiICtww&s=19

Saram I've seen The 8th Night but I don't really remember it that well. It had a similar sort of vibe to Bulgasal: Immortal Souls, I think.

We've finished Tale of the Nine Tailed and are looking forward to season two. In the meantime we've started Hi Bye Mama, which I'm enjoying as it's a little bit different and I can't work out where it's going (yet!).

Daebak! Noraebang is appropriate for every occasion I say 🤣

Also - really interesting article AmVa 👍

I'm a bit hyped for May - S2 of Tale of the Nine Tailed plus Kim Woo Bin in Black Knight 😍

i haven't watched The 8th Night - might see if I can tempt DH.....

The documentary was good - very sad. It would be on ABC iView which is free to anyone with a VPN set to Australia! Foreign correspondent episode called The Defectors.

I was just coming to share this! He's got a good voice!

Ep 1 of Netflix's The Good Bad Mother is off to a promising start. Those fat cheeked k-babies are sooo cute and I'm loving the first gf's personality. The drama is chock a block with familiar actors and actresses too.

I'm watching Shitting Stars again. It's not a bad wee show for a rewatch.

No way FedUp! I've been re-watching that too this week - great minds and all that! It's a fun show I think, good ensemble cast and some v funny bits and all the side-stories were well done.

Ep2 of The Good Bad Mother just upped the ante in the interesting stakes. It is so good that I wish the entire series was available to binge watch. The widowed mother's total investment in her son's education is something discussed here recently.