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!

Whaaaaaat? (End of ep 1 of Black Knight) I was not expecting that.

boaty I yelled loudly exclaimed "WHAT THE FUCK?!" And woke up MrLoup 😂 - I had to go straight to ep 2. I really like it so far - right up my street and KWB is obv fit as.

I fell asleep half way through ep 2. My snores 😬woke DH so he paused it. Long, long week. I’ll resume tomorrow.

I can’t help thinking it’s got a mega budget if they can waste great cast like that.

Yes, I was so shocked, did not see that coming at all!

On a frivolous fun note, JCW's house in Lovestruck in the City might be overtaking Choi Woo-Shiks house from Our Beloved Summer as fictional house I most want to live in. Sadly I feel like the beautiful, calm feeling of both of them would be ruined if it suddenly had to house all the accoutrements that come with a 3 year old.

@AmVa Join the queue- I think I liked house more then JCW

If we’re talking Korean house porn I’m still hankering after the hanok in Oh Master, which just edges the rural hanok in Little Forest because of its proximity to coffee shops and fancier brickwork.

I’d also like to log my grumble about meno and early waking. Sigh.

The hanok in Oh Master! was gorgeous. Shame the rest of the show was shite.

Yeah, I can’t argue with that. What a waste of Lee Min Ki too.

The new Takeru Satoh drama is delivering on the handsome, big time. 👌 The incidental music is cloying and getting on my wick, to the extent I’m thinking of hitting mute & letting the subs do their work. A quick google suggests it’s set in Yokohama which I’m liking - it’s by the sea and seems less built up with more open space. The policeman looks like he’s probably conventionally attractive to Japanese audiences, but less so to me. Unfortunately he’s either very tall or Takeru Satoh isn’t very tall.

Silver linings n all, this early meno waking means you get first pop at the telly. 😄

Nothing like that first silent coffee...

boaty I was just going to say, commiserations on the meno crap. But the small silver lining is: more time for dramas!

I don't generally watch J-dramas so have only ever seen Takeru Satoh in First Love, which I really enjoyed. So will give this new show a go.

Yesterday and today are very busy, but tomorrow is Mothers' Day here and until late afternoon it'll just be me, Black Knight, the latest episodes of Divorce Attorney Shin and Korean freezer food 🤘😻

Favourite houses - I don't think I've seen any of the ones you've all mentioned, so this is perhaps a bit of a curveball. I'll have Kim Seon-ho's house in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, please. OR, now I think about it, J-Hope's in the dream I had where I was at a dinner party at his and he got huffy because I mentioned having been round Namjoon's too 😂 It had a lovely glass-roofed central hall with a big table and a nice little recording studio 😁

You've tempted me to get out of bed and go make one ☕ I've got 5 pages of filthy Noona chat to catch up on!

Yesterday and today are very busy, but tomorrow is Mothers' Day here and until late afternoon it'll just be me, Black Knight, the latest episodes of Divorce Attorney Shin and Korean freezer food

I now have Lou Reed’s Perfect Day playing in my head. Living the dream Saram!

I have a compressed day of errands and life admin ahead of me because I have to set off for a work trip after lunch tomorrow. 😕 It’s a big hill to climb on 5 hours’ kip.

Taylor Swift fans misread clues and order BTS’s biography by mistake.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5750367e-f0ff-11ed-aa00-f221246813e4?shareToken=8a60ef4b5148a99e8ca1239e88f7824d

😁

Pausing catching up to start Love Village, seems like good Saturday morning telly

@Saram13 I love Kim Seon-ho's house in HTCCC!! Can't believe I forgot it in my imaginary house buying spree.

I have a compressed day of errands and life admin ahead of me because I have to set off for a work trip after lunch tomorrow. 😕 It’s a big hill to climb on 5 hours’ kip.

Fighting @boatyardblues 💪

I am now imagining you & your work colleagues traipsing up a real hill to get to the cabin where you will have a work bbq & watermelon.....except someone will have forgotten to buy the meat so they'll have to traipse back down said hill

I can't remember who recommended Heart Crush maneja as it's been on my list for so long but I've just read up to all available episodes & thoroughly enjoyed it! It'd make a great drama with all the shenanigans in the CS department!

Manhwa not maneja 🙄

I didn't get to end of ep 1 of Black Knight last night so now obvs need to go see.......I remember how shocked I was when watching my first ever kdrama Stranger and one of the main characters was eliminated....like, wow, it was so unexpected how can they do that?

I'm addicted to Heart Crush Bettys (and agree that it's another one begging for an adaptation) - up to date on that and the less romantic but more outrageous Trauma Center because god knows I love me a ridiculously competent doctor.

(I'm sure you know this but as Bato only gets up to 40 or something there's ?74 episodes on other sites)

(Yes indeed I have another site for when Bato doesn't come up with the goods 😬)

Trauma Center is next on the list & will fill the gap while waiting for next eps of Heart Crush <sweeps aside jobs for the day>

I also love a ridiculously handsome tsundere competent doctor whose fringe falls into his eyes

I am now imagining you & your work colleagues traipsing up a real hill to get to the cabin where you will have a work bbq & watermelon.....except someone will have forgotten to buy the meat so they'll have to traipse back down said hill

That sounds a zillion times more fun than reality.

I’m smashing it today. I was awake so early I’m already back from town with a new sports bra and my Waterstones haul. 💪 Sadly I’m going to peak at around 2.30pm and struggle to stay awake for Eurovision tonight.

There are so many new shows I want to watch at the moment - Black Knight, ... Nine Tailed 1938 and the Takeru Satoh one - but I'm not watching any of them atm because we've been putting in a new kitchen and it's been chaos with little time to sit down and watch anything properly. We're still working through Hi Bye Mama and also need to find time to catch up with the 5th season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel so I may have a long wait before I get to enjoy some Kim Woo-bin. And just to further frustrate me my Google news feed keeps spewing out stories about Dr Romantic 3 which I can't even watch anywhere even if I had the time. Arghh 😤.
Good job with the perilla seeds Migs, I'm impressed.
I've also been very amused by the whole Taylor Swift/BTS book saga. I used to work for Waterstones so I rather sympathise with the poor retailers having to deal with it all. We suffered similar madness during the Harry Potter days. It's nice that books can still inspire such excitement, though 🙂

twitter.com/taetaewithluv/status/1657380559708991491?s=20

at last the BTS Universe Drama - Youth is coming! This has taken an age!!!! Casted / filmed / in production /halted productopn / names changed... etc etc 🤔

Prepare to have your minds blown by the topsey-turvey-what-the-flip-is-going-on-which-timeline-are-we-on storyline!!! 😆