MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #42): Where we weigh up two smokin’ hawt chaebol hotelliers, one tortured by loss and the other crippled by abandonment issues

[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
Bloodhounds (Netflix)
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)
Race (Disney+)
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)
The Good Bad Mother (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’
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)
F4 Thailand (Viki)
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
#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 - 9.40
#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!

@TheLoupGarou @Andante57 agree with all this! Enjoying, but sometimes it drags. Long lingering shots of Junho ... Why not? Very steamy kiss.. but maybe not followed up that well in next episode? Oh well, finally some movement on the chaebol plotline this week.

I've just watched the first two episodes of Not Others - absolutely brilliant. I love it. I was cracking up throughout, plus looks like we are getting a thriller-ish sub-plot 👍👍 from me.

Agree about the glacial pace of KTL. I've actually temporarily dropped it in favour of Hidden Love which really is a little gem. I love the way the ML, despite being the usual upright and wholesome type, is actually quite naughty and flirtatious at times. And the FL has some great little flirty moments as well. It's beautifully done.

I'm going to add these to my camping menu! They look delicious 😋

Those courgette fritters just gave me a flashback to 1986, when my Mum invented a similar recipe to deal with a massive glut of allotment courgettes. I feel all nostalgic. Garlic granules and celery salt in the batter give it a lift.

I'm salivating thinking about that!! Had aubergine fritters in Greece once. Could have eaten a metric shit ton of them.

Love fried food. It does not love me 😳

So Seven is catchy AF - I'm not even sure if I like it that much (as others have said, it is a bit shallow) but I basically only have to look at a picture of JK and it gets stuck in my head!

AmVa, between Cupid, Seven and Back to Me, I'm stuck on catchy pop this summer...and I'm not complaining!😎

Posted without comment

A follow up on the issue of teacher safety. I am astounded to learn that it's routine for school to give out a teacher's private details, to parents.
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Wow migs that is absolutely nuts. My jaw was dropping open reading that article. Aside from the giving out of personal details the lack of support for junior staff is just appalling, as is the lack of proper provision for students with additional needs and no appropriate way for complaints to be processed. I hope all this media attention manages to galvanise some sort of change .....

Loup, I think that those in power are only concerned with measuring the success of the country in economic terms. The welfare of citizens is hardly on their radar. Especially when these same have no power to force change. I hope they band together and protest outside The Blue House. If my child was a teacher, I'd be the one holding the megaphone! Grrrrrr!

So catchy! I think because it's so simple. It's been in my head all weekend 😅

I'm a bit behind with KTL because I'm also watching DR3 which is just so much more gripping!!!

I am only doing basic admin levels of kdrama lately. There’s been a lot of LIFE getting in the way. Circumstance has forced a sliw down this week so I will get going on some of my watchlist.

It is a proper ear-worm! Me and the kids have been singing it (non-spicy version 😆) constantly since release.

I've got a few dramas on the go : -
Revenant (Disney+, brilliant - tight story and well acted! Really recommend it although it would be a good one for the dark evenings as it is scary)
Heartbeat (on Prime, really funny rom com with good characters & Taecyeon's adorable ears)
Hidden Love (only on episode 2 but it is really cute so far)
KTL (I don't hate this and will finish watching but it's on the back burner)
SYIMNL (Really like this but am behind due to being on holiday/having visitors)
Not Others (absolutely loved the first 2 episodes, the mum character is brilliant - think it's shaping up to be a great show. I did see it described online as Korean Gilmore Girls but it's more grown up/better than that I'd say so far).

THEN - next week I think we've got DP 2 and Uncanny Counter 2 dropping 🙂 can't wait. I really hope both of these live up to my expectations as I loved the first seasons of both. June/July has been great for drama's (not so great for all my other neglected responsibilities though!).

No drama viewing going on here right now as on our hols so I actually have to interact with my family 😁 - when I do have a moment priority will go to finishing SYIMNL, then watching UC series one so I can watch series two 🤔 Saving Revenant for when the evenings start to draw in.

I've made those courgette fritters before and can report they are both easy to make and very good!

Bloody Seven is going round in my head, despite me not actually like it all that much. Cheers JK 🤨 predictably, JuniorSaram likes it 😁 (clean version, obvs....)

As a pp pointed out, I loved Junho’s swishing his coat at the palace and saying ‘this place seems familiar’.
Only Kdrama has that sort of wit and subtlety.
Re references to other dramas, apart from Kim Soo Hyun reprising his role in Secretly Greatly as a cameo in CLOY, have there been any other ones?

Or indeed, similar cameos in Western dramas?

Andante The one that comes to mind is in True Beauty when Lee Jae-wook and Kim Hye-yoon appeared as their characters from Extraordinary You at the cinema. That was a bit of a surreal moment.

And there are Ioads of actor cameos as themselves as well, of course, more than in British dramas I think. I especially remember the one with Junho (again!) in a dating "scandal" in Uncontrollably Fond.

It's only now that I've watched lots of kdramas that I can get any of them, of course. Unlock My Boss in particular featured quite a lot of references to other dramas and films, most of which I didn't get, but the Parasite one but was pretty funny.

Cobol thank you for that. There was one in Dinner Mate when Seo Ji Hye who played Dan in CLOY had a dream featuring a North Korean soldier but as it wasn’t Hyun Bin it wasn’t quite as effective.

In Tale of the Nine Tailed the main couple are talking about grin reaper urban legends and Lee Dong Wook says they're all rubbish, and that he knows a thing or two about grim reapers - referencing of course his character in Goblin.

Was watching with my husband who thought it was totally weird to put something in like that that references a different drama.

Also The Forbidden Marriage also had some Goblin and Hotel del Luna references which were told as bedtime stories.

Oh my god, they are giving the Assembly woman who's son died a really hard time! (DR3)

AmVa I enjoyed the bit with the stories in The Forbidden Marriage - I like that there's a kind of k-drama universe in which all things exist and are cross referenced 🙂

Haven't started DR3 yet! Aargh, just when I think I'm catching up on all my dramas!

I love the Lee Dong Wook Goblin references - I’ll have to watch Tail of the Nine Tailed.