MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #47: Lee Min-Ho’s a no-show, Kim Soo-Hyun cried himself into a dry husk and a sweet mobster sausage supremo is currently charming the noonas. We continue our ongoing mission to spread Kdrama joy. 😘

[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.
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
I picked up a celebrity on the street (Viki)
LTNS (no major platform yet)
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)
Killer Paradox (Netflix)
Life on Mars (classy remake of BBC series, no major site yet)
Little Women (Netflix)
Maestra (Disney+)
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)🌟
The Worst of Evil (Disney+)
Tunnel (Netflix)🌟
Vigilante (Disney+)

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
100 Days My Prince (Viki/Netflix)
Crowned Clown (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Missing Crown Prince (Viki)
Mr Queen (Viki)🌟
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)
My Dearest (Viki)
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)🌟

Makjang
Perfect Marriage Revenge (Viki)

Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Business Proposal (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Dali & the Cocky Prince (Viki)
Destined with You (Netflix)
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as The Eighth Sense [BL] (Viki)
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)🌟
King The Land (Netflix)
Love for Love’s Sake(QiYi)
Love from a Star (Netflix)🌟
Lovely Runner (Viki)
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)
Semantic Error [BL] (Viki)
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)🌟
Wedding Impossible (Viki)
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)🌟
Daily Dose of Sunshine (Netflix)
Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Doctors (Netflix)
Doom At Your Service (Netflix/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)/When the Weather is Nice (Netflix)
It’s OK Not To Be OK (Netflix)
Just Between Lovers (Viki)/Rain or Shine (Netflix)🌟
Mad For Each Other (Netflix)🌟
Marry My Husband (
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), season 3 (Disney+)
Search: WWW (Viki, Netflix)🌟
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
Tell Me That You Love Me (Disney+)
The Atypical Family (Netflix)
The Handmaid (film, Netflix - content warning: explicit sexual content)
The Package (Viki)

Straighter ‘Slice of Life’ dramas on universal themes
Gaus Electronics (Viki)🌟
First Responders (Disney+)
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)🌟
Not Others (Viki)
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/Netflix)🌟

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - lighter & fluffier
A Time Called You (Netflix)
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)🌟
My Lovely Liar (Viki)
Orange Marmalade (Netflix)
Twinkling Watermelon (Viki)
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)
Moon in the Day (Viki)
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
Chicken Nugget (Netflix)
Behind Your Touch (Netflix)
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)
Fake it Till You Make it (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)
Let’s Talk About Chu (Netflix, Taiwan)⭐️
Lost Romance [BL] (Viki, Taiwanese)
Love O2O (Viki, Chinese)
Meet Yourself (Viki, Chinese)
Million Yen Women (Netflix, Japanese)
Morning Call (Netflix, Japanese)
My Little Happiness (Viki, Chinese)
My Personal Weatherman [BL] (Jdrama, Viki)
Orange Days (Japan, Netflix)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix, Chinese)
Rinko Wants To Try (Viki, Japanese)
Some Day or One Day (Viki, Taiwanese)
Sweat and Soap (Viki, Japanese)
The Makanai (Netflix, Japanese)
The Romance of Tiger & Rose (Viki, Chinese)
The Untamed (Nertlix, 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 2023 Dramas
#1 Bloodhounds 8.9
#2 = The Good Bad Mother 8.8
#2 = Deaths Game 8.8
#2 = Moving 8.8
#2 = The Glory 8.8
(#2 rankings by number of votes)

Top Scoring 2022 Dramas
#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!

Agree. Very sweet

I've got 1 episode of Mr Queen left but I've really lost interest, someone gave me a massive spoiler about halfway through and because I'd invested so much in it I decided to carry on. I'll finish but it's just boring now. The ML just seems so wooden. Watching Flower of Evil with DH and that's brilliant. We only have 3 episodes left and hope ending is good. Also need to watch before we leave for our trip on Saturday as we won't get the opportunity to watch whilst away. I love their wedding bands. DH and I have a big anniversary coming up and now I'm thinking to get us couple rings like those but haven't found any yet. I've only been looking on Etsy so far but any suggestions would be welcome.

This is going to be my next watch

Ok so now I've googled and apparently they are by Boucheron and waaaay out of my price range.

@peanutcookie Before I even looked it up I guessed you would be talking about the Boucheron grosgrain range. I love those rings so much. Mejuri have some similar style ones - the Charlotte range which has some in gold vermeil and some in 14ct gold, and then one called the eternity line band as well. Definitely more affordable than Boucheron 😅 but not sure if they have any men's options.

DD had a bad day at school today so we watched the first two episodes of True Beauty together to cheer her up. She's seen it before but I haven't. It's so funny!! Thoroughly enjoyable.

Thanks, I had a look but I need silver rings and couldn't find a matching pair I liked that much

True beauty is fun. She runs an awful lot!

I finished Mr Queen. I was bored the last episode and it just wasn't funny or romantic enough to keep me entertained.

DH and I have the last episode of Flower of Evil left, planning to watch tonight. I'm wondering who is coming out of it alive

Hope your DD cheers up soon

Thank you. Happy it's half term so a whole week without school will help. We're also off to Dublin next week to see Hamilton the musical! Very excited as we bought the tickets 18 months ago so it's been a looong wait!

My kdrama viewing has been severely hampered this week by Rivals spreading like a pox. Each person in our household has caught it off someone else by wandering in mid-episode. DS1 is home from uni for the weekend & just started watching it from ep 1. This is a third viewing for me. 😭

I remember reading the books a million years ago as a teen so maybe I should give it a watch.

True Beauty tonight with DD so will have to wait to watch the finale of What Comes After Love!

Enjoy! We didn't get to watch the finale of Flower of Evil last night as we had 2 episodes left and only had time for one. We are going away now so it will probably have to wait until we get back

I was wide awake in my hotel room in the wee hours and tuned into What Comes After Love ep6. No spoilers, but the intensity of the emotional scenes!!!! 🙌I felt so invested. It's a perfect 10 from me. Now I wish a talented translator would hurry up and do an English version of the book.

As it's getting a lot of love I might have to give What Comes After Love a go, although the premise didn't really grab me originally.

The Judge From Hell, on the other hand, is definitely my kind of thing. I love supernatural shows and I love Kim Jae-young and even Park Shin-hye is good in this in a change of role for her. It's great fun but very gory and quite brutal in places so it might not be for everyone.

I’ve just finished What Comes After Love. Editor Kanna was a better person than I expected. Overall, it’s fabulous. The original soundtrack is on Apple music now and is 👌

I love the sound track too. The entire show is first class in drawing the viewer 100 percent into the story of the lead's love. It is hauntingly beautiful.

I forgot to mention that I was transfixed the textured cardigan that the ML was wearing around the 30 min mark in ep 6. SK and Japanese dramas have totally bailed the classy knitwear. 👏

DH and I finished the first series of GyeongSeong Creature last night. We enjoyed it although the torture bits were a bit much for me. Very confused by the ending and how the second series fits in but will trust the process!

Tempted to watch Culinary Class Wars - anyone else watch it?

@boatyardblues how good is Rivals! I’ve read it a few times over the years - usually when I need an escape from stress - so it’s been a lovely escape

I have a trivial question for all of you knowledgeable people: what is the brown stuff they all drink in cafes? I’ve been assuming it’s iced coffee but then wondered if it was all just coke product placement. And if it’s coffee is there sugar in it? And how many shots of coffee to be that large? I’d be bouncing off the walls for days with that much caffeine. Super important issues!

Iced americano seems to be the coffee drink of choice!

In the dramas, they often have jugs of something like is the colour of apple juice in their kitchens which they drink - what is that, I wonder?

Tempted to watch Culinary Class Wars - anyone else watch it?

We’ve watched one episode and we loved it. We’re saving it for the long plane journey on Wednesday.
We’ve also been watching Oh My Venus and dh is enjoying it but it isn’t really grabbing me.

Stick with Oh My Venus, @Andante57 , once you get past the shocking fat shaming, it's really good. I loved it.

Mrsfeatherbottom that’s good to hear - actually I don’t like giving up series if I can avoid it since as you say, they often improve.

@mrsfeatherbottom Another recommend for Culinary Class Wars here. Very entertaining, and I never tire of hearing the 'wah!!!'s of excitement/amazement/horror 😁

I'm guessing that the stuff that resembles apple juice is barley tea. You make it up hot using big shop-bought comedy-size teabags, and can either drink it as it is or cooled. It'll stay good in the fridge for a few days. Could also be other types of tea too, like corn or burdock, but I think barley is the most popular to drink cold.

It's served hot from big urns sometimes too, I had that at a temple stay. Which is why I helped myself to a hot apple-juice-coloured drink from an urn at a traditional food place in Seoul thinking smugly that I knew what it was. And only realised when I took a sip that it was some sort of grim bouillon 😬

@ClarityJones good question about the drink. I think it must indeed be coffee and yes, iced american is the standard there (even in the depths of winter most people only have hot coffee if it's the fancy hand-dripped type). The cups are indeed massive, but I think it's usually very heavy on the ice. So picture a regular filter coffee type strength/amount.

I don't know if it's sweetened as standard - I'll ask a chingu.