MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #48: Time for all the seasonal goodies, advent surprises and the weighing of the year’s dramas for the vote-off. Lazy holding title because I dropped the ball 😄

[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!

I am with you Boaty - Potato Lab is proving LOL for me. I have simple tastes! Glad I also got over my worry about school based drama as Under Cover is also fab. How many drama is that school building going to appear in by the way? Is it a real place or a set?

Hi Jin 👋

Got to agree, 2024 was a little on the dry side (although an improvement on 2023).

I've just finished Asura, and it is a must watch for fans of slice-of-life dramas. 👍

Yes 100% agree 2024 was much better.

Is it Yonsei University?

@mrsfeatherbottom the way I knew what Yonsei University was going to look like before I googled it!! It is definitely the most used school set in kdramas from last few years

Potato Lab. The eyebrows bring a big smile to my face. Every. Single. Time.😆

They made me laugh too. I was disappointed to see a slow fade in the following episode. It would have been braver (and funnier) to milk that gag for the duration.

The eyebrows were funny. I was belly laughing when she was coming out of the building with her hair over her face.

Yes, I wonder do they do all the filming during holidays and weekends, otherwise surely the studies would be constantly disrupted!

The eyebrows were so funny!! All in all the potato lab is delivering a lot more than I thought it would.

Have also started first frost and was shocked to see there are 29(!!) episodes so far and it's still airing? Enjoying it a lot, though wish the speed at which FL would open up about her past trauma would increase... Suspect it's going to be a long haul.

Is everyone following the Kim Sae Ron/Kim Soo Hyun scandal? More evidence emerging but really looking like proper career ending scumbag territory... Aigoo and yuck.

Must and WILL watch Asura FedUp

In the meantime I watched this documentary from 2014 and it's wonderful although I had to use a dodgy link to find it . Tissues mandatory
I

If it's true, then it's absolutely disgusting. She was 15 and he was 27!

I hadn't seen anything about that scandal until you mentioned it Pol. I read a little bit about her after her death and remember being struck by how she was a child actress who was very well known at a very young age, which seems to be quite a common feature of stars who struggle later in life in general, not just in Korea. I was also struck by how much debt she was in, which is surprising given her early success and makes you wonder generally about the exploitation of child stars. As for the Kim Soo-hyun scandal, it doesn't look good for him as things stand, does it?

Noooo. Yoon Park has had a Korean-style ‘glow up’ and his distinctive face has been prettified at a surgeon’s hands. 😕 He was so much more attractive as shaggy haired crazy Kang in Radio Romance. New-style Yoon Park has lost some of that character. Guest spot in ep 8 of Dearest Nemesis if you want to see for yourselves.

I like the second couple in My Dearest Nemesis way more than the main couple. There’s more warmth and sincerity to their relationship. The main couple may be in their twenties but they’re behaving like gawky adolescents.

I've started The Art of Negotiation (Viki) but after watching Lee Je-hoon's twerking incompetence in Rented in Finland, I'm not sure he's going to be believable for me, in any hard-man role now.

Btw, Choi Hyun- Wook has very beautiful hands 😎

I'm not sure Lee Je-hoon was ever entirely convincing in hard-man roles but I agree that post-RIF suspension of disbelief has been stretched to breaking point 😁

I've just started watching A Killer Paradox. I'd completely forgotten Son Suk-ku was in it, which is very much in it's favour, but although it's very compelling it's not an easy watch, I have to say. It vaguely reminds me of reading 'Crime and Punishment' and I'm not really sure if that's a recommendation or not!

FF is going to be 32 episodes AmVa but they're short so like all CDramas not as long as first appears. I think the slow burn healing and opening up, along with the episodes that deal directly with her assault are very well done (by and large - I would have a fuller discussion but too spoilery)

She was in debt Cobol through needing to pay damages to her agency for deals lost and career damage following her DUI conviction. It's all a horrendous story but - with mainstream Korean media sources now providing more and more info that seems to corroborate their relationship - it will be sickening if KSH somehow manages to evade career implosion after the girl it appears he groomed died.

I'm not dismissing the allegations, but what needs to stop in SK is the way careers are severely impacted/ended with little hope of rehabilitation when a celeb makes a 'mistake'.

As an aside, I believe there's a clip of (Kim Sae Ron/Kim Soo Hyun) him talking about being a 41 yo marrying a 21yo.

but what needs to stop in SK is the way careers are severely impacted/ended with little hope of rehabilitation when a celeb makes a 'mistake'.

Yes. I wonder if Yoo Ah In’s career will ever recover.

I totally agree Migs. But it's the double standards where male stars can apparently be rehabilitated after sexual predatory behaviour in comparison to drug addiction or mental health breakdown that really rankles.

Pol I know that she had to pay damages but it's the fact she was in no position to pay them despite several successful roles and awards. It makes you wonder how much of the money she earned as a child she actually had for herself compared to her agents and family.

But it's the double standards where male stars can apparently be rehabilitated after sexual predatory behaviour in comparison to drug addiction or mental health breakdown that really rankles.

Yes, I totally agree with this, it's frustrating.

I'm a bit confused about this story, though. It appears the family are coming forward with this but then does that mean they knew about the relationship at the time? And the "41yo with a 21yo" conversation has no relationship with their actual ages so is that about someone else maybe? None of it looks good, though, that's for sure.

@polkettle I hadn't seen any of this about KSH but it is totally disgusting. And agreed, nothing like actors who have taken drugs and then who never work again. This is a case of grooming and he shouldn't just have a career implosion, he should be in jail.

On a lighter note, also @polkettle - I am enjoying the slow burn of first frost but I also want to speed it up. But also know that the payoff for a good slow burn is great. I want it all!

I think the 41/21 comment is being used to show that he likes them younger!