MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #50: God rest you merry gentlemen 🎶 Oppa season is just around the corner and we are here for it.

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the K-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix, Viki, Amazon Prime, 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 - the best are listed below.

The previous thread is here. Our cumulative list includes previous threads’ recommendations and favourites. Shows with a star are more uniformly loved or admired. On genre categories, most Korean dramas have multiple strands - e.g. supernatural, romance with a thriller; crime series with fantasy elements. Genre-busting mash-ups are normal. Series tagged as dark may also have moments of comedy or the absurd, likewise fluff can have heavier moments. Tonal chaos is 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)
Squid Game - 2 seasons (Netflix)
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)🌟
The Lies Within (Netflix)🌟
The Worst of Evil (Disney+)
Tunnel (Netflix)🌟
Vigilante (Disney+)
Walking on Thin Ice (Viki)

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)
Our Movie (Disney+)🌟
Our Unwritten Seoul (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)🌟
Family By Choice (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)
Light Shop (Disney+)
Moon in the Day (Viki)
Moving (Disney+)
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)⭐️
Glass Heart (Netflix - Japanese)
Go Go Squid (Viki - Chinese)
I’m Married But… (Netflix - Taiwanese)⭐️
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)
Romantics Anonymous (Netflix, 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 2024 dramas with 5 or more votes

#1 A Shop For Killers Score: 9 Votes: 7
#2 Lovely Runner Score: 8.8 Votes: 10
#3 Let's Talk About CHU Score: 8.8 Votes: 8
#4 Family By Choice Score: 8.6 Votes: 9
#5 Squid Game 2: Score: 8.5 Votes: 5
#6 Mr Plankton: Score: 8.3 Votes: 10
Full run down by Bettys here.

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!

The Seosomun Shrine History Museum was the surprise find and hit on my last visit. It’s a shrine to martyred Catholics and there is a working Catholic chapel on site. I’m not religious but found the architecture and clever use of space to create contemplative spaces really compelling.

I stayed in an apartment in Fraser Place Central Seoul last time. It was less handy for metro stations, though <10 mins to two nearby including City Hall. Myeongdong and Gwanghwamun gate were walkable (~25-30 mins) from there. It was very comfortable.

Thanks again, the stream is on the list, as is the gardens. They're both our sort of thing.

History, food, nature, some craft beer for DH, more food, views. Not fussed on shopping and I prefer to get up early to avoid very busy crowds. We're firmly middle aged in our tourism now! 🤣

Edited to say that I've also seen Insadong mentioned (online) as a convenient and quieter location than Myeongdong.

What current shows are you all watching?

I’m enjoying Four Hands a lot! But finding A Love Other Than Yours very dull. I love Ahn Eun-Jin normally but this is hard work. I don’t find any of the four leads likeable. Might give up.

I'm also watching Four Hands. It's a bit more dramatic than I was expecting but I'm enjoying the music a lot (and considering a rewatch of Do You Like Brahms for a slightly gentler piano fix!).

I was also watching See You at Work Tomorrow but kind of petered out about half way through and not sure if I'll get back to it. Dr Slump suffered a similar fate. I usually finish shows if I'm still watching after the first couple of episodes, so it's unusual for me.

I rarely give up - I’ve watched 170 shows and only given up on 4, I think. I’m the same with books - if I start it, I feel obliged to see it through to the bitter end.

The Scandal is top notch rumpy pumpy with Son Ye-jin giving glare, JCW giving smarm and Nana giving gormless big lip doe eyes. All good stuff.

I’m down a The Early Spring (Netflix cdrama) wormhole that ate my weekend. I’m speeding toward the finish line thankfully so back to kdrama soon I hope. The PPL worked I looked up Laboutin men’s shoes because I saw the ML’s red soles & was unsure if they made men’s shoes. I found a pair of men’s dress shoes on Selfridge’s site for £860 🤯 ML is basically cycling through Chanel’s latest collection and loads of bougie accessories. Mont Blanc suitcases? Who knew! It’s mad addictive though. Send help.

I also watched ep 1 of The Scandal and can confirm that Son Ye Jin glowers magnificently. 👌

I'm curious about which 4 dramas defeated you MrsF. I sometimes surprise myself with the absolute rubbish I'll sit through, yet some dramas which really aren't that bad I somehow hit a wall with. It's quite random and never happens with books, which I always finish - with the exception of "Jane Eyre", which doesn't really count because I didn't want to read it in the first place 😀

I haven't looked at The Scandal yet, I might wait to see what others think before committing.

Hope these are too controversial as I know a couple of them, I started based on recommendations on here:

Tomorrow
WWW Search
I’ll come to you when the weather is fine

I’m sure there’s another one but can’t think of it at the moment. I don’t why I couldn’t continue with these when I have watched all the episodes of some pretty dreadful series (can’t believe I made it to the end of Something in the Rain - admittedly at x2 speed towards the end!).

I loved Tomorrow 😂. I get that it's a bit of a niche genre, though, and won't be for everyone, so fair enough.

I'm a bit more surprised by Search WWW, I think that one was more universally loved, but there's never going to be a drama that everyone likes (probably - the search starts here....😁)

The other two I tried but they didn't grab me, so I agree with you there.

I’ll come to you when the weather is fine was odd. It suffered from copyright issues so all the book group content got scrubbed. PMY was also weirdly pinched and flat in that. I recall I described her emotionless performance as ‘serial killer affect’ in a previous thread. Also, SSK totally undersold in farmer’s trousers.

Hard disagree about WWW. I occasionally rewatch the scene with Scarlett smashing up her cheating ex’s new BMW when I need cheering up. 😆

A couple of episodes in and The Scandal is setting out it's stall. I spent the first 15mins trying to work out why my TV settings appeared to be wrong as it looked stretched and made for a different sized screen but now I realised that it's for arty flashbacks 🙄

Now, I love Wookie, but I'm not keen on the 'tache. Makes him look a little dastardly though 😆

I’m not keen in Wookie’s ‘tache either. It makes him look seedy and ordinary.

I suppose that he's meant to be rather seedy, all that rakish behaviour, but even so 😔

The people on social media seem distracted by Nana’s non-authentic Joseon lip lift!

Nana’s fillers have become quite the controversy with netizens. Fair play to her, she’s like sorry not sorry.

There was another recent drama she was in - I think as an assassin? - and they were even bigger duck lips than they are now.😬

Finished The Scandal. I enjoyed it but it just drifted away at the end.

I am struggling to settle to anything, our 20yr olds just gone back to Uni, so think after I knock the house back into shape I might settle to viewing. I enjoyed the hiking reality show "Take a Hike!" with Car the Garden, Dowoon from DAY6, Tarzzan from ALLDAY PROJECT and Lee Chae-min, I like hiking but my word that was some long walks but good to see why a lot of dramas have people getting lost in woods/cliffs, as seems they often do it for pleasure. Am now watching Doctor on the Edge with Lee Jae-wook and Shin Ye-eun and a fab supporting cast, bit of a silly slice of life thing which is about all I can cope with for now.

I’m 2 episodes into The Ordinary Jackpot and it is excellent. I want to binge all the current episodes today but there’s stuff I need to get done. 😕

Oh good, that’s on my list to start this week so glad you like it.

I’ve given up on A Love Other Than Yours and started Dive Into You (Lovely Runner meets Moon River meets A Time Called You).

If you want daft and warm, I can recommend Spirit Fingers on Viki. Based on a webtoon about an informal drawing group, it is bonkers but very enjoyable fluff.

Agree - I really liked it!

I didn’t enjoy Our Sticky Love. It was extremely violent in parts, the plot didn’t grab me and the village ajummas who are played by highly regarded actresses, I thought stereotyped and not amusing.
There were also prolonged vomiting scenes - but I appreciate that’s my problem and most people don’t care.

@mrsfeatherbottom why did you give up on A Love Other than Yours? I’m just wondering as it was on our list.