Something About 10% Percent
Over the last year, I've often seen clickbait listicles with headlines like "I've watched a hundred K-Dramas and these are the ten I recommend"
They make me smile because I'd watched a hundred K-Dramas by 2014. So in honour of these clickbait listicles, and to celebrate having just completed 350 K-Dramas, here's MY top 10% — for K-drama cognoscenti, the post title will make sense.
These are all K-Dramas that really left an impression on me. I'm presenting them in the order in which I watched them (the year I watched in brackets) to show how my tastes and preferences have shifted over the last 13 or so years, with links to their mydramalist page and brief comments about each.
COFFEE PRINCE (2013) — I don't care if you're an alien, if you haven't watched this yet, do! A foundational K-Drama romcom, so much a part of the fabric of K-Drama that watching it does seem obligatory. Also, it's GREAT.
QUEEN IN-HYUN'S MAN (2013) — Swoonworthy romance, green flag warrior-scholar male lead, time travel comedy that was really fun, catchy OST
REPLY 1997 (2013) — A problematic 'love triangle', but For me, Jung Eun Ji's best role to date, and my introduction to my favourite screen couple, the AWESOME Lee Il Hwa and Sung Dong Il
MISS KOREA (2014) — Lee Yeonhee's best role, the late and much-lamented Lee Sun Kyun, and one of my favourite 2nd pairs ever.
THE VILLAGE: ACHIARA'S SECRET (2015) — WAY outside my usual genre picks, this spooky mystery is the best I've seen of Moon Geun Young.
SPLASH SPLASH LOVE (2015) — My first SHORT K-Drama - just 2 episodes. Pure sugary sweetness, with some favourite actors - Kim Seul Gi and Jin Ki Joo especially.
PAGE TURNER (2016) — Another short, another long-time favourite actor, Kim So Hyun whose emotional acting range added much to this Drama.
MS. TEMPER AND NAM JUNG GI (2016) — Lee Yo Won made a career out of playing truly STRONG, independent FLs (Empire of Gold, Queen Seondeok, White Nights etc.) , she clearly had fun too with this one - the Sailor Moon sequence especially . Also the Drama that cured me of a longstanding allergy to Yoon Sang Hyun
YEAH, THAT'S HOW IT IS (2016) — Slice-of-life family weekender perfection. Stunning performances from Yoon So Yi and Seo Ji Hye the highlights for me. Made during SBS's "no makjang" pledge phase, it delivered on that promise, but sadly its low ratings killed that promise off.
MY ONLY LOVE SONG (2016) — I found the sanguinary violence jarring in this, but the OTP was adorable. Great chemistry, and real kisses, no doubt helped by have been 'married' before on screen.
CIRCLE (2017) — No 'wombs in space' bakvaas here, just a rare K-Drama SF story that worked.
FOREST OF SECRETS (2017) — Cheating here a bit by counting both seasons of this outstanding show together - image from S2 which I scored slightly higher than S1. Bae Doona and Cho Seung Woo just utterly smashed this, still one of the smartest and most sensible K-Drama crime shows I've watched.
GIRLS' GENERATION 1979 (2017) — The first K-Drama I watched that celebrated satoori and had the overwhelming majority of characters speaking it, I loved the soundtrack - roughly 90% Carpenters.
BUAMDONG AVENGERS SOCIAL CLUB (2017) — "Sisters are doin' it for themselves" - a fantastic story of sisterhood/found family as a group of quite disparate women find strength and togetherness in taking revenge on those who wronged them. Another stellar Lee Yo Won role, and Ra Mi Ran was, well, Ra Mi Ran.
GOODBYE TO GOODBYE (2018) — Another sisterhood/found family story, with the most remarkable OTP of any Drama I've watched. The REAL story here is the growth of the bond between a hikikomori woman and her pregnant soon-to-be daughter-in-law The male characters are perhaps MARGINALLY more relevant than a bicycle is to a fish, but not by much.
CHECK OUT THE EVENT (2021) — I loved this Bang Minah short K-Drama for its focus on having the characters do what is often absolutely verboten in K-Dramas - USE THEIR WORDS.
DIVORCE ATTORNEY SHIN (2023) — I didn't even recognise Cho Seung Woo at first in this, which renewed my appreciation for his performance in Forest of Secrets. This one was for me mostly about the amazing bromance, three BFFs sticking together through life's slings and arrows. That CSW really IS an accomplished musician no doubt helped a lot, too.
AGENCY (2023) — A fantastic zero-romance female-centric Drama set in advertising. One of several long-time favourite female actors forging their fabulous forties, Lee Bo Young further cemented my long-held appreciation of her skills with her lead role here.
OUR BELOVED SUMMER (2023) — Not everyone's thing for sure, I loved this K-Drama for the mature, intelligent handling of the "love vs career" trope. Easily my favourite Choi Woo Shik role, I've seen it twice, and plan to watch it again.
ONE DAY OFF (2023) — The most J-Drama K-Drama I've yet seen, which is why I love this one. A true 'healing' Drama in which nothing "happens" and that's the whole point. Superb short story telling and a great lead performance from Lee Na Young whom I'd found underwhelming before this one. Also, great cameos including an actor then much more active in J-Dramas, Shim Eun Kyung.
MY LIBERATION NOTES (2024) — I waited nearly two years after this aired to try it, until I was in the right headspace. I'm glad I did because it was awesome. A lot to love about it, but having by then spent more than a decade RAGING at the deification of insane over-drinking in K-Drama, to see a K-Drama that pulled no punches in showing what REALLY happens to someone who drinks like a K-Drama character was ambrosial.
DAILY DOSE OF SUNSHINE (2024) — An engaging story with a powerful and necessary message. Shifting perceptions of mental illness is always hard, and any attempt to so is commendable. This K-Drama might have been a 'softly, softly, baby steps' attempt to move that public perception needle, but it told a good story along the way and hopefully helped at least a little. One of only two Park Bo Young Dramas I've completed and the only one I really liked - the other one should have remained unwritten.
KNIGHT FLOWER (2024) — I only discovered while writing this that the English title is a pun on the Korean, which increased my appreciation for this excellent fusion sageuk. Lee Ha Nui is an actor I've long liked, seeing her front and centre here was great. I love too that she had a sassy sidekick to make this a very female-driven Drama. STILL a little miffed that Lee Ha Nui did not show off her SNU-graduate gayageum skills in the Drama but, you really can't have everything.
SOUNDTRACK #2 (2024) — I'm a sucker for a good 'second chance' romance, and this really was one. So much so I'm giving it a second chance with a planned rewatch. Which will also be a second chance for Steve Noh, who deserves it after suffering with the most risibly one-dimensional caricature of a character in Perfect Crown.
UNDER THE GUN (2024) — A short K-Drama this one I enjoyed for the romance, which was delivered with competence and more credible intimacy than the norm, probably thanks to being a Web Drama. The other thing that really interested me was the setup, the male lead being a highly-skilled poker player in a country where gambling is VERY illegal.
CRASH (2024) — Uncomplicated FUN. a high-octane cop show with GREAT stunt driving. I love that the ace driver is the female lead, played by Kwak Sun Young. This was my introduction to Ms Kwak, and I enjoyed it enough to rewatch it almost immediately, this time on a bigger screen with my wife. At the time of writing, I'm looking forward to season 2, not something I say often about a K-Drama
GOOD PARTNER (2025) — This K-Drama let its leads down with a clumsy, ill-fitting and utterly superfluous romantic arc for Nam Ji Hyun's character. BUT, that aside, it was a really strong female-centric workplace Drama about a mentor and mentee. Jang Na Ra and Nam Ji Hyun both did well together, and I love the way the show ended showing them as friends but not colleagues.
TREE WITH DEEP ROOTS (2025) — The ending SUCKED - cruel and unnecessary. BUT, of the 350 K-Dramas I've finished, exactly TWO are proper, traditional sageuks, and this is the better half. "Inspired by" the true story of Sejong the Great's invention of Hangul, a whole Drama that dived DEEP into all things linguistic was pure crack for me. That it featured Jang Hyuk being VERY Jang Hyuk, and being matched in screen presence by Han Seok Gyu was the icing on the cake. It even persuaded me that perhaps calling the female lead an actor was not the gross overstatement I've long thought it to be.
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) — STUPIDLY overlong? Hell, yes! Emotionally manipulative? Damn straight! I wrote at (prolix) length about this Drama here, so all I'm going to say now is that its heartstring-pulling WORKED for me.
LOVE TO HATE YOU (2025) — I've LONG been a fan of the multi-talented Kim Ok Bin, punk rocker, 4th-dan Hapkido practitioner, licenced commercial passenger boat driver and now freediving instructor. In this K-Drama she delivered a top-notch performance in a real romcom, made more credible by the the parallels between character and actor. Lots of romance and lots of comedy, sans serial killers. Daebak!
DOUBT (2025) — A tour-de-force from its two leads, the always reliable Han Seok Gyu and the then-new-to-me Chae Won Bin. The two of them WERE the show really, Ms Chae especially was INCREDIBLE. This K-Drama was all about doubt, maintaining it almost to very end.
MONEY FLOWER (2025) —I have a complicated relationship with makjang (ha!) - I have to be in just right mood for it, and it has to be exceptional. This one met both those criteria. Absolute makjang GENIUS, delivered with style and aplomb. I think of it as the über-Jang Hyuk show, with Jang Hyuk's Jang Hyukness cranked up to eleven. He was phenomenal, but so too was Lee Mi Sook. They were the deliciously deviant, twisted heart of the show and had either failed, the Drama would have too. They didn't, and it didn't.
SPIRIT FINGERS (2026) Fat suits are ALWAYS ugh, without exception. That mistake was the only blemish for me in this otherwise outstanding celebration of personal choice and personal growth. Positive and upbeat, smart and not saccharine, a joy to watch.
The 10% of my K-Dramas I wrote something about above all had some feature that left an extra impact on me. Two Dramas from almost opposite ends of my viewing history that were unlucky not to make the cut are My Name is Kim Sam Soon and Dali and the Cocky Prince. The first is, like Coffee Prince, a must-watch K-Drama classic, almost the archetypal strong female lead K-Drama despite being 20+ years old. The second is a 2021 reminder that K-Drama has not ENTIRELY forgotten how to do classic K-Drama romcom, nicely updated for today's values and environment.
If you made it this far, THANK YOU. I might be back again if/when I complete five hundred. Something for all y'all to look forward to/dread. Noho ora mai!
Comments
Post a Comment