If you are wondering ‘what on earth are these KDramas?’, then I have a question for you – “What have you been binge watching lately?” But on the contrary, if you knew exactly what they are and have landed on this page to checkout my recommendations on the 10 best KDramas that you should absolutely see, then you are totally up to date with your millennial vocabulary & in the right place. KDramas or Korean Dramas have been creating ripples across the global OTT platforms for quite some time now.
Korean dramas are just the thing that has everyone hooked to it, as they are widely available and dubbed in multiple languages. With a subtle mix of familial togetherness, sexual magnetism & emotional desirability, they offer the audience something which deeply resonates with their emotional side without being cheesy or tacky. The comedy is creatively in sync with the romance, which is being extremely well received worldwide. But having said that, though idea of romance is brilliantly portrayed by the Korean artists, sometimes, the protagonists become awkward around some kissing scenes. But don’t worry as there are tons of others that don’t disappoint.
These KDramas will satisfy all your cravings for romance, suspense, drama and thrill. Be sure to watch these, if you are a diehard KDrama fan or even if you aren’t yet, I can guarantee that you’d become one happily after watching these.
10) True Beauty
Lim Joo-Kyung is constantly bullied since her childhood by different people so much so that she is tired of being the ugly duckling in her family. Soon she disguises herself with make-up and becomes a hit in her new school. While she doesn’t realise that Lee Su-Ho, the school hottie has fallen for her personality rather than her dolled up appearance, she always has Seo Jun by her side to cajole her, who again is secretly harboring feelings for her. Her comic timing is top notch and perfectly in sync with the rest of the characters. This one’s perfect for the high school romance addicts and though love triangles are just a dime a dozen, this KDrama shouldn’t be missed.
9) Coffee Prince
This Korean series features the hottie Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun Hye in the lead roles. The story revolves around a tom boyish woman named Go Eun Chan, played by Yoon Eun Hye, who disguises as a man in order to get work and is thereafter employed by Choi Han Kyul, played by Gong Yoo. Han Kyul employs Eun Chan and a quirky romance brews between the two alongside the romance between Han Kyul’s cousin Han Sung and his ex Yoo Joo. Han Kyul pretends to be Eun Chan’s gay lover in order to escape from the blind dates that his grand mom, who is a rich business woman, arranges. The plot is like a typical romantic saga with a strong support cast.
8) Nevertheless
This is a sweet college romance where the lead characters are played by Song Kang & Han So-Hee. A love cynic falls for an arts schoolmate, after the latter boldly pursues her. Initially she doesn’t want to be dating him due to her past experience which works well for the flirtatious schoolmate Park Jae eon, played by Song Kang, who isn’t looking to commit. Both enter into a ‘physical only’ relation and eventually fall for each other. The ‘friends with benefits’ idea is portrayed well by the main leads while also sharing some pretty steamy on-screen kisses, which had the audience talking about the same worldwide. The background score is simply top notch.
7) All of us are Dead
This Korean series is a mix of horror, comedy and a pinch of romance. It’s a story about a scientific experiment gone really wrong and bringing about a zombie apocalypse and a group of survivor students stuck in ground zero. It depicts how school bullying of a student led to the creation of a viral outbreak and how students of a school survive through the turmoil brought about by this zombie apocalypse, holding and supporting each other. Romantic angle is introduced in the story by 2 lead pairs Lee Sung Hyeok (played by Park Solomon) & Nam ra (played by Cho YI-Hyun) and Lee Cheong San(played by Yoon Chan-young) & Nam On-Jo(played by Park Ji-Hu).
It is heart wrenching to see the students losing the battle of their life one by one as they get preyed on by zombies, all because the state is not equipped with the facilities and manpower to combat such a calamity. The rate of infection was so high that an antidote needed to be developed almost immediately which was nearly impossible and so a lot of survivors even young students were left to battle it out on their own.
6) The Glory
The Glory portrays the revenge story of a woman, who is bullied in school to such an extent that the sole purpose of her life remains taking revenge from the perpetrators. When a plot revolves around revenge the central character of the story many a times becomes the villain. The Femme-Fatale in this story is a rich brat, who along with her bunch are addicted to sadistic pleasures derived out of the agony of others. Park Yeon Jin tortures many female students and is always able to get away with it. The character is brilliantly portrayed by Lim Ji-Yeon and the protagonist who seeks revenge is Moon Dong-Eun(played by Song Hye-Kyo). The revenge plot is enacted tastefully by all characters and leads to the portrayal of karmic justice. The story progresses in such a way that initially the suffering of the victim is shown which builds a rage in the audience towards the perpetrators and when justice finally prevails there is a sense of satisfaction.
5) Business Proposal
Shin Ha-Ri, a hardworking researcher at a big food processing company, decides to do a favour to her friend Young-Seo by going on a blind date which was fixed by Young-Seo’s dad for Young-Seo. Unfortunately for Ha-ri, the blind date turns out to be her boss who owns the company she works in. Kang Tae mo wants Ha-ri to act as his girlfriend in front of his grandfather just like she pretended to be Young-Seo in front of him, so that he wouldn’t have to go on any other blind dates arranged by his grandfather. The enactment turns into reality, meanwhile Young-Seo moves in to an apartment close to Tae-Mo’s secretary Cha Sung-Hoon and they instantly fall for each other. This rom-com is a hot favourite in Netflix, due to it’s availability in multiple languages and was also famous for some of the raunchiest kisses of all times in KDramas by Sung-Hoon and Young-Seo.
4) Squid Game
Actor Gong Yoo comes in a friendly appearance to lure the financially weaker Koreans to play a deadly game, where one has to stick by the rules or else is eliminated; and by eliminated, I mean murdered. There can be only one winner, who’ll take away the unreal cash prize and everyday there will be a new dangerous game where whoever loses, is eliminated. This game is designed for the elite class to derive sadistic pleasures from the gore and murder of real people. The series attracted a lot of attention and brought the focus on the existence of such elite hunting groups. One of the games enacted and played in the series became so popular that it became an overnight internet sensation and the doll in that also became quite popular. The climax is spectacular and worth all the wait of 8 episodes!!
3) Guardian: The Lonely and Great God
This is the mythical story of a Goblin, who had been cursed as human to become an immortal goblin until he finds a bride who can take out the invisible sword from his chest, which may be visible to only her. The main leads are the sexy Gong Yoo again and the cheerful Kim Go-eun. Here also there are two parallel love stories the second one being portrayed by actors Dong Wook-Lee and Yoo In-na. Dong Wook-Lee’s character is a grim-reaper and who falls for a woman who is a sister of the Goblin in a previous life. But they can never be together because of the reality of who they are. Destiny is so cruel that the minute the goblin’s bride takes the sword out, he’d cease to exist. But even if she doesn’t, he lives on forever on earth seeing all his loved ones die and be reborn and then die again. This one is a beautiful mix of romance, comedy and mysticism.
2) Crash Landing on you
The story of this series is so unique, it is unlike any other that one has been seeing in the other KDramas. Yoon Se-Ri (Son Ye-Jin), the owner of Se-Ri’s choice and heiress to her dad’s company is stuck in North Korea due to a para-gliding mishap and Ri Jeong-hyeok(Hyun Bin), an army officer and the son of an influential army personnel, decides to help her out. What follows is a journey of how the two fell in love. This is a series for the die-hard romantic fans. The comic scenes by the supporting cast are hilarious. Son Ye-Jin & Hyun Bin are a real-life couple, so the chemistry is quite natural too.
1) It's Okay to not be Okay
The series revolves around an emotionless sociopath Ko Moon Yeung, who is an author of children’s literature, Moon Gang Tae and Moon Sang Tae, who are brothers; Sang Tae being specially abled. The brothers are orphans losing their only parent in a murderous scandal. The author is also self-assumed orphan, though her dad, a dementia patient is still alive and under treatment in a psychiatric hospital, where Gang Tae is a caregiver. The story touches upon the aspects of difficulties in taking care of a specially abled person and the effects of loneliness on different people. Gang Tae eventually falls for Moon Yeung after the latter fiercely pursues him. They both share sweet romantic moments which leaves us all swooning over Kim Soo-hyun, who played Gang Tae.
This series which released in 2020, became quite the talk of the town around the time of it’s release winning awards like Asia Artist Awards 2020, Korean Academy of Theater Arts 2020, Seoul Music Awards 2021 and Baeksang Arts Awards for the same year in different categories. You'll fall in love with the background score and some of the songs may also enter your playlists like Breath by Sam kin and Little by Little by Cheeze.
So there you go, these are my top 10 recommendations for super interesting KDramas. Wait! before you leave, here’s a bonus movie recommendation to be added to your list of must-sees – ‘Train to Busan’. A typical zombie thriller, this movie is one of the best zombie movies that I have ever watched. The visuals do the trick of creating the scare and the acting is amazingly realistic. Its about how a father daughter duo struggle through the turmoil of finding a safe place amidst a zombie apocalypse.
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