Korean dramas are now one of the most popular items in the world, along with the culture, music, and cuisine of the nation. These shows’ love stories, fantasies set in the contemporary and historical kingdom of Joseon, and romances gone awry are all crowd favourites. For this reason, several streaming services like Netflix have been investing in the production of unique content that will appeal to their diverse fan bases. Movie and television fans now have access to a wide variety of entertainment options thanks to the Internet, giving these dramas the platform they deserve on the international stage.
There were devoted fans of Korean dramas, though, even before Korean entertainment took off and gained widespread acclaim. Dramas like Coffee Prince and Boys Over Flowers introduced viewers from all over the world to what Korean television could look like, and websites like Dramafever allowed these genres to flourish within the communities that loved them so fiercely. Better subtitles and the chance to acquire money from outlets like Netflix brought up a completely new era in the 2010s. In the last 20 years, South Korean dramas have advanced significantly, and in the decades to come, there will be much more to look forward to. These are the most well-known Korean dramas up to this point.
Boys Over Flowers
Since it was the reason so many people first fell in love with dramas, KBS Boys Over Flowers is one of the most well-known Korean dramas from the 2000s. It is based on the same-named Japanese manga, which has inspired numerous translations around Asia over the years and is what has made Lee Min-career ho’s so successful. He portrays the head of a group of affluent lads known as F4, and when they encounter a girl from a less affluent background who is enrolled in their school on a scholarship, things are about to change. She receives harsh treatment by the F4 leader, who discovers his crush on her much later.
Coffee Prince
The 2006 film Coffee Prince was innovative at the time. It features Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye and taps into a popular drama cliché of the day: a female posing as a boy wins the love of another boy, typically one who is significantly richer than her. Eun-chan is portrayed by Yoon as a person who works hard to support her suffering family. Unaware that she is a girl, a wealthy heir (Gong Yoo) employs her to pose as his gay lover when they first meet. This backfires on him though when he starts to fall in love with her even though he doesn’t know who she is.
Crash Landing on You
When Crash Landing on You debuted on Netflix in 2019, it inspired a new generation of Korean drama viewers. Son Ye-jin portrays a wealthy South Korean CEO who, following a bizarre paragliding accident, ends up landing in North Korea. Despite appearing out of place in the little North Korean village he lives in, she befriends a local army captain (Hyun Bin) and hides in her home. As it turns out, her physical characteristics may have had the greatest positive impact on North and South Korean relations by demonstrating that people aren’t as dissimilar as they might first appear.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Park Eun-bin played an autistic first-year lawyer in the principal role of Extraordinary Attorney Woo. Many people disapprove of Woo Young-woo and her impairment when she is given a new job at a legal company, but she demonstrates her abilities in court thanks to her brilliance and photographic memory. Some people are envious of her promotion at the firm and look for opportunities to purposefully harm her career, but others support her as she pursues her dream of becoming a lawyer.
Guardian: The Great and Lonely God
Guardian: The Great and Lonely God, also known as Goblin by its fans, stars Gong Yoo, Kim Go-eun, Lee Dong-wook, and Yoo In-na. The character Gong Yoo plays is a dokkaebi, or Korean goblin, who was once a general. He is condemned to immortality as a goblin after being accused of turning traitor and witnessing all of his loved ones being slain. The goblin’s bride is the only one who can break him out of this cycle, but when he finally meets her (Kim), he is disappointed to find out that she is merely a high school student and is too curious.
Mr. Sunshine
Kim Tae-ri and Lee Byung-hun from The Handmaiden star in the historical drama Mr. Sunshine, which is set just before the Korean Peninsula was invaded by the Japanese in the 1870s. Although Lee’s character was born into slavery during the Joseon era of Korean history, he eventually immigrated to the United States as a young boy. He finds himself back to Korea after enlisting in the US Marine Corps and falls in love with an aristocrat’s daughter there. But he quickly learns the Japanese are preparing to annexe Korea into their empire, suggesting there are worse things hidden beneath the surface.
My Love from the Star
You Who Came From the Stars, another name for My Love from the Star, was a worldwide blockbuster success when it was published in 2013. It elevated the careers of performers Kim Soo-hyun and Jun Ji-hyun to entirely new heights. When it comes to her personal life and economics, Jun’s character, a South Korean performer with international recognition, struggles. Kim, an alien who arrived on Earth 400 years before the series’ events, is torn between staying with the woman he has fallen in love with or abandoning her and returning home after coming into contact with Jun’s character.
Reply 1988
The Reply series is a flash from Korea’s recent past, from decades that did not happen all that long ago. The first two installments of the series—1997 and 1994—were followed by Reply 1988. This version centres on the lives of five friends who were young at the time and is situated in northern Seoul. Reply 1988 stands apart from its forerunners in that it explores relationships on a deeper level and demonstrates how friends can both enhance one’s life and cause emotional suffering. It is among the highest-rated dramas ever broadcast on Korean cable.
Sky Castle
Yonsei, Seoul, and Korea are the premier colleges in South Korea, and Sky Castle, which was the highest-rated Korean drama when it initially aired, is a reference to them. The drama focuses on the lives of Korea’s upper-class elites who will go to any lengths to enrol their children at these schools. They reside in the upscale Sky Castle housing complex, which also includes professors from top universities. Even while their strategies might be successful, they have terrible repercussions.
The Heirs
The Heirs, which debuted in 2013, was one of the most well-known Korean dramas of the early 2010s. Three students who are caught in a love triangle were portrayed by Lee Min-ho, Park Shin-hye, and Kim Woo-bin. Two Korean conglomerate heirs compete for Park’s character’s affections, despite the fact that she is lower class. The scenario is already difficult because one of them is involved with another person. Although it has aged poorly, the television series was one of the most popular in Asia when it first aired.
The Moon Embracing the Sun
The historical drama The Moon Embracing the Sun, starring Kim Soo-hyun, Han Ga-in, Kim Min-seo, and Jung Il-woo, was extremely well received when it originally debuted. The Moon Embracing the Sun presents a fictional perspective on the drama present in the royal court and is a fascinating look at Korean political history, particularly that which occurred before the country’s disastrous colonisation by Japan. In his youth, a monarch (Kim) fell in love with a girl, but political pressures separated them, allegedly killing her. She did live, but she has no memory of who she was or what happened when the king meets her; she is now a shaman.
The World of the Married
The World of the Married debuted in 2020 to great fanfare and is currently the highest-rated Korean drama ever to air. It features Kim Hee-ae as a doctor and the administrator of a hospital in South Korea’s south. She and her husband, a film director, appear to have the ideal existence, but as she unintentionally learns that her husband is cheating on her, everything swiftly goes out of control. Now motivated by rage and desire for retribution, she will act in accordance with her demands, leading viewers down a twisting, dark path filled of betrayal and intense drama.
