Recommendations for longer dramas(preferably aired after 2013)

 Kitamura Kou:

I've watched mr. Sunshine. 

My golden life is on hold after 20th episode. Shin hye soon's character has entered their home & park si hoo is realizing his feelings for her, is where I stopped. 

Haven't heard good things about how Empress Ki ends. So I'll probably skip it.

Father is strange is on my radar but I kinda don't like Ju Ji Hoon to watch him for 50 episodes. He comes off too stiff to me.

Thank you again!

Empress Ki is a GREAT drama, it's one of my favorite dramas.

There are also great dramas from before 2013 that I recommend:

Queen Seon Duk 
Dong Yi 

I have two three unique recs that don't fit any of the 'problems' you mentioned:

Giant

Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People

Seirei no Moribito (3 seasons combined)

60hrs, 30 hrs, and 22 hours that feel like way more... all are sweeping epic stories, the latter 2 more an adventure tale and story of character dynamics/heartfelt found family stuff albeit in different garb. Rebel feels more modern than the stiff historical stuff out there (Moribito is sort of 'a Japan from long ago' but with modern enough dialogue and behavior, just different settings and outfits)-not stories where things just 'happen' and situations land in people's laps. ;) 

More standard fare solid shows:

I Have a Lover

All About My Mom

30hrs: Bread, Love, and Dreams (aka King of Baking Kim Tak Gu)

House of Bluebird's alright, too, mostly low-stress viewing as I recall (but I'm like you-stress for me is screeching in-laws).  Another low stress background viewing show=Father I'll Take Care of You (sweet, pretty bookstore scenes still memorable, pretty cast)... or currently airing It's Beautiful Now.  I still think My Golden Life is better than these though-it isn't as creepy as you might think based on where you said you stopped watching. ;) 

DIFFERENT historical rec (non-formulaic): Tree with Deep Roots followed by Six Flying Dragons (the order intended to be viewed works better for me than the timeline order personally)... Even if you're not into the lead actress, it's not a negative for this program-she is mute. :P 

ETA I also love Empress Ki even with the bitterness that lingers about the King. ;) 

 Kitamura Kou:

Giant- isn't it a love triangle involving 2 brothers, I think eventually younger brother giving up?

Easy to confuse, for sure, but you're thinking of Endless Love, something I gave a wholly average rating (my 7.5 on here is a straight up C grade but would be, if purely stars on IMDB, more like a 5.5-6). HJE is in both and there are two brothers, yes, but in Giant, she is the little sister of those brothers, not the love interest which would be hella creepy! Giant is a revenge story that has 2 brothers and their sister separated in childhood when their parents are murdered... all 3 siblings grow up with a lot of resentment in turn though yes, naturally the youngest (HJE's character who is a baby when they separate) is the most naive, almost angelic, at first, but it's worlds apart from Endless Love, way more story. It's heavier on melodrama at times than some like, but the time skips help quite a bit (it starts from the 70s and goes through several time jumps to cover a large span of time when Gangnam and other areas were being developed). Not everyone's taste but it's authentic to what was happening at the time and the entanglement between the killer and the children of the one killed never got boring for me. I mostly, to be fair, remember the men in it-I remember loathing (but understanding all the same) Joo Sang Wook's character quite often and wanting to smack the too-nice brother, but the dynamics were pretty intense. 

Hong Gil Dong is kind of meh compared to Rebel, partly from being old and low-budget-it's pretty corny/cheesy. Chae Soo Bin isn't really that important a character to me-she's all support to the rest, a quiet doting supporter but not tremendously impactful-I'm surprised she's put as the "main" lead when her role is so much less than Lee Ha Nui's and Kim Ji Suk's both... Lee Ha Nui (honey) is the real star there-Kim Ji Suk's role is also brilliantly executed, much softer than the same prince->king in Treacherous (which it'd have to be to air on TV). 

I didn't watch (wasn't interested in) Second to Last Love (seemed a bit cheesy/outdated?), but Ji Jin Hee in I Have a Lover is much more like in Misty FWIW... and Kim Hyun Joo has dual roles, wildly different separated twins (one went with the mother, one with the father). The 2nd ML is especially great in it, too. It does start with a love affair (there must be something about people with her general look-they get cast as the pretty young mistresses way too often!)... but became super satisfying for me-but if adultery is a trigger, you'll be upset from the start even though they're quite hurt bc of the reason they grow apart at all. 

PS I completely relate to being angry with actors because of their roles. All In made me boycott, with the exception of IRIS since I didn't know he was in it and just jumped in, Lee Byung Hun dramas until Mr. Sunshine... like... 17 years boycotted... but that show was what made me fall hard for Ji Sung and LOATHE that the Marlboro Man looking prick got the pretty girl instead of the charisma bomb that was and still is Ji Sung lol. :P 

 Kitamura Kou:

the point you made about Joo Sang Wook's character is not helping it either

At least in Giant, Joo Sang Wook ISN'T the male lead; he's the SML and it suits him well-he looks far more like a somewhat entitled rich boy who's never done hard manual labor than the brother who is the lead! I do get what you're saying, though. He's picked, especially in recent years, some AWFUL scripts (or maybe that's just what's come to him-he's been 'relegated' to sort of "B list" dramas... I mean, Masked Prosecutor and Fates and Furies both had crappy scriptwriting, and TOUCH? THAT was the worst casting decision imaginable... the last thing he could convince me of is his love of makeup, seriously. Every other cast member in it was well-suited for their role, but he's a bit too much of a bulldog-like guy to really 'do it for me' as a stylist. 

I think the King of Tears "historically accurate" sageuk is actually a good fit, but it's totally NOT my taste, especially not for 32 hours. I liked him in roles like Special Affairs Team 10, liked Birth of a Beauty though it's more makjang and in some parts unsettling to me, and actually DID like his romance in Fantastic (it was mature mid-late 30-somethings romance with someone in the same age bracket, and the romance was secondary but stayed important-I like that its romance wasn't so typical and showed the hardships that come with love-that kind of role is endearing). A lot of his projects just didn't 'do it' for me. I somehow enjoyed much of Glamorous Temptation, but it was infuriating in the middle because it totally went off into some sleep-deprived other story that was really hard to come back from-that writer couldn't handle 50 episodes, clearly (and it's pretty soap opera-like, melodramatic in kind of dumb ways more than a few important times). I managed to finish it, though, which surprises me. I actually forgot JSW was in Feast of the Gods, but I've forgotten a lot about that show bc it's been so long. I think he's just not in the top 30 or even 50 for casting directors (limited range, doesn't appeal to younger viewers as much as the Jang Hyuks, Ji Sungs, or Jung Kyung Hos of the world manage to). Part of his lack of range might just be the tiny detail that he didn't go to uni for theatre/film like most; a degree in visual design would make a fantastic SET designer and maybe even director, but he clearly doesn't have as many tricks up his sleeve so his characters don't have as much variety and his voice kind of stays in one of 3 modes. All those I mentioned=theatre and film degrees. It shows in how versatile their roles and how nuanced their performances WITHIN a role are... Ah, Park Ki Woong is kind of like Joo Sang Wook to me on that front... another 'unrelated degree' actor who can do some roles well but is kind of missing the range and sort of "counts in 3's ie 1 4 7 10 in terms of revving up or down if that makes sense... the natural bubbling up then boiling over should at least go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 if not 0.1, 0.4, 0.6, 1.0, 1.5, 1.8 etc depending on the scene, but when people haven't really learned how to use their face and body in delicate ways, yeah, it gets kinda old. (Lee Sang Woo is another who was DEFINITELY hired for being pretty and that's about it-he also lacks some of that subtlety even though I think he's quite attractive if in a sort of "stock photo" way. I thought Golden Garden AND Marry Me Now (with the costars of GG having just been in 50-hour MMN the year prior-weird decision making there unless MBC thought KBS's success in that family drama slot had ANYthing to do with the cast, not just being where older Korean viewers, the ones with the rating boxes, tune their TVs to at that hour!) were pretty dull for me, and he's certainly part of the reason even if some of his shows (ie All Abt my Mom) were excellent (though I think the female ensemble take 90% of the credit there-strong women are something I really like, though). 

 Kitamura Kou:

Was it because of you, that he didn't do tv dramas after All In?

Ahahaha, I think it's probably because especially in that era films paid quite a bit more for the time put in (and he's better suited for films by far), but you have no idea how many girls, ahjummas, and halmeoni were furious with All In's romance back in that era! You have a guy who is like this playful kitten (or puppy if that's your preferred adorable fluffball) with twinkling eyes, sparkling teeth, dimples to kill (I know, not your guy, but he became MANY people's guy)... a really pretty, sweet angelic-looking 20-something young woman, then... LBH who looked over 40 years old EVEN THEN which made it creepy, not unlike if my father's friends had hit on me once I graduated high school or something... he suited the casino end really well, but the love line should've been left to the cute pretty and lovable ones. I did like IRIS, but who played what role wasn't that important as long as they acted well-I don't care about visuals as much now but never cared much when it WASN'T supposed to make my heart flutter.  I didn't boycott Kdramas, JUST Lee Byung Hun, IRIS aside. :P Lots of my older shows watched aren't in my list because I don't remember titles well (esp. not the awful translated names that are SO generic so often, ugh), but I'm very much alive and have not abandoned kdramas though I certainly took some breaks for life happening and a few points of slumpy boredom, especially in the earlier era of things moving online where subtitles were pretty bad (you could tell their English was limited, so they'd translate 5-8 very distinct sentences with a really bland generic same line-it made some unwatchable since I didn't know enough Korean yet to watch without subs). 

 Kitamura Kou:

Are you alive or speaking from heaven?

Don't wish me there TOO soon, chingu, especially not when you say you don't like Ji Sung... I might take you to the underworld with me and give up all my heavenly rights if I were more like today's idol idolizers! ? 

 Kitamura Kou:

Is Honey's character something like what she plays in Shine Or Go Crazy

I watched Shine or Go Crazy when it aired, so while I remember the story in general, her character specifically is a little less easy to recall the details of beyond me seeming to recall her being the strong, assertive one and the other princess being the 'fallen' one who is a bit more pitiable, right? In Rebel, her character is VERY ambitious, beautiful beyond imagination (total girlcrush/ahjumma crush material, even)-you KNOW why the ML pines for her, and WOW her music, stuff I ordinarily don't even care a ton for, was crafted in ways that I can still remember scenes of both as a gisaeng, out walking with Hong and in the palace. She's CRAZY strong, clever, and impossible to dislike even if it's quite easy to resent her at times. She is dreamy. I also love the bromance with the "Hong family" (found family) AND the palace musicians. Its cast was crazy good. Watching both won't make either seem like a redundancy, though. They're loosely based on a Korean folk tale, so they're linked as being adapted from the same thing, but it's REALLY different, wildly so. The name is the same for the ML, but you won't feel like you're seeing the same guy. The ML in Hong GIl Dong did well (I have some mixed feelings about him now after some scandals, but he's a solid actor, no doubt, even if it's from another era entirely-2008 dramas just feel like a whole other world for the most part in terms of writing especially). Jang Geun Suk was definitely not up to Kim Ji Suk's acting level, esp. in 2008 (IIRC he plays one of the princes-been ages), but he was certainly popular w/ladies for the eye candy (some of his stuff is quite good-he's better in comedy, though-No Min Woo is better for brooding kinds of roles, to give a fair enough comparison between two musicians with the "Japanese-or-Korean-or-both?" look to them... Jang Geuk Suk was always better as the flirty or fiesty one, No Min Woo quirkier and definitely a great dark character, Partners in Justice S2 my fave work of his, S3 something I wait ... and wait... and wait for, dangit covid making everything topsy turvy). 

Last note in this edition of novel writing is on Ji Jin Hee (who I kind of agree-he isn't an amazing actor or a terrible one, either, but he's limited like many though Undercover was solid for me, his intermittent presence in Move to Heaven genuinely touching, Designated Survivor sitting there in my PTW but never getting touched-I looked him up and lol he has the same Visual Design degree as Joo Sang Wook haha-I did not know about his education either way, and clearly, education isn't [esp for "honorary degree" idols] a guarantee they'll be good, nor is a lack of it a sign they'll be meh as plenty are fantastic from childhood and even transition [ie Yeo Jin Goo] very effectively into adult roles): You know how some dramas have one gender or the other TOTALLY rule the show? I Have a Lover and Misty are both in that situation for me... I DO remember the males visually, but who do I remember the stories of? The women-kinda like Search WWW, sure, men were there, but man, they were not what anyone was watching for, well, Lee Jae Wook's surprising rookie actor playing a rookie actor role aside bc that gal can have chemistry with a rock.   :P 

I hope you find plenty to enjoy. If a 16-ep one is welcome and you can handle your heart being tugged, the SK drama Mother is phenomenal and I just saw is not in your list, and Beyond Evil is likewise a total masterpiece. I also wholly love Lost, but you have to come with your heart able to hurt and your soul ready to see another person's unravel, raw, bare to you, anguish and all if you go into the work of art that is Lost. It's verrry slow burning but poignant to degrees you just don't see hardly ever. That one lacks a tightly structured plot-it's ALL about human characters and interaction etc so it's not for all! Those are all 16-eps, the eps each a bit longer since they're cable shows. Had to throw them in since they haven't been seen yet and you liked My Mister which usually correlates with liking those. ;)

I just watched Daring women, it has a mother in law relationship, but in a very different way than i have seen before.

I also liked life is beautiful, however you have to be okay with the theme of this one

Golden bride, is with a mother in law relationship, but not in  a negative way. It was a good one to watch, i really liked the FL and how she found her life.