Hello, 

I'm a huge kdrama fan and I'm looking to branch out to Chinese and Japanese dramas. My only problem is - I don't know where to start! I've found that most kdramas I like are either realistic (slice of life/healing) or crime. I've listed ones I like below. Does anyone have any recs? 

Realistic

  • Age of Youth
  • It's Okay It's Love
  • One Spring Night
  • Reply 1988
  • Signal
  • Something in the Rain
  • Moment At Eighteen
  • Dear My Friends
  • My Mister

Crime/Law/Mystery

  • Law School
  • Life on Mars
  • Signal
  • Secret Forest
  • Tunnel
  • Beyond Evil

Crime/Law/Mystery

  • Maou
  • Black Pean
  • N no tame ni
  • Kazoku Game
  • Ryusei no kizuna 
  • The quiz show 2
  • Todome no kiss
  • Boku dake ga inai machi
  • Suits

Realistic

  • 1 litre of tears
  • Mother
  • Soredemo ikite yuku
  • Nagareboshi
  • Uchi no musume wa kareshi ga dekinai
  • Byakuyakou

I am a huge crime lover too.

Some chinese dramas I highly highly highly recommend are;
Burning Ice  - best, best, best!!!!!
Bad Kids - highly internationally acclaimed and will be adapted to hollywood productions soon.
Kidnapping Game 
The Long Night
Every one of these has 12 episodes, fully subbed. They are absolutely amazing.

For Japanese dramas I highly recommend;
Ishi no Mayu
Suishou no Kondou
Aku no Hado
All three are linked with each other but there is no need to watch them in a specific order. 

I don't watch crime dramas much, but these could be interesting:

Zettai Reido - jdrama with Ueto Aya, someone wrote that it is similar to American series "Cold Case".

I've Fallen For You - cdrama romcom with some crime investigations.

I can't say more about them I have them on PTW list, but what I saw looked interesting.

Some very good Japanese dramas have been mentioned already, but let me add some more:

Crime:

"Realistic":

for convenience sake, I divide them into two categories: (1) the ones that are more "dramatic" in their storytelling; and (2) "slice of life", which is basically just about people living their life in all its mundanity--please be aware that slice of life can be boring for some