Viajero

Looking forward to seeing Jin Ki Joo again. I first noticed her when she played IU's maid in Moon Lovers and then was really impressed by her lead roles in the time-travel murder mystery My Perfect Stranger, as well as in the movies Midnight and Little Forest.

I wasn't going to watch this one as it sounded a bit silly. But now I'm curious. What could possibly be so offensive in this series to cause 50% of raters (and 90% of Koreans) on IMDb to give it only 1 or 2 stars out of 10. Did one of the actors kill his mother, rape an underage girl, or get caught taking drugs?

Its on Netflix in my region.

Couldn't disagree more. I thought episodes 1 to 5 were great, but episodes 6 & 7 dragged on a bit too much with long extended flashbacks that interrupted the flow of the story, before they finally got back to the action in the final episode.

I really liked this show, but was a bit disappointed that they spent almost two entire episodes (6 & 7) on long flashbacks that deserved no more than half an episode, only to then not give us a conclusion in episode 8.

Those Alienoid movies are certainly not something you see every day. A two-movie series in which a Goryeo period shaman/martial artist, a 21st century girl who can shoot, mages, androids, and aliens clash in pursuit of a magical dagger in a wonderfully absurd, totally bonkers and sometimes hilareous non-stop action race through time to save humanity. I can understand that these movies may be too over the top and seemingly self-indulgent for some, but I thought them great fun, as long as you don't take them too seriously. Besides, any movies staring Kim Tae-ri are usually worth at least checking out, irrespective of the genre.

Jang Da A was excellent as the antagonist in Pyramid Game (as was Bona as the protagonist). That remains one of the very best series I watched this year in part because the way those two play off each other.

Also, you might want to mention that she had a leading role in the American film Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon opposite Kate Hudson, in which she was quite good.

It's an interpretation of the ending that I don't happen to agree with. While the ending might not wrap everything up with a nice little bow, I think that main point is achieved in that that all three main characters really grew throughout this series. This is particularly true of the female lead.

I wish MDL would fix this. I really like historical dramas, whether they feature action, romance, political intrigue, or even humor, as long as they don't have too many fantasy elements (I'm fine with science fiction and time-travel, its the pure fantasy/magic stuff I don't like)). There are a lot of excellent historical series with minimal or no fantasy that could be recommended, including those mentioned above by loladesu. Others of my favorites would include Mr. Sunshine, My Dearest, Empress Ki, and The Red Sleeve from Korea. The Long Ballad, Blossoms in Adversity, and Love Like the Galaxy from China.

These recommendations include 3 of my 6 favorite k-dramas (Mr. Sunshine, Flower of Evil, and My Name), while missing My Mister, Twinkling Watermelon, and Mr. Queen. It also includes 3 of my top 6 non-Korean Asian series (Alice in Borderland, Reset, and Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi), while missing Someday or One Day, The Long Ballad, and First Love: Hatsukoi. That's better than most similar lists I've seen.

You are not missing much. I thought it the most overrated k-drama of 2020. It didn't help that I was also watching Dr. Romantic at a time, which I found to be a much better and more entertaining hospital drama.

Alice in Borderland and Revenant are among my top favorites and I liked the movie version of Bad Genius (haven't watched the series yet). I thought the second seasons of Sweet Home and Uncanny Counter were huge disappointments to the point where I don't even recommend starting those shows.

I'm kind of surprised I've watched well over half of these shows. Turns out my tastes align a lot more with Mon and Xiao Xi. In both cases, I generally agree with 7 recommendations each, strongly disagree with a couple each, somewhat disagree with a couple more each, and haven't seen 4 each. In contrast I only agree with two of the shows recommended by Awkward Potato (¨Reset¨ & ¨Silent¨).

I'm not normally into horror, but her acting in Revenant was so fantastic that it was worth watching just for her.

Hulu is only available in the U.S.

I just wish Disney+ (or any other streamer) was showing this in my region. But they don't show any k-dramas here. They do allow Star+ to show about 3 new k-dramas a year, but often not the better ones. So far this year, of all shows Disney+ has the rights to, for some crazy reason they decided to only offer us A Shop for Killers (which at least was pretty good), Seoul Busters, and Gangham B Side. What makes this particularly crazy from a business point of view is that k-dramas are very popular here. At any given time, there is almost always at least one k-drama (if not more) in the Netflix Top 10 for this country.

While I do think 2023 was a stronger year for k-dramas, there have been several pretty good series this year. My favorites for 2024 so far include Pyramid Game, The Judge from Hell, Lovely Runner, Parasyte, Marry My Husband, and A Shop for Killers (in roughly that order).

I do generally like horror and action thrillers, as well as romances, but of the shows you mention, I was honestly only really impressed by Parasyte. I thought both Bequeathed and Hellbound (S1 & S2) were particularly disappointing. I think my favorite relatively recent horror k-dramas were last year's Revenant (particularly due to an exceptional acting tour de force performance from Kim Tae-ri), and 2022's All of Us Are Dead.

I would generally agree that its an overused trope. But one of the best Netflix original movies I've watched this year was ¨Drawing Closer¨ out of Japan, in which both leads have terminal diseases. Yes, its depressing in a way, but it can also be somehow uplifting. If its done right with really good actors (and Deguchi Natsuki was simply outstanding in that movie), this trope can still make for a worthwhile watch. That's one movie for which I completely agree with the very high rating here on MDL.