Curious about K-Dramas and not too sure where to start? Not to worry! Compiled below are a couple of recommendations for a range of genres from romantic and comedy to historical and thriller:

Dream High

A drama about dreams and the arts, Dream High narrates the story of six students of Kirin Art High School. Similar to lots of K-Dramas, the female protagonist, Go Hae-Mi (Bae Suzy), gets tangled in a love-triangle on her road to achieving her dream of becoming a singer. Song Sam-Dong (Kim Soo-Hyun) is the male lead, a country bumpkin who moves to Seoul after falling in love with Hae-Mi and her voice. Jin Guk (Ok Taecyeon) is Hae-Mi’s childhood friend; they later coincidentally reunite and he becomes Sam-Dong’s love rival as both vie for Hae-Mi’s heart. Yoon Baek-Hee (Ham Eun-Jung) was Hae-Mi’s best friend but became enemies after she was chosen over Hae-Mi in an audition for Kirin Art High School. Jason (Jang Woo-Young) is a Korean-American who excels in dance and is nice to everyone which lead to Kim Pil-Suk (IU) thinking that he likes her. A story about friendship, personal growth and dreams, you’ll find yourself completely immersed in the story of these six characters.

 

Strong Girl Bong-Soon

If you’re not too keen on female leads that are slightly too overly dependent on the male lead, Strong Girl Bong-Soon might be the perfect drama for you. Strong Girl Bong-Soon is about a girl born with super strength powers called Do Bong-Soon (Park Bo-young), who dreams of creating her own video game. She has a longtime crush on In Guk-Doo (Ji Soo), who is a policeman. But when she begins to work for a rich heir and CEO of a gaming company, Ahn Min-Hyuk (Park Hyung-sik), as a bodyguard, she finds herself in a love-triangle. One day, when a mysterious series of kidnappings breaks out in her neighbourhood and her friend becomes a target, Bong-Soon is determined to catch the culprit and solve the case. And with Min-Hyuk’s help, she manages to control her super strength and harness it for good intentions. Crime, romance, comedy, supernatural, this drama has got it all.

 

Hwarang

Set during Three Kingdoms of Korea period in the kingdom of Silla, Hwarang is about a group of young elite and handsome men who are gathered under Queen Jiso’s (Kim Ji-soo) command and then trained to become warriors, known as ‘Hwarang’. Moo-Myung (Park Seo-joon), who later assumes his best friend’s name Kim Seon-u, has a mysterious family background that leads to a dramatic unveiling. He falls in love with his best friend’s younger sister, Kim Ah-ro (Go Ara) who is a ‘half-breed’, with her mother being a servant, and she becomes the physician for the Hwarang. Also in love with Ah-ro is the young king Sam Maekjong (Park Hyung-sik) who goes under disguise by the name Kim Ji-dwi to join the Hwarang. His desire for the throne grows as the queen’s greed makes her continue to keep him in hiding. If you’re familiar with K-Pop then you may find yourself watching some familiar faces as the supporting characters Kim Soo-Ho and Suk Han-Sung are played by idol groups SHINee’s Min-Ho and BTS’s V respectively. A story about love and friendship, the Hwarang come together to protect Silla and make it a better ruling kingdom.

 

Mary Yeh

 

Images: Soompi, Dramafever, KBS2 TV, daehandrama