Quirky Kdrama Recommendations

S3 E34 / Ever struggled to pick your next Kdrama? I'm sharing my most unconventional Kdrama recommendations—a mash-up of books, movies, and classic tropes to help you (or a new drama-watcher) find the perfect show. 

🤪 I think of it as my Bonkers Kdrama Recommendation Engine.  This solo episode is packed with offbeat, creative ways to find your next favorite drama. 

🍱 Whether you love literary classics, rom-coms, mysteries, or fairy tale retellings, there’s something here for you. 

✅ Spoiler Free episode. Enjoy! 

Currently Watching/Upcoming Shows Mentioned:

• The Practical Guide to Love
• Still Shining
• Gimbap and Onigroni
• Perfect Crown
• Tokyo MPD PR Unit 2

Transcript

Introduction and Catch up

Sara Rosett 0:06

This is the How I Met Me K-Drama podcast, and it's all about K-Drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosette, and today it's an episode just with me, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to give you some K-Drama recommendations. I'm calling this one the Bonkers K-Drama Recommendation Engine because there's just some unusual ways that I've put some things together that I hope will help you and people who are new to K-drama find the perfect show for them. We'll get to that in a little bit. First up, I'll tell you what I'm currently watching, give you a quick catch-up. Um, I took a long break. I had, you could say life has been lifing, I guess would be the easiest way to say it. I've had a lot going on. Kind of got swamped by things that just overran my schedule. But hopefully things will calm down now and I'll be able to be a little more predictable in the release schedule for the How I Met My Cateron podcast. Recently watched The Practical Guide to Love. I really wanted to like this one, but I just did not feel the chemistry between the two leads. I thought there was better chemistry between the female lead and the second male lead. And yeah, I just couldn't really get fully on board with this one. I have finished two that had very similar tone, uh Still Shining, which is a K-drama, and Gimbap and O Negroni, I believe is how you say that. So these were very similar in tone, very mellow, thoughtful, slice of life. So if you enjoyed one of these, I think you'll enjoy the other one. For me, they didn't quite hit the way I'd hoped. There were still some things about each one that I enjoyed, but not totally what I was looking for. I'm having a hard time finding the perfect show right now, but that's okay. I will, of course, keep watching K dramas in the hopes that I'll find something new and different that I enjoy. I'm looking forward to The Perfect Crown because that looks fun and interesting. And also there's a J drama coming out. It's a mystery. It's called Tokyo MPD PR Unit 2. So I don't know how that will do as far as for discovery for them, but it is the lead in this one, it was the second male lead in Can This Love Be Translated? So he was a Japanese actor who was in the Korean drama, and he is the lead in this mystery. And I think he gets transferred to a PR unit. He wants to go work as a detective, but he's transferred to a PR unit and has to do public relations, which sounds interesting. Um it sounds like that could be fairly lighthearted, but the thumbnail for it looks very dark and gray. So maybe I'm not sure what the tone is on it yet. But anyway, I'll be checking that one out too. All right, so let's get to this bonker's recommendation engine. I've been thinking about doing this type of episode since I started watching K-dramas. I've been thinking not necessarily doing an episode because at that point I wasn't doing a podcast. But this is how my brain works. I watch something or I read something, and my brain tries to match it up in see patterns in media. And maybe that's because when I'm writing, I'm interested in what's popular and what people are interested in. But a lot of times I see these overlaps or reversals of patterns, and I just think they're interesting. And so basically, if you like a certain show, movie, book, you might also like these certain K-dramas. So I have some recommendations that are based on book, movie, TV shows. I have others that are more trope-based recommendations. So it's a bit different. I hope it will be helpful and will give some different ideas for you and maybe give you some different ideas of things to try. So basically, it's K-drama recommendations with a twist. So we'll see how this goes. I've divided these into broad categories, group them together to make it easier to talk about. First up, I labeled this category social commentary or um or possibly no, it's social commentary. I was gonna say or possibly literary, but no, social commentary. This one, if you liked The Jungle by Epton Sinclair and you want something that takes a critical look at society and dissects how large businesses and corporations impact people's individual daily lives, I would recommend My Mister. So the plot of My Mister, I'll tell you a little bit about the recommendation and then I'll give you a quick one or two sentence summary of the plot of the drama. So My Mister is about a young woman who is struggling under the burdens of life, and she just really has a difficult life. Like everything that could have gone wrong in her life has. And she forms a really deep non-romantic connection with her older male boss, and they work together to navigate corporate shenanigans and power struggles. Shenanigans, I think of it as a funnier, lighter type conflict. This show is much darker and deeper than that. So that is if you want something that looks at society as a whole and the impact it has on individuals. And a lot of it, the jungle is a very dark book, very dark, very almost hopeless in many ways. And you do get that sense of that in My Mister. But I do feel that it has a hopeful ending and sort of a light at the end of the tunnel type ending. So it's not completely hopeless, but that is uh interesting comparison that I hope that helps you figure out if you want to watch my mister or not. And then this is another on the opposite end of the spectrum, tone-wise, for social commentary is if you liked the first wives club, then I think you would like the Avengers Social Club. They both have club in the title and they both are lighthearted, but they do look at how life impacts women specifically and some of the struggles that they face. And so the plot for the Avengers Social Club is three women from very different socioeconomic backgrounds team up to seek revenge on those who have wronged them. And you have a wealthy heiress, a middle class mother, and a working class woman who works in the market selling fish. And one is married, one is having marital problems, and the other one is widowed, I believe. Yeah, I think that's the combination. But um, so they're and they're all different ages. So it's a very interesting mix of perspectives, and it has a lot of comedy in this one as well, but it has some really serious notes too, and it does look at sort of the society that these women live in and how it's impacting them. So that was social commentary. I recommend if you liked The Jungle, try out My Mr. If you liked The First Wives Club, try out The Avengers Social Club. Next up is romance, and this is probably the one I have the most recommendations for because I do like rom coms and I watch a lot of rom-coms. So I have quite a few in this category. Now we're going to start with some book recommendations because I feel like K-dramas are an excellent comparison to books. You have time to explore the characters and themes and tropes and wounds and scars really in depth in a way that you can't do in a movie or even a TV show in the West, because TV shows in the West tend to be episodic and they want to have characters that really don't change. You don't ever get a whole satisfying character arc. It's very rare to get that. So I feel like K-dramas and Asian shows let you delve into some of these things and explore it fully and see the resolution of it. First, I have if you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and you liked the dynamic between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, and you like Starcrossed Lover Stories, I would recommend Crash Landing on You. That's a classic recommendation. I know people talk about this all the time in the list for recommendations, because it has something that appeals to lots of different people. There's lots of characters, lots of storylines, lots of things going on. But I would say, in particular, if you liked the sort of irrepressible Elizabeth Bennett and the button-down, reserved Mr. Darcy, you get that dynamic in the main couple and crash landing on you. So it is about a South Korean heiress who accidentally paraglides into North Korea where she just is discovered and she's protected by a high-ranking army officer. I won't say anything else about that because that's so well known. I don't think I need to belabor the point on that one. Another uh bookish recommendation that's a little bit bonkers is if you like billionaire romance with a gender-flipped Emma and Mr. Knightley dynamic from Emma by Jane Austen, then I would recommend King the Land. I know some people listening to this will be screaming no, because there are quite a few people who don't like King the Land, but there's also a lot of people who do, and I'm one of those who do. I thought it was very entertaining and really enjoyed it. And the comparison here is the dynamic again between the two leads. The story of King the Land is there's a cold, wealthy heir to a hotel conglomerate, and he meets and clashes initially with a cheerful, hardworking female employee whose constant smile irritates him. So instead of Mr. Knightley being the teacher and mentor to Emma, in this show it's gender flipped, and you have the female lead Yuna being sort of a teacher and mentor to the male lead Guan, his character name played by Jun Ho, in the ways of life and relationships. There's a lot that his character doesn't understand about interpersonal relationships and ways to treat people. And Yuna sort of takes him under her wing and teaches him things about you can't expect people to do things it or things that are that he wouldn't think twice about. She tells him, you know, that's not a kind thing to do. Ask somebody to stay late and make a birthday cake because you want to give a cake to somebody. It's a kind thought, but think about other people too. And Emma has the same issues. She's a little short-sighted in a lot of things. And Mr. Knightley helps her see things in a different way. So I don't know. That's an interesting recommendation. Tell me what you think of that, if you agree or disagree with that. All right, a rom com movie that you've, if you enjoyed when Harry Met Sally, I think you'd probably like Turn to Me Mook Kaikon. Now, this one is a search for love. Basically, both of these characters, or both of these, the movie and the drama are about a search for love. Turn to Me Mookon is a Japanese drama, and there is an episode for this on the feed. Just scroll back a couple episodes. I um reviewed that with Christina, and it is about a 30-year-old, a 33-year-old man who's been single for 10 years, and he's tries to re-enter the dating world and learns how much modern relationships have changed, and he learns what he really wants. So this is basically a search for love. When Harry Met Sally is the same type of thing. There are elements to this also in the practical guide to love. Can't recommend that as wholeheartedly as I do Turn to Me Mook Hikon, especially if you enjoy slice of life, slice of life type stories. So I feel like when Harry Met Sally and this Turn to Me Mookon are very similar in the search for love aspect. Now we're going to look at a couple of rom-com tropes that I think many people enjoy, and there are some K-dramas that just line up with these so perfectly. It would be a shame not to recommend them. First up is small town romance, and especially if you like it in a seaside setting, watch Hometown Cha Cha Cha. The summary of this is a big city dentist moves to a tight-knit seaside village and opens a practice and finds herself constantly crossing paths with a town's local handyman. And he's a lot more than handyman. He's takes on about every role in that town. He's a jack of all trades, I guess you could say. If you enjoy small town romance in a seaside setting, definitely give hometown Cha Cha Cha a try. If you like Marriage of Convenience and Slice of Life with an ensemble cast, I would recommend because this is my first live, this is a K-drama classic. A lot of people really love this show. It's about an IT professional and a struggling screenwriter. They enter into a contract marriage to solve their financial and housing needs while living as roommates. And um, yeah, I won't say anything else about this one. It is one of my favorites, partly because it incorporates the marriage of convenience with the slice of life and the ensemble cast, and you get so many stories. You get more than just the main couple story. I really enjoyed this one. I, of course, had some quibbles about it, but overall, it's excellent. If you like secret identity, fake dating, and workplace romance, give her private life a try. It is about a professional art gallery curator who hides her secret life as a hardcore K-pop fan manager, fan site manager. She's a huge fan of one certain singer, and she runs a fan site for him. But then her new gallery director discovers her hobby. And it has got one of the greenest of green flags in all of K-drama. So if you enjoy a green flag in combination with all these other tropes, I think you'll like this one. And the last rom com recommendation: if you like enemies to lovers, opposites attract, celebrity, and mistake in first impressions and leads in their 30s, I would recommend love to hate you. This one could also be a adjacent pride and prejudice recommendation because of the mistake in first impressions. This is about a female lawyer who despises losing to men and a top male actor who deeply distrusts women. Okay, so I'll run through those recommendations again really quick because that's the end of the romance section. If you like Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, check out Crash Landing on You. A gender flipped Emma and Mr. Nightly Dynamic, King the Land, When Harry Met Sally, Turn to Me Moo Kaicoon, and then the tropes, Small Town Romance in a Seaside Setting, Hometown Cha Cha Cha, Marriage and Continent Marriage of Convenience Plus Slice of Life with an ensemble cast because this is my first life, and then Secret Identity, Fake Dating, Workplace Romance, Her Private Life. And then Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Celebrity, Mature Leads, Love to Hate You. Onto some mystery recommendations, mystery and crime. First up is a bookish recommendation. If you like legal thrillers and you enjoyed Lord Peter and Harriet Vane in Dorothy L. Sayer's Strong Poison, other books by her, I would say check out Suspicious Partner. It is about a sharp-witted prosecutor and a legal trainee. They team up to catch a serial killer while navigating a romance. And it does have the Lord Peter Harriet Vane dynamic. This was one of the first K-dramas that I or early K-dramas that I watched. And when I was watching it, I kept thinking, oh my goodness, he's Lord Peter and she's Harriet Vane. There's so much of that dynamic going on in here. It's not, you know, a carbon copy of that, but he is trying to help her and she is accused as Harriet Vane was. So there's a lot of those elements in this drama. And then I have a couple of trope recommendations for you. If you like a who-done it, these are kind of trope combo recommendations. I guess I should have said that for the tropes. They're not just a single trope, but if you like one trope I mentioned combined with the other ones, then give it a go. If you don't like one of the tropes, then kind of give it a pass because you can combine tropes in many different ways. All right, so a mystery recommendation, it's a Who-Done It plus, or many Who Dunits actually, plus time travel. Check out Signal. So this is such an interesting show. It's structure that I had never seen before, and it was so compelling. I just could not stop watching this. Uh and my husband also watched it with me. So if you're looking for something to watch with your husband, Signal might be a good choice. Detectives from 1998 and 2015 use this bizarre, mysterious walkie-talkie to communicate across time to solve cold cases and also stop crimes. As with most time travel stories, you have the, you know, the device of time travel causes ramifications throughout timelines. And so that's an interesting element to this story, along with the crimes. There's multiple Who Dunnits and multiple mysteries that are solved throughout the series. Another mystery recommendation for people who like legal dramas plus friends to lovers. I would recommend Extraordinary Attorney Wu. This was the very first K drama I watched, and it's still one of my top favorites. Extraordinary Attorney Wu follows Wu Yang Wu, an autistic female rookie attorney hired by a major law firm and soul. And she is different from her neurotypical peers, and her manner of communication with them throws them off. And it is about, it's basically a coming-age story with her finding her way in the world. Plus a lot of legal cases, but the legal cases are incorporated into this show and the dynamic between the characters. But the show is mostly about attorney Wu and her friendships and her friends that she has there at the law firm. If you like corporate thrillers with a character who has a redemption arc and a character who is a hidden hero, I've heard this one referred to as crouching idiot, hidden genius, I think was the trope name I saw for this type of character. Somebody that is playing the fool in public but is secretly miles ahead of everybody else. This one, a good recommendation for a show like this is Good Manager slash Chief Kim, former accountant for gangsters, joined a massive corporation to embezzle money, but ends up accidentally becoming a champion for employee rights. So it's you can tell there's a lot of humor in this one. And another recommendation along these same lines would be Undercover Miss Hong. That's a newer show, but it has a lot of the same elements. Everyone at the workplace, or many people, most people at the workplace underestimate Miss Hong, a new hire who goes to work at a big company, but she is there to find out who is committing fraud and also if there is a murderer in the company. So if you like those things and you like the lighter type of shows with those subjects, then look for undercover Ms. Hong. That's the end of the mystery section. So I'll run through those again. If you liked Lord Peter and Harriet Vane in that their dynamic, look for Suspicious Partner. If you like Who Done It plus Time Travel, check out Signal. If you like legal dramas plus Friends to Lovers with a large sort of ensemble cast, check out Extraordinary Attorney Wu. And if you like the corporate thriller with the hidden hero who seems to be a fool but is actually a genius, look for good manager, also called Chief Kim, or undercover Miss Hong. All right, next up, Action and Cop Buddy Matches. This one, I would say the first one, there are elements of this. This is the closest thing that I could think of that would match up with this drama. So if you like Moonlighting or Remington Steel, which are more about the pairing of the couple and their interactions, then I would look for my secret Tereus, also known as Tereus Behind Me. It's a mysterious legendary spy or agent is living in hiding. And he becomes a babysitter for his neighbor and teams up with her to solve a conspiracy. And uh, let's see, the other combination, other comparisons to this might be there's shades of kindergarten cop and the one Vin Diesel was in. Sub sub genre of light comedy thrillers that involve the tough guy having to become a parent or babysitter type figure. These all have similar tones to My Secret Terrius. If you like the Superman trope and hidden identities, I would recommend Healer, a mysterious night courier, or I think they call him an Aaron Boy, or it's translated sometimes Erin Boy, who lives on the fringes of society. He teams up with a reporter to solve a decades-old mystery. Healer is another classic. I would say this one is up there with Crash Landing on You as one. It's an older one, and it's one that people continue to love and recommend, and has so many quintessential K-drama things in it. It's just iconic in many ways. Okay, I only have a couple of action buddy cop type matches for this or teaming up to solve cases matches, I guess you'd call it. Those are Moonlighting or Remake and Steel matched up with My Secret Terrius. And if you like the Superman trope and hidden identities, then check out Healer. Last category, fairy tale retellings. If you like Beauty and the Beast with some sci-fi elements, check out I'm not a robot. Now, this one is about a lonely wealthy man with a life-threatening allergy to human contact who falls in love with a woman he believes is a high-tech android. So that is the most bonkers description. And if you've heard me talk about this, you know that the description sounds like nothing I would enjoy. But I watched it and I really loved it. So you just never know. It's got a great cast. And one of the things I enjoyed about this story was it was unusual. I hadn't ever seen anything like this before. The story beats were great, the pacing was great, and I enjoyed that each character in this pretty much had a story arc, and it was a complete story arc. And um, yeah, I just enjoyed this one. And then another fairy tale retelling, bonker's recommendation, is if you like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, then my recommendation is My Sweet Mobster. So this one is a reformed gangster turned CEO. He protects his former convict employees, and he finds himself in an unexpected romance with an energetic and fun children's content creator. And this one, it does have sort of a fairy tale feel to it in a way. It's like it's less slice of life, more glossy, kind of hyper-realistic, I think would be the term. But it is funny and sweet. It really they they titled it well. It is a very sweet love story. So it has the romance element to it, but it also has this sort of fairy tale retelling angle to it as well. So fairy tale retellings, if you like Beauty and the Beast, mixed in with some sci-fi elements, try I'm not a robot. And then if you like Snowbite and Seven Drawers, or romancey twist on that, try My Sweet Mobster. That is the end of my crazy recommendations. I'd love to hear your crazy recommendations. The more off the wall the inspiration, the better. So if you do have some that are a little bit bonkers that you'd like to share, please let me know. Tap the link in the show notes to send me a text with what inspired the recommendation in the K Drama title. And who knows, there might be another episode with listener recommendations. I would love that. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to rate or review it wherever you listen to podcasts. That will help K Drama fans find a podcast. I'll see you next time.