My K-Drama Journey

Growing up, I had only watched "Winter Sonata" and "Autumn In My Heart". (Song Hye Kyo really doesn't age!!) And that was waaaay back during my high school years – during the days of VCDs and boxy TVs. My Ah Ma's helper took a liking to them and bought the VCD box sets to bring home to Indonesia, which I borrowed and binge-watched before she went back. 😅😂


My next venture into the K world came circa 2017/2018 when The Husband suggested we watch Train To Busan (2016) on Netflix one night. It was a one-off. We thought it was pretty good but we went back to English movies and sitcoms after that. But then, something happened. More and more Korean dramas started popping up on my Netflix page. 😳

Then one day, I saw this image

that made me decide to click:

And that was when it happened. I would say that I officially picked up watching Korean dramas when Netflix started screening "Something In The Rain" back in 2018. After that, I just fell into that endless black hole called K-drama and never found my way out. Haha. Since then, I've watched a "few" others. This be the full list in the order in which I watched them:

1. Something In The Rain (2018)
2. Goblin a.k.a Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016-2017)
3. Big (2012)
4. Coffee Prince (2007)
5. Finding Mr Destiny (2010)
6. My Love From The Star (2014)
7. Oh My Venus (2015-2016)
8. Master's Sun (2013)
9. Strong Girl Bong Soon (2017)
10. Oh My Ghost (2015)
11. What's Wrong With Secretary Kim (2018)
12. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (2016)
13. Descendants Of The Sun (2016)
14. Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth (2016-2017)
15. Nice Guy a.k.a The Innocent Man (2012)
16. Healer (2014-2015)
17. Suspicious Partner (2017)
18. Remember (2015-2016)
19. Hyde, Jekyll, Me (2015)
20. Kingdom (2019)
21. She Was Pretty (2015)
22. I'm Not A Robot (2017-2018)
23. Strongest Deliveryman (2017)
24. The Heirs (2013)
25. Touch Your Heart (2019)

It's been about a year since then and now,

I've just started "Her Private Life" (2019).

I have to admit, I struggled through some of them. Namely, "Coffee Prince", "My Love From The Star", "Nice Guy" a.k.a "The Innocent Man", "Hyde, Jekyll, Me" and "The Heirs". Granted, most of these I've mentioned aren't very new so I guess they're outliers in my list because the standard of K-drama has improved significantly since then. Anything before 2010, just don't bother. Cannot make it.


Why do I like Korean dramas? They do romance really well. And not in a lame, corny kinda way. They're just really, really good at developing love stories. In one episode, you can laugh, cry and get angry. Hahaha. Lighting and soundtrack also unbeatable. People raved over Crazy Rich Asians but guess what? I watched it and thought, "Yerrr... so B-grade wan. All my K-dramas have better make-up, better lighting, better acting and better supporting soundtrack." 😂 #truestory


So yes. If you haven't tried watching Korean dramas and you've got nothing else to watch on TV since "Game of Thrones" is over and "Stranger Things" hasn't re-started, go watch! These are my top recommendations in no particular order:


1. Goblin a.k.a Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016-2017) – fantasy, romance, comedy

2. Descendants Of The Sun (2016) – drama, romance, comedy

3. What's Wrong With Secretary Kim (2018) – comedy, romance

4. Strong Girl Bong Soon (2017) – comedy, action, fiction

5. I'm Not A Robot (2017-2018) – drama, comedy, romance

6. Oh My Venus (2015-2016) – comedy, romance

7. Healer (2014-2015) – drama, action, romance

8. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (2016) – drama, comedy

You can thank me later. 😘