Can you please recommend some dramas with funny male leads?

Humor is subjective but I’ll do my best:

  • History of a Salaryman
  • Protect the Boss
  • Flower Boy Next Door
  • When It’s At Night
  • Sly and Single Again
  • Super Family 2017
  • Hong Gil Dong (2008)
  • Flower Grandpa Investigation Team

I don’t think I watch enough comedies to really give a lot of recommendations. I can think of a lot of funny actors, but often they’re in semi-serious dramas but allowed to have their humorous moments. Or I can think of tons of funny secondary or third characters, but my mind goes blank when it comes to the lead.

K-Drama Recommendations

tagged by @yahhajima

School Dramas:

  • Reply 1997 – !!!!
  • What’s Up? – !!!!
  • Shut Up Flower Boy Band – !!!!
  • The Queen’s Classroom – !!!
  • Solomon’s Perjury – !!
  • Seonam Girls High School Investigators – !!
  • School 2013 – !!!
  • Monstar – !!
  • Dream High – !!
  • Mackerel Run – !

Sageuks/Historical Dramas:

  • Tree With Deep Roots – !!!!
  • Gaksital – !!!!
  • Empress Ki – !!!
  • Giant – !
  • The Princess’ Man – !
  • Arang and the Magistrate – !!!


Action Dramas:

  • Heartless City – !!!!
  • My Beautiful Bride – !!!!
  • City Hunter – !!!
  • Killer Girl K – !!
  • Gu Family Book – !
  • Vampire Prosecutor 1 & 2 – !!

Psychological Dramas:

  • Beautiful Mind – !!!
  • Nine: Time Travel Nine Times – !!!
  • The Good Wife – !!!
  • Padam Padam – !
  • Gapdong – !!
  • Nice Guy – !
  • Ghost – !!

Romantic Comedy Dramas:


  • Dal-ja’s Spring – !!!!
  • Flower Boy Next Door – !!!
  • Surplus Princess – !!!
  • What’s Up Fox? – !!!
  • Protect the Boss – !
  • All About My Romance – !!
  • Ex-Girlfriend Club – !!
  • Witch’s Romance – !!
  • My Girl – !

Romance Dramas:

  • Bottom of the 9th, 2 Outs – !!!
  • City Hall – !!!
  • Bubblegum – !
  • Coffee House – !!
  • Coffee Prince – !!!

Mystery/Suspense

  • White Christmas – !!!
  • Signal – !!!
  • Voice – !!
  • Vampire Prosecutor 1 & 2 – !!
  • Story of a Man – !!!
  • Sign – !

Slice-of Life

  • Dear My Friends – !!!!
  • Misaeng – !!!!
  • Miss Korea – !!!
  • Ms. Temper and Nam Jung Gi – !!
  • Midnight Diner – !!
  • Let’s Eat – !!

Undefinable Genres

  • Incarnation of Money – !!!
  • Harvest Villa – !!!
  • Valid Love – !!!!

_________________________________________

!: Enjoyed the whole show and watched from beginning to end
!!: Enjoyed the whole show, watched from beginning to end, couldn’t wait a whole week and never skipped
!!!: Enjoyed the whole show, watched from beginning to end, couldn’t wait a whole week, never skipped, had been ultimate faves for years, will become a ‘classic’ from a decade from now (in my opinion)
!!!!: That’s it, bam, #imdone when watching every second of the show, ultimate all time fave, tear jerker to the max, WARNING: don’t watch if you are a heart-patient, perfect cast, perfect OST, perfect costumes, perfect acting, perfect set, the ending is the ending of your life, leelee-couple for the fucking win.

hi! do you have an recs for dramas similar to signal, voice, cruel city, tunnel, pride and prejudice, liar game, etc?

So… dramas in the dark thriller/mystery genre? I’ll list all I can think of, bolding particular favorites in case you want a specific place to start.

Some of these will be darker thrillers and some will be more procedural mysteries, and some will fall somewhere in that spectrum, but they all pretty much fit the format of the shows you’ve mentioned.

If you liked Signal, I recommend looking up Kim Eun Hee’s previous dramas:

  • Harvest Villa
  • Sign
  • Ghost aka Phantom
  • Three Days

(These are all ranked in my order of preference, with the caveat that you’ll probably think they aren’t as good as Signal, but they all have her signature style.)

OCN shows are always a good default for this genre:

  • Vampire Prosecutor (seasons 1 & 2)
  • Bad Guys
  • Missing Noir M
  • Squad 38 aka Task Force 38
  • Reset
  • Special Affairs Team TEN (seasons 1 & 2)
  • Virus
  • God’s Quiz (all seasons)
  • Dr. Frost
  • Vampire Detective

If you like Cruel City (aka Heartless City), then you definitely need to check out My Beautiful Bride by the same writer.

Other random recommendations:

  • Story of a Man aka The Slingshot
  • White Christmas
  • Killer Girl K
  • Nine: Nine Times Travel
  • Two Weeks
  • Gapdong
  • God’s Gift – 14 Days
  • Solomon’s Perjury
  • Pied Piper
  • Hidden Identity
  • Punch
  • Last
  • The Chaser
  • City Hunter
  • I Hear Your Voice
  • The Village: Achiara’s Secret
  • Resurrection (part 1 of the revenge trilogy)
  • The Devil (part 2 of the revenge trilogy)
  • Shark (part 3 of the revenge trilogy)

If anyone else has recommendations, let me know and I’ll add them to the list!

What are your favorite dramas involving magic, mystical beings and the like? ^_^

Apparently I don’t watch a lot of dramas that fit this genre because I was all gung-ho to answer, but could only come up with Arang and the Magistrate.

Wait, there’s also Surplus Princess (mermaids!).

I don’t know that I would list Padam, Padam as a favorite drama, but I adored Gooksoo.

Can you recommend some dramas with strong sassy female leads?

Ooooh, this could be fun! Some may lean more towards strong and others more towards sassy, and some may have a few ladies I consider strong and sassy even if they aren’t the lead, but here goes:

  • History of a Salaryman
  • Protect the Boss
  • Dalja’s Spring
  • Miss Korea
  • Reply 1997
  • Don’t Ask Me About the Past
  • Ex-Girlfriend Club
  • My Name is Kim Sam Soon
  • Wild Romance
  • I Hear Your Voice
  • All About My Romance
  • Coffee House
  • Me Too, Flower
  • City Hall
  • When It’s At Night
  • (basically anything with Kim Sun Ah, because even if her dramas aren’t great *shakes fist at Masked Prosecutor* she’s usually awesome)
image

Can you recommend some kdramas like City Hunter?

I’ll try! Not sure what it was you liked about CH, so I’ll cover my bases the best I can. It’s been years since I’ve watched this drama, so I’m only going off of my vague memory, and there’s a fair chance I’ll just end up recommending favorite dramas because I can:

Heartless City – darker than CH but has some excellent fight scenes (no spoons, I think, but still awesomeness like that), plus a whole undercover secret revenge plot.

Three Days – has action and political machinations, and I mostly thought of it because of the secret service angle. Not quite as humorous, though.

Story of a Man – not exactly political, but revenge thriller with an excellent cast. More psychological fighting than physical, though, so if you’re looking for action, this might not be your drama.

Blade Man – more if you like the relationship between the main characters in CH than any political revenge thriller. It’s a better drama than it sounds, I swear!

Vampire Prosecutor (seasons 1 and 2) – if you liked the action and also the bromance between Yun Sung and Ahjussi.

When It’s At Night – reluctant romance over solving art thefts! I dunno. I’m reaching now.

So I apparently don’t watch a lot of action-romance-thriller-comedy dramas, at least ones that I remember very well and can recommend. You can check out this tag if you were more specifically interested in thrillers.

I’m sure some of my followers will be happy to add to the list, though. (I’d bet good money at least one or a dozen will mention Healer but I’ll save y’all the hassle and just add to the list even though I never got past halfway so can’t personally vouch for it.)

C’mon, help a fan out or I’ll repost this image every day for the next month:

image

EDIT: you’re in luck, Anon! I have more suggestions for you thanks to some lovely followers (and alas, that means no spamming the LMH STYLE. *pouts*).

luinel-kaya:

Oh my, you mentioned When it’s at Night aka my fave *tears up", i’m dying at this post. Please keep reposting the picture, and yeah i’d add Healer first in that list.We could possibly add Athena Goddess of War for all dem guns and revenge.

dahliabunches:

My go-to recommendation for action!kdrama is always Two Weeks. I don’t know how it compares to City Hunter though (as I haven’t watched CH…)

obscurewanderer:

I’d definitely recommend Bridal Mask (revenge, masked “superhero”); maybe Yong Pal (action/romance) and Liar Game?

Oh yeah, and Healer, as you mentioned – I can definitely vouch for its quality. What a great drama.

Did you make a post about last year’s top 10 drama? I love seeing that post from you every year but I think I missed it this time.

No, I didn’t. December gets pretty hectic for me and so I’m not organized enough (or remember enough about what I watched) to craft a good post. (Or I’m just lazy. That too.)

Plus 2015 just wasn’t a great year for me, drama wise. I had to go digging for the list of dramas I completed last year and it made me go “oh, yeah, I watched that!” because I forgot about so many of them. I’ll make a quick run-down, starting from my favorite to least favorite of the shows that I watched through until completion (there were a bunch I never got past the first few episodes):

Valid Love – my top drama of 2015. I’ve written about it a lot.

Last – I went into this show with no expectations or knowledge about what it would be like, and it’s vying for my favorite of the year.

My Beautiful Bride – such a good.

Midnight Diner – apparently I’m one of the rare persons who adored this little show, but it was the pleasant pick-me-up I needed in my drama drought.

Ex-Girlfriend Club – this is the only true rom-com I enjoyed last year.

Bubblegum – yes, it got a little (okay a lotta) sad in the middle, but it was still a beautiful drama with an excellent cast and a perfect use of music.

Seonam Girls High School Investigators – not a perfect drama, but I really liked that it used actual teenage girls as the leads and it felt realistic to the genre. Plus it tackled issues that other shows geared to adults would probably never touch.

The Lovers – this little sitcom was hilarious and tackled relationship issues that are more true-to-life than you might see on other dramas. 

Ho-gu’s Love – for some reason I literally forget this drama exists until things pop up to remind me about it, but it was a good little drama for what it was. A little off-beat, but in the best way, and I just enjoyed the way it tackled various issues. I’ll forever have a soft spot for it – when I remember it, that is.

Girl Who Sees Smells – it was cute and enjoyable but I really don’t remember much about it except for the smell-o-vision FX.

Persevere, Gu Hae Ra – I loved our little underdog team, and the music was great, too. The plot was a little “eh” – I wasn’t a fan of that whole “long-lost twin” thing or the love triangle.

Oh My Ghost – I really wanted to love this show as much as everyone else, but I just didn’t connect with it as much as I should have, despite it having all the hallmarks of everything I’d love (especially the cast!).

Hidden Identity – this show had a lot of flaws, but it was a nice popcorn action-drama to watch over the summer.

I Order You – all I really remember was that it was cute and fun in the moment, and that Yunho did a better job than I was expecting.

Let’s Eat 2 – I will forever be bitter about the complete erasure of Soo Kyung noona. If the show hadn’t made the misstep in the romance department, and also somehow made the food as appealing as it was in the first season, I would have enjoyed it so much more, since it was cute enough in it’s “we’re clearly being sponsored by the Korean cultural/tourism department” way.

Producer – I liked the first few episodes and was excited about getting a behind-the-scenes peek about the craziness of running a variety show. Instead I got a boring love quadrilateral that wasted the talents of my beloved Cha Tae Hyun.

D-Day – there was so much potential here and yet it made me want to tear my hair out because no one cares about the evil hospital director. NO ONE CARES!

Masked Prosecutor – I demand recompense for the hours I spent watching this and a promise that my favorite actors who starred in it will not be cursed by a show this terrible again.

Also I just pulled up a list of dramas aired in 2015 to make sure I didn’t miss anything, and I realized that I didn’t put down Spy on my original list. That goes to show how memorable that drama… wasn’t. But now I’m sad because I could have had an extra bean! *pout*

If you’re interested in a Jdrama, The Memorandom of Okitegami Kyoko was good. Each episode is it’s own little separate story, but the whole drama is still connected. It was cute, and had an entertaining story.

Yay, I always love jdrama recs, since I don’t keep up with that genre as much, but I really love most of the jdramas I watch.