You’d have to live under a rock if you haven’t watched K-dramas that have become the obsession of teenagers and netizens for the last five years.
Korean Wave
The popularity of K-dramas could be traced back to two crucial factors: the Korean Wave and social media aesthetics. The Korean Wave or 한류 is a form of cultural development that fantasizes South Korean culture and has been on the rise since the late 1990s. 한류 Wave was believed to have been coined in 1999 with the release of a few well-crafted TV dramas that won acclaim in Asian countries initially, and then it spread to countries abroad.
Social Media
Social media has played an important role in promoting K-dramas and Korean culture to a large audience at a faster pace. The Kdrama production companies fill their instagram pages with small clips and BTS scenes from the K-drama to draw the attention of the international audience. This strategy has truly worked out for them. That aside, the rise in aesthetic vlogs about K-dramas and Korean culture has also contributed to its worldwide acclaim in such a short period of time.
Here is a list of the top 10 K-dramas that I personally enjoyed watching as an audience along with my ratings and viewpoints about the storyline 🙂
True Beauty (진정한 아름다움)
Rating : 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
This K-drama is about a girl named Im Ju-Kyung, who is believed to have been born ugly in comparison to her siblings and friends at school, and she gets bullied by her classmates for the same reason. And indeed believes it herself and decides to compare herself to a horror comic ghosts and develops an interest in reading horror comics. However, once her family decides to shift to a new town, she joins a new school where she hopes to start a new life with a new face that would mask her ugliness with makeup. Even though she gained acceptance in the new school and made new friends, Im Ju-Kyung still faced many challenges.
You can watch True Beauty here
Business Proposal (사업 제안)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟/5
This is a comedy series revolving around Shin Ha-ri who shows up on a blind date disguised as her best friend Jin Young-seo, who is from a rich business background. However, she fails to discourage the guy from back out on the date and instead ends up encouraging him to make a proposal with her funny and weird attitude. When Shin Ha-ri learns that the said guy she met on the blind date happens to be her CEO, she ends up getting tangled in a difficult situation.
You can watch the Business proposal here
Tale of the Nine-Tailed (구미호 이야기)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
A 1000-year-old nine-tailed fox named Lee Yeon renounces his position as the guardian mountain spirit of Baekdudaegan on the lookout for the reincarnation of his one true love, Ah Eum. Ah, Eum is reincarnated as Nam Ji Ah, who is also a TV documentary director on mythical creatures. However, with the rebirth of Ah Eum, an evil earth dragon named Imoogi is also reincarnated and is determined to prevent their reunion and attain the power and position of Lee Yeon.
You can watch the K-drama here
Goblin (고블린)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
An immortal goblin Kim Shin, who was once a military general during the Goryeo dynasty, died with a sword stuck in his heart. He is in search of the goblin’s bride, who is the only person to have destined with the power to see the sword stuck in the goblin’s heart and take it out in order to end his immortal life. A high school student Ji Eun-Tak believes to be the goblin’s bride, accidentally summons the goblin and confesses that she is the chosen bride.
You can watch the K-drama here
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (이상한 변호사 우영우)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
The K-drama tells the story of an autistic attorney named Woo Young-woo, who has a magnificent memory and a high IQ level and loves law more than anything. She happens to join Hanbada, a large law firm in Seoul as an attorney and deals with the cases in her own creative way. Young-woo also has a great fascination with whales and can speak endlessly about them at any time and relate real-life situations with whales. As the story proceeds, Young-woo discovers the secret about her mother, falls in love, and makes more friends at her workplace. The law cases portrayed in this K-drama happen to be all from real-life scenarios.
You can watch the K-drama here
Its Okay to Not be Okay (사이코지만 괜찮아)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
This K drama is about the journey of a children’s fairy tale writer Ko Moon-young, a helper in a psychiatric hospital, and his autistic brother’s recovery from their past trauma. Ko Moon-young suffers from an anti-social disorder and childhood trauma that haunts her about her dead mother. The helper, Gang-tae, has been taking care of his autistic brother, Sang-tae, who is afraid of butterflies since their mother’s death. The past trauma of all three main characters are linked; however, by the time they realize this fact, they get into danger.
You can watch the K-drama here
Shooting star (별똥별)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟/5
Shooting Star is a humor-filled K-drama that revolves around the PR team of a management agency called ‘Starforce Entertainment’ and the top stars in the industry. Actor Gong Tae-sung has earned a good image before his fans; however, in real life, he is a very short-tempered man and arrogant with his PR team. The leader of the PR team, Oh Han-byul has known Gong Tae-sung since college and despises him for his irksome attitude. However, their secretaries have a crush on each other.
You can watch the K-drama here
What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (김비서가 왜그럴까)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟/5
This K-drama revolves around a narcissistic CEO, Lee Young-Joon, and his hardworking secretary Kim Mi-so who decides to quit her job after working for nine years without even a single day off. This decision ends up disturbing the CEO, who begins to observe Kim Mi-so more closely and persuades her to remain with him. As the story progresses, an intense love triangle follows the characters.
You can watch the K-drama here
W: Two Worlds (투 월드)
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
Oh Yeon-joo is a surgeon and the daughter of a webtoon novel writer Han Sang-hoon. After learning that a senior surgeon in the hospital is a great fan of her dad’s novel ‘W’ and is curious to know about its climax, Oh Yeon-joo decides to pay a visit to her dad. However, once she reaches there, she finds out that her dad is missing and decides to search his room for proof. While she was on the lookout for her dad’s whereabouts in his work-room, she ends up getting pulled into the webtoon world of the novel ‘W’. W: Two worlds is a story that takes place between two worlds apart, the one in real-life and the other one in the webtoon.
You can watch the K-drama here
Itaewon Class (이태원 클라쓰)
Rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟/5
Itaewon Class is a revenge driven epic plot that also centres around strong women characters, which is a major highlight of this K-drama. An ex-convict, Park Sae-ro-yi and a group of social outcasts set on a mission to bring down the Janga company and take vengeance on the CEO of Janga company and his son. Park Sae-ro-yi went to prison for assault, and after getting released, he planned to start a street bar and bring down his rival.
You can watch the K-drama here.
I hope this list of K-dramas also includes your favorite K-dramas of all time; if not, do check out these top 10 K-dramas on Netflix and enjoy watching them with your friends as well!!!
