Recently I was able to enjoy one of my guilty pleasures in life…watching new Korean Dramas. I actually and finally able to create my own Korean blog that I’ve been promising myself to do for the longest time. Anyway, the 2015 K-Drama story lines or premises have somehow changed a bit for the better in comparison to the old bad ones I’ve seen for over a decade. There’s even more kissing scenes…thank goodness! I must say there are a lot of of K-Drama shown in 2015 that are quite good but in comparison to my favorite old ones, it failed in comparison. For some reason, it is the execution of the K-Dramas in 2015 that seems to be the problem, in my humble opinion. The ones I’ve seen below have great actors on it but it is like they hurried it up due to cost or some other issues. And, that is something you won’t see before. You actually want the drama to end already as they serve you almost all the details better left not shown. This is totally opposite from the recent 2015 K-Dramas I’ve seen.
Without further ado, here are the lists of the K-Dramas enjoyable to watch based on how I rate K-Dramas and Movies on my site. From my most favorite to the least. What is yours?
The story revolves on the three characters: a ghost, the handsome but lonely chef and a woman who can see ghosts. The ghost needs to find a man to lose her virginity as she thought this is her way to go through the next level. The woman allows the ghost to possess her, so, she can express her love for the chef while the chef fell in love with character of the ghost but in the body of the woman.
Funny, engaging and totally romantic. Although, it is not a flawless in execution like my other K-Drama favorites especially when the story was rushed in the ending and somehow became typical on how they wrapped it up. How I wished they delved more on the process on how Kang Sun Woo settled his feelings. Oh, well, it still made me laugh and enjoy the whole story, so, I consider this as my #1 recommendation for 2015.
2. Healer
It is about a for hire masked man with extraordinary fighting skills, a star journalist at a major broadcasting station and a reporter from an online tabloid newspaper. Their lives are actually intertwined by an event that happened decades ago.
Action-pack K-Drama and I believe much better than City Hunter which is almost similar in premise. Wonderful list of OST.
3. Heart to Heart
Cha Hong Do suffers from social phobia and has a problem with severe blushing. She does have a strong sense of curiosity and learns from books and the internet. She also has a great and secret crush on Jang Doo-soo, for the past seven years. When her grandmother died she pretended to be her to get work. She then, meets Go Yi-seok, an egoistic psychiatrist who is emotionally awkward after the death of his older brother and dealing with his emotionally unstable mother. Go Yi-seok enabled her to get out of her outer shell for Jang Doo-soo but this relation became complicated.
The premise seems to be convoluted but the story is quite fun. It is a pleasure to watch and it didn’t get boring to me. It is a romcom of 2015 I can recommend for you to try.
It is about Ha Dae-Cheol, a righteous prosecutor, but at night he wears a mask and seeks to punish those that gets away from the law and Yoo Min-Hee, a female detective in charge of the violent crime division. Their lives became enmeshed as their differences in getting justice becomes apparent.
It is an interesting K-Drama with a different twists and flavor. I like the story line of Ha Dae Chul and his father; the reasons why Ha Dae Chul got motivated to become who he is and the actress, Kim Sun Ah, being on it. Again, this could have been better but over-all it is good to watch.
5. Kill Me, Heal Me
It is a a love story between the son from a wealthy family who has multiple personality disorder and a female resident who becomes his secret physician.
I have a mixed feeling for this K-Drama. I don’t really know whether I can recommend it or not for entertainment reasons as the way I base my rating on the K-Dramas and Movies in my site. But, I can definitely say the acting of Ji Sung as Cha Do-Hyun was quite impressive. I think this is my top reason why enjoyed this K-Drama.
5. Sensory Couple | The Girl Who Sees Smell
The story revolves between Oh Cho-rim or Choi Eun-seol and Choi Mu-gak. Choi Eun-seol gained the unique ability to “see” odor or smell in visible colors and shapes after waking up in a coma and no memory of the murder of her parents she witnessed. While Choi Mu-gak, a police inspector, is totally opposite from Eun-seol’s ability to see smell and can track people. He is unable feel pain and smell or taste his food and this limitation occurred after the murder of his sister, who has the same name as Eun-seol. He is determined to take revenge for her sister’s murder. Together he and Eun-seol have to find the serial killer who happened to killed their love ones.
I fully enjoyed this Korean Drama for the suspense flavor it brings on the story. There are some moments that my heart skips a beat for what is about to happen. However, I wish again that they could have executed the entire thing better.
The story is about Lee Hyun, a genius profiler who lives in the US and after receiving a mysterious letter from a serial killer he went back to Korea. During his childhood years something traumatic happened, he witnessed his father being murdered by psychopath and losing his younger brother in the process. In his sojourn to retrieve his memory, find his brother and find the serial killer who killed his father and took his brother, he got to meet again Cha Ji-an, someone he knows but forgotten in his childhood years. Cha Ji-an is a detective from a special unit. She too is in search of her father who went missing after being accused of a crime. Each seeks to unravel their past, unaware that they’ve been drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse by a masterful psychopath who are actually part of their current lives.
Another K-Drama that gave me a mixed feeling whether I really like it ot not. This is actually the only K-Drama that made me want to watch it not because of the lead actors but because of the splendid acting ability of Choi Won-Young, Park Bo-Gum and Do Kyung-Soo. It also has a superb OST.
7. Twenty Again
Ha No Ra is a 38 year old housewife who decided to go back to school and experience things she hasn’t done after getting pregnant at a young age of 19.
I find the story delightful on the first few episodes. It actually made me feel grateful that I don’t have a child. It could have been better but the rest of the latter episodes went downhill.
8. Angry Mom
Jo Kang Ja was once a legendary badass in her teenage years. She is a Busan girl who was as a teenager gets into trouble. However, when she became a young mother she changed her persona and wanted to be a loving mother and wife that she can be, until she found out her daughter, Oh Ah Ran, is being victimized by bullies at school. She decided to do something directly about it after looking at all the venues that failed to help her.
I tried this K-Drama because I read good reviews. So, I checked it out, unfortunately, it didn’t really make a mark on me. I did feel for the plight of Jo Kang Ja when she was looking for ways to help her daughter, only to find out the real cruelty of the world. That’s about the extent I can relate to the story. But, don’t just believe me, you can try it out yourself as a lot of people like it, so, you may probably do. Not just my cup of tea.
9. Mrs. Cop
It is about the life of being a cop and how to balance that with having a family. Choi Young Jin is a single mother and at the same time the head of the violent crime division. She juggles her time with her work and being a mother.
This can actually interchange with my rating with #8, My Angry Mom, because this K-Drama I actually wanted to see the ending, so, I fast forward certain episodes. Beside the blunder of police procedures, I actually like the action and crime part of the story.
SPECIAL MENTION:
10. Pinocchio
This is about the special character of In-Ha wherein she has a Pinocchio Syndrome. Whenever she lies she gets the hiccups. Her mother is a known reporter who sacrificed her family to get where she wants to be in her life. By coincidence, In-Ha’s mother inadvertently destroyed Ha-Myeong’s family who became Dal-Po later on when he was saved by In-Ha’s grandfather and lived with them.
This K-Drama actually started in November of 2015 but I included it on my list because it ended January of 2015. And, honestly speaking, I enjoyed this more in comparison to K-Drama #6 to #9. For me there isn’t much choices of K-Dramas I would like to spend my time on that are shown in 2015.
As I’ve said and will repeat it again, I found Korean Dramas in the year of 2015 with limited choices wherein I will be interested to watch and spend my precious time wasting on it. Guess, I’m becoming more discriminating as time goes by even if I am addicted to it. Truth to be told, I will probably just recommend #1 to #5 and Pinocchio for you to watch. Some will probably be looking for the popular K-Dramas of 2015, here are those I didn’t mention in no particular order:
(1) Producer
(2) Orange Marmalade
(3) Warm and Cozy
(4) Scholar Who Walks In The Night
(5) She was Pretty
(6) Punch
(7) Hyde,Jekyl,Me
(8) Yong Pal
(9) Who Are You-In School 2015
(10) Reply 1988
(11) Heard It Through the Grapevine
(12) Let’s Eat 2
You won’t see it on my list because I didn’t even wanted to watch them after reading a lot of reviews. Not that the reviews are all negative but I found that I am not interested either on the topic or the over-all ratings of the reviews given by sites I trusted. They are probably interesting to others but the premise of their stories I have seen it already on other K-Dramas before that seems to be better than these are. In fairness I tried with Ho-Goo’s Love. Just got up to 4 episodes and then I was done. So, it is up to you if you want to check out some of the dramas I mentioned but didn’t include on my list. Maybe I am wrong…so…I would love you to prove me wrong and let me know if it is truly worth my while to watch them.
I am waiting for “Oh My Venus” to finish, so, I can read the initial review and if it is great I would like to watch this in one swoop as I like both the actors in it, Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub. I hope it won’t disappoint me like the reviews I read about “The Time We Were Not In Love”. I was kinda sad that it wasn’t worth watching based on the majority of opinions of my trusted site because I do like the actress, Ha Ji-Won.
I would probably also get around to watch “Hidden Identity” because I like the actor, Kim Bum. Although, the reviews in general are not so good either but I’m interested to check it out. I will see it when I am in the mood for a dark and action K-Drama. I hope it can be at least as half as good as my favorite “Cruel City” of the same genre.
Anyway, in the end, 2015 is an interesting mixed of Korean Dramas as there are a variety of different genre for everyone. It is not as great as I hope it would be, that’s why some of the K-Dramas I wrote on the 10 list may not necessarily something you would enjoy. It seems there’s a limited choices to choose from in terms of what is really good like “Misaeng”. I maybe wrong, maybe it got something more to do with my age, taste and time available to spend on K-Dramas that may just waste my time. Maybe it won’t with you. I just really do hope they will do better in 2016. That’s my take on it. Well, Happy New Year to All of You, K-Drama Addicts!