K-DRAMA NEWS - OCT. 2024
By Sharon Stern
The diversity represented in this month’s new k-dramas is pretty stunning. We have a musical history lesson; women in a small town selling sex toys door-to-door; a mainstream drama with gay main characters; a tiny, silly spin-off; a couple of dramas examining the definition of family; a couple of crime dramas where the main character challenges their instincts and a sequel horror story. Wow.
Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born – 정년이
Disney+ – Starring Kim Tae Ri, Shin Ye Eun, Ra Mi Ran, Moon So Ri, Jung Eun Chae, Kim Yoon Hye
Genre: Period drama, Coming of age, Musical
This drama is based on a Naver webtoon by the same Korean title and tells the story of a young girl from Mokpo who is a pansori prodigy, growing up in the 1950s, just after the Korean War. She goes to Seoul alone, with no education and no money, against her mother’s wishes. She joins a yeoseong gukgeuk (여성국극) troupe as a trainee. Yeoseong gukgeuk was an all-female musical drama genre that was extremely popular in the 1950s, but pretty much disappeared quickly thereafter.
Yeoseong gukgeuk stars were the equivalent of today’s idols in their time. Based in the ancient art of pansori singing, this art form took on a Western style stage performance. Pansori was originally performed only by men and in some ways, yeoseong gukgeuk was a pushback to traditional pansori. Because the yeoseong gukgeuk troupes were comprised only of women, there were gender bending characteristics to the performances. The military dictatorships of the 1960s pushed the adaptation of modern, Western styles and yeoseong gukgeuk quickly, with its style foundation in pansori, died out.
This drama features a star-studded cast and looks to be very strong. Hooray for an almost all female cast! Hooray for preserving and teaching Korean cultural history through k-drama stories!
A Virtuous Business – 정숙한 세일즈
Netflix – Starring: Kim So Yeon, Kim Sung Ryung, Kim Sun Young, Lee Se Hee, Yeon Woo Jin
Genre: Comedy, drama
This drama is a remake of the 2016 British television series “Brief Encounters.” A Virtuous Business takes place in the 1990’s and tells the story of four women who end up selling lingerie and sex toys door to door in a small town – a very big taboo. The drama digs into the very traditional lives of the four women, wanting and needing to make money for different reasons, all surrounded by men who expect them to fit into and behave according to “cultural standards”…created, of course, by men. The irony is that though the show is set thirty years ago, the issues are very much still present today. One review analyzing this point said, “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”
Trailer (turn off the Chinese subtitles and English still appears)
Love in the Big City – 대도시의 사랑법
Viki – Starring: Nam Yoon Su, Lee Soo Kyung, Oh Hyun Kyung, Kwon Hyuk, Na Hyun Woo, Jin Ho Eun, Kim Won Joong
Genre: BL, Melodrama, Coming of Age, Slice-of-life
This drama shouldn’t be confused with the Korean movie with the same title that also came out this month. These are two, completely distinct projects, though they use two different parts of the same book to tell their stories. Both are based on the bestselling novel by Park Sang-young, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022.
If you are unfamiliar with the BL or Boys’ Love genre, this is not a typical BL drama. In fact, it might be stereotyping to classify this drama as BL just because the characters are gay. It follows everyday life, everyday love – the characters just happen to be queer. Usually, BL dramas are very low budget – often crowdfunded – and use unknown actors, often exploring more edgy themes. This drama has full funding and features star actors. Both the main actor, Nam Yoon-su, as well as the author, have received vitriolic backlash from conservative Koreans claiming the drama is promoting homosexuality and calling for it to be banned in Korea. The trailer was originally pulled down because of this backlash that was aimed at government offices, but was reposted a little later. The controversies preventing the show from appearing on broadcast television and it was aired on Tving, a streaming service. Nam Yoon-su has received an amount of homophobic hate mail for acting in this drama, but has also received a lot of support.
Doubt – 이토록 친밀한 배신자
Viki , Kocowa– Starring Han Suk Kyu, Chae Won Bin, Han Ye Ri
Genre: Psychological thriller, Crime drama
This drama follows the story of Korea’s best crime profiler and also a single father whose world is turned upside down when he finds out about his daughter’s secret that is related to a murder case that he is assigned to. His personality is aloof and he doesn’t get along well with other detectives. As evidence appears to mount that connects his daughter to the murder, he works hard to find out the truth and exonerate his daughter.
Dongjae, The Good or The Bastard – 좋거나 나쁜 동재
Paramount+ – Starring: Lee Joon Hyuk, Park Sung Woong
Genre: Crime thriller, Legal drama
This drama is a spin off of the 2020 drama Stranger. This was one of six dramas screened at the 29th Busan International Film Festival. It focuses on the prosecutor Seo Dong Jae. He is assigned to a murder case of a high-school girl and the case pulls him into a dichotomy of where his instincts as a prosecutor lead him and opposing instincts as an opportunist wanting to further his career.
Spice Up Our Love – 사장님의 식단표
Amazon Prime – Starring: Lee Sang Yi, Han Ji Hyun
Genre: Rom-com, Fantasy
This is a really short (just two episodes!) spin-off of the Korean drama, No Gain No Love (2024 – starring Shin Min A and Kim Young Dae), which is kind of crazy, given that No Gain No Love just came out a couple of months ago! It follows the second male and female characters from that drama with a huge plot twist: a third-generation chaebol who doesn’t believe in marriage or fated love and a famous R-rated web novelist who only writes about love. The twist right at the start from the No Gain No Love story is that the female character, Nam Ja Yeon, transforms into the lead character of one of her novels, and the male character, Bok Gyu Hoon, becomes the novel’s lead male, Kang Ha-joon. Because of this twist, you really end up with different characters than those you saw in No Gain No Love, but they transform back and forth a little, which sets up the drama’s tension.
My Merry Marriage! – 결혼하자 맹꽁아!
Viki, Kocowa – Starring: Park Ha Na, Park Sang Nam, Yang Mi Kyung, Choi Jae Sung, Kim Sa Kwon, Lee Yeon Doo
Genre: Family, Rom-com
Maeng Kong Hee works as a contract designer at J-Fashion. Her childhood friend, Koo Dan Soo, happens to be the grandson of the chairman of J-Fashion, and has returned from living abroad. The drama explores the definition of true happiness by passing us through a variety of multi-generational relationships including marriage, divorce, remarriage, single life.
Family By Choice – 조립식 가족
Viki – Starring: Hwang Inyoup, Jung Chaeyeon, Bae Hyeon Seong, Choi Won Young, Choi Moo Sung
Genre: Rom-com, Coming of age, Family
A remake of the 2020 C-drama Go Ahead, this drama features an ensemble cast. Two fathers and three unrelated kids grow up together in the same household, as a family. After a decade of going their own ways, they reunite, but feelings are not all exactly the same, as the two guys, Kim San-ha and Kang Hae-joon, struggle with romantic feelings for the girl, Jung Chae-yeon. Jung Chae-yeon has resentment that the guys abandoned her to go off with their fathers.
Hellbound 2 – 지옥 시즌2
Netflix – Starring Kim Hyun Joo, Kim Sung Cheol, Kim Shin Rok
Genre: Dark fantasy, Horror, Thriller
This is season 2 to the 2021 Netflix horror-thriller Hellbound. This drama was another of the six dramas screened at the 29th Busan International Film Festival. Hellbound revolved around an otherworldly creature appears and condemns individuals to hell. The first season was split into two stories, taking place five years apart.
Season two features the resurrection of previously condemned souls and looks at why and how a condemned baby is able to live. Will the resurrected beings bring calm or create more chaos? If horror is your genre and you liked the first season of Hellbound, Hellbound 2 will not disappoint.
