Edited by Hong Hyun Jung
Translated by Cho EK
SBS’ Our Beloved Summer (12/6)
Storyline: A rom-com drama about a couple that broke up on a bad note, but once the documentary they filmed 10 years ago in high school suddenly becomes popular, they are forced to get together once more.
What to Look For: This will be Choi Woo Shik and Kim Dami’s second project together. In the movie The Witch: Part 1 and The Subversion (2018), they chased each other to kill. However, in the upcoming drama, Our Beloved Summer, they will be playing a couple with complex issues. Since they are starring in a completely different genre of work, I wonder how their chemistry would play out on this new series. Through ten years of narratives from their school days to their late 20s, the drama is expected to portray their passionate love, heartbreaking breakups, and fierce everyday lives.
JTBC’s Artificial City (12/8)
Storyline: A mystery thriller set in an art museum that belongs to Sung Jin Group, a major conglomerate that reigns over both the political and financial districts of South Korea. The drama will tell the story of a woman who strives to reach the top of society.
What to Look For: Following Mine and High Class, Artificial City is a drama that features an upper-class woman as its main character. Soo Ae, who has been inactive for a while since she last starred in High Society, is expected to show her strong acting as the daughter-in-law of a chaebol who wants to climb her way up the corporate ladder. However, since many dark and serious series in JTBC are currently struggling, it is difficult to tell whether the Artificial City will see a success as it features a woman who wants to make her husband a president amidst a widening rift among her surroundings.
tvN’s Bad and Crazy (12/17)
Storyline: A drama about the events that unfold when two unlikely heroes come together.
What to Look For: Bad and Crazy will be one of those intense, hardcore thriller series that is now hard to find on TV. The Uncanny Counter director Yoo Seon Dong and writer Kim Sae Bom reunited to present this series that features the quirky teamwork of the crazy and the bad. Lee Dong Wook has been steadily building up his career by taking on many different roles, and I look forward to seeing his version of a corrupt detective in this new series. The same goes for Wi Ha Jun who rose to stardom with the Squid Game. I look forward to seeing his a deadly yet playful character in this upcoming series.
tvN’s Bulgasal (12/18)
Storyline: A story of a man who repeats death and reincarnation as a person for 600 years and his pursuit for the woman who shares the same destiny as his.
What to Look For: Bulgasal is a fantasy drama that talks about those who met a sad and tragic fate. Lee Jin Wook and Kwon Nara star as the man and the woman who chases and gets chased by each other as they get entangled with their destiny, karma and revenge. Unlike other fantasy dramas that depict love stories between superhumans and mere mortals, this drama does not have those overused romance tropes but instead, it is filled with its own refreshing setup and story. In a recent interview with 1st Look Magazine, Lee and Kwon revealed that the series has ‘a lots of twist and turns’ and ‘a serious storyline that no other current series has.”
JTBC’s Snowdrop (12/18)
Storyline: A passionate love story of college students Su Ho and Young Ro, set in 1987 Seoul. Su Ho suddenly appears at a women’s college dorm covered in blood and Young Ro hides him and treats his wounds, despite facing danger under constant surveillance.
What to Look For: The much-talked-about series is about to premiere despite its controversy over history distortion. So far, the series is attracting viewers by showing the sweet romance between Jung Hae In and Jisoo. Could their fresh and affectionate romance wash away concerns and win viewers’ hearts? On a side note, BLACKPINK’s Jisoo is taking her first lead role on TV through this drama, and the series will be available exclusively on Disney Plus.
KBS’ When Flowers Bloom, I Think of the Moon (12/20)
Storyline: A drama set in the time when Prohibition was in full force. It tells a love story of a struggling aristocrat who starts illegally making alcohol and the country’s greatest inspector.
What to Look For: After My Roommate Is a Gumiho, Hyeri has taken on a new lead role in a romance series. In the drama, she was born to an aristocratic family, but when her father passed away ten years ago and, she ended up becoming the head of her household at a young age. The drama’s setting of the Prohibition Age in Korea is something we should all keep an eye out for.
Netflix’s The Silent Sea (12/24)
Storyline: The story of elite space explorers who try to retrieve samples from an abandoned research lab on Earth, which has been desertified and drained of its natural resources.
What to Look For: It will be a Netflix original series that will wrap up the year of 2021. This series drew attention for being a combination of a thriller and sci-fi drama that is rare to find among Korean series. I wonder how they will visualize the moon and the space station in the series. Based on a short film that received much attention at the 2014 Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival, Jung Woo Sung participated in the series as a producer. The original work’s director Choi Hang Yong exec produced the series and Mother and Crush and Blush writer Park Eun Kyo penned the script. Gong Yoo, Bae Doo Na, and Lee Joon will appear.
Edited Hong Hyun Jung: I am a K-content guide who publishes various articles for people to enjoy Korean movies and dramas deeper and richer. I’ll introduce you to the works that you can laugh, cry and sympathize with.
Translator Cho EK: I’m a big fan of Korean dramas and movies
