“Crash Landing on You” was my gateway Korean drama.
Netflix’s story of a South Korean heiress who accidentally gets caught inside North Korea and the military officer who risks it all to help her had me hooked. The main actors’ chemistry was undeniable (Hyun Bin and Son Ye-Jin got married in real life after the series) and I loved how the secondary characters felt like fully realized people instead of background props. It was also fascinating from a cultural standpoint to see how South Koreans portrayed life inside North Korea.
After I binged “Crash Landing,” I quickly dug into Netflix’s “more like this” suggestions. I found myself watching so many K-dramas I had to start a separate profile to keep them from completely overtaking the one I share with my husband. I ventured to other platforms, including Hulu and YouTube as well as overseas streamers such as Kocowa and Rakuten Viki.
I’m one of a growing number of non-Korean-speakers who are addicted to Korean-made entertainment. Streamers have been capitalizing on the Korean Wave (Hallyu) for years, but recent hits like “Squid Game” have attracted massive new audiences and acted as gateway K-dramas. You can measure the audience interest as behemoths like Disney+, Hulu and Amazon keep adding Korean titles. Disney picked up “Snowdrop,” a buzzy melodrama starring Blackpink’s Jisoo, and Netflix announced a Korean version of its Spanish series, “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” (with “Squid Games” star Park Hae-soo as Berlin), due June 24.
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As “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho said during his 2020 Golden Globes acceptance speech: “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” That applies to TV shows as well.
To help you discover a whole new world of entertainment, we’ve put together a list of gateway K-dramas and movies for a variety of tastes: