Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Made in Korea doesn’t flinch in its portrayal of corruption by both the Korean government and its strongest ally, the U.S. military. Director Woo Min-ho presents a Korea where there are no heroes, but rather desperate survivors caught in the crosshairs.
The best K-dramas of 2025 tackle an array of relevant topics that made us cheer, scream, and cry this year. Get ready to binge. My latest for Teen Vogue.
“The Manipulated” is a film-to-series adaptation of the 2017 action film Fabricated City. Both share the same creative (Park Kwang-hyun) and leading man (Ji Chang-wook).
“As You Stood By” examines domestic abuse and how people are reluctant to help victims — most often because they are afraid of how their actions could be detrimental to their own lives (which is also a subplot in Our Unwritten Seoul).
Bon Appetit, Your Majesty is a delicious mashup of sageuk (or historical dramas), time travel, and mukbang. But basing the fictional king on a real-life despot has been controversial.
“Beyond the Bar” does such a great job of creating complete characters who don’t need a partner to be whole, leaving viewers satisfied with either choice, because we’re confident they will all be OK.
One of the elements I loved the most about this series was watching the friends eat together in every episode. Delicious jiggaes (stews), grilled meat — it was like a legal mukbang!
2025 isn’t over yet, but it’s already been an exciting year for some of the best K-dramas. Though “Squid Game” has come to an end (for now) that doesn’t mean there aren’t still plenty of Korean dramas to obsess over.
With this third and final season of “Squid Game,” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk ties up loose ends in this blood bath, which kills off almost all our favorite players (and some we hate). Park Sung-hoon and Im Si-wan stand out portraying the best and worst of us.
If you enjoy the John Wick franchise, So Ji-sub’s “Mercy for None” will be right up your alley.
By Jae-Ha Kim Substack May 28, 2025 ☆☆☆ (out of ☆☆☆☆) Lee Hae-sook (played by Kim Hye-ja) Ko Nak-joon (played by Son Suk-ku) ↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name. tl;dr Capsule review: […]
No one tops South Korean creatives when it comes to telling high school-centered bullying stories. In the sequel to 2022’s “Weak Hero Class 1,” our protagonist Si-eun (Park Ji-hoon) wants nothing more than to be left alone and study.
This beautifully-executed slice-of-life K-drama spans the decades-long relationship between Ae-sun — who wanted to escape Jeju-do and become a poet in Seoul — and Gwan-sik, who wanted nothing more than for Ae-sun to love him back. We watch as their relationship unfolds from their childhood in the 1960s to the present day.
Korean scriptwriters excel at presenting the childhood friends-to-lovers trope. Based on the webtoon of the same Korean title (He’s the Black Dragon), this K-drama centers on a pair of teenage gamers who reunite as adults who, coincidentally, work for the same company.
Each of us has our own favorite K-dramas that are informed by our own personal experiences (and access). For instance, I was never able to get my hands on South Korea’s early dramas like “Death Row Prisoner,” which premiered in 1956. Therefore, my picks are influenced by what I’ve seen, which are primarily shows from 2000 onward.
This emotionally-engaging show is less of a rom-com than it is a slice-of-life K-drama that explores how familial loss greatly impacts who we are today.
“Squid Game” season 2 introduces a whole new set of compelling characters. Will they make us forget fan favorites like North Korean defector Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) and Pakistani immigrant Ali (Anupam Tripathi)? No, but the star power of veteran K-drama stars, including Park Sung-hoon (“The Glory”), Park Hee-soon (“Moving”) and Im Si-wan (“Misaeng: Incomplete Life”), is a nice concession to killing off nearly all of last season’s characters.
It was an excellent year for Korean dramas — and with Squid Game season 2 on the horizon, there’s more to come.
The last time a president declared martial law in South Korea was in 1980.
If there’s one thing this K-drama gets across, it’s that keeping secrets from children about their own history is never the way to go.