Romantic Kdramas for Valentine’s to Fit your Mood 💝

S3 E31 / Romantic dramas come in all sorts of flavors. What are you in the mood for? 

From heart-wrenching angst to pure goofy chaos to sweet chocolate-inspired romances, I’m sharing a list of Kdramas by vibe so you can pick your perfect watch.

Plus I give a quick "what I've been watching" round-up, including Idol I, Love Me, and Undercover Miss Hong, which has sooo many similarities to Good Manager, which is also known as Chief Kim. Has anyone else notice that? Just me? 

I've got recommendations for romantic Asian dramas for you in these categories: 

• Romance with angst
• Star-crossed lovers
• Gentle slice of life romance (with a serving of murder)
• Romcom with some spice
• Romcom with a whodunit
• Romcom with thriller elements
• Sweet romance
• Second chance romance
• Time travel/fated romance
• Goofy/quirky romcom
• Galentine’s Day

Bonus for Valentine’s theme:

• Romance with chocolate
• Romance with flowers/flower theme

Transcript

Sara Rosett 0:08

This is the How I Met My K-Drum Podcast, and it's all about K-Drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosin, and today I'm talking about romantic K-dramas to fit your Valentine's Day mood. So since it's Valentine's Day this week, I thought this would be a fun topic to explore, sort of a roundup and a diving back into the podcast. I have been on a break for podcasting since the holidays. I took all of January off, didn't do a thing for the podcast, didn't do any social media, dropped my Instagram, but I will be dusting that off soon and getting back to that. But I didn't take a break from dramas, of course. I finished a couple of dramas since we last had a podcast out. And let's see, I probably the my favorite one that I've watched so far is Idle Eye. Ticked all the boxes for me, romantic comedy elements, mystery elements, great characters, funny story, heartwarming story. So I really like that one. Also finished Love Me. Didn't really like the ending of that one that much. It wasn't quite my style. Um, let's see. And I also binged Can This Love Be Translated? Lots of thoughts on that. I won't get into that right now. Um, let's see. I'm currently watching Undercover Miss Hong. And this show, I sort of like it, but I sort of don't. I'm torn about it. There are certain elements I really like, but I'm finding Miss Hong very trying. She's not a very good spy. She's not very good at being undercover. Every time she has her little notebook out with the images and notes about her suspects that she just leaves laying around on her desk, I'm like, don't you know not to do that? You're gonna get found out. But anyway, what it's interesting about Mrs. Hong uh Undercover Miss Hong to me is it reminds me so much of another show, an older show called Good Manager. There's so many similarities. They're both workplace dramas, they both have this kind of quirky main character in undercover Miss Hong, or in Good Manager, also known as Chief Kim. The main character is Nam Gumin, and he is the complete opposite of Miss Hong in um in ethics. He's the complete opposite. But he does go through this transformation, but there's so many elements. There's the humor is there, the rap music that's really prominent in the first episodes. At the end, you've got this person who's hiding in plain sight, this hidden identity trope. In Chief Kim, there's an awful, I think it's an HR director that she's just awful, but she's a lot of comic relief. And that parallel in Undercover Miss Hong is the dorm mom. I don't know what you'd call it, I can't remember what her official title is, but she's the enemy, but there's also a lot of humor around her character in both stories. You have a character who has a crush on a Nuna, a Nuna crush subplot. Oh, Kim Won He is also in both dramas, which I think is another thing that made me make this connection. And he plays a boss in both of the shows. That's another similarity. There's probably more, but I would say if you're enjoying Undercover Miss Hong and you want something to watch while you're waiting for new episodes to come out or after it finishes, definitely check out Good Manager Chief Kim. So that's a little bit about what I've been watching lately. Let's get into this episode, the Valentine's recommendations sorted by mood. So I got the idea for this from a post about books. There's a blogger that has done posts where she sorts books according, she usually does mysteries and women's fiction according to mood. And I was like, that is a great way to sort things because you can find what you're looking for, I think, much easier based on mood and tone. So I thought I'd do the same thing here. I've got recommendations from gut-wrenching, angst to goofy recommendations to sweet recommendations, all kinds all across the spectrum. I'm going to share the shows by vibe so you can pick the one that matches your mood. So here we go. Grab some chocolate truffles and let's get going. That's my choice. Dark chocolate of any type actually is my choice. All right. So first up, I figured we'd start with romance with angst. And I'm going to give you a couple of recommendations for each one of these. And then I know there are plenty more. I know there are plenty more categories in these, but I figured I'd start with these. And if y'all like this, let me know. And I'll do a part two next Valentine's Day with different categories. I'll give the category and then I'll give you a couple recommendations and just a short snippet of what this show is about. Let's start off with romance with angst, because I think that's what a lot of people think of, or a lot of people want in their K-dramas with romance is some angst. And the one that, of course, is top of mind is Crash Landing on You. I probably don't need to give a summary, but I will give a quick summary in case someone's not familiar. A wealthy South Korean businesswoman paraglides into North Korea and falls in love with this very stoic, buttoned-down army captain. And then they have to figure out how to love each other and also how to survive because she can't stay there and he can't go to the south. So it has some Star Cross Lovers element to it. Another one with high angst is First Love. Now, this is a J drama, and it is a man and a woman who have been connected throughout their lives in various ways. It's a story about fate and bringing each other back across each other's path over and over again, and all these little subtle connections between them that you find out. It's revealed slowly as the story goes along. And there's there is a lot of angst in this one. So if you want the angst, the longing, the tension of will they find their true love, I would recommend those two to start. Next, very similar to this is the Starcrossed Lovers. So I would definitely add Chloe to this list as well, which is the abbreviation that a lot of people use for Crash Landing on You. Starcross lovers, there's a Star Crossed element in most rom-coms in as well, most romance. There's like some reason they can't be together, or else there's no story. But this, the impossibility of it, is cranked up to like 12 on a scale of one to 10. So number one on this is Mr. Plankton. And this one does have a lot of angst in it as well. So you've got a man you learn in the very first episode, he's terminally ill. He kidnaps his girlfriend on her wedding day and forces her to go on this road trip with him. And that's the whole story. That's the whole journey. It's a journey of him discovering things about himself and his past and a romantic journey as well. And then, of course, Crash Landing on You would go on this list. And another one that I is on my list, I haven't watched this one yet, but it's on my list, and it definitely fits this category: My love from the star. There's an alien who has lived on Earth for centuries, and he develops a romance with this famous actress. And can they can their love survive? So that is definitely star crossed. They have a rough road ahead. All right. So going from one extreme to another, this next category I have, I've called gentle slice of life romance. Often this comes with a serving of murder as a side plot or a subplot story to keep things interesting. But this one I put the word gentle in there because there are some K-dramas that are their romance. They don't have, they have some humor, but not, they're not rom-coms, but they're just a very kind of floating down the river on an inner tube type vibe to them. And one of them is Summer Strike. You've got a burned-out young woman who escapes city life, and she moves to this quiet seaside village, and she gradually forms connections, and there's a romance, but it's just very mellow, mellow, mellow, I would say. Another one that has the same type of vibe as this, but is completely different at the same time, is our beloved summer. It has a slower, more slice of life vibe to it. Two friends who've known each other for years, it's their will they or won't they? They get together, they break up, they get together. It's a second chance romance, and they're navigating their relationship as sort of also while they're sorting out their careers and what they're going to do in life. So those are two very more gentle romances to contrast with the high angst. There is angst in all of these a little bit, but these are much more gentle. Next up, uh rom com with some spice. I think the probably the one that fits this category the best is love to hate you. It's about a lawyer who I would say she's very fierce. She's very distrustful of men. She doesn't like to lose to men, and she doesn't trust their motives. She's suspicious. She's been burned and just doesn't really trust men at all. And she gets mixed up with this man who's an actor who distrusts women, and he has his reasons too. So it's a kind of enemies to lovers set up with some spicy elements to it. But of course, we're talking K-Drum here, so it's not over the top, but it is a more mature romance, I would say. And it has a lot of banter intention as well. For the next category, I have rom com with a who-dun it. Now, there's a lot of rom-coms that have a murder in the storyline to keep things interesting, but many of those feel like it's just shoved in there to me. They feel like it's just shoved in there to kind of fill three to four episodes. But sometimes you want a rom com and sometimes you want a little mystery in it. And for me, I would say Idle Eye is probably the best one I've seen of this. Idle Eye is about a fangirl. She's super professional in her work life. She's a very good lawyer, super competent in her private life, which, if you've watched her private life, there are a lot of similarities to that show. But in her private life, she is a huge fan, like the number one fan of a K-pop singer who's part of a group that is very well known. So she keeps that part of her life separate. And the fan or the idol that she's so interested in and has followed for years is accused of murder and she ends up taking his case and defending him. Then, of course, there's some romantic elements between them. I like the mystery element of it because you get the information about the mystery, and these things are slowly revealed over time as the case progresses. And I liked it that the police were not complete bumbling fools. The police are actually investigating and uncovering clues as well as the main characters. So I liked it. So this one I think is a good rom-com with a whodunit in it. If you want something that's a rom-com but with more thriller elements to it, I would say you are my spring would be a good choice. It's got a hotel concierge. She meets a psychiatrist, and there's a murder mystery. And they, the mystery is unraveled at the same time as their romance progresses, and it's almost like two parallel tracks. It's not the same, they're not investigating it, but it's just more dramatic. The idle eye story is more of a puzzle, and this one is more focused on the drama of the past story. All right, sweet romance. Sometimes you just want a light romance that is super sweet, and there's not too much angst and not too much murder, which it's hard to find them without a little murder mystery in them. So for sweet romance, I have a couple. I have extraordinary attorney Wu at the top of this list, autistic lawyer who tackles complex cases, and she's it's basically a coming-of-age story for her as well, as she's navigating her first job, dealing with the social challenges that come with managing, you know, working with a team and being part of the office. And then the romance in this is so sweet and so wholesome. So if you're looking for a sweet and wholesome uh romance, this is extraordinary attorney woo is the one you want your top go-to choice, I think. Another one that falls into this category is my sweet mobster, a reformed gangster-turned CEO. And he falls for a woman that she creates content for children on YouTube, and they have a past connection, they have a lot of funny light moments in this story, but at its heart is very sweet overall. And it's in the title, My Sweet Mobster. So there you go. Another one that's a little more grounded, and my sweet mobster has some elements to it that make it um fantastical in a way. I think it has a lot of allusions to fairy tales. You know, the mobster has his crew, which are basically the seven drawers. So if you want something that's a little more grounded, a little more realistic, I would try Is This Love Sustainable, which is a Japanese drama. It's about a woman who is working to own her own yoga studio. She's a yoga instructor, and her father is widowed, and he signs them up for a dating service. And through a series of events, she keeps running into this man who is also trying to start a business and they're both taking a course, and then they're also involved in the dating thing. He's not actually dating. I think he works there, if I'm remembering it correctly. But anyway, their paths keep crossing, and it's a more mature romance, but it's still sweet and restrained, I would say. This one, the tone is it's another one that's more like on the gentle side of uh romance type stories. And then you also have the story of the dad and the relationship with the woman and her dad and how they get along and how the dad is getting over his wife's death because it's been several years and he's trying to live his own life so his daughter can live her life instead of taking care of him all the time or being concerned about him, I guess I should say. So that's a good one if you want a sweet romance and more found family to it, and more family storyline is a big part of it. All right, second chance romance. Sometimes you just want a romance that shows you, even if you break up, there is sometimes a path to being back together. So for this one, I would say go back couple is a great choice. It's a dissatisfied married couple. It involves some time travel elements. They go back to their college days and they get a second chance to look at their choices and maybe rekindle their romance, maybe not. They're kind of determined at the beginning that they're not going to get together. And another one that would cross into this as well would be our beloved summer is another second chance romance. And then let's see, another one that would fit into this category that's a newer one is Shirley Tomorrow. It's a couple that I think they have three get together breakup cycles, I guess you'd call them. I got a little confused on the timeline with that one sometimes, but it does have this, it's a more mature couple, but it does have the flashbacks, and you see how they've changed over time and how they come to a point where it's possible that they might be able to stay together instead of breaking up again. All right, time travel, faded romance. I put those two together because this seems to go together a lot. So go back couple would also cross into this one. But the main one I thought of for this one is atypical family. This family has superpowers, but they're fading. They're not at their peak of performance. They just, they have their powers, but they're not able to use them well. And they have issues that have caused this to happen. But there's a woman that arrives in their life, and because of her arrival, it just changes everything. So, this one, a big theme with this is healing, a big theme of found family. But there is a time travel element to it, the that's much stronger than in go back couple, actually. So if you really want time travel more than second chance romance, take the atypical family. Okay, what if you want something that's just goofy and funny and will make you laugh? My top recommendation for this is Goss Electronics. That's G-A-U-S, I believe. So you've got these crazy eccentric employees at this electronics company, and they're always trying to make some new product, and there's corporate shenanigans that are humorous, quirky rivalries, office romances, and just the humor in it is more goofy and silly. So if you're in the mood for something that will just make you laugh, then I would check this one out. Another one that's not the goofiness is not quite as high, but it is there's still an element of goofiness in this one. It's the other one I have on the list, is Dolly and the Cocky Prince. And it is about an art expert, and she is trying to save her family's art gallery from bankruptcy. And she needs the help of this man who is, I think he's the, I think he his family runs this soup shop, the uh restaurant, soup restaurants chain. And he's sort of nouveau rich. She's old money, and he's nouveau rich, so opposites attract their thing going on. But he is pretty rough around the edges. He's not sophisticated, and a lot of there's a lot of humor in the contrast between them. Now, what if you're in the moon? You don't really, you're not interested in romance as much as you are in a Galantine's Day type movie. You want a movie about the girlfriends. So I have quite a few recommendations for this. One, a new one is called To the Moon, and you've got three office workers from humble backgrounds. They become friends at this company because they all work at the same company, and they all end up investing in cryptocurrency. As said, I think in 2017, but it's the story of their friendship, and the cryptocurrency raises the stakes. It's the story of their friendship as they go through trying to better themselves, basically, trying to make better lives for themselves. And it has a bunch of storylines for romance and healing for them as they go through this time in their life. So it's basically like a little snapshot of them as their friendship progresses through all these challenges. Another one that's similar to this is Avengers Social Club. Can't say that. Avengers Social Club. Three women from very different backgrounds, different social economic statuses. And they form this alliance. They want to get revenge on some for some things. And it's a very light revenge story, though. But it's the story of their friendship. Another one is Hello My Twenties, five young women sharing a house. These are these women are in their 20s, they're college, and it's all about their relationships and their experience in this house. So that one, I have started this one, but I haven't completed it yet. I think there's there's two seasons. So Hello My Twenties, I think definitely goes on this list for Galantine's Day, though. And now I have two bonus things that don't really fit for the mood, but I figured for Valentine's Day, you have to have chocolate and flowers. Those are the two iconic things for Valentine's Day. So if you want a show about chocolate, check out Romantics Anonymous. This one is another J drama. It's got two socially anxious individuals. I would say they both have some issues, mental health issues, I guess. And one is a chocolate maker, and she has issues with making eye contact with people. She has some social anxiety around that. And then you have the businessman who becomes involved with the chocolate company, and he does not like to touch people. And so they both have these issues that they're struggling with, and they meet and they can each well, I won't spoil it. But anyway, they meet and there's a lot of chocolate in this story as well. So if you want some chocolate foodie type show, this is the one for you because each one is about a different type of chocolate, and it looks at how they make the chocolate, and and the chocolate is part of the storyline. And then for flowers, classic that has to be mentioned Boys Over Flowers, a poor girl at an elite high school stands up to. Some they're called flower boys, so that's the flower connection is the flat they're the flower boys, but um yeah, this one is not for me. I don't think I'm not into high school dramas, but this one is a classic, so you might check it out. Let me know what you think, and then um another one with a flower or flower theme is Kururi Who's in Love with Me, J Drama. A young woman has an accident and she loses her memories, amnesia story. And one of the people that she meets is a man who's a florist, so a lot of the storyline has she's in his flower shop a lot, and the flowers are worked into the theme of the show. And then another more recent one is my youth. That one is about a man that he owns a flower shop, but he's a florist, and he reconnects with an old love. And so it's a second chance type story, but there are lots of scenes in the florist shop, lots of gardening and things to do with flowers and plants. All right, so that is the list I have for this Valentine's Day. It's a Valentine's rom-com romance mood board, basically. I hope at least one show will make your heart flutter or have you laughing out loud. And I would love to hear what your favorites are. If you enjoy this and you have some suggestions for categories for next year or ideas, let me know. You can tap the text link in the show notes and it will send me the message. So if you enjoyed it, I'll do a part two next year. And as always, let me know if you'd like to share your origin story or your recommendations. You can also use the text link for that. It's in the show notes. It says send me a text. So just click that, let me know your name and your email, and that you'd like to share your story, and I'll get in touch. And if you've enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to rate or review it wherever you listen to podcasts, and that will help K Drama fans find the podcast. And I will see you next time. Thanks for listening.