burhaa aadmi

Almost none of the Korean actors on this list are "character actors" - just about all of them are lead actors

Speaking of whcih, do ytou know of Hokkien Dramas that are English-subbed? I reallly, REALLY don't like the way "Chinese" is used by so many when they mean Modern Standard Mandarin/Putonghua, and it fascinates me that some TW Dramas are made entirely in Hokkien. But I assume they're not subbed at all

An interesting list, thanks! The only one of those 10 I would go out of my way to watch is Jasper Liu, but I am much more surprised that so far, even in the comments, no one has mentioned Chen Bolin. For me, easily the best TW actor in terms of the art and craft of acting, with a focus on his craft more than fame. Perhaps that's why he does more movies than Dramas, and that might account for his lower profile on MDL

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply! 🙏As for limited legal access, that's the "ethical challenge" I alluded to, unfortunately.

Again, it seems you have missed my point. I will repeat it

""In K Dramas, see the word "genius" in a synopsis, you know it's a guy.""

Of all the Dramas you list that I have not watched , exactly ONE describes the FL as a genius, Memorist.

So with a tiny handful of exceptions, my point remains true: K Drama FLs can be clever, or hardworking or intelligent or almost any combination thereof and almost all my favourite K Dramas feature FLs like that. But as far as the Drama is concerned, they cannot be "genius" leads. Especially not of the "dropped out of MIT at 12" prodigy variety.

Thanks for your reply. I am certainly not trying to set some sort of test, I'm genuinely interested in finding K Dramas with FLs who are geniuses and are described as such.
I have seen many of the Dramas you listed and one of them, Dae Jang Geum, is one of the two I had in mind in my initial post. She really was a bona fide genius.
The other Dramas on your list that I've seen are Search:WWW; IHYV, IOIL and Sungkyunkwan Scandal. None of those featured female leads who were geniuses.
In my initial post I said
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"In K Dramas, see the word "genius" in a synopsis, you know it's a guy." -
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and this statement is true of those Dramas. None of them were promoted as having a genius FL, and rightly so. No matter how independent and talented the FL was, she was not described as a genius, and especially in the case of IHYV, IOIL, and Sungkyunkwan the FL was not a genius. Hardworking and intelligent, but not a genius.

There are many K Dramas with powerful, intelligent FLs, and Search:WWW is one of my faves for that very reason. But the point of my initial comment was specifically about *genius* leads. The only other Drama apart from Dae Jang Geum I've watched wherein the FL was described and shown as being a genius - someone with a prodigious inborn talent that was exceptional and not simply the result of long hard work - was Empire of Gold, where Lee Yo Won's character was unambiguously a business genius.

In contrast, there are COUNTLESS Dramas like Melancholia, where the ML is described and promoted as a genius, often to an extent that seems implausible as noted by the person to whose comment I initially replied.

That's great, could you name them for me please, I'd like to check them out

I called "Missing 9" "Missing 9 Neurons" because the whole thing was so brain dead stupid that watching it actually killed brain cells. The Villain went through the ENTIRE Drama without a scratch, despite everything they did to him and that ending was the headdesking cherry on the top

Ah, my apologies, thanks for the clarification

There are many, many dramas in this list I would not have scored at 0.86 🤣 But that aside, I'm genuinely surprised you consider 8.6 to be a low rating, worthy of something being called "underrated". Checking my own personal database, I see that barely 10% of the 400+ shows I've completed scored 8.6 or higher. I guess it's a reflection of the fact that MDL scores do tend to be very high - lots and lots and LOTS of 10s and 9+s for basically every Drama here, making anything uner 9 seem low

chacun à son goût 😉

Muito obrigado, muito arigato😁!

If you haven't tried City Hall, do give it a go. VERY different from everything she did after it, and apparently that was her deliberate choice

I agree about KES. I've actually only watched 2 of hers because Goblin, DOTS etc have zero interest for me. Because so many of her Dramas are meh or worse (Heirs(), I keep forgetting she also wrote City Hall, which I love. Very, very different to all her later work, well worth a look for those who like me are NOT fans of her work

Awesome article, well done! Thanks too for teaching me that three of all my time favourite Dramas were written by the same person Nogi Akiko - Nigeru Wa Haji, Juhan Shuttai and Okitegamikyouko, all scored at at least 9.5/10 for me, and 2 are on my "10+" list. Thanks to your article, I'll be looking out for more of her work.

Sorry, It's Forest of Secrets (literal Korean name) or Stranger (Netlflix name) Bae Doona is AWESOME, and the quality of writing and acting is superb. The literal name a MUCH better fit than the vague, meaningless "Stranger" too

Thanks, and rest assured you're not alone. The only Netflix Korean Dramas I've really enjoyed are Forest of Secrets1 & 2 (outstanding imo) and Crash Landing On You (despite being a fan of SYJ, I watched more for SJH). I dropped Start Up after 1 episode.

And that's why I didn't present it as all good or all bad because ultimately, it's a business, and it's their livelihood. It is nothing more than entertainment for me, but for those involved in the industry, it's much, much more than that. Certainly if the involvement of Netflix, Hulu et al leads to an increase in cast AND crews actually getting PAID for what they do, that's a VERY good thing

Thanks for your kind words. Change really is the only constant, and I guess that's true of our personal tastes, too. I too now have a backlog of C Dramas to clear, along with many J Dramas, and even a few K Dramas I'm hoping will entertain me

Yes, I believe you're correct about CLOY being at least partly live shot. IIRC they pre-filmed some episodes, then live shot the rest. The toll it takes on actors (often publicised) and crew (often NOT) is the main reason why I hate the practice and hope it dies. It saddens me when people defend it for reasons that totally ignore the human toll it takes - like having actors and crews working in temperatures well below -10C throughout the night.