The Asian film industry has grown steadily, with the Chinese war film, The Eight Hundred, becoming the highest-grossing film worldwide. The exploding Korean drama genre better known as K-drama, has increased its audience all over the world.
Showmax has compiled entertaining and must-watch dramas for viewers looking for something different on TV and easy to binge on.
From fantasy dramas, to romantic comedies, to sci-fi, to telenovelas, here are K-dramas on Showmax that will keep you glued to your seat.
1. Hotel Del Luna
This is a South Korean television series, starring Lee Ji-eun and Yeo Jin-goo as the owner and manager, respectively, of a hotel that caters only to ghosts. The series is produced by GT:st, written by the Hong sisters and directed by Oh Choong-hwan.
Last year, it was announced that a remake of the series is in the works with CJ ENM, the production company behind 2020’s Oscar-winning break-out movie, Parasite.
2. Because this is my first life
This South Korean television series stars Lee Min-ki and Jung So-min about different points of view on careers, relationships and marriage. The series marks Lee Min-ki’s first small screen lead role since 2007.
It follows aspiring screenwriter Yoon Ji-ho (Jung So-min) who, after finding herself homeless at 30, ends up sharing an apartment with quirky, reserved computer designer Nam Se-hee (actor, singer and style icon Lee Min-ki).
3. The bride of Habaek
In the modern-day fantasy series The Bride of Habaek, there is a new man in neuropsychiatrist Yoon So-ah’s life. And he is a god. Specifically, the god of the Land of Water, and unfortunately for the sceptical So-ah, an ancestral promise means she is destined to help him take the throne of the Realm of the Gods. The series is based on the comic Bride of the Water god.
4. Melting me softly
Melt Me Softly is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Ji Chang-wook, Won Jin-ah and Yoon Se-ah. The series was created by Studio Dragon and produced by writer Baek Mi-kyung’s own company Story Phoenix.
Dong-chan (Ji Chang-wook) and Ko Mi-ran (Won Jin-ah) take part in a 24-hour experiment where both are frozen. Things don’t go as expected and they wake up from the frozen capsule 20 years later instead of 24 hours. In order to survive the side effects of their cryogenic sleep, they must follow a set of restrictions to maintain their body temperature.
5. Touch your heart
In the romantic comedy series Touch Your Heart, a disgraced starlet takes on a job in the real world as research for a role, with hilarious consequences.
This South Korean television series stars Yoo In-na and Lee Dong-wook. It was developed by Studio Dragon and jointly produced by Mega Monster and Zium Content based on the web novel of the same name first published in 2016.
6. Tears of Heaven
Popular Korean drama actress Hong Ah-reum stars in the telenovela Tears of Heaven, which centres on Cha-Young, a daughter fighting to prove she is worthy of love after her mother abandoned her not once, but twice in a lifetime. But can Ah-reum find her inner strength when her mother returns to disrupt her life once more?