Good Asian Dramas

Do you like Messi? Don't ask this question when you start liking someone! You need to watch this drama to understand the joke. This is one of those dramas which I had kept ignoring forever. Now that I have watched it, I wonder why did I do that?  If I can describe it two words it shall be- ' Criminally Underrated'!! It is a sport drama which deals with everyday lives of students from athlete college. Kim Bok-Joo is a weightlifter. Her father and uncle run chicken shop. They are very supportive of Bok-Joo and always encourage her to pursue her dreams. Bok-Joo has kind and outgoing personality and has two best friends. On the other hand Joon Hyung is in swimming team. He suffers from trauma that causes him to false start during a tournament. Therefore, although very talented, he needs to overcome this psychological barrier to be able to win competitions again.  Bok-Joo and Joon Hyung were childhood friends but they do not recognize each other at the start. That is because he ...

.... The first thought that comes to our mind about Taiwan is of course bubble tea! Second one might be electronics goods and the mighty Taipei tower. We all know that Korean dramas dominate the world of Asian Dramas. They have evolved so much in past few years handling different genres. But there is lot more to explore if you look around. If you have been following Asian dramas for a while you must have encountered few dramas from Taiwan. There are quite good numbers of T-dramas to watch once you are past language barrier and difficulty in remembering names. Here is the list of few I have come across so far. 1. Meteor Garden This is based on classic  Hana Yori Dango /Boys Over Flower . There is a group of four boys from rich families who consider bullying other schoolmates for entertainment. In that school arrives female protagonist from humble background who gets into the trouble with them. You might have already watched Korean remake of the same.   Positives: The story...

In this drama, the female lead is not disguised in men's attire for a change! There is something charming about historical dramas. They have the ability to take you back in the time. The palaces, the inner court, the Pyehas, servants, Crown prince, Dowager and the evil ministers. On the flip side these dramas can often be very heavy in plots reasons being schemes for power struggles, wars and the consequent bloodbath! So if you want to enjoy the beauty of historical dramas without all these heavy elements then let me suggest a drama that I stumbled upon recently- " Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung" Have you ever wondered in olden times how they used to keep track of everything happening around? Of course there was no Twitter or Facebook or internet for that matter. There were special people called 'Historians' whose job was to write down everything happening around them. This drama focuses on role of historians, importance of education and censorship in ...

When you witness a crime but you don't know you have witnessed the crime but criminal feels that you have. He does't know that you don't know he knows. Okay! Enough of this ' They don't know you know they know ' stuff! ( I admit I am a big time "friends' fan) Now back to the story.  Who doesn't love crime, suspense, court room drama with a pinch of romance (and very hot Ji Chang Wook)? Bong Hee (Nam Ji Hyun) is struggling trainee prosecutor who comes to know that her boyfriend is cheating on her. Angry yet helpless, all she could do is to curse him death every time they pass by each other. And to her surprise on one fated night, he is found murdered in her apartment! She becomes the a prime suspect. To add to her misery, the prosecutor for this case is Noh Ji Wook (Ji Chang Wook) under whom she is undergoing her training.  He is the topper from the office in list of 'the worst prosecutor'. He is disliked by everyone- his...

There are 3 dramas in 'Reply' series. I have watched only 1988 version, TWICE. Let me tell you, every episode is almost 1.5 hours yet I have no regrets. As the name suggests this series takes place in the year 1988. It is story of five childhood friends and their families living in Ssangmun-dong neighborhood of Seoul. Duk seon is the only girl in the group of five. Sun Woo is student council president. Jung-Hwan is from rich family. Choi Taek is brilliant Baduk player who has left school to focus on his game. Dong Ryong is mischievous and has no interest in studies. These friends often hang out in Taek's room, dancing, arguing, eating pizza and ramen, watching video tapes. The drama shows daily life and struggles of everyone and how their friendship changes subtly over the course of time. It also has second set of characters-the parents and the siblings. They are also equal part of the drama. The cinematography is really good. If you are 90's kid then you ...

Country: Chima Cast: Xing Fei, Lin Yi This time it is C-Drama! There are lot of good Chinese and Taiwanese dramas. The only problem with them is number of episodes. Its huge. If you are familiar with 11,16 or 20 episodes pattern then it is really difficult to watch something beyond that. But I guess you should give this one a try. It has only 24 episodes, it is cute and the best part- available on YouTube!! So the story is about students in their 20's. Si Tu Mo is regular girl studying in college. She wants to do a lot of things but still not sure of her career plans.She likes her friend Fu Pei but he does not really reciprocate her feelings and is cold and distant. Due to some stupid accident she meets Gu We Yi. He is a total genius. He is into this scientific experiment and research stuff. STM moves into the home which actually belongs to Gu We Yi. It is like typical 'reluctant cohabitation' drama. There is not much in the story as such. so don't expect...

When I was in my engineering college, one year all of a sudden people started talking about some south Korean drama that got them hooked. I was curious and procured a copy from a friend. That was my first K-drama. Yeah you guessed it right. The famous ' boys over the flower '. I bet for majority of us it is a gateway to the world of Asian dramas. Everything was so exotic in that -the people, their language, their names,customs, everything!  It was a novelty. We don't get to see much teen dramas in Indian television. So that was it. I made some of my friends watch BOF, they also liked it. Basically it is a story of four rich dudes who study in a school for elites. (I don't know in India, if we have such school. In movies we do-Remember Student of the year ??) So these dudes like to bully other students. Their group also has name. F4- where F stands for 'flower'. (The concept of flower boys or pretty boys was kind of alien to my comprehension that...

Rich man and poor woman is one of the most sought after themes in Asian dramas. Secret Garden is 2010's Korean drama which blends this theme with hint of fantasy element.  Let me make a small checklist Rich Chaelbol. ...................✅ Poor female lead ...............✅ Past trauma.. ....................✅ Fantasy element. ...............✅ Throwing water on face..........✅ Okay you now got the drift. So these are almost all the founding pillars of typical Kdrama. After watching  'Crash landing on you'   made me think of hit 2010 drama also starring Hyun Bin.The name secret garden is quite misleading and does not really give any hint of what is there for store. I agree that there might be some secret but where is the garden? I was damn confused at that time. Kim Joo won (Hyun Bin) is CEO of departmental store. He is definition of how lazy, chauvinist a person can be!   KJW comes to work only once in a week and rest of the time he spends in really beaut...

Country: South Korea Cast: Jun Ji Hyun, Kim Soo Hyun, Park Hae jin, Yoo In na Year: 2013 Genre: fantasy, romance, crime As a human being all of us have some childlike curiosity when it comes to aliens. Our imaginations have created varieties of what aliens might look like. So why not a young, good looking professor who happens to live next door? Sounds interesting? And yes it is. So we have our Cheon song Yi (Jun Ji Hyun) in her 30s  top actress. Although very successful professionally, she is not bright student. This has caused some scandals in her life and her agency is constantly trying to save her from all bad publicity. She changes her house and starts living next to Doo Min Joon (Kim Soo Hyun)- a college professor. Apparently, DMJ is an alien who was left out from his spaceship 400 years back! He has been living under the radar in the society disguising as various personalities. The best thing about him is he does not age here like other earthlings. In...

Country: South Korea Year : 2007 Cast : Yoon Eun-hye, Gong Yoo, Lee Sun-kyun, Chae Jung-an. Another classic! You know you are so much desperate for job when you pretend to be a man where in reality you are a woman. This is a story of 24 years old Go Eun-chan who is the only earning member of a family of three-she,her sister and mother. She is often mistaken for a boy owing to her tomboyish appearance. Choi Han-kyul belongs to rich family having coffee business. According to his family, he does not have sense of responsibility. Therefore his grandmother challenges him to run a coffee shop (coffee prince) to prove his mettle . He hires only male workers( prince you know!) He meets Go-chan and thinks that she is actually a man. He hires her in his coffee shop. Go-chan being in need of steady job also plays along not revealing her true identity. It starts with their playful teasing but eventually he starts having feelings for her which makes him confused over...

Hi There!          I have been watching Asian dramas since long time and thought why not make a record of this journey. In that way I can revisit, remember them and cherish good old time.  These are some of the good ones that I have encountered in my drama journey. Read the  no spoiler review and decide for yourself! 1.  Kekkon Dekinai Otoko 2. My Name is Kim Sam Soon 3. Father is strange 4.  Coffee Prince 5. Maid Sama 6.  My Love from the stars 7.  Secret Garden 8.  Boys over flower 9.  Put your head on my shoulder 10. Erased 11.  Reply 1988 12.  Crash landing on you 13.  Suspicious Partner 14. How to overcome the Drama slump 15.  Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung How it all started? It all started when I purchased my first laptop! That that time internet was not this ubiquitous and speed was painfully low. I got hooked to watching western series like Supernatural, Vampire diaries and Prison break. I ...