Last Update: April 23, 2020

Korean Entertainment is famous nowadays, especially to the young ones. While others are into K-pop music, the rest prefer Korean dramas or maybe both. In fact, Korean dramas are becoming more popular than Kpop in some areas, such as being translated and dubbed in various languages like English, Tagalog, Mandarin, and more. We are such huge fans of Korean Drama, so we decided to share with you our favorite K-drama shows for the last 20 years. So if you’re a k-drama addict just like us, you’ll love this list.

Korean Dramas In The Last 20 Yrs

Below are the list of our my favorite Korean drama that I think the viewers should watch

Dream High

Dream High tells the story of six students at Kirin Art High School who work to achieve their dreams of becoming music stars in the Korean music industry. Go Hye Mi is a student who sings classical music but has to give up her dream by entering Kirin Art High School to pay off her father’s debt. However, she needs to get two other students to also come to the school in order for her to enroll in the school conditionally.

You’re Beautiful

Go Mi-Nyu, a girl about to become a nun, is asked to cover for her indisposed twin brother, Mi-Nam, who’s on the verge of becoming a k-idol. To do so, she disguises herself as a boy and joins A.N.Jell, a really popular boy band.

Lie To Me

A woman, jealous when her friend steals her first love and marries him, lies that she is married too. The lie ensnares a hotel president who goes along with the lie for his own reasons. Will the lie become reality?

Boys Over Flowers

Poor girl attends the elite Shin Hwa High and is bullied by the leader of F4 (the four richest boys). He becomes attracted to her; however, she has a crush on his best friend. Whom will she choose?

My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho

Chae Dae Wong, an aspiring actor, unwillingly releases a Gumiho, a legendary nine-tailed fox, from her centuries-old prison. He runs away terrified and ends up injuring himself badly, but she saves his life and asks to stay by his side.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

In the Joseon era, Kim Yoon-hee masquerades as a boy to earn a living as a book transcriber. Her family’s dire circumstances and the encouragement of a noble’s son finally drive her to attend Sungkyukwan University, forbidden for females.

The Heirs

Heirs follows a group of privileged, elite high school students as they are groomed to take over their families’ business empires.

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop

Yang Eun Bi accidentally encounters Cha Chi Soo, the arrogant son of a food company in Korea. When she student teaches they meet again and sparks fly. Both of them end up working at a ramen shop staffed by flower boys (pretty boys).

Crash Landing on You

The absolute top secret love story of a chaebol heiress who made an emergency landing in North Korea because of a paragliding accident and a North Korean special officer who falls in love with her and who is hiding and protecting her.

City Hunter

Lee Yun-seong was trained by his father’s best friend in order to get revenge on the government for killing everyone in his father’s unit.

𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞-𝐖𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬

Iris

Kim Hyun-jun learns about his shadowed past after his recruitment in the black-ops secret agency. His quest takes him away from home and he finds himself at the centre of an international conspiracy.

Heartless City

When her best friend, Lee Kyung-mi, suffers a brutal fate while undercover in the criminal underworld, Yoon Soo-min is desperate to start where Kyung-mi left. But in the criminal underworld, there are no rules and no reason.

Healer

A fighter posing as a night courier agrees to protect a tabloid journalist whose investigation into a long-buried tragedy makes her a target for assassination.

My Secret Terrius

A secret service agent who detaches himself from the world after a failed operation tried to unravel the mystery behind a neighbour’s death.

Spy Myung-wol

Though she’s set her sights on becoming a special agent, North Korean spy Myung-Wol finds herself sent to kidnap a South Korean entertainment star.

The King 2 Hearts

In an alternate reality in which South Korea is a constitutional monarchy, a frivolous prince gets involved with a North Korean special forces officer.

Vagabond

A stuntman involved in a tragic airplane crash ends up discovering a national corruption scandal in the process.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim

Lee Young-Joon’s family runs a large company and he works as the vice-president of the company. He is smart, rich and handsome, but he is arrogant. His secretary is Kim Mi-So. She has worked for him for years and she is perfect for him, but Kim Mi-So decides to quit her job.

Descendants of the Sun

A soldier belonging to the South Korean Special Forces falls in love with a beautiful surgeon. However, their romance is short-lived as their professions keep them apart.

Marry Me, Mary!

Wi Mae Ri is a stubborn woman who is dating a tough rocker, Kang Moo Kyul. Problems arise when a perfect guy with a good background and prestigious education gets in his way.

Princess Hours

A common high-school girl tries to find her way after she is unexpectedly married off to the Crown Prince.

Strong Girl Bong-Soon

A woman born with superhuman strength is hired by the CEO of a gaming company, to be his bodyguard.

Full House

Danny is a widower who is raising his three little girls after the death of his wife. But he has help from his musician brother-in-law, Jesse Katsopolis, and his best friend, comedian Joey Gladstone.

My Girl

My Girl tells the story of Seol Gong Chan, a wealthy hotel heir. He’s a pretty stiff and serious guy, but he has oodles of family values. One, when his grandfather falls ill and Gong Chan fears for the worst, he knows he must speed up the process in finding his long lost cousin

Coffee Prince

An irresponsible bachelor pretends to be gay so he can avoid blind dates arranged by his grandma. He hires Eun-chan to be his lover, not knowing that she is actually a female.

The Greatest Love

An unlikely encounter between a fallen pop starlet and Korea’s top heartthrob leads to a complicated love square that includes her former rival.

Playful Kiss

A clumsy high-school girl – Oh Ha-ni – is at the bottom of her class, and she has had a crush on a popular genius, Baek Seung-Jo, ever since she first laid eyes on him.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo

A coming-of-age story about a group of college athletes who are fighting for their dreams, experiencing and finding love in the process.

Romance Is a Bonus Book

A gifted writer who’s the youngest editor-in-chief ever at his publishing company becomes enmeshed in the life of a former copywriter desperate for a job.

Her Private Life

Sung Deok-Mi now focuses only her job and doing activities as Shi-An’s fan in her private life. One day, Ryan (Kim Jae-Wook) begins work as the new director of the art gallery where Sung Deok-Mi. He was once a famous painter, but he does not paint anymore.

Fight for My Way

Despite an increasingly hostile world, Ko Dongman and Choi Aera decide not to give up. No matter what others say, together they make their own way to live a happy life.

Reply 1997

As a teen, Shi Won was obsessed with a boy band. Now 33 years old, Shi Won and her friends are reviving their memories as their school reunion nears.

Welcome To Waikiki

Three young men join forces in a guesthouse venture with one dream in mind, to finance their own film project. However, the venture is anything but profitable.

Personal Taste

A straight-laced architect falls in love with a furniture designer while pretending to be gay.

Switch: Change the World

A man is a swindler. He is smart enough to take the bar exam, but he could not become a prosecutor. Disregarding favoritism and biases by prosecutors, the man makes criminals pay for crimes that prosecutors did not.

I am not a robot

A woman becomes entangled in a strange love triangle after pretending to be a robot that looks exactly like her.

Suspicious Partner

Life is upended for a prosecutor after meeting his new intern who becomes a prime murder suspect soon after joining his office.

Doctor Stranger

A young doctor flees North Korea for life in the south, where he finds a woman who looks exactly like the woman he lost track of during his escape.

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim

A famous surgeon with the nickname of “Hand of God” suddenly disappears and resurfaces as “Teacher Kim” in a small hospital to guide young doctors.

Good Doctor

An autistic savant becomes a paediatrician and tries to prove himself in the face of conflict with patients and peers. A hot-headed surgeon dislikes him, while he develops an understanding with two other colleagues.

Medical Top Team

A team of elite doctors treats patients while dealing with power struggles within the hospital.

Hospital Ship

A group of doctors and nurses visit remote island villages on a floating hospital to treat patients who don’t have easy access to medical care.

Doctor Crush

A unruly teenage girl meets a compassionate teacher who inspires her to alter her path and become a street-savvy neurosurgeon.

𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬:

Goblin

Kim Shin was once an unbeatable general in Goryeo’s military who died a tragic death. He now possesses immortality, but is tired of living while everyone else around him dies. For 900 years, Kim Shin has searched for his bride, a mortal who can pull out the sword and end his life. One day, he encounters Ji Eun Tak, a positive, upbeat high school student who can see the dead and has gone through tragic events, yet still stays strong. She claims to be the Goblin’s bride, who can end his immortal life, but what appears to be an easy task, only gets complicated, as the two fall in love.

When Time Stops

A man who can stop time meets a woman unaffected by time. Moon Joon Woo is a seemingly-ordinary person, except for the fact that he can stop time. His special ability makes him lonely and he finds no meaning in life.

My Love from the Star

Do Min Joon is an alien who was stranded four hundred years ago on Earth. He has cynical views on humans but when he gets entangled in the life of a former actress, his opinion slowly changes.

Melting Me Softly

A romantic-comedy about two people who agree to freeze their bodies in 1999 for a 24 hour science experiment. But the experiment goes side-ways and they are frozen for 20 years. They are defrosted in the year 2019, hilarity ensues.

While You Were Sleeping

A young woman has visions through her dreams of terrible things that will happen to people in the future. A prosecutor tries to prevent these dreams from happening in real life.

Secret Garden

When a rich CEO of a successful company falls in love with a poor stunt-woman, the couple faces challenges given their different cultural backgrounds and the man’s disapproving mother.

Scholar Who Walks the Night

A fantasy historical about a scholar named Kim Sung Yeol (Lee Joon Gi) who becomes involved with a plot to take down the evil vampire Gwi (Lee Soo Hyuk) that results in Sung Yeol becoming a vampire himself. He dedicates his life over the next 120 years to finding a way to destroy Gwi.

W (Two Worlds)

A fantasy romance about a man (Lee Jong Suk) and woman (Han Hyo Joo) living in different worlds. Yeon Joo is a surgeon living in the real world, and her father is the author of the popular web-comic W. And Kang Chul is the main character of that comic

The Legend of the Blue Sea

Once upon a time, a Joseon-era mermaid finds herself transplanted to modern-day Seoul. She is caught by Joon Jae, a genius swindler who looks exactly the same as Kim Moon, the son of a nobleman from the Joseon Dynasty. In present time however, Joon Jae is a skilled conman on his way to become a genius scammer. His friend, Shi Ah, is a researcher at KAIST, and may be the mermaid’s only hope for survival in this strange new world. Will she get her happily ever after?

Hotel De Luna

Located in the middle of Seoul, Hotel del Luna is the eponymous hotel that caters only to ghosts; the beautiful but ill-tempered CEO is cursed to manage the hotel due to a terrible crime she committed, but cannot remember.

Queen In-Hyun’s Man

Queen In Hyun’s Man is about a man from the Joseon era who gets transported to present-day Seoul and falls for an actress there. Using his knowledge of the future, he begins to change the past, but with that comes unexpected consequences

Rooftop Prince

Crown Prince Lee Gak transports 300 years into the future following the death of his wife. In 21st century Seoul, he meets Joo Se-Na, a woman with an uncanny resemblance to the deceased princess.

Faith

It is about a modern-day plastic surgeon (Kim Hee-sun), who is kidnapped and travels back in time to the Goryeo period, 700 years in the past. There, she falls in love with her kidnapper, a warrior who is the leader of the royal guard

The Master’s sun

A greedy businessman’s life changes when he meets a woman who has the ability to see ghosts.

Angel’s Last Mission: Love

Troublemaker angel named Dan must find love for icy ballerina Yeonseo in order for him to return to his heavenly realm but falls in love with her instead.

Are You Human Too?

When heir to a corporate conglomerate Nam Shin is poisoned and falls into a coma, his scientist mother creates an artificial intelligence robot to take his place.

Mr. Sunshine

A Korean boy from a poor family who ends up in the United States after the 1871 Shinmiyangyo incident returns to his homeland during a historical turning point. Now an officer with the American military, Eugene falls in love with Ae-sin, an aristocrat’s daughter, and discovers a dark scheme to colonize the country from which he once fled. Ae-sin tries to figure out if Eugene is a friend as they wonders what the English word “love” means.

Jumong

After escaping an assassination attempt by his half-brothers, Jumong leaves the palace and by a twist of fate, encounters his father, the now-elderly Haemosu in the wild. Jumong becomes skilled in combat under Haemosu’s covert tutelage, but is unaware of their father-son relationship.

Queen Seondeok

A young queen unites three turbulent kingdoms despite opposition from a powerful lady of the court.

Jewel in the Palace

The story of a young girl, Jang Geum, who would eventually become the first female royal physician during the Chosun Dynasty 500 years ago.

The Slave Hunters

Lee Dae-gil, once a kind lord during the Joseon dynasty, becomes renowned for his skill and ruthlessness as a slave hunter as he seeks revenge for the death of his parents.

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

‘A modern day girl, Go Ha Jin, loses everything she had because of her cheating boyfriend and best friend. Then, she somehow ends up in the Goryeo era of Korean history in a freak accident while trying to save a boy from drowning. There she meets 8 (hot) princes, and she falls in love two of them.

Queen for Seven Days

A political romance about the love story between Grand Prince Lee Yeok (Yeon Woo Jin) and the daughter (Park Min Young) of a prominent politician who became queen for just one week before being dethroned. … We have the beautiful Park Min Young as our future queen Shin Chae Gyung.

Winter Sonata

The story begins when Joon-sang, the son of an eminent musician, moves to Chuncheon, a rural city in South Korea. … Joon-sang’s mother decides to move to the United States with Joon-sang, where he can start a new life under the identity of Lee Min-hyung. His friends and teachers are told that Joon-sang is dead.

The Princess’ Man

The Grand Prince Suyang attempts to build an alliance with his brother King Munjong’s trusted prime minister, Kim Jong-seo’s family. He proposes a marriage between his eldest daughter Se-ryung and Jong-seo’s son, Kim Seung-yoo. Learning of this, Se-ryung’s curiosity regarding her prospective husband is piqued.

Moon Embracing The Sun

Set against the backdrop of a Korean traditional palace, this fantasy drama tells the poignant love story between a king and a female shaman.

Autumn In My Heart

A young couple live as brother and sister, then they learn that she was switched with another girl at birth. They are separated, but years later, they reunite and must face obstacles when they fall in love.

Missing You

The drama revolves around a guy and a girl, who both experience a painful end to their first loves at the tender age of 15, and then meet again as adults by playing game of love hide and seek. Han Jung Woo has been a homicide detective for 2 years and he is looking for his childhood love, Lee Se Yeon. Lee So Yeon is a fashion designer and often dream of Han Jung Woo searching for her. Meanwhile, Kang Hyung Joon is a cold-hearted, charismatic fund manager, who tries to take revenge on Han Jung Woo because of the troubled relationship within their family.

Baker King

“Bread, Love and Dreams” covers the life of Kim Tak-Gu from the 1970’s until the late 1980’s as he becomes one of the most successful bakers in all of Korea. The president of Geosung baking company Koo Il-joong (Jeon Kwang-Leol) loved Kim Mi-soon (Jeon Mi-Sun), but Koo Il-joong’s mother was against their relationship.

That Winter, the Wind Blows

A talented gambler plans to scam a woman who is the heir to a large corporation in order to pay back his debt to a gangster. However, he soon finds that they have more in common that he thought.

Encounter

Two young people, that comes from different backgrounds, give up everything to be together.

Scent of a Woman

A romantic-melodrama that depicts the life of a 30’ish woman who works as a low-level clerk. She works hard, but lives her life without much joy. She then learns that she is dying. The woman decides to travel aboard to find happiness

Something In The Rain

Yoon Jin Ah is a woman in her mid-30s who doesn’t know yet what it’s like to date a man. She’s been dumped by a man many times because of her clumsy, reckless and foolish behavior. And again, a man she wanted to marry dumps her for the worst reason ever: that she’s like bland, tasteless devil’s-tongue jelly, which means she’s not attractive at all as a woman. Just then, Joon Hee appears before her with a broad smile on his face. He’s as refreshing as a soft drink. Joon Hee is Jin Ah’s childhood best friend’s younger brother, who used to live next door. Jin Ah has always remembered him as a little kid, but one day, he comes back as a really masculine man. When she is surprised by his change, her gut feeling tells her that she would truly fall in love this time.

Cheese in the trap

A college student balances her studies and a part-time job with a relationship with an insecure man who manipulates others.

Uncontrollably Fond

The memory of their painful breakup still fresh in their minds, two former lovers reunite years later as a top actor and a documentary producer.

Chicago Typewriter

Three people living during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1930s are reincarnated in present day.

Kill Me, Heal Me

Cha Do-hyun, a businessman with dissociative identity disorder, tries to regain control over his life with the help of Oh Ri-jin, a first-year psychiatric resident who treats him in secret.

Lovers in Paris

Tae-young met Ki-joo, a businessman, while studying in Paris. Though they developed a mutual attraction for each other, however they parted on bad terms and met each other again in South Korea.

Something happened in Bali

Lee Soo-jung is seeking good luck in Bali. While in Bali she meets Jae-min, Kang In-wook and Young-joo. They are involved in a love triangle that is complicated by Lee Soo-jung.

I’m Sorry, I love you

A revenge Drama and Romantic Tragedy about Cha Moo-Hyuk, an Australian street thug/conman who was abandoned in South Korea by his birth mother. He grows up on the streets and learns Korean from his Korean girlfriend.

Stairway to heaven

Han Jung-suh (Choi Ji-woo) and Cha Song-joo (Kwon Sang-woo) are childhood friends and have a special bond that blossoms into love. They both share the pain of losing a loved one: Song-joo’s father died in a traffic accident and Jung-suh’s mother died of eye cancer.

Save The Last Dance For Me

Hyun-woo (Ji Sung) is the reluctant heir to his father’s chemical company and engaged to be married to Soo-jin (Lee Bo-young). Eun-soo (Eugene) lives a simple life, running a bed and breakfast with her elderly father. … On the day of their engagement, Eun-soo’s father passes away.

Spring Waltz

Lee Soo-ho (Seo Do-young) is a wealthy young man who lives an honorable life as a gifted pianist. As a child, however, Jae-ha lived with his father who was a conman and endured a miserable childhood. Seo Eun-young (Han Hyo-joo) lived on the island of Chungsan with her mom happily.

My Lovely Sam Soon

Kim Sam-soon (Kim Sun-a) is loud and brash, yet insecure about her weight On. Christmas Eve, Sam-soon gets dumped by her cheating boyfriend (Lee Kyu-han) and loses her job. One of the witnesses to her public humiliation is Hyun Jin-heon (Hyun Bin), the owner of upscale French restaurant Bon Appetit.

Memories of Alhambra

While searching for the cryptic creator of an innovative augmented reality game, an investment firm executive meets a woman who runs a hostel in Spain.

Kingdom

The deceased king rises and a mysterious plague begins to spread; the prince must face a new breed of enemies to unveil the evil scheme and save his people.

Nine

A TV anchorman discovers that a mysterious bundle of incense has the power to send him back in time, where he has the opportunity to alter the past.

Circle

In 2017, a student investigates mysterious incidents while aliens invade the planet; meanwhile in 2037, a detective investigates a murder in the alien-controlled “Smart Earth.”

Tell me what you saw

A brilliant profiler returns from seclusion to team up with a rookie detective to solve a series of serial murders which include the profiler’s fiancee.

All photos credits to Soompi