The editor recommends | You can’t rot your brain with only dating series, and that’s why I got hooked on Korean drama series

Culture|The editor recommends

I cheered this spring to Korean drama series, when I realized that I can’t keep rotting my brain with only dating reality and Tiktok’s endlessly comforting but time-consuming algorithm. I wanted to watch series that kept me engaged but didn’t suffocate me with their boredom and static.

Korean drama series are more familiarly called k-dramas. Many people know, for example, the great success of the streaming service Netflix The Squid Gamebut the service also includes many other lesser-known Korean series.

I definitely recommend the director for those who like revenge, very slow-burning and burning romance, and complex characters Ahn Gil-hon The Glory. It’s a sixteen-episode time commitment, but totally worth it.

The Glory says Moon Dong-eun (Song Hye-kyo) about a woman who was severely bullied at school. He longs for justice and has been planning revenge on his school bullies since he was 16 years old. The bullies will have to pay for their actions, when Dong-eun, who bears the tangible scars left by bullying on his skin, finally begins to carry out his revenge, which took him 18 years to plan.

The acting is great. It is easy to hate and despise bullies for their actions, whether they are young or old in the series. You will be seen in the role of the main villain Lim Ji-yeonwhose achingly realistic role performance occasionally falters.

The series is about dancing between justice and injustice on a knife edge, and makes the viewer think about where the line ends up being.

The Glory. Netflix.

Tan Jung-san and Lee Je-Hoon star as a boy and an uncle who work as calamari cleaners in the touching k-drama Move to Heaven. Picture: IMDB

Genuine humanity

Provided opening the tear ducts in a warm embracing atmosphere is interesting, says the director Kim Sung-ho Move to Heaven is the right choice. I can promise that after watching the series, you won’t feel the same way about Nike shoes as before.

Han Geu-ru (Tan Jun-sang) and his father Han Jeong-woon (Ji Jin-hee) are calamus cleaners who clean the homes of dead people with respect and patience. They always pack things in a yellow box, which together form the untold story of the deceased.

At the beginning of the series, Jeong-woo has a seizure, and Geu-ru, diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, is left alone. The boy’s guardian is assigned to his recently released from prison and grumpy uncle Cho Sang-gu (Lee Je-hoon). The main characters don’t always understand each other, but their growing into a close family and developing as individuals is beautiful to watch.

The series is a touching description of life, death and humanity. Heartwarming and compassionate, the series is a warm breath of hope. It shows that there is always someone who cares.

Move to Heaven. Netflix.

Jung Hae-in, Kim Sung-kyun and Koo Gyo-hwan star in Korean military drama DP. Picture: IMDB

A dark description of army culture

About the South Korean army that maintains a culture of torture and violence DP is brilliant in all its gloom. In this series, under pressure, diamonds are not born, but prison escapees.

Military couple An Jun-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Han Ho-yul (Gather Gyo-hwa) are sent from time to time among the civilians to return runaway soldiers back to the army. The absolute bright spot and balancer of truth in the series is the chemistry between Jung Hae-in and Koo Gyo-hwan and the comical relationship between their characters.

However, comedy is often replaced by gloom, which is crushing and suffocating. The ultimate ending of the last episode of the first season leaves its viewers speechless. The solution seems inconsolable.

DP deals with a difficult subject with brutal honesty but humanely. People are only people at the end of the day, and the series makes that very clear. Everyone works from their own starting points in the way they see fit.

DP Netflix. Season two coming July 28th.

Correction 22.7. 3:29 p.m.: There was a mistake in the caption of the picture taken from the Movie to Heaven series: the picture on the right is Lee Je-Hoon, not Ji Jin-hee.