2019 is, as usual, the best year for Korean Drama Lovers. Due to this COVID lockdown situation many of you might have set forth to watch Korean Dramas. To help you out, here is the list of the best dramas of 2019.
Dramas like Kingdom is not considered as the first season had only six episodes and season 2 ended only in 2020.
These are the Allsorts Kdrama’s Best 12 Korean Dramas of 2019.
12. Her private Life:
Her Private Life depicts the fake love story between Sung Deok-mi (Park Min-young) , a talented chief curator of Cheum Museum of Art and Ryan Gold (Kim Jae-wook),newly appointed Art Director of Cheum Museum of Art and finally how gradually it becomes real.
With Sparkling performances and cool chemistry between the leads, this drama is definitely a worth watch. This drama is a notable drama in both Park min-young and Kim jae-wook acting career.
11. Rookie Historian:
A historical Story that tells the love story of a free-spirited noble class (classes were defined in the Joseon Dynasty),26 years old lady, Goo Hae-ryung (Shin Se-Kyung) and the young and handsome 20-year-old Prince Yi Rim (Cha Eun-woo) has been living his lonely life. He hides his own identity and had a pen name “Maehwa”, and keep himself engaged by writing romance novels that became famous all over, especially popular among women readers.
To comply with the Anual of Joseon, the Royal Court has decided to recruit female historians for the first time in history! Hae-ryung and other 3 female Historians were selected as Apprentices! After a few encounters, the Prince, starts liking the attitude of Hae-ryung who is now a female Historian(apprentice) and she started to reciprocate as well.
Then the story flows on how Hae-ryung with the help of colleagues and Prince, fights against the oppression! Despite that, they had to face and fight gender stereotypes as they are underestimated when compared to their male counterparts!
Though seemed to be a very NORMAL DRAMA, we can find very different scenes that are quite unusual in the historical genre. First and foremost, the characteristics of Goo Hae-ryung, Quite unique!
10. The Crowned Clown:
This Yeo Jin-goo, Kim Sang-kyung, and Lee Se-young starrer, The Crowned Clown is the drama version of the 2012 Lee Byung-hun starrer, Masquerade.
The crowned clown depicts the story of a Joseon King Yi Heon and his doppelganger, a clown, who has to impersonate and fill the king’s place under a situation where the king is being treated for severe illness. The clown has to manage the Royal court and the Queen by not revealing his original identity. The ending storyline is changed and differs from Masquerade, the original story!
The crowned Clown is one of the top 20 highest-rated Korean dramas of all time in cable Television (As of July 2020).
9. Romance is a bonus book:
The series is about the personal and professional challenges faced by Cha Eun-ho (Lee jong-suk), a successful author, and a senior editor at a book publishing company and Kang Dan-i (Lee Na-young ), a mother and former successful advertising copywriter after realizing their true feelings for each other.
Romance is a bonus book is a special drama to both the leads as it is the comeback drama for Lee Na-young after 9 Years whereas first Romantic comedy for lee jong-suk.
8. Arthdal Chronicles:
Arthdal Chronicals is a Myth Drama that neither a full-fantasy drama nor a historical one.
In a mythical land called Arth, the inhabitants of the ancient city of Arthdal contend with power struggles and wanted to invade all other small lands including Lark (Wahans). Tan-ya, a tribal from Wahan’s tribe) and Eun-seom (Song joong-ki) go through hardships to bring back the people of Wahans who are captured by Ta-gon (Jang Dong-gun ), leader of the Arthdal Union. Eun-som learns of his true history in the process.
The drama is released in three seasons and well received by the Audiences. The subsequent season releases are not yet scheduled to be filmed.
7. Vagabond:
Vagabond is one of the Action-packed series of lee Seung-gi. Lee lived as Cha Dal-gun in the series.
Cha Dal-gun is a stuntman whose nephew Cha Hoon was a victim of the B357 plane crash, which was tried to cover up by the terrorists and governmental conspiracies as an accident. To reveal and expose their secrets, Dal-gun unites with Go Hae-ri (Bae-suzy) and the NIS to find out the real conspirators behind the plane Crash.
The series has terrific chasing and action scenes and serious storyline makes it a spellbinding one.
We have to wait for Season 2 to know the ending! Well, Season 2?
6. When the Camellia Blooms:
The Story revolves around Oh Dong Baek (Gong Hyo-jin), a single mother who is living in a small fictional town of Ongsan. She runs a bar-restaurant called Camellia and takes care of his son Pil-su. There she meets Hwang Yong-Sik (Kang Ha-neul), a coltish police officer who proposes his love for her. Though people around her talk bad about her being a single mother, Yong-Sik never backed off from showing his love for her and pursued his love to reciprocate from her. Later Dong Baek’s past lover, a famous baseball player appears and trying to win her back. Meanwhile, a serial killer claimed Dong Baek as his next victim to kill and Yong-Sik tries to find out the killer and to protect Dong-Baek.
This drama becomes popular and became the highest-rated mini-series of 2019 and praised by critics for the actor’s performance and its unique plot.
5. Doctor John:
Dr. John is one of the best Medical Korean Dramas. Cha Yo-han (Ji Sung) is an ex-convict and an anesthesiologist. He is sentenced to jail for 3 years because of performing euthanasia on a patient, who was suffering from terminal cancer. Without getting approval from the guardian or the patient, he made that patient die by injecting a lethal drug. It created a furore and due to this, his registration was revoked and he had to serve 3 years sentence. He became famous(infamous, to some) among the inmates as he always takes only ten seconds to deduce an illness. He meets Kang Shi-young, a second-year resident, and the medical officer of the prison.
After released from prison, he becomes the Head of the department of anaesthesiology where Shi-young becomes his student.
The Drama always travels very interestingly as the team led by Cha Yo-han always handles patients with rare diseases and sometimes treating patients not even related to his department by causing an uproar. Numerous medical terms were used and thus create a feeling that they are real doctors. The gripping Storyline will never let you get diverted.
Despite medical Genre , Dr. John depicts a deep and mature love between Yo-han and Shi-young(Lee se-young).
Our ‘zombie’ girl nailed this performance as well. And need not to say about ji sung as a super cool doctor.
4. Doctor Prisoner:
A skilled doctor named Na Yi-je (Namkoong Min) is forced to quit working at a hospital after being accused of medical malpractice and received a sentence. To revenge and retaliate, He started working in a prison and acquires enough connections to take his revenge.
Throughout the run, the drama has maintained a solid viewership rating and averaged 13%! This drama is one of the best Korean dramas in Medical-Thriller Genre.
3. The Fiery Priest:
To uncover the mysterious death of an elderly priest, a priest named Kim Hae-il (Kim Nam-gil),who suffers from anger management issues, a detective (Kim Sung-kyun) and a corrupt prosecutor (Lee Hanee) join hands to resolve the case .
This unique storyline drama is one of the highest-rated miniseries drama of the year. The series was a critical and commercial success and Kim Nam-gil won numerous awards for his portrayal of a priest with anger management issues.
2. Crash Landing On You:
The series portrays the secret and sweet romance between Yoon Se-Ri, heiress of a conglomerate in South Korea, and Ri Jung-hyuk, a high-ranking Officer Of North Korea. When she was about to take over the chairman position of her father’s company, a sudden and unexpected accident leads Yoon Se-ri(Son ye-jin) to make an emergency landing in North Korea. There, she was spotted by Ri Jung-hyuk (Hyun Bin), a North Korean army officer. Initially, He hides her and Later he wants to protect her by all means. Soon, Ri Jung-hyuk and Yoon Se-Ri fall in love with each other.
Though they had worked previously, this drama has made them a super couple.
Right from Episode 1, the entire plot is phenomenal. This would be the most stylish drama for Hyun Bin. The mature love between Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin would be a treat to watch. Needless to say, this drama has become the third-highest-rated South Korean TV drama in cable television history due to the performances, plot, screenplay, entire storyline, funny and romantic scenes, Anything left? it can be added as well.
This drama has depicted a everyday life in North Korea, whether it is a fiction or real, it’s a different exposure!
1. Hotel Del Luna:
The story revolves around a hotel, Guest House of the Moon. The Hotel is not for living human, It’s an Exclusive hotel for souls/ghosts. This Supernatural hotel is not visible (in its form) during the Day time. Everybody working here and the customers are ghosts/souls. Humans are invited upon only special circumstances if suppose any ghost wants to have a word with its living relatives or during the lunar eclipse. The existence of such a supernatural hotel is to let the ghosts finish up their unfinished business. Only a few ghosts have the power to appear before the humans with several restrictions, and if broken, the soul will be destroyed and cannot be reincarnated! So what would the remaining ghost do, and how will they interact with the normal people without power? For that, a human must be hired as Manager, who can see the Ghost.
Jang Man-wol , a ghost(Lee Ji-eun) is the owner of this hotel, currently known as the “Hotel del Luna”.And because of his father’s agreement with Man-wol, Gu Chan-sung (Yeo Jin-goo) happens to become the Manager of the ‘Hotel del Luna’, and everything has been tracked and controlled by the deity Mago (Yi-suk Seo).
The overall storyline tells how different and unusual the screenplay is. Hotel del Luna was the most viewed tvN drama of 2019, and it is one of the highest-rated Korean drama in cable television history.
Enjoy watching these best Korean Dramas of 2019!!