2021 Dramas

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While I watched a lot of 2021 dramas (a total of 40 out of the 71 I completed), I decided that there were too many older dramas that I couldn’t not include them in my top ten list of dramas watched this year. A departure from last year, which was a bad year for me to the point I had to add movies to bulk out the list. I tried to rank them, which proved hard as a group of dramas just felt like they were the same, so this list isn’t perfect in that regard but my #1 is definitively my top drama of this year.

10. Run On - 런온 (2021): Run On was a complete surprise for me. A drama that I only picked up because we were doing an episode on sports on the podcast, and wanted to try to at least watch some of a drama before the episode. I binged it over two days. The drama is simply about how you should keep going. Whether it’s small or large, just keep moving forward. It showcased characters’ relationships beautifully and was real with the hurt that life’s events could do to you, and didn’t try to be obnoxious in its sentiment. There was not a single time I didn’t feel the chemistry between all the cast and it made me love it even more.

9. Hospital Playlist 2 - 슬기로운 의사생활++ (2021): While the second season didn’t make it up as far on my list as the first one, it still was a solid drama. Listen, if you liked the first season, you’ll probably like this one. Hospital Playlist just has a special charm, and it was carried into this season. One of the biggest changes in the story was the focus on the secondary characters. While the first season spent some time with them, this season really started to flesh out their storylines and gave them more attention as those junior doctors and interns moved up in their positions and life.

8. Coma - 코마 (2006): I have a full review of this drama that can be found here if you want a detailed look at my thoughts, but I had to include it on this year’s top list - despite it being so old (the oldest drama I watched this year). A solid horror drama about the atrocities that happened to a hospital before its closure. It kept me interested and engaged, and I had a lot of fun with it.

7. The Guest - 손: The Guest (2018): Another drama that I have a review for so I won’t go too in depth with this blurb. I kept putting off watching this one far too long, especially since I had started watching it when it was airing. I just never made the time for it, and I’m glad to use the summer to finally do that. It’s got this really great mesh of crime/investigation with horror and doesn’t focus too much on religion despite it being about exorcisms. It’s on Netflix, just go watch it.

6. Memorist - 메모리스트 (2020): Memorist came out in quite possibly the worst time of my life, and so I didn’t get a chance to watch it airing. I finally picked it up this year, and am so glad I did. I had so much fun with this drama, I couldn’t stop watching. It’s got a great mix of crime, thriller, and fantasy with the main character being able to read people’s thoughts if he touches them. The drama doesn’t spend a lot of time on this, it’s part of the world and known by all and just that alone really melds it into the overall story without bogging it down with unnecessary filler to discuss it or even make the drama more of a fantasy than it needed to be.

5. Beyond Evil - 괴물 (2021): I’m sure this is on every crime/thriller lover’s list this year, and there’s a good reason. Beyond Evil takes you on an amazing journey where you don’t know what’s going to happen. It keeps you in this uncomfortable place because you don’t know who is good and who is evil, and if you should be agreeing with what they do. It’s an interesting way to keep you in that thriller state, and Shin Ha Kyun plays his role effortlessly and at a lot of times, disturbingly. If you didn’t get around to it this year you have to make room for it soon.

4. Youth of May - 오월의 청춘 (2021): Set during the Gwangju Uprising in the 1980's, Youth of May was the story of two ill-fated lovers. It’s a sad one, not only because of the pain of the two leads, but the pain of the events that are happening around them. While their story is not real, what is happening was, and the drama made time to focus the story on the heartbreak and horror of that time in South Korean history, even if it meant taking its focus away from our main couple. Lee Do Hyun and Go Min Si were fantastic in their betrayals and had a lot of chemistry. Make sure you have tissues around, you’ll need them.

3. Sell Your Haunted House - 대박부동산 (2021): I really didn’t think I was going to like Sell Your Haunted House as much as I was going to, and by the time it ended it had shot up to the top of my list. It’s one of those dramas that make you believe it’s going to be silly or light-hearted in between all the ghosts, and yet…it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there is some humor, but unlike a lot of dramas it knows when the humor should be there and when it should stop. The cast was incredible and the stories - including the main one with the two main characters - had a lot of depth to it. While it is about getting rid of the ghosts that haunt places, it focuses on the pain that has kept those deceased there.

2. Move to Heaven - 무브 투 헤븐: 나는 유품정리사입니다 (2021): I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get this drama into my watching before the end of the year, and I really made the push to focus on it. I’m glad I did, because here it is sitting at number two on my list, sometimes those last-minute rushes do pay off. Move to Heaven is about a cleaning service for those who have passed. The main character is autistic, and after the loss of his father his uncle (right out of jail) comes to be his guardian. Each episode focuses on not just the main characters’ growth, but also the story of those they help. There was not a time in my watch that I wasn’t crying, and most of the time sobbing. It’s raw, emotional, and absolutely beautiful. Beyond worth the tears.

1. Happiness - 해피니스 (2021): At this point I feel like a broken record, and if you follow me any where else you knew that this was going to be my number one drama of the year. Not only is it my number one, it’s also has secured its self as one of my favorite dramas of all time. A ten out of ten, the drama hit every mark perfectly. Perfectly crafted horror, amazingly written characters, zombies, and my favorite type of love story - it has it all and more. I don’t even know what more to say. It just makes me…happy.

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Come and Hug Me (2018)

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Merry Christmas!

I got the idea to review something for today a couple of days ago, and set out to find one that was not only horror or thriller, but also worked for this time of year. While I was trying to figure it out I realized there was only one true pick, and that is my personal favorite drama, Come and Hug Me. Instead of doing a traditional review on the drama, I wanted to share some of the reasons and plots that attribute to why this drama is my top drama.

Come and Hug Me is a crime thriller intertwined with a melodrama and gives a look at how the world perceives crimes and the family members of the people who perpetrate those crimes, as well as the effects they and the family members had. But at its core, it focuses on families. What it takes to be a true family and how that looks different to different people, and that blood family isn’t the only family that matters. The drama stems from one significant event that happened in the childhood of the two main leads, Namu (Jang Ki Yong) and Nak Won (Jon Ki Joo). Namu’s father murders Nak Won’s parents in front of her, and almost kills her but is stopped by Namu.

While the drama is about that and their relationship, it weaves through the aftermath of that incident as well as the reintroduction of that trauma when Namu’s father (played hauntingly by Heo Joon Ho) writes a book about the murders of all his victims bringing the case back into light after almost ten years. The drama focuses on the discussion of whether evil is made or created. Hui Jae spends his time focusing on his son, thinking he could create the evil that he is, the public shame and belittle Namu and his family labeling them because of their association with Hui Jae. Journalists spin stories to support that narrative, confirming to the public that those prejudices must be true, while the main characters are constantly fighting that stigma.

It’s an interesting study on how psychopaths can see no wrong and lack compassion, empathy, and understanding - all traits the father has - and how it applies in various ways with others in the drama: the reporters, the public, the victims’ families. The drama connects the actions of the father with the public’s response to show the real damage that can be caused to people, and how close everyone truly is to evil even when they aren’t related to that evil. When the perception is changed, the understanding will follow, and the drama tries to show the characters as they start to understand their biases. There is this great scene when the police officer Go Yi Seok, who was assigned to the case right after the murders and is looking after Namu, sees Chae Ok Hee (Namu’s stepmother) comes to take him in. He mentions something along the lines of the job making him hate and give up on people, but seeing the compassion of Ok Hee to him gave him hope. We see it happen again with the reporter Han Ji Ho seeing the relationship between Namu and Nak Won and how they hold each other up even in great sadness and burden and that even in her position as a journalist on the case, she doesn’t know all the details.

“Evil shall not wait to be proven. Evil shall prove itself.” - Hui Jae

Watching the drama a second time I didn’t realize the way they framed Namu was intentional in ways that were not what I initially thought. The drama leads one to believe it is focused on Namu as if he is a ticking bomb and at any point can stray from being good. He will somehow mess up and follow the footsteps of the father. When in fact the drama tells us clearly that it won’t happen. He’s proven numerous times with his actions and interactions with others throughout his entire life that he is not like his father, and that there should never be any doubt. The drama forces the viewer in a position of doubt even when clear information is given, showing that not only are characters in the drama susceptible to this negative thinking, the viewer is as well. It’s a neat use of that element, as it works to further the intent of the drama, but also plays up some of the thrilling aspects of the drama. It also furthers how the act of just believing in people and helping them at their lowest can turn them to the right path. Nak Won’s constant reassurance to Namu, Ok Hee (wounded) forcing herself inbetween Hyun Mo (Kim Kyung Nam) and the father’s wrath to save him. Even when Namu is about to hurt his father, it’s nothing comparable despite what the father tries to make him believe.

The stigma against non-blood-related families is prevalent everywhere, and the drama handles it beautifully. Nak Won and Moo Won (Yoon Jong Hoon) share true feelings for each other as siblings, being raised to just accept that they are family realistically and comfortably without burden. Seo Jung Yeon’s Ok Hee is my favorite kdrama mother having compassion and strength to take in not only two boys who were not hers, but the product of her failed and horrible marriage, and does so with loving arms. And while she falters a tiny bit at the beginning, she immediately sees the error of her ways. The little sister So Jin (Choi Ri) always views the two as her brothers, never questioning it or changing that stance no matter how distant they treated her. While the drama is on the surface about the murders and the two’s love story, the drama focuses on these other relationships as much as they do with the love story between the two and doesn’t try to take away from those essential storylines with those relationships. Even at the end, we see them confront their past selves to begin their journey in full healing and love in their relationship with themselves.

I can’t get enough of this drama, and this rewatch solidified my love for it as well as its position as my top drama. It’s everything I could want in a drama and more and I felt the same after seeing it again as I did the very first time I watched it. I don’t go over even half of the elements that make this drama great in this post, not mentioning other technical elements or favorite characters, this is just a glance at my love for it. I may return to at another point to give a tigher review. If you haven’t given the drama a try, maybe now is the time.

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100 (Asian) Horror Movies in 92 Days

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This year I did the Spooky Sarah Says challenge to watch 100 horror movies in 92 days. The challenge started in August and ran till the end of October. The rules were simple: watch 100 new (to you) movies during the time period. When I decided to do the challenge, I was in the middle of watching a lot of Korean horror and had just started planning my October posts. Because I knew that I was already going to be watching a bunch of Asian horror, I decided to do the challenge with a focus on only counting Asian horrors. I started off just tracking movies, but as I got into October I feared that the challenge was forcing me to focus on movies too much, and added tracking dramas into the mix. In the end, it didn’t really work out and I barely touched dramas. Such is life.

I thought it would be fun go through the movies and dramas I watched and check out some of the stats on them to see how the challenge went (besides whether I completed it or not). I also think it would give a greater look into what I chose, and may help in the movies that I choose from here on out. I didn’t try to vary up my content that much, I was mostly concerned with the number, but towards the end when I was less concerned about hitting 100 I started to really try to expand what movies I was watching.

The Stats

-My final count was 116. 8 of those being dramas. My starting baseline for this is 108 movies, 8 dramas.

-The oldest movie I watched was the 1958 Mansion of the Ghost Cat, from Japan. This was a movie I had no clue about before this challenge and one that I randomly picked up. It was a YouTube suggestion after another movie I had been watching and decided to give it a try after realizing that I was enjoying a lot of the older Japanese horror movies I was encountering. The newest movie I watched was Ouija Japan. Its premiere date is listed as October 19th, and I watched the day it dropped on Amazon Prime.

The years in between the oldest and newest least of my worries when picking, mostly because it would be the thing I have the least control of or care due to my options to watch and not having a budget to buy or rent new movies. I did want to see if I somehow favored a year. I assumed that they would mostly be older just purely because I was watching movies on streaming services and assume those would be the cheaper to get rights for thus populating my options. At a tie for first place with 9 entries each was 2009 & 2016. I don’t know how 2009 got to be so high - maybe it was just a good year for horror to come to the box office? I would like to dive deeper into this when I get the time, I would assume that the previous years had popular box office hits that reignited the passion to ride on that popularity or focus distribution rights budget on them. 11 out of the 33 years represented have only one movie or drama watched within them, a much higher number than I would have expected.

-I’m not much of a fan of rating things, and thus rate things extremely weird. Since most of the time I’m rating dramas, I've gotten used to my rating score over there. Problem is…it doesn’t necessarily translate to movies. With dramas I drop them and not rate if I do, that means that I rarely will have a low-rated drama and I’ve worked that into my rating system. With movies, I rarely drop due to their length being a smaller time restraint. I did want to include some stats on my ratings, though. Generally, my rating thought process was 5’s: perfect, 4/4.5’s: all-around great, 3/3.5’s: pretty good 2/2.5’s: not the best, but didn’t hate everything, 1/1.5’s: mostly sucked, .5’s definitely sucked.

Here’s the breakdown of each rating:

  • .5: 7

  • 1: 6

  • 1.5: 7

  • 2: 19 (1 drama)

  • 2.5: 11 (1 drama)

  • 3: 30 (2 dramas)

  • 3.5: 13 (1 drama)

  • 4: 21 (2 dramas)

  • 4.5: 2 (1 drama)

  • 5: 0

I didn’t rate any movie or drama a perfect 5, but I did give a 4.5 to one movie and one drama. One Cut of the Dead was the movie. It is the best movie that I watched during this time, and truly one I had on my watchlist for way too long. If you haven’t watched it yet, don’t read anything about it and watch it knowing nothing. The drama was The Guest. Fantastic drama that was also one I kept putting off not because I didn’t want to watch it, I just didn’t make the time to.

Some other interesting data from my ratings: 2 out of the 3 Indonesian films I watched got .5 stars, the lowest rating based on percentage. All three of the top dramas were Korean. Korea also dominates the 4 stars section. I gave out the most 3 stars (26%) which roughly translates to middle of the road in my enjoyment level, fairly average but possibly had some better than average aspects. I also gave out a fairly large percentage of 2 stars, about 17% of the movies. I was kind of expecting my 1.5/.5 ratings to be a bit higher than they actually turned out. Not because I think I am a ruthless rater, but simply because of the movie pool I was picking from. A lot of the time I would turn on movies at random on Tubi leading to more of a gamble if the movie was good or not.

-Out of all the data I was most interested in seeing was my breakdown of movies based on location. Again, I didn’t try to vary this at the beginning between the Korean Summer Horror posts and the 31 Days of Asian Horror posts constraints. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Cambodia: 1

  • China: 1

  • Hong Kong: 8

  • India: 4 (2 dramas)

  • Indonesia: 3

  • Japan: 37 (1 drama)

  • Korea: 37 (3 dramas)

  • Laos: 2

  • Mongolia: 1

  • Philippines: 3

  • Singapore: 1 (1 drama)

  • Taiwan: 5

  • Thailand: 9 (1 drama)

  • Vietnam: 3

I pretty much knew that Korea and Japan would make it to the top of the list without guessing. I had the most options from those accessible, and the most that were already on my watchlist. Hong Kong came in fourth, which was the most surprising out of the group. I had some movies lined up because Hong Kong had the most options in vampire movies (a theme for some of my blog posts), but most of the ones I picked up were completely random. Most of the movies from Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines were from Netflix which I have found seems to be the platform’s favorite area to pick up Asian horror content from.

I know this data is probably only interesting to me, but I had fun trying to figure out some of the stats and it gave me a good look at how I did. I think it’s an interesting perspective on my viewing habits, and I think in the future will help me try to diversify my viewing a bit more. I might do a break down like this for the dramas that I watched this year to give me a greater look at my drama watching.

If you want to see the full list of movies and dramas, check out my Letterboxd list here, and while you’re there follow me so we can be friends!

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Ten Vampire Dramas/Movies

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I needed a bit of a mental health day today and so I figured instead of a full review I’d list some fun vampire dramas and movies options since it’s a Thirsty Thursday. I focused this list more on dramas and movies that are currently available, and don’t actually reflect my personal favorites nor are they even all considered horror. Most of the offerings on this list I haven’t seen personally, but this list does have a good variety in horror levels and hopefully you can find something that will work for you.

Tokyo Vampire Hotel (2017)

One of my favorite offerings on Amazon Prime, if you haven’t watched this Sion Sono directed drama about vampires trying to create their own utopia - and their own food supply - under the guise of a matchmaking party you are missing out. It’s a campy, blood-filled ride and I love it.

Where to find it: Amazon Prime

The Sweet Blood (2021)

This small web series aired early this year, the kdrama follows Yeon Soo, a vampire who wants to live a normal human life and tries to blend in by going to high school. When her classmate, Song Meo Roo attracts that unwanted attention from other vampires and werewolves because of his sweet blood Yeon Seo decides to protect him.

Where to find it: Viki

Vampire Princess Miyu OVA (1988)

The Vampire Princess Miyu series has been one of my all-time favorite animes for literally almost two decades, and while up until now I’ve had to do rewatches on my old DVDs, the OVA is now appearing on streaming sites. It is only currently the dubbed version, but this anime is worth a watch and follows a vampire, Miyu, and her protector Larva as she captures evil demons. The artwork is beautiful, and it has great character growth as well as an episodic monster of the week type vibe.

Where to find it: Tubi, RetroCrush, AsianCrush

Beautiful Vampire (2018)

A less horror more fantasy option is the 2018 movie, Beautiful Vampire about a vampire (Jung Yeon Joo) who runs a small makeup shop when the new building owner (Park Joon Myun) wants to kick her out. It’s a romcom with all the normal kdrama tropes that you can check off your list.

Where to find it: Viki, AsianCrush

I Cannot Hug You (2017)

Another light offering is the romantic/comedy cdrama, I Cannot Hug You starring Xing Zhao Lin and Rayil Zhang. A modern-day vampire story about an apathetic vampire who falls in love with her next door neighbor. I haven’t watched this personally, but it was pretty popular when it was airing and has two seasons.

Where to find it: Viki

You Are My Vampire (2014)

Struggling and down on her luck, Gyu Jung decides to write a novel about a vampire and encounters a strange man who rents a room at her dad's lodge.

Where to find it: AsianCrush

Orange Marmalade (2015)

Set in a world where humans and vampires coexist, vampires are discriminated against so most hide their true identity. Ma Ri (Kim Seol Hyun)hides her identity from her friends and neighbors, but things change when she falls in love with new student Jae Min (Yeo Jin Goo).

Where to find it: Viki, Kocowa

The Scholar Who Walks the Night (2015)

A Joseon scholar with a secret past recruits a cross-dressing bookseller to help him in his fight to protect the throne from a vampire. The kdrama stars Lee Joon Gi and Lee Yo Bi, with the screenwriter from Coffee Prince, Jang Hyun Joo, as well as a slew of other well-known actors. If you are looking for a more classic sageuk that incorporates vampires, this will be a great pick.

Where to find it: Viki, Kocowa

Blood (2015)

The kdrama Blood follows a renowned doctor who is best known for his cancer research, who is also a vampire. Blood is more of a medical based drama, with conflicts dealing in power struggles and humanity.

Where to find it: Viki, Kocowa

Vampire Knight (2008)

This 2008 anime is about Yuki Cross and vampire hunter Zero Kiryu, who attend a school as guardians to protect the humans from the vampires.

Where to find it: Netflix

Honorable Mentions

All of these are currently not streaming anywhere or easily accessible, but have in the past so they might pop up somewhere in the future.

  • Vampire Prosecutor (2011) - kdrama

  • Vampire Detective (2016) - kdrama

  • RH Plus (2008) - jdrama

  • Vampire Heaven (2013) - jdrama

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