“Sisyphus: The Myth” (시지프스)
“Sisyphus: The Myth” has an intriguing premise, in which an inventor creates a time machine. And as with many time travel stories, you have to suspend your belief in reality to enjoy this production.
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“Tune in for Love” (유열의 음악앨범)
Set in the 1990s, “Tune in for Love” is a beautiful slice-of-life film focused on a young couple who meet as teenagers, lose touch, and reunite on and off throughout their twenties.
“Happiness” (해피니스)
There are still 18 days left until the end of the 2021 — and Gong Yoo’s “The Silent Sea” doesn’t even makes its premiere until December 24. But I don’t know that there will be a better K-drama this year than “Happiness.”
“Inspector Koo” (구경이)
“Inspector Koo” starts off strong, with a whip-smart teenage serial killer manipulating her victims, teachers and the police. She is as much a sociopath as a psychopath, which is explained away during a backstory that involves childhood trauma.
“Hellbound” (지옥)
Director Yeon Sang-Ha (“Train to Busan”) adapted “Hellbound” from his own webtoon of the same name. He makes it clear that cults are the true sinners, which manipulate people’s lives with fear. And that hell isn’t necessarily a place foreign to us, because it’s where we may already be living.
“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” (갯마을 차차차)
“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” is one of those slow-moving K-dramas that makes viewers wish they had the same kind of relationship as the characters do — not just with love interests, but with their friends.
“My Name” (마이 네임)
You know how in most action series, there is that one guy who can fight a team of gangsters, get stabbed and bounce back into action in no time? In “My Name,” that guy is a kickass woman.
“D.P.” (디피)
The superb “D.P.” is not an easy series to watch. While not as gory as “Squid Game,” it’s more disturbing in many ways, because it deals with South Korea’s real-life mandatory military duty — which requires every able-bodied Korean man to enlist for approximately two years.
“Mine” (마인)
“Mine” is a women-centric K-drama in which the worst actions have been created by men. Their immorality serves as a cause and effect for a chaebol family’s misery.
“Racket Boys” (라켓소년단)
“Racket Boys” is a sweet series centering around a teenager, who’s forced to quit baseball when his father moves them from Seoul to the countryside. Disappointed and bitter, Hae-Kang begrudgingly joins the badminton team — which his father coaches — on the condition that if the team wins a medal, his dad will get them Wi-Fi at their house.