90 Fun Facts About Korean Drama

Which playground game, watched by a giant doll based on a textbook character, is the first contest in Squid Game?

Red Light, Green Light lets the 456 players move only while the doll's face is turned away, and anyone she catches moving is shot dead.

In Crash Landing on You, which hobby carries heiress Yoon Se-ri over the border into North Korea?

Paragliding goes wrong when a tornado sweeps Se-ri over the border, where army captain Ri Jeong-hyeok finds her and decides to hide her instead of turning her in.

What kind of being is Do Min-joon, the K-drama hero unaged since he arrived in Joseon in 1609?

An alien in My Love from the Star: the premise grew from a real 1609 entry in Joseon's royal annals recording a mysterious flying object over Korea, and Do Min-joon, living on Earth ever since, falls for the actress next door.

Which Korean term for family-run giants like Samsung and Hyundai also tags K-drama's rich heirs?

Chaebol is written with the same two characters as zaibatsu, Japan's pre-war family combines; the Allied occupation broke those up, while Korea's chaebol went on to dominate its economy.

Which term for the worldwide boom in Korean pop culture was coined by Chinese journalists in 1999?

Hallyu, the Korean Wave, got its name from journalists in Beijing in 1999, struck by the zeal of Chinese audiences for Korean television dramas and pop songs.

Which 2002 drama, shot on Nami Island, made Bae Yong-joon an idol to middle-aged Japanese women?

Winter Sonata is credited with carrying Korea's pop-culture boom into Japan: when Bae flew into Tokyo late in 2004, thousands of middle-aged women thronged the airport to greet him.

In Goblin, Lee Dong-wook plays what supernatural figure alongside Gong Yoo's undying Goryeo general?

A grim reaper, Wang Yeo, shares the screen with Kim Shin, the Goryeo general framed as a traitor and killed by his young king, whose immortality only his bride can end.

Which animals fascinate Woo Young-woo, the autistic rookie lawyer of Extraordinary Attorney Woo?

Whales are Young-woo's special interest: she explains cases and people through whale facts, and her eureka moments arrive with visions of sea creatures swimming past.

Who created Squid Game, whose script sat unsold for ten years after studios called it too grotesque?

Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote the script in 2009, put it aside without any takers and made three other films over the next ten years; in 2022 he won the Emmy for directing its first episode.

My Love from the Star's Cheon Song-yi craved which snack pairing, sparking a craze across China?

Chicken and beer, chimaek in Korean, flooded Chinese social media after Song-yi craved it on screen, and eateries there cashed in by selling the two together as a set meal.

Which Squid Game star became the first Asian man to win the Emmy for lead actor in a drama series?

Lee Jung-jae's 2022 Emmy was also the first in that category for a non-English-language role, and it came a month after the release of Hunt, the spy thriller he directed and starred in.

Which candy of melted sugar and baking soda do Squid Game players carve a shape from in game two?

Dalgona for the show came from a Seoul street vendor, and after it aired fans queued at his stall and his daily sales more than doubled.

Crash Landing on You's leads first cross paths, years before North Korea, in which country?

Switzerland hosted the opening weeks of filming, and the lakeside village of Iseltwald is where Ri Jeong-hyeok, then a piano student, plays by the water in the scene Se-ri later calls destiny.

Which Crash Landing on You co-stars married each other in a private ceremony in 2022?

Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin broke the news themselves that February, each posting a letter to fans, a year after confirming they had become a couple once the series ended.

Who played Gu Jun-pyo, leader of the F4 and heir to the Shinhwa Group, in 2009's Boys Over Flowers?

Lee Min-ho won the part after his first lead, the high-school series Mackerel Run, was cut short at eight episodes; Boys Over Flowers itself was adapted from Yoko Kamio's manga Hana Yori Dango.

Which drama sends captain Yoo Shi-jin and surgeon Kang Mo-yeon to Uruk, a fictional disaster zone?

Descendants of the Sun was filmed in full before it aired, a break with Korea's shoot-as-you-broadcast habit, so it could premiere in Korea and China at once; Greece's Zakynthos stood in for Uruk's coast.

Probing the king's mystery illness, Kingdom's Joseon Crown Prince Lee Chang uncovers what threat?

A zombie plague is what he finds ravaging the countryside, and while he fights it his rivals at court move to seize the throne; Kim Eun-hee based the series on her own web comic, The Kingdom of the Gods.

Which institution's medical school does Sky Castle's Kang Ye-seo chase with a coordinator's help?

Seoul National University is the S of SKY, the acronym for Korea's three most prestigious universities with Korea and Yonsei, and the reason the drama's gated community is called SKY Castle.

The World of the Married, whose 28.4% finale set a cable ratings record, remakes which BBC series?

Doctor Foster follows a doctor who uncovers her husband's affair, as the Korean version does, and JTBC followed the remake's finale by airing the BBC original.

In Secret Garden, what magical twist befalls store boss Kim Joo-won and stuntwoman Gil Ra-im?

A body swap follows a mysterious flower liquor the pair both drink, and rain flips them back and forth; while in his body she punches one of his store's VIP customers and lands in a police cell.

In Signal, profiler Park Hae-young contacts a detective in the past through which discarded device?

A walkie-talkie found in 2015 connects Hae-young to Detective Lee Jae-han, and the cold cases they chase were inspired by real crimes, including the Hwaseong serial murders.

Born a Joseon slave, Mr. Sunshine's Eugene Choi returns to Hanseong as a captain in which military?

The US Marine Corps made an officer of the boy who fled Joseon for America in 1871, and he returns to the land that enslaved him only to fall for Go Ae-shin, a nobleman's granddaughter.

Reply 1988's Deok-sun trains as Madagascar's placard holder for which event's opening ceremony?

The Olympic Games in Seoul go ahead without Madagascar, which joined the boycott of 1988, so after weeks of practice Deok-sun learns on camera that her country is not coming.

In Jewel in the Palace, orphan Jang-geum rises from kitchen cook to the king's first female what?

Physician to the king is what the real Jang-geum is reputed to have become: Joseon's court annals mention her as a medical woman whom King Jungjong trusted with the royal family's care.

In Full House, writer Han Ji-eun and actor Lee Young-jae end up sharing her old home under what arrangement?

A contract marriage follows her spell as his maid, working to buy back the house her friends sold him; it is Young-jae's idea, to make his crush Kang Hye-won jealous, in the 2004 hit starring Rain and Song Hye-kyo.

Hotel del Luna, run by Jang Man-wol as a thousand-year punishment, takes which guests only?

Ghosts with unfinished business are the only guests, so the hotel always keeps one living manager to deal with the human world, and elite hotelier Koo Chan-sung is the latest to be hired.

Which singer, born Lee Ji-eun, played Hotel del Luna's Jang Man-wol and a lead role in My Mister?

IU played two generations in When Life Gives You Tangerines, the young Ae-sun and later Ae-sun's daughter, and the 2025 series won Best Drama at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One's Na Hee-do loses her school team to the 1998 IMF crisis in which sport?

Fencing is what Hee-do refuses to give up: when the crisis disbands her team at Seonjung Girls' High School, she gets herself transferred to another school and later makes the national team.

In Business Proposal, Shin Ha-ri poses as her friend on a blind date and discovers the man is whom?

Her company's CEO, Kang Tae-moo of Go Food, is who turns up when she stands in for her friend Jin Young-seo; her plan was to get rejected, but he proposes instead.

In The Glory, what job puts Moon Dong-eun in the elementary school of her main bully's daughter?

Homeroom teacher to Park Yeon-jin's daughter Ha Ye-sol is a central move in a revenge plot partly based on a 2006 case in Cheongju, where middle schoolers beat and burned a classmate for about a month.

Netflix's D.P. follows a pair of military policemen whose job is to track down whom?

Deserters are the quarry: D.P. stands for Deserter Pursuit, and Jung Hae-in's conscript hunts men who fled the barracks in a series drawn from Kim Bo-tong's comic D.P Dog's Day.

When Life Gives You Tangerines follows would-be poet Ae-sun, born in 1951, on which island?

Jeju is where Ae-sun's mother dives as a haenyeo, one of the sea women who were so often their families' chief breadwinners that the island stood apart in patriarchal Korea.

What Korean term covers historical dramas like Jewel in the Palace, now joined by 'fusion' variants?

Sageuk covers historical plays, films and series alike, and 'fusion sageuk' arrived as a new genre that changed the structure and format of Korea's period series.

Which clear Korean spirit, staple of K-drama drinking scenes, has come in green bottles since 1994?

Soju came in brown, white and blue bottles until 1994, when one maker launched a brand called Green in a green bottle to suggest a clean, mild taste; it sold so well that rivals copied the colour.

Which media group owns tvN, the pay-TV channel behind Goblin, Reply 1988 and Crash Landing on You?

CJ ENM's film arm also released Parasite, and CJ vice-chair Miky Lee went on stage to accept its Best Picture Oscar. Its channel tvN originally stood for Total Variety Network.

Which My Love from the Star actor led Queen of Tears, the hit that out-rated Crash Landing on You?

Kim Soo-hyun plays a farmers' son married to a department-store heiress; they are on the verge of divorce when her grave diagnosis makes them fall in love again, and the finale became tvN's highest-rated.

Which Itaewon Class star made his Hollywood debut as Prince Yan of Aladna in Marvel's The Marvels?

Park Seo-joon's Prince Yan rules Aladna, a planet whose people communicate in song, and is Captain Marvel's husband by a diplomatic formality; his Itaewon Class hero turned one venue into a franchise.

In Itaewon Class, what is DanBam, which Park Sae-ro-yi opens after prison to take on Jangga Group?

A bar-restaurant in Itaewon grows into a franchise under Sae-ro-yi, who wants revenge on Jangga Group, in a 2020 JTBC hit that Netflix streamed worldwide.

In Vincenzo, what hidden under Geumga Plaza draws mafia lawyer Vincenzo Cassano back to Seoul?

Gold bullion sits in a hidden basement he helped a business partner fill, and the only way to reach it is to demolish the building, which sets him against its tenants and a conglomerate that wants the site.

Which actress won the 2023 Baeksang Grand Prize for playing autistic lawyer Woo Young-woo?

Park Eun-bin's Grand Prize in Television at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards came for playing Woo Young-woo, an autistic savant and rookie hired by a major Seoul law firm.

Which long-running ABC medical series is a remake of a 2013 Korean drama about an autistic surgeon?

The Good Doctor was produced by Daniel Dae Kim, who first developed the remake at CBS in 2014 before it landed at ABC and ran for seven seasons.

In Pinocchio, a made-up syndrome makes aspiring reporter Choi In-ha do what whenever she lies?

Hiccup is her giveaway, and Choi In-ha chooses journalism knowing the made-up condition will limit her career.

Which dish does Woo Young-woo, raised by her single father in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, name as her favourite food?

Gimbap sales surged around the world while the series aired, a jump credited to the heroine's devotion to the seaweed rice rolls.

In Navillera, what does retired mailman Shim Deok-chul set out to learn at 70, to his family's dismay?

Ballet takes him to a dance academy, where he meets a 23-year-old dancer, played by Song Kang, who is short of money and ready to give up until the old man arrives.

In Legend of the Blue Sea, Jun Ji-hyun's Shim Cheong trails a con artist to Seoul as what creature?

A mermaid caught and freed by a fisherman appears in an old Joseon collection of unofficial tales, the legend that inspired the series.

In Goblin, only the destined bride of immortal Kim Shin can free him by pulling what from his chest?

A sword cut Kim Shin down on his own king's orders, and immortality was both his reward for defending the country and his punishment for the lives he took.

Which star, Storm Shadow in Hollywood's G.I. Joe films, plays the masked Front Man who oversees Squid Game?

Lee Byung-hun had a recurring part in season one and joined the main cast for seasons two and three, when the hero goes back into the games determined to end them.

Which Blackpink member took her first leading role in Snowdrop, as a student hiding a wounded man in her dorm?

Jisoo won Outstanding Korean Actress at the Seoul International Drama Awards for the part, in a series made by the writer and director of Sky Castle.

Which classic novel lends its title to a 2022 Korean thriller about three poor sisters and a 70 billion won bequest?

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott's novel, was loosely adapted, and Vietnam asked Netflix to remove the series there over how two episodes depicted the Vietnam War.

In The Uncanny Counter, the demon hunters who recruit student So Mun use what business as their hideout?

A noodle shop, Eonni's Noodles, is their cover, with three of the hunters posing as its staff. The series drew the highest ratings OCN had ever recorded.

Hellbound, Moving, Navillera and Yumi's Cells were all adapted from works first published in which form?

Webtoons are digital comics that began in South Korea, and Kang Full adapted his own strip when he wrote the scripts for Moving.

Which comedy has a present-day Blue House chef wake up in Joseon as King Cheoljong's wife?

Mr. Queen has chef Jang Bong-hwan fall into a pool and come round in the palace, where he tries to cook his way into the royal family's favour while hunting for a route home.

Which 2015 drama stars Ji Sung as Cha Do-hyun, an heir split into seven identities by past ordeals?

Kill Me, Heal Me pairs him with a first-year psychiatry resident who treats him in secret and slowly falls in love with him.

Moving, about families hiding superpowers, became the most-watched Korean original on which streaming service?

Disney+ had been struggling to gain a foothold in Korea, and the success of the story of three gifted teenagers and their parents was credited with reviving it there.

In Move to Heaven, Geu-ru and his ex-convict uncle Sang-gu run a family business doing what?

Trauma cleaning takes the pair into the homes of people who have died, where each job uncovers an untold story about the deceased.

Hot Stove League's new general manager must rebuild the Dreams, last for four straight years in which sport?

Baseball's off-season gives the series its name, and the manager arrives having won titles with other sports teams but never having run a ball club.

The 2006 epic Jumong dramatises the life of King Dongmyeong, founder of which ancient Korean kingdom?

Goguryeo's founding made such popular television that MBC stretched the planned 60 episodes to 81, and Jumong was the highest-rated Korean drama of 2006.

Which fashion model made her acting debut as North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok in Squid Game?

Jung Ho-yeon prepared by practising a northern dialect with real defectors and learning martial arts, and critics hailed her as the breakout star.

In Stranger, Cho Seung-woo's prosecutor has surgery to correct a hypersensitivity to sound and loses what?

His sense of empathy goes with the operation, along with his social skills. He and a policewoman played by Bae Doona go on to expose corruption inside their own organisations.

In My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, the fox spirit freed by student Cha Dae-woong had been sealed inside what?

A painting held her, sealed there by a goddess, until he let her out by accident. She then saves his life with her fox bead and bargains for his help becoming human.

Which Canadian destination, reached through a magic red door in Goblin, became a magnet for the drama's fans?

Quebec City supplied the Château Frontenac and a cemetery scene too, and the red door fans seek out is really the emergency exit of a small theatre.

Which Korean game of flipping folded paper tiles, red against blue, features in the first episode of Squid Game?

Ddakji tiles in the series are blue and red because of an urban legend, told in both Korea and Japan, known as blue paper, red paper.

In It's Okay to Not Be Okay, what is the profession of Ko Moon-young, who pursues a psychiatric ward caregiver?

Children's author Ko Moon-young's five storybooks were written for real and published as books in Korea in 2020, then translated into Brazilian Portuguese.

In The Silent Sea, Bae Doona's scientist joins a mission to recover samples from an abandoned research base where?

On the Moon, the crew finds a substance that looks like water but multiplies like a virus on contact with blood, while Earth itself is running dry.

Before his military service, Crash Landing on You's Ri Jeong-hyeok was studying abroad to become what?

A pianist in those days, he was overheard playing by Yoon Se-ri at her lowest moment, and the music gave her the will to go on, a link she only recognises years later.

Which pop singer played film star Lee Young-jae opposite Song Hye-kyo in the 2004 hit Full House?

Rain became a star across Asia with the role, in a romantic comedy that passed 40 percent in the ratings at home.

In Sweet Home, what shapes the kind of monster that residents of the run-down Green Home complex turn into?

Their desires set the form each monster takes. Cha Hyun-su, who moved into the block alone after his whole family died, bands together with neighbours to survive.

Which Train to Busan director wrote and directed Hellbound, in which supernatural beings condemn people to Hell?

Yeon Sang-ho also co-wrote the story it is based on, and its opening episodes made Hellbound the first Korean drama screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

What is the name of the fictional Korean Silicon Valley where the young founders of Start-Up compete?

Sandbox is where Seo Dal-mi, who dreams of becoming Korea's Steve Jobs, crosses paths with Nam Do-san, founder of Samsan Tech.

Which drama's ex-special forces hero Kim Do-gi works for Rainbow, a firm that secretly avenges crime victims?

Taxi Driver takes its plots from real crimes committed in Korea, and its avengers hide behind an ordinary cab firm.

Which Netflix hit traps the students of Hyosan High School as a virus created by one of the staff spreads?

All of Us Are Dead is known in Korean as Now at Our School, and its outbreak soon spills beyond the campus into the rest of Hyosan.

Which three shapes mark the masks of Squid Game's guards and the cards handed to its recruits?

Circle, triangle, square is also a ranking: guards wearing circles are the workers, triangles the soldiers and squares the managers, an order modelled on an ant colony.

In Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, what is the profession of Yoon Hye-jin, who leaves Seoul for seaside Gongjin?

Dentist Yoon Hye-jin opens a clinic in the village on a whim and keeps running into Chief Hong, a handyman who is officially unemployed yet always busy helping everyone.

In True Beauty, which skill does a bullied girl master so well that her new school hails her as a goddess?

Makeup becomes Lim Ju-kyung's shield after relentless bullying at her old school pushed her to breaking point; she had been mocked for her looks since childhood.

Which drama follows five doctors in their forties, friends since medical school, at Yulje Medical Centre?

Hospital Playlist returned in 2021 for a second season whose first episode drew 10 percent, the highest premiere rating tvN had recorded.

In Reply 1997, Busan schoolgirl Sung Shi-won is a devoted fan of which first-generation idol group?

H.O.T. is her obsession, to the point of dreaming of marrying its member Tony, and she quarrels with her best friend, who backs a rival boy band.

Which 2000 melodrama, about two girls switched as babies, opened Yoon Seok-ho's season-themed Endless Love series?

Autumn in My Heart begins when a toddler drops the name cards on two cribs in a baby room, and the two girls are later returned to their birth parents.

Which 1995 SBS drama, which restaged the Gwangju Uprising, emptied Korean streets as viewers hurried home to watch?

Sandglass peaked at a 64.5 percent rating, and pubs reported slow business on the four evenings a week it aired.

Which series about a twin sister posing as the crown prince was the first Korean drama to win an International Emmy?

The King's Affection has the prince murdered while dressed as his hidden twin, so she keeps his name and his title.

Which 2006 drama imagines a modern Korea that kept its monarchy, where a schoolgirl is betrothed to the crown prince?

Princess Hours has the commoner bride chosen through a pact between the couple's grandfathers, and its spin-off follows a young worker who suddenly learns he is royalty.

Which Hollywood studio bought DramaFever in 2016 and shut the K-drama streaming site without warning in 2018?

Warner Bros. gave subscribers no advance notice, citing a variety of business reasons for closing a site that had streamed subtitled series on demand.

Which Japanese company bought Viki, the streaming service whose volunteer fans subtitle Korean dramas, in 2013?

Rakuten's service takes its name from video and wiki, a nod to the crowd of volunteers whose subtitles cover more than 200 languages.

In which Seoul neighbourhood do the five childhood friends of Reply 1988 and their families all live?

Ssangmun-dong is where the friends lean on one another through adolescence, and the finale's 18.8 percent share made the series the highest-rated in Korean cable history at the time.

Which cable network, launched in 2011 and part-owned by JoongAng, aired Sky Castle and The World of the Married?

JTBC arrived as one of four general cable channels opened that year by newspaper groups, and The World of the Married later broke the cable ratings record set by its own Sky Castle.

Which screenwriter is behind the hits Secret Garden, Goblin, Mr. Sunshine and The Glory?

Kim Eun-sook broke through in 2004 with Lovers in Paris, a Cinderella story whose ratings peaked at 57.6 percent.

Arthdal Chronicles, set in the Bronze Age land of Arth, is loosely based on the story of which legendary founder?

Dangun is the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom, whose capital Asadal lends the series its name. It is regarded as Korea's first ancient fantasy drama.

Which American series about life in the entertainment industry was remade by tvN in 2016, only to score low ratings?

Entourage opened at just over 2 percent on tvN and soon slid below 1 percent, a flop for a remake that kept the American show's title.

In Vagabond, stuntman Cha Dal-gun's nephew dies when a flight to which country crashes?

Morocco was the destination of a field trip, and the stuntman's hunt for the truth behind the crash pulls him into a tangled web of corruption.

In Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, what event throws a 21st-century woman back to the Goryeo period?

A solar eclipse sends Go Ha-jin, 25, into the past, in a Korean version of the Chinese novel Bu Bu Jing Xin by Tong Hua.

In Jirisan, Jun Ji-hyun's Seo Yi-kang and her rookie partner Hyun-jo patrol the mountain's trails as what?

National park rangers on Jirisan climb its unexplored reaches to rescue lost trekkers, and colleagues nickname the park's top ranger Devil Seo for the way she reads its trails by instinct.