Sisyphus: The Myth is JTBC’s 10th anniversary K-drama inspired by the Greek drama of the same name. It jumps between two timelines—future that has been ravaged by war and is in dire need of resources, and the present where Kang Seo-hae (Park Shin-hye) has traveled to, in order to stop Han Tae-sul (Cho Seung-woo) from creating a time machine. This is in contrast to the present timeline where all is well and destruction has not yet taken root.
This series follows the lives of three married couples, who are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. With successful careers and families of their own, they seem to live happy lives. However, their “perfect” marriages hit a snag when each of the women was betrayed by their husbands.
The youngest couple is Boo Hye-ryung (Lee Ga-ryeong) and Pan Sa-hyeon (Sung Hoon), the typical millennial couple. She is a popular host for a radio show, while he is a famous lawyer. Having been married for just three years and without any child between them, life was constantly on-the-go. Married life is mostly about career, dinner-outs, and partying largely because of Boo Hye-ryung’s domineering personality and lifestyle choices. Out of the blue, her husband shocked her with a confession that he has gotten another woman pregnant, and he wants a divorce.
Sa Pi-young (Park Joo-mi) and Shin Yu-shin (Lee Tae-gon) are a couple in their 40s. Sa Pi-young is the producing director of the same radio show that Boo Hye-ryung hosts. Despite having to juggle a busy career, she is also very much involved in taking care of everything at home. Meanwhile, Shin Yu-shin is the director of a hospital’s neuropsychiatric department. He is every bit the perfect husband and father, but underneath all that, he actually holds a dark secret which he hides so well.
Lee Si-eun (Jeon Soo-kyeong) and Park Hae-ryoon (Jeon No-min) are the oldest couple in the bunch. Lee Si-Eun is the main writer of the radio show. When they started out, Lee Si-eun worked doubly hard to support her husband which allowed him to work as a professor. They have been married for thirty years, and Lee Si-eun has no problem doting on her family. However, Park Hae-ryoon seemed to be in a midlife crisis. He was already unhappy with his seemingly mundane activities and to his luck, he found a piece of excitement elsewhere.
Hyena is a Korean law drama that revolves around its two main leads, Jung Geum-ja (Kim Hye-soo) and Yoon Hee-jae (Ju Ji-hoon). Initially, the two find themselves in a growing rivalry between these two slick and cunning lawyers.
Jung Geum-ja is a struggling female attorney who is desperate to win a case and trampling a heart or two along the way is a casualty she can live with. Her target is Yoon Hee-jae, the gem of one of the biggest law firms in South Korea.
Yoon Hee-jae wins so many cases that it’s hard for him to stay humble. His success fuelled this belief that he is capable of crushing any opposition. So he didn’t see it coming, that a chance meeting with a beautiful, mysterious woman, is nothing more than just a calculative move from his opposing counsel. Jung Geum-ja would easily infiltrate his life and dismantle his defenses. She gathers enough ammunition to hurt his ego and damage his reputation. And even though her underhanded tactics infuriated Yoon Hee-jae, he can’t stop thinking about her.
The story sees the two fight across the first half of the series as they wrestle for control in several different cases. While preying for the win in each case, the two find themselves having to work together which ultimately brings them to an ultimate case which reveals widespread corruption orchestrated by people in their ranks.
While the topics in the drama are quite dark and gory, the show does a great job of keeping their audiences engaged and entertained by showing the relationships between the characters in a more light and comedic manner.
Hyena is a very suitable title for this drama since both main characters are predatory attorneys for whom the chase is the most appealing part of the game. It also makes sense that they will be drawn to each other, since they are a lot alike in several ways.
Hyena marks Kim Hye Soo’s return to TV after almost 4 years, with her last lead role in the 2016 drama Signal. The vetran actress boasts of a fantastic and long filmography that began way back in the eighties when she was still in her first year in high school.
Meanwhile, many Netflix subscribers will also recognize Joo Ji Hoon as the Crown Prince, Lee Chang in the popular zombie horror series Kingdom, with its second season running at the same time as Hyena.
Signal is a 2016 drama that is a combination of several genres including mystery, thriller, crime, with a hint of fantasy. What made it so captivating is the fact that the cases used in the series were based on actual crimes and tragedies that occured in South Korea.
The story starts when Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) accidentally finds an old walkie-talkie, without any battery in it. But strangely, the walkie-talkie can still be used. Through the walkie-talkie, Park Hae-young was able to communicate with a detective Lee Jae-han (Cho Jin-woong) in 1989. He was one of the senior police officers at that time.
It turns out, the walkie talkie now in Park Hae-young’s possession was Lee Jae-han’s own. He accidentally found it when it was about to be disposed of when it suddenly made the sound of Lee Jae-han’s voice. Besides turning on without any batteries, what’s even stranger is that Park Hae-young heard Lee Jae-han’s voice in 2015, but Lee Jae-han is sure that he is in 2000.
This unusual correspondence, that’s only limited to a few minutes each day, opens a can of worms. Now with the power of foresight and hindsight, Park Hae-young and Lee Jae-han, along with Cha Soo-hyun (Kim Hye-soo), are in a race against time to solve crimes or prevent them from happening. However, they will learn along the way that changing certain elements in the past can have dire consequences in the future.
This drama is about a septuagenarian retired postman named Shim Deok-chul (Park In-hwan) and his life-long dream of performing Swan Lake on stage. Though his goal is simple enough, he had to face several challenges along the way.
First, he encountered an instructor who doesn’t take him seriously and doesn’t give him a chance. Second, his family was not on board with his plan. Lastly, he may not be able to fulfill his dream before his Alzheimer’s advance eventually making him unable to do so.
Meanwhile, Lee Chae-rok (Song Kang), is a 23-year-old man who is involved in different sports like baseball, swimming, and soccer, but he wasn’t talented in any of them. He then finds interest in ballet. His mother was a ballet dancer, but she succumbed to a disease when Lee Chae-rok was young. His father later went bankrupt. This left Lee Chae-rok in a bind because it’s becoming difficult for him to support himself and his love for ballet. Going through hard times, his desire for ballet fades away. At this time, Shim Deok-chul appears in front of him.
The two develop an unlikely friendship as they pursue a common love for ballet, but learning more about life along the way.
This thriller Korean drama revolves around Park Joo-hyung (Song Joong-ki). He was brought to Italy at the age of eight after being adopted by an Italian family. He then went on to become the adopted son of the late Don Fabio Cassano, the patriarch of a mafia family. Park Joo-hyung is subsequently renamed Vincenzo Cassano, now an Italian lawyer and a trusted adviser by Don Fabio—practically his right-hand man.
However, after the big boss dies, his biological son, Paolo takes his place. It seems that he always had an axe to grind against Vincenzo, so he attempted to kill him only to be outsmarted. This encounter pushed Vincenzo to flee back to Seoul. He plans to recover 1.5 tons of gold that he stashed away in the basement of Geumga Plaza for a Chinese tycoon which he learned got recently deceased
Unfortunately for Vincenzo, a real estate company under Babel Group has illegally taken ownership of the building and Vincenzo must use his skills to reclaim the building in order to recover the hidden treasure lying underneath. He also meets interesting characters that will also amusingly derail his plans.
This retrieval operation, that only Vincenzo and his trusted confidant is aware of, sends viewers into a tumultuous journey from the very first episode. The entertainment value of the lead character’s struggle and other subplots in the series made it one of the most successful K-dramas of the year.
“I Wanna Hear Your Song” is a mystery romantic comedy about a timpanist Hong Yi-young and suspicious tone-deaf pianist Jang Yoon. Yi Young suffers from insomnia after getting traumatized by what happened on ‘the day’ and comes across Yoon who helps her remember. They try to put Yi Young’s forgotten memories together and the truth about the murder case that traumatized Yi Young.
After carving successful careers in their respective fields, the previous owners of Waikiki have left except for Lee Joon-ki. While he struggles with his career, he tries to revive the guest house which is now on the brink of bankruptcy with the help of some high-school friends.
Her Private Life is a sneak peek into the life of a *secret* fangirl. Sung Deok-mi, is a full-time art curator who holds a secret obsession with a K-pop boy band member. However, her borderline fangirling brought her to cross paths with a man who she just might be open to risk sharing her private life with.
Goo Hae Ryung worked as a historian in the 19th century, which was a profession that wasn’t usually assumed by women. Female historians were generally looked down upon in this era because of their gender. However, Goo Hae Ryung doesn’t fall short of her duties, and soon finds herself involved with Prince Lee Rim.
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