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Pierce Conran

Once the Lunar New Year festivities are over, February is set to welcome a slew of new programmes.
There’s a little something for everyone, including romance, comedy, period drama, thriller, a zombie action-horror romcom and a pair of high-school dramas.
1. Kick Kick Kick Kick
Lead cast: Ji Jin-hee, Lee Kyu-hyung


Ji Jin-hee (Romance in the House) plays a fictional version of himself in this comedy drama in which he sets up the Kick Kick Kick Kick production company after his career begins to experience a downturn.
Lee Kyu-hyung (Uncle Samsik) plays Cho Yeong-sik, the producer he works with. Baek Ji-won (The Fiery Priest season 2) and Lee Min-jae (Crash Course in Romance) – both also using their own names in the show – play a therapist and an ambitious entertainer in the company. (KBS2, February 5)
2. The Scandal of Chunhwa
Lead cast: Go A-ra, Chang Ryul


Go A-ra (Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol) and Chang Ryul (Daily Dose of Sunshine) team up for the period drama The Scandal of Chunhwa, set in a fictional country.
Gi is Hwa-ri, a princess with an independent disposition. Breaking with tradition, she decides to find her own suitor when she reaches marrying age, and leaves the palace to do so.
Meanwhile, she also tries to track down the artist who has been using her likeness in a series of erotic chunhwa paintings. (TVING, February 6)
3. Newtopia
Lead cast: Park Jung-min, Kim Ji-soo


K-drama zombies are back in the action-horror romcom Newtopia, and Park Jung-min and Kim Ji-soo (known as Jisoo) of superstar K-pop girl group Blackpink are leading the charge against them.
Park and Kim play a couple who break up just before a zombie outbreak, but when the undead take over the city they have a change of heart and start fighting their way through the horde and back into each other’s arms.
Newtopia is directed by Yoon Sung-hyun (Time to Hunt) and co-written by Han Jin-won (Parasite). (Coupang Play, February 7)
4. Friendly Rivalry
Lead cast: Lee Hye-ri, Chung Su-bin, Kang Hye-won, Oh Woo-ri


Lee Hye-ri of K-pop group Girl’s Day leads the high-school thriller Friendly Rivalry alongside Chung Su-bin (Chief Detective 1958).
Chung plays orphan Woo Seul-gi, who enrols at Chaehwa High School, which admits only the top percentile of students in the country. Initially ostracised, Seul-gi is then befriended by Yoo Je-yi (Lee), the most popular girl in school.
The series marks the directing debut of Kim Tae-hee (no relation to the actress of the same name), a veteran screenwriter known for Reborn Rich. (U+ mobile tv, February 10)
5. Melo Movie
Lead cast: Choi Woo-shik, Park Bo-young, Lee Jun-young, Jeon So-nee


Choi Woo-shik (A Killer Paradox) and Park Bo-young (Daily Dose of Sunshine) team up for Netflix’s Melo Movie, the latest series by Our Beloved Summer scriptwriter Lee Na-eun.
Park plays aspiring director Kim Mu-bi, while Choi appears as Ko Gyeom, who works as an extra on set.
Early in their careers they meet, share their love of movies and fall in love, only to go their separate ways. When they reunite, Mu-bi has become a director and Gyeom is now a film critic. (Netflix, February 14)
6. Buried Hearts
Lead cast: Park Hyung-sik, Heo Joon-ho


Park Hyung-sik (Doctor Slump) gets his hands dirty in the thriller series Buried Hearts, in which he plays an ambitious corporate secretary who hacks into a slush fund worth two trillion won.
The man who loses the sum is the influential Yeom Jang-seon (Heo Joon-ho, Missing: The Other Side), a law-school professor who used to be the controlling director of the National Intelligence Service. (SBS, February 14)
7. The Witch
Lead cast: Park Jin-young, Roh Jeong-eui


Roh Jeong-eui (Hierarchy) is Park Mi-jeong, a woman who has been called a “witch” ever since her school days owing to all the bad things that have happened to the men who fell in love with her. Park Jin-young (The Devil Judge) plays Lee Dong-jin, who cared for Mi-jeong when he was a schoolboy.
When they meet again 10 years later, Mi-jeong has become a recluse, believing the rumours about her, while Dong-jin attempts to prove otherwise.
The Witch is based on a webtoon by celebrated webtoon artist and screenwriter Kang Full, perhaps best known to K-drama fans for the recent series Moving and Light Shop. (Channel A, February 15)
8. My Dearest Nemesis
Lead cast: Moon Ga-young, Choi Hyun-wook, Im Se-mi, Kwak Si-yang


Moon Ga-young (True Beauty) returns to screens alongside Choi Hyun-wook (Twinkling Watermelon) in the romcom My Dearest Nemesis.
Moon is Baek Soo-jung, who leads the planning team at the best department store in the country.
Soo-jung is shocked when she meets her new boss, Ban Ju-yeon (Choi), the heir to the company who she happened to meet 16 years earlier when they were both online gamers. (tvN, February 17)
9. Undercover High School
Lead cast: Seo Kang-joon, Jin Ki-joo


Following Study Group and Friendly Rivalry, Seo Kang-joon (Grid) and Jin Ki-joo (My Perfect Stranger) will lead Undercover High School, the year’s third school drama on the trot.
Here, Seo plays Jung Hae-sung, a National Intelligence Service operative who goes undercover at the prestigious Byeongmoon High School after receiving a demotion following a botched operation.
Also at the school is Korean history teacher Oh Su-ah (Jin), whose memories of her childhood first love are suddenly stirred by the appearance of this new student. (MBC, February 21)


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Ju Ji-hoon in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+.

Ju Ji-hoon in a still from Disney+ series Love Your Enemy (2024). Now one of the leading actors in South Korea, he has barely been off our screens in recent months and appears in a Netflix series that drops in late January 2025. Photo: Disney+

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Jisoo in a still from Newtopia.

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From Newtopia starring Blackpink’s Jisoo to Park Hyung-sik in Buried Hearts, nine new K-dramas to watch in February 2025


From Newtopia starring Blackpink’s Jisoo to Park Hyung-sik in Buried Hearts, nine new K-dramas to watch in February 2025.


9 of the best new K-dramas to watch in February 2025, including Jisoo in Newtopia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From Newtopia starring Blackpink’s Jisoo to Park Hyung-sik in Buried Hearts, nine new K-dramas to watch in February 2025

1. Kick Kick Kick Kick

2. The Scandal of Chunhwa

From Newtopia starring Blackpink’s Jisoo to Park Hyung-sik in Buried Hearts, nine new K-dramas to watch in February 2025