11 new K-dramas to watch in December 2022: Netflix’s Money Heist: Korea part 2, Takashi Miike’s Connect, The Interest of Love, and more

Netflix’s Korean redo of Money Heist returns with 6 new episodes. Japanese director Takashi Miike makes his K-drama debut with the wickedly entertaining Connect
The Interest of Love, starring Moon Ga-young of True Beauty, offers end-of-year romance, and Lee Sun-bin leads the second season of Work Later, Drink Now

K-drama news

Pierce Conran

Published: 1:07pm, 29 Nov 2022

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A bounty of new offerings await Korean drama fans this December, including four rare second seasons of hit shows, and the debut Korean drama of one of Japan’s most famous filmmakers.

Here’s our preview of the month’s 11 most exciting K-dramas.

1. Recipe for Farewell

Han Suk-kyu (Dr Romantic) stars as a translator whose wife, played by Mine’s Kim Seo-hyung, develops terminal bowel cancer.

She asks him to cook her meals that will suit her sensitive stomach every day. The trouble is, all he’s ever been able to cook is instant ramen. Now he commits himself to the kitchen and learns how to cook from the heart. Recipe for Happiness is the drama series debut of Sori: Voice from the Heart director Lee Ho-jae. (Watcha, December 1)

2. Connect

Veteran Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (Audition) makes his Korean drama debut with Connect, a violent and wickedly entertaining action-thriller about a mutant who faces off with a serial killer through a special connection they share.

Jung Hae-in of D.P. leads the cast as a young man who can heal himself from any injury. Following an altercation with illegal organ donors, one of his eyeballs ends up in the head of a demented serial killer, played by Go Kyung-pyo (Love in Contract). (Disney+, December 7)

3. Work Later, Drink Now season 2

The hard-drinking young professionals Ahn So-hee (Lee Sun-bin), Han Ji-yeon (Han Sun-hwa) and Kang Ji-goo (Jung Eun-ji) return for another booze-fuelled season of life, love and headaches in this second season of Work Later, Drink Now.

The first season was one of last year’s surprise drama hits. (TVING, December 9)

4. The Forbidden Marriage

Kim Young-dae of Sh**ting Stars plays the young Joseon dynasty king Lee Heon, whose family has tried to marry him off unsuccessfully for seven years. The problem is, no woman in the kingdom can marry until he does.

One day, the swindler Ye So-rang (Park Ju-hyun, Mouse) catches the king’s attention when she claims his late wife’s spirit resides in the palace. (MBC, December 9)

5. Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area Part 2

After dropping its first six episodes in June, Netflix will premiere the next part of its Korean redo of Money Heis. Jun Jong-seo (The Call), and Oldboy villain Yoo Ji-tae lead a team of criminals attempting to rob the mint of a recently unified Korea.

Part two, which also comprises six episodes, will pick up where things left off, with the gang mid-heist in the mint. (Netflix, December 9)

6. Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow

The period fantasy epic Alchemy of Souls was one of the most popular shows of the summer and its cocktail of magic, romance and palace intrigue will be back for 10 episodes next month.

The cast is all back save for Jung So-min, who is quite dramatically being replaced by Go Yoon-jung this season. No scandal here, however; it was a change motivated by the series’ narrative, as the main character, Mu-deok, is set to return to her earlier form as Naksu, who Go played in the show’s first episode. (tvN, December 10)

7. Trolley

Park Hee-soon of My Name will play the idealistic national assemblyman Nam Joong-do in the SBS drama Trolley. Kim Hyun-joo of Hellbound plays his wife, Kim Hye-ju, who runs a book repair shop but harbours a secret.

She has avoided the spotlight despite her husband’s position, but an incident brings her secret out into the open. (SBS, December 19)

8. Missing: The Other Side 2

Ko Soo, Heo-jun-ho, Ahn So-hee and Ha Joon return as characters searching for the bodies of missing people whose spirits all reside in the same village on the “other side”.

Joining the cast is Lee Jung-eun of Parasite, as one of the residents of this mysterious village of the dead. (tvN, December 19)

9. Big Bet

Roaring Currents actor Choi Min-sik returns to Korean drama in the slick crime caper Big Bet. He plays Cha Mu-sik, a wily entrepreneur who works his way up the career ladder in the Philippines, eventually finding himself running a casino.

This show is the first drama outing of The Outlaws director Kang Yoon-sung and also features Son Suk-ku (My Liberation Notes and The Roundup) and Lee Dong-hwi (Glitch). (Disney+, December 21)

10. The Interest of Love

The big romantic end-of-year offering will be JTBC’s The Interest of Love, which is set to combine the on-screen charms of Yoo Yeon-seok (Hospital Playlist) and Moon Ga-young (True Beauty).

The story focuses on four characters looking for love who meet at a bank branch. These include ordinary worker Ha Sang-soo (Yoo), the romantic pessimist An Soo-young (Moon), the well-to-do Park Mi-kyung (Keum Sae-rok) who goes after what she wants, and aspiring policeman Jung Jong-hyun (Jung Ga-ram). (JTBC, December 21)

11. Island

The Fiery Priest star Kim Nam-gil plays one of three characters trying to fight against forces set on destroying the world on Korea’s Jeju Island. He plays Ban, who was raised to protect the world against evil by fighting demons who possess people.

Alongside him are Won Mi-ho (Lee Da-hee, Love Is for Suckers), a woman from a rich family sent to Jeju to work as a teacher, who begins investigating a case involving ghosts; and Catholic priest John (Cha Eun-woo, True Beauty), who performs exorcisms. (TVING, December 30)

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