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Han Hyo-joo in a still from “Moving”, one of our 15 best Korean drama series of 2023 – is your favourite on the list? Photo: Disney+

K-Pop K-drama

Ranked: the 15 best K-dramas of 2023, from Queenmaker to The Glory with Song Hye-kyo, superhero saga Moving and Mask Girl

The year saw plenty of watchable K-dramas, from the punchy election drama Queenmaker with Kim Hee-ae to Vigilante, Revenant and The Worst of Evil
Song Hye-kyo’s revenge plot against her high-school tormentors in The Glory (a 2022 hangover) was riveting – as were the entire cast of superhero saga Moving

Korean drama reviews

Pierce Conran

Published: 4:15am, 22 Dec 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

It was another big year for Korean dramas in the fertile streaming era, but 2023 was especially notable for the swift rise of Disney+.

The Mouse House has only been dabbling in K-dramas for two years, but this year it aired over half the shows on this list, including five original productions.

Netflix was no slouch this year, but now that it has a worthy rival to contend with, the future is looking brighter for K-content creators and consumers.

Here is our pick of the best Korean dramas of 2023, ranked from good to great.

15. Queenmaker

Lead cast: Kim Hee-ae, Moon So-ri

Kicking off our list is the punchy election drama Queenmaker, in which Kim Hee-ae (The World of the Married) plays a strategist who backs an unlikely candidate for the Seoul mayorship, played by Moon So-ri (On the Verge of Insanity).

The constantly evolving dogfight of the bitter election feud is fun to watch, but the highlight is seeing Kim and Moon go head to head, as they size each other up and find a way to put their differences aside to fight against a common enemy. Read our full review

14. Big Bet

Lead cast: Choi Min-sik, Son Suk-ku, Lee Dong-hwi

Choi Min-sik returns to K-dramas with a barnstorming performance as a wily Korean entrepreneur who escapes the law in Korea and becomes an influential casino impresario in the Philippines in the crime saga Big Bet.

The show had its ups and downs, particularly in the oddly structured episodes of Part 1, but there was always an engaging new plot line just around the corner to prevent things from getting stale.

Son Suk-ku and dozens of other familiar faces show up for the ride as well. Part 1: Read our early preview | final review; Part 2: early preview | final review

13. A Bloody Lucky Day

Lead cast: Lee Sung-min, Yoo Yeon-seok

Lee Sung-min plays a taxi driver who picks up the fare from hell – a murderous doctor played by Yoo Yeon-seok – in the thrilling and very twisty road-trip chiller A Bloody Lucky Day.

The show begins with a bright and comic tone but it soon darkens after the taxi driver realises just unlucky his day really is.

Hostage: Missing Celebrity director Pil Gam-sung adds some terrific tension throughout, while the script has ample room for delicious black humour. The chemistry between the leads is terrific. Read our early preview

12. The Worst of Evil

Lead cast: Ji Chang-wook, Wi Ha-joon

Ji Chang-wook goes undercover to infiltrate a youthful Gangnam gang in the 1990s in this crime saga.

Thugs beat each other in cramped hallways and bond over tumblers of hard liquor but the show also folds in a melodramatic twist, as the undercover detective’s suave new gang boss, played by Squid Game actor Wi Ha-joon, is looking to reconnect with his first love, who happens to be the detective’s wife.

While the added melodrama does not always work, Ji’s fiery performance is a pleasure to watch throughout. Read our early preview | final review

11. Queen of Masks

Lead cast: Kim Sun-a, Oh Yoon-ah, Shin Eun-jung, Yoo-sun

Highest Nielsen rating: 3.35 per cent

The tawdry melodrama Queen of Masks was not on many people’s radars but it wound up being one of the year’s most unexpected delights.

A group of catty career women find their dark pasts and precarious presents colliding in this slaloming tale filled with deceit and duplicitous male characters.

Though a more modest show than The Penthouse, it went a long way towards scratching that same itch. And while many similar shows run out of steam, this one saved the best for last in its extravagantly soapy finale. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review

10. Shadow Detective Part 2

Lead cast: Lee Sung-min, Kyung Soo-jin, Lee Hak-joo

Lee Sung-min’s return as the grizzled investigator Taek-rok was a welcome one in part two of Disney’s Shadow Detective.

There was once again some slack along the way, but the moody atmosphere of fictional port town Geumo and the flinty performances of the cast powered the show through to a powerful climax, as Taek-rok finally unravels the web of corruption in his town and its police force. Read our early preview | final review

9. Daily Dose of Sunshine

Lead cast: Park Bo-young, Yeon Woo-jin, Jang Dong-yoon

Park Bo-young leads this colourful Netflix series as a nurse in a hospital’s psychiatric ward whose warm face masks her own inner demons.

In a country where mental health is still something of a taboo, Daily Dose of Sunshine provided a necessary wake-up call about the toll of stress in contemporary Korean society.

It did not hurt that Park was surrounded by a charming supporting cast, particularly the wonderful Yeon Woo-jin as a proctologist with OCD. Read our full review

8. Dr. Romantic 3

Lead cast: Han Suk-kyu, Ahn Hyo-seop, Lee Sung-kyung

Highest Nielsen rating: 16.8 per cent

The Doldam Hospital dream team returned for a thrilling third season of medical derring-do in the tense and dynamic Dr. Romantic 3.

Han Suk-kyu’s Master Kim tries to get his cherished trauma centre up and running all season, while he and his mentees deal with both internal problems and the huge groups of patients during several breathtaking disasters.

Season one star Yoo Yeon-seok also returns late in the season. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review

7. Crash Course in Romance

Lead cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Jung Kyung-ho

Highest Nielsen rating: 17 per cent

An arrogant exam instructor and a hard-working mother make for an unlikely pair in the disarming private-education-themed drama Crash Course in Romance.

Much of the show’s success was due to the strong pairing of its leads, Jung Kyung-ho (Hospital Playlist) and particularly the down-to-earth Jeon Do-yeon (The Good Wife) as an ex-handball player now running a side-dish restaurant as she supports her daughter, played by Roh Yoon-seo (Our Blues). Read our early preview | final review

6. Vigilante

Lead cast: Nam Joo-hyuk, Yoo Ji-tae, Kim So-jin, Lee Joon-hyuk

Nam Joo-hyuk plays a police academy student who prowls the streets at night as the fearsome “Vigilante”, a figure who quickly becomes a media sensation when he starts attacking criminals whom he believes to have got off easy thanks to Korea’s lax judicial system.

As the law tries to unmask this vigilante, his morals – and fists – begin to collide with those of other principled characters around him in this thrilling and stylish webtoon adaptation. Read our early preview | final review

5. The Glory

Lead cast: Song Hye-kyo, Lee Do-hyun, Lim Ji-yeon

Though launched in 2022, The Glory was too late for us to include in our list of last year’s best K-dramas. But how could we forget Moon Dong-eun’s (Song Hye-kyo) epic, lifelong revenge plot against her high-school tormentors?

The vicious bullying and the brutal comeuppance in store for those behind it made for gripping television in both parts of this Netflix hit.

A few narrative lulls aside, The Glory was an electric tale of retribution fuelled by a terrific turn from Song. Part 1: Read our early preview | final review; Part 2: early preview | final review

4. Revenant

Lead cast: Kim Tae-ri, Oh Jung-se, Hong Kyung

Highest Nielsen rating: 11.2 per cent

It took a while to get going, but once it did, Revenant proved to be a return to form for Kingdom mastermind Kim Eun-hee and possibly her richest work since Signal.

Kim Tae-ri (Twenty-Five Twenty-One) leads this show as a woman possessed by a malevolent spirit who teams up with an occult professor.

Filled with symbols and challenging themes and unusually consistent in its rich and complex mythology, it was the rare series that improved with each passing episode. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review

3. Mask Girl

Lead cast: Nana, Go Yoon-jung, Lee Han-byeol

Dark, sophisticated and unpredictable, Mask Girl drew us in with its complex themes about beauty and desire and continually surprised us with its zigzagging style and story.

Beginning with a normal office worker who moonlights as a sexy online personality, the show continually reinvented itself with each episode, as its story and style kept changing, along with all the formidable actresses playing “Mask Girl”.

Even though some of its themes wound up being a mirage, it was one of the boldest shows of the year. Read our early preview | final review

2. Bloodhounds

Lead cast: Woo Do-hwan, Lee Sang-yi

Director Jason Kim’s thunderous tale of two young pugilists going up against a despicable moneylending gang was simple, to the point and endlessly cathartic.

The show hooked us in with its clear-sighted camaraderie between leads Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi, before flooring us with its tremendous choreography.

Some off-screen troubles involving co-star Kim Sae-ron – though she was terrific on-screen – wound up compromising the show’s ending, but these did little to diminish the show’s many strengths. Read our full review

1. Moving

Lead cast: Han Hyo-joo, Zo In-sung, Ryoo Seung-ryong

The sprawling superhero saga Moving by webtoon mastermind Kang Full conquered our hearts this year thanks to its epic scale, memorable characters and brilliant writing.

A towering achievement in the Korean drama realm, both technically and narratively, it was one of the biggest television events anywhere this year.

Through its audacious structure and constantly shifting character perspectives, Moving never ran out of steam, surprising and “moving” us again and again throughout its astonishing 20-episode run. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review

For the 15 best K-dramas of 2022, read our ranking here.