12 Popular and Underrated 2021 Korean Dramas
To say that the year 2021 has been a challenging year is an understatement. Given what is happening worldwide with the covid pandemic, a lot of us if not most of us have been stuck at home to work, play and entertain ourselves. Times are tough but we are more resilient than ever. This compilation of 2021 Korean Drama series are perfect for unwinding after a long week. Good thing that there are a decent number of shows to help us while away the time and keep boredom at bay. Here are twelve dramas that are worth watching.
From the most popular to the ones that are underrated, here is a list of 2021 Korean dramas to watch if you haven’t watched them already. This carefully selected list of 2021 Korean dramas has been hand-picked for the ones who like romantic comedy, love stories, and heartwarming tales of life.
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12 Feel Good Korean Dramas of 2021
- Vincenzo
- Hometown Cha cha cha
- My Roommate is a Gumiho
- Nevertheless
- The King’s Affection
- Now We are Breaking Up
- So I Married an Anti-fan
- Mad for Each Other
- Dali & the Cocky Prince
- Monthly Magazine Home
- Let Me Be Your Knight
- Our Beloved Summer
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01. Vincenzo
| Title | Vincenzo |
| Male Lead | Song Joong-ki as Vincenzo Cassano/Park Joo-hyung |
| Female Lead | Jeon Yeo-been as Hong Cha-young |
| Writer | Park Jae-bum |
| Episodes | 20 Episodes |
| Release | February 20 – May 2, 2021 |
| Genre | Crime drama, Dark comedy |
| Language | Korean, Italian |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Vincenzo is the story of a South Korean boy who got adopted by an Italian Mafia Family. He becomes a lawyer, a consigliere to the mafia, and the right-hand man of his adoptive father, Don Fabio, who is head of the mafia. When Don Fabio dies, his biological son becomes the new leader of the mafia and he attempts to kill Vincenzo. When he finds out that one of his Chinese tycoon clients whom he helped hide 1.5 tons of gold has recently died, he decides to come back to South Korea to retrieve what they hid.
He begins an adventure of trying to recover the treasure beneath the Geumga Plaza Building under the radar. Trouble follows when a local conglomerate, the Babel Group, has illegally acquired the building and the quirky group of tenants within the building seem to suspect that something is happening underneath their noses. Vincenzo teams up with Cha-young, a lawyer who is one of the tenants at the Geumga Plaza building, to reclaim rights against the Babel group.
02. Hometown Cha cha cha
| Title | Hometown Cha Cha Cha |
| Male Lead | Kim Seon-ho as Hong Du-sik |
| Female Lead | Shin Min-a as Yoon Hye-jin |
| Writer | Shin Ha-Eun |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | August 28 – October 17, 2021 |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Hometown Cha Cha Cha is a 2021 Korean Drama that is set in a small fishing village on the outskirts of Seoul. Yoon Hye-jin is a perfectionist dentist who has her life in perfect order. She works at a clinic in Seoul but suddenly finds herself jobless because of some workplace drama. After she loses her job, Hye-jin goes to visit Gongjin. She finds herself wanting to dramatically change her life so she signs a lease and sets up her own dental practice in the small town. Together with her best friend, Mi-Seon, who is a dental hygienist, they move to Gongjin for a change in scenery. A simple life with a whole lot of possibilities and maybe an unexpected romantic relationship.
Hong Du-sik is a small town jack of all trades who roams the small seaside village of Gongjin doing every kind of odd job that the local residents need. He grew up in the village but left to find greener pastures in the city. When his grandfather died, he came back home to live a simple life. He is always helpful and caring toward people but he doesn’t talk much about his life and what happened to his career in the city.
Hye-jin and Du-sik are unlikely to pair with their different views and personalities but they find themselves drawn together.
03. My Roommate is a Gumiho
| Title | My Roommate Is a Gumiho |
| Male Lead | Jang Ki-Yong as Shin Woo-yeo |
| Female Lead | Lee Hye-Ri as Lee Dam |
| Writer | Baek Sun-Woo, Choi Bo-Rim |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | May 26 – July 15, 2021 |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy, Fantasy |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
My Roommate is a Gumiho is a 2021 Korean Drama based on a webtoon series about Shin Woo-yeo, a 999-year-old Gumiho who wants to become human. He took on the role of a professor at a college where he meets Lee Dam, an inexperienced college student. In order to become human, he needs to collect human energy in a fox bead. One day while Lee Dam is helping her drunk friend after a night of drinking, she gets into an accident with Woo-yeo.
Lee Dam unintentionally swallows Woo-yeo’s fox bead and puts both of them in a delicate position. The bead can only live inside a human for one year. After that, it will break and cause the person who carries it to die. If this happens, not only is there a possibility of Lee Dam dying, but Woo-yeo will also lose his once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a real human.
With this predicament, the two decide to live together and figure out a way to return the fox bead back to Woo-yeo intact without killing Lee Dam.
04. Nevertheless
| Title | Nevertheless |
| Male Lead | Song Kang as Park Jae-eon |
| Female Lead | Han So-hee as Yoo Na-bi |
| Writer | Jung Won |
| Episodes | 10 Episodes |
| Release | June 19 – August 21, 2021 |
| Genre | Romance |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Park Jae-eon and Yoo Na-bi are both students studying fine arts at a university. Jae-eon likes to flirt and has a reputation within the campus but he doesn’t really like being in a relationship. Na-bi just had a very public breakup with her boyfriend and doesn’t really want to get involved with anybody else very soon after.
Jae-eon and Na-bi have classes together and move within the same circle. They get attracted to each other but both of them don’t want to have a steady relationship. They get into a casual dating situation and everything is fine at first until they both get conflicted when they begin to develop unwanted feelings for each other. This 2021 Korean Drama is about young love with all its nuances and heartaches, it can also be the most beautiful thing that you can experience.
05. The King’s Affection
| Title | The King’s Affection |
| Male Lead | Rowoon as Jung Ji-Woon |
| Female Lead | Park Eun-bin as Crown Prince Lee Hwi/ Dam-Yi /Yeon-seon |
| Writer | Han Hee-Jung |
| Episodes | 20 Episodes |
| Release | October 11 – December 14, 2021 |
| Genre | Historical, Romance, Fiction, Comedy |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
The story is set in the Joseon dynasty during a time when giving birth to twins was bad luck. When Crown Princess Consort gives birth to fraternal twins, she is forced by a mandate to kill the baby girl. To save her daughter, the Queen sends the child to live outside of the palace in secret.
Years later, the twin daughter returns as a court maid without knowing that she is the daughter of the King. In an unexpected event, the crown prince Lee Hwi got killed when he was mistaken for somebody else. Because she looks exactly like the crown prince, Dam-Yi pretends to be him. She lives her life from then on as the crown prince of Joseon who will someday take on the role of king.
06. Now We Are Breaking Up
| Title | Now We are Breaking Up |
| Male Lead | Jang Ki-yong as Yoon Jae-gook and Mr. J |
| Female Lead | Song Hye-Kyo as Ha Yeong-eun |
| Writer | Je In |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | November 12, 2021 – January 8, 2022 |
| Genre | Romance |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Now we are Breaking up tells the story of the different stages of how the love starts and ends in a relationship. Yoon Jae-gook is a famous freelance photographer who is well known and respected in his craft. He is successful enough to choose his projects given his talent and skills. Jae-gook meets Ha Yeong-eun randomly at an industry event where they hooked up thinking that they will not be meeting again.
Ha Yeong-eun is an accomplished team leader of a Fashion company called “The One”. She is beautiful but cold-blooded and career-oriented. Yeong-eun prioritizes stability over emotions knowing that she can only depend on herself. The two develop feelings for each other while working together on projects but their differences and life happenings get in the way of their blossoming relationship.
07. So I Married an Anti-fan
| Title | So I Married an Anti-fan |
| Male Lead | Choi Tae-joon as Hoo Joon |
| Female Lead | Choi Soo-young as Lee Geun-young |
| Writer | Kim Eun-jung, Nam Ji-yeon |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | April 30 – June 19, 2021 |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
So I Married the Anti-fan is a novel webtoon series about Hoo Joon who is a top celebrity and Lee Geun-young, a struggling reporter at a publication. Geun-young attends a social event at a club where she witnesses Hoo Joon displaying violent behavior towards an unknown artist. In the same event, she accidentally vomits on him because she was not feeling well after consuming too much alcohol.
When she gets fired from her job, she deeply suspects that it was Hoo Joon’s doing. Geun-young camps outside Hoo Joon’s management office as a protest against her perceived injustice. Her protest gains media attention and she gets branded as Hoo Joon’s famous anti-fan. Soon after, a production company concocts the idea of the top star living together with his most famous anti-fan as a reality show that would showcase Hoo Joon and Geun-young as the leads.
Geun-young was in a bind because she doesn’t have a job while Hoo Joon needs to salvage his bad reputation after news broke regarding his supposed violence reported from the event they both attended. They both agreed to the reality show project seeing it as a means to an end that both of them badly needed.
When the show starts they both try to give each other a hard time but being in such close proximity and spending hours every day together has led to an attraction that both of them did not expect.
08. Mad for Each Other
| Title | Mad for Each Other |
| Male Lead | Jung Woo as No Whi-Oh |
| Female Lead | Oh Yeon-Seo as Lee Min-Kyung |
| Writer | Ah Kyung (screenwriter) |
| Episodes | 13 Episodes |
| Release | May 24 to June 21, 2021 |
| Genre | Detective, Drama, Romance |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Mad for Each Other is a romantic comedy-drama that initially has a lighthearted feel surrounding it. As the story progresses, it delves deeper into trauma and mental health issues that are present in the lives of the main leads. Who-Oh is a detective who thinks he got his life pretty much in order when he gets blindsided by an incident that sends him into an unhealthy state of mind. The incident caused him to develop anger management issues that interfered with his work and life. His workmates think he is crazy and he needed to get professional help to help him manage his state of mind.
Meanwhile, Lee Min-Kyung is a beautiful woman who has lived an ordinary life until an unfortunate incident happens to her and she is unable to trust anybody. She is suspicious of everybody and she got caught in an unpleasant scenario of her own making. She becomes almost delusional and compulsive. People around her find her tiresome and this adds to her daily life burden.
The two leads share the same psychiatrist and they are within each other’s vicinity quite often. Unexpected meetings brought them closer and made them discover each other’s weaknesses. They began to rely on each other for support but their past keeps on getting in the way.
09. Dali and the Cocky Prince
| Title | Dali and the Cocky Prince |
| Male Lead | Kim Min-jae as Jin Moo-hak |
| Female Lead | Park Gyu-young as Kim Dali |
| Writer | Son Eun-Hye, Park Se-Eun |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | September 22 – November 11, 2021 |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Dali & the Cocky Prince revolves around the story of Dali and Moo-hak, the cocky prince. Kim Dali is a genius researcher at the Saint Müller Museum in the Netherlands. She came from a well-respected family that runs the Cheong-song Art Museum in South Korea. Jin Moo-hak is a self-made businessman whose family owns Dondon F&B, a gamja-tang restaurant. From a small family-owned hole in the wall, it has evolved into a successful global food service company with hundreds of branches.
Dali and Moo-hak met at the airport in Amsterdam. Dali was supposed to pick up Mr. Jin Hitonari, a VIP guest of her museum while Moo-hak was expecting a representative from the Dutch Hog Farm Association where he was invited as a special guest to pick him up. By the end of the day, they both realized that it was a case of mistaken identity. Dali helped Moo-hak with his accommodations when he was caught in a difficult situation. They had an almost immediate liking for each other and they agreed to meet again before Moo-hak goes back to Korea.
The meeting did not happen due to an emergency that needed Dali to go back to Korea. Her father suddenly died and she had to take over their family’s museum. Meanwhile, Moo-hak was still thinking of Dali and could not get her out of his head. In an unexpected twist of fate, Dali turns out to be the daughter of Moo-hak’s creditor who is on the brink of bankruptcy. He needed to get his investment money back at all costs so he went to the museum and got the surprise of his life when he saw Dali standing in front of him.
10. Monthly Magazine Home
| Title | Monthly Magazine Home |
| Male Lead | Kim Ji-seok as Yu Ja-seong |
| Female Lead | Jung So-min as Na Young-won |
| Writer | Myeong Soo-Hyeon |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | June 16 – August 5, 2021 |
| Genre | Romance, Drama |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Yu Ja-Seong is an astute real estate investor who buys the house that Na Young-won, an out-of-work writer, is renting due to its cheap rental cost. She is naive when it comes to real estate and was caught by surprise when she is being evicted from her rental property. She refuses to leave the home but Ja-Seong tricks her so he can have his people pack up all her stuff into a moving truck. With nowhere to go, she rents a dilapidated apartment and tries her best to look for a job.
After a few months of looking, she finally gets a chance at a job when one of her previous colleagues recommended her to a monthly home magazine publication where she is working at. During the initial interview, Young-won is surprised that the editor immediately hires her without even seeing her portfolio. This puzzles her a little bit but since she needs a job, she happily accepts the position.
The editor-in-chief of the magazine introduces her to everybody in the office. To her surprise, Yu Ja-Seong, the man who threw her out of her house a few months ago, is the new CEO of the company. He acquired Home Magazine to be his marketing arm selling his real estate properties. She was hired to be his exclusive writer and editor. As she works alongside him, she begins to get interested in real estate and embarks on a journey of becoming a homeowner. Meanwhile, Ja-Seong is her unwilling mentor who begins to catch unexpected feelings of tenderness towards his assistant.
11. Let Me Be Your Knight
| Title | Let Me Be Your Knight |
| Male Lead | Lee Jun-young as Yoon Tae-in |
| Female Lead | Jung In-sun as In Yoon-Joo and Kang Seon-Joo |
| Writer | Seo Jeong-eun, Yoo So-won |
| Episodes | 12 Episodes |
| Release | November 7, 2021 – January 24, 2022 |
| Genre | Romantic comedy, Musical drama |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Yoon Tae-jin is a member of the popular boy band Luna along with four other members. He suffers from an unusual condition that causes him to sleepwalk at night. To address this concern, a fake doctor lives with him in order to help him overcome his sleeping disorder.
Yoon-Joo is a tour guide who dreams of owning her own property. She works very hard for her dream in the hopes that one day it will come true. She gets involved in an incident and she ends up living with the five members of the group called Luna. She pretends to be a doctor whose role is to help Tae-jin recover from his sleepwalking problem.
12. Our Beloved Summer
| Title | Our Beloved Summer |
| Male Lead | Choi Woo-Shik as Choi Ung |
| Female Lead | Kim Da-mi as Kook Yeon-soo |
| Writer | Lee Na-eun |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes |
| Release | December 6, 2021 – January 25, 2022 |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy, Coming of Age |
| Language | Korean |
| Country | South Korea |
STORYLINE
Our Beloved Summer is a coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama that tells the story of two high school sweethearts. Choi Ung is free-spirited and carefree. He lived his life freely as a teenager. Kook Yeon-soo is the opposite. She had big dreams in her life and she is a realist. She knows that she needs to work hard to be able to achieve her dreams. Yeo-soo is a top student in high school. They fall in love and because of their many differences in priorities, they decide to break up and vow never to see each other again.
After graduating from high school, Choi Ung and Yeo-soo go their separate ways. Choi Ung is an artist who became a building illustrator. He goes by the pen name, Go-oh, and is the same happy-go-lucky guy from his younger years. Yeon-seo on the other hand becomes a PR expert who, much like before, had the tendency to not bother other people with her own feelings and problems.
Five years after their breakup, a documentary that they filmed back in high school suddenly gains online popularity and becomes viral. Despite their fact of not seeing each other again, they are forced to once again face each other and work through their feelings and differences that they had in the past.
How many of the dramas on this list have you watched already? Don’t you think Korean dramas released in 2021 have the most heartwarming stories?
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