Check your age K-Drama fans! And the years of how long you’ve been supporting your favorite K-Drama stars!
Much of the featured well-loved Korean dramas in this list feature Korean actors and actresses that have kept their prominence and following shining through the years!
Melodramas and a plethora of time-traveling series abound 2012 K-Drama season. Some created iconic characters as well as enduring plots that have since been used as storyline prototypes.
See how old and loyal you’ve been, diligently and proudly staying as a K-Drama fan through this trip down to K-Drama Memory lane!
2012 Best Korean Dramas: The Year Of Memorable Tearjerkers & Time-Traveling Stories
School 2013
- Lee Jong Suk | Kim Woo Bin | Jang Nara | Daniel Choi
Easy to digest, almost anyone can relate to because everyone was once a student. Bromance between Lee Jong Suk and Kim Woo Bin definitely left an imprint. The problems raised in this series are disheartening, honest and retrospective.
Viewers can relate to the pain and bliss of the students and the teachers portrayed in the narrative. It also says a lot about how a teacher affects his students, and how a teacher can teach, but can never influence his students.
Bridal Mask
- Joo Won } Jin Se Yeon | Park Ki Woong
An epic tale that perfectly bloomed along with the characters and was so successful in sending out its patriotic theme of highlighting love, loyalty, family and friendship.
Bridal Mask goes to this milieu: Former best friends avenge the deaths of their family members and they also fell in love with the same woman. They are also at the opposite ends fighting and defending the Japanese regime. If this looks crazy in writing, it is astonishingly gripping in action.
The Innocent Man
- Song Joong Ki | Moon Chae Won
Innocent Man was able to bring out an excellent protagonist, even with unequal footing and at times annoying goodness, he still managed to bounce back from the evil doings the villains thrown at him.
His vision gives a message of relying on the idea that there’s always another day to hope and believe in life even if you’ve gone through days of tears, pain and sacrifice.
Moon Embracing The Sun
- Kim Soo Hyun | Han Ga In
The young love which bloomed and defied time, reasons, and political issues is what makes the production applauded I believe. Its strong and consistent character portrayals, supernatural seasonings, family issues and brotherly love cemented the viewers’ loyalty.
Creatively conceived, Moon Embracing the Sun is euphoric on its strong notes and contemplating on its sad tones.
The King 2 Hearts
- Ha Ji Won | Lee Seung Gi | Jo Jung Suk
King 2 Hearts is staged in a quasi-utopian Korean world where the North and South Koreans are sort of in peaceful communicating terms. Another unique story in 2012 Korean dramas definitely worth your next binge-watch schedule.
It is polished but never fails to entice and push viewers to their assumed outcomes. That being said, what I applaud about this drama is how it seems predictable but will prove to the viewers otherwise.
Missing You
- Park Yoo Chun | Yoon Eun Hye | Yoo Seung Ho
We normally get a love triangle where the third wheel stood as the villain because the main couple’s love is really unrequited, but this time, viewers are rendered weeping, confused, annoyed and don’t know what to do on thinking how complicated the love triangle is.
Missing You appeared to be a bundle of contradictions for viewers who keep fighting for the tears not to fall. But at some point, the emotional rush pushes us to be a bawling mess.
Faith
- Lee Min Ho | Kim Hee Sun
Assimilating the action plot with the supernatural spices and decorating it with folklore. Having a band of villains equipped with mojos and supernatural powers. Featuring a sassy and bubbly modern-day doctor cutely lost to a new world she was forced to live. And of course, the Thor-ish General who made even Kenshin Himura looked so inferior.
These are the essentials that made Faith such an enthralling drama experience. The provocative plot matches the annoying villain assaults as well as the firm, arresting retaliation of the underdogs.
Faith is a remarkably premeditated tale that successfully notched the path where it was directing the audience – hope, holding on faith and happiness. The series’ ability to balance the transcendent elemental nonsense was plausible and cohering to how it mounted to the story’s peak.
K-Drama Review: Lee Min Ho & Kim Hee Sun’s Time-Defying Romance In “Faith”
Rooftop Prince
- Han Ji Min | Park Yoo Chun
Initiating the time-space warp trend for 2012 Korean dramas is this delectable treat of time-traveling Joseon Crown Prince and his adorable minions to literally learn a lesson from destiny. The time portal brought them to vivacious Park Ha’s rooftop house, and the latter was forced to help the men to adapt to modern living.
Compelling, addictive and full of laughing-out-loud scenes, it is one of my favorites in the roster of 2012 Korean dramas.
Phantom
- So Ji Sub | Lee Yeon Hee
There were no guns triggered, no swords drawn; but a battle between heroes and villains equipped with digital powers. It is an enthralling crime chase that involved, system hacking, all-knowing CCTV cameras, secret bugging plus heroes and villains that are equally genius in tackling each other.
Phantom broke my love drama binge as I was left dumbstruck and on a cliff-hanging state all throughout the series. I was like in a trampoline where I was bouncing up and down without the rush hitting the bottom level.
K-Drama Review: So Ji Sub Conquered Cyber Crime With Lee Yeon Hee In SBS Series “Phantom”
A Gentleman’s Dignity
- Jang Dong Gun | Kim Ha Neul
The morning breakfast forums, the constant cover-ups to survive the feisty wife, the one-sided love, the mischievous-kiss-may-December-love-affair, the now-we-break-up-tomorrow-we’ll-get-back relationship, the opening hilarious anecdotes, the sweetest, heart-wrenching love declarations and love-believe-me’s; and the bromance are some of the reasons why I always include this series in my drama recommendations.
They say life begins at 40, and these men who were friends since Highschool rocked it. Having their own stable life, they have to balance personal, family and relationship issues while maintaining one the best bromance stories I’ve seen so far.
Reply 1997
- Seo In Guk | Jung Eunji
Repy 1997 sprints all the way to a viewer’s heart with its vibrant characters, nostalgic premise, fangirl foolish escapades, friendship stories; and of course the crazy first love. It is suave, witty and comical. Featuring a relatively rookie actor cast, it easily hooks attention and heart.
It was just there sharing a wonderful friendship and love story without hassles and annoying conflicts but the emotions were resonating and striking at my memory veins. It pushes a recollection of the good old times when you first passionately and recklessly fell in love.
Queen In Hyun’s Man
- Ji Hyun Woo | Yoo In Na
Pouring out surprises and twisting one after another, this time-traveling romance story is one of my all-time favorites. The neat time transitions of its enticingly inventive plot left me on numerous cases of jaw-dropping moments.
Rarely would you remember equally the story and the characters, but with Queen and I, the characters synchronized well with the story and strangely the characters would be able to stand alone as the story retain its brilliance and vice versa.
Having a smart love pairing frolicking in their time-warp-powered romantic story also became a standout moment of this series.
Operation Proposal
- Yoo Seung Ho | Park Eun Bin
We’ve seen a lot of beautiful love stories, but Operation Proposal took us from blushing to crying to understanding that in love someone can run crazy to be with you that’s why he might have let you wait.
The time-space continuum voyages of Baek Ho is an endearing journey full of twist, oh no’s and romance. It is a refreshing feel to have a conflict that is not evil motivated that’s why the supernatural spike in this drama is endearing. The hero was competing with himself – with his past self for that matter, and his forbearance endured his painstaking drive to be with the girl he loved.
Feeling nostalgic? Go for a rerun of these fan-favorite Korean Dramas!
Photos: Respective networks of the aforementioned series.
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