9 binge-worthy Korean shows and movies to stream in South Africa

Falling in love with the wave of Korean shows filling up our screens? Now you can stream them too with kick-ass viewing all the K-way from Korea.

This dark comedy won the 92^nd Annual Academy Awards for best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film (the first non-English Best Picture winner ever) and follows a poor family of con artists who’re intent on being parasites.

The Kims go from living in a basement – that’s all they can afford thanks to their jobs as pizza box folders – until they meet the Parks, a rich but ignorant family who’re not the sharpest tools in the shed. They’re conned into hiring college-age Ki Woo as an English tutor and they pay him a fortune. Seeing their fortunes changing before their eyes, the whole Kim family hop on the bandwagon and trick, con and manipulate their way into the Parks’ home using fake qualifications, credentials and references that go by unchecked.

The Kims’ elaborate con may have gone by unnoticed – were it not for the interloper who has secretly been living off the family for years, and whose discovery leads to a desperate quest for dominance.

All five seasons of this award-winning family comedy are on Netflix. It follows the exploits of Korean-Canadian family the Kims. Their convenience store is run by parents Mr and Mrs Kim (aka Appa and Umma), with their 20-something daughter Janet helping out when one of them is busy. Their 24-year-old son Jung is a different story – he’s estranged from his father because they butted heads and a massive divide has split them. He’s still close to his mom and sister, although Uppa would be furious if he found out!

It’s more than just a family comedy – there are important social concerns and lessons being taught. For example, in the very first episode, when Uppa, through a series of misunderstandings, is labelled as a homophobe and tries to prove that he loves people of all shapes, colours, races, sexual orientations and more by creating Gay Pride Discount, which obviously blows up in his face, and he learns a valuable lesson.

This heart-warming movie will make you sob yourself to dehydration. It tells the story of Mija, a young girl who rescues a super pig named Okja from a secret company that has been breeding the enormous hogs for consumption. The pigs are huge – at least 20 times bigger than a typical porker – and they’re being led to the slaughter.

It raises the debate on the ethics and morals behind the meat trade and how animals are treated as Mija and Okja flee an angry mob who want to see the pig at the abattoir.

This drama series follows a pair of sisters-in-law who’re determined to topple society’s constricting constructs that suggest women should stay at home and raise families. Instead of following the norm, Seo and Jung stand up at their husbands’ prestigious law firm and demand respect and to be allowed to pursue careers and live up to their potential.

What makes this 16-episode series so addictive is that it encourages women to rise up and be counted, while driving a positive narrative with gripping storylines.

Cryogenics is at the centre of this 16-episode series – you know, how you get frozen in super super super-low temperatures and wake up like nothing happened centuries later? This time, Ma Dong-chan (Ji Chang-wook) and Ko Mi-ran (Won Jin-ah) are strangers who’re taking part in a science experiment and they’re going to be cryofrozen for 24 hours. What could possibly go wrong, you ask? They wake up 20 years later in a world that they don’t recognise.

They’ve only got one another for support because the doctor who ran the experiment has lost his memory and the only thing he can tell them is that they need to follow a specific series of instructions so that their heart rates will return to normal.

Starting from scratch is never easy for someone who’s been super successful in their life. But that’s what happens to Oh Yoon-seo, played by Yoo In-na. She’s a disgraced actress who was embarrassed in a drug scandal at the height of her career in this 16-episode drama. After two years of not a single casting call, Oh gets her foot in the door when she’s offered a role but she needs experience first, which ironically forces her into her greatest acting role: she re-invents herself as Oh Jin-shim, a timid and meek secretary at a top law firm.

She’s got to learn all about the legal game from hottie lawyer Kwon Jung-rok (Lee Dong-wook), but there’s a problem and they end up falling in love… well, at least, Kwon thinks he’s in love with his secretary, unaware of her secret identity.

Ever heard of a marriage of convenience? That takes a backseat in this 16-episode drama series when oddball IT guy Nam Se-Hee (Lee Min-ki) and homeless writer Yoon Ji-ho (Jung So-min) agree to a contract. They’re both getting the best of both worlds thanks to their deal: she’s getting a roof over her head and a warm bed to sleep in, plus space to continue her writing, while he’s getting “a woman in his life” who will also be paying rent.

And with a new lady living with him, Nam is able to show people that he’s a regular joe and is getting ahead in his life rather than being stuck in a rut.

The characters are all named after people on the production team.

This supernatural series sees a god coming to Earth and falling in love with a mortal. The 16-episode series starts with Lord Ha-baek (Nam Joo-hyuk) descending from the heavens to reclaim sacred stones that will allow the God Of The Land Of Water to ascend to the throne. That’s important for him because it’s his destiny, but to find the stones, Lord Ha-baek asks neuropsychiatrist So-ah (Shin Se-Kyung) to help him. As it turns out, So-ah is the last living descendent of a family of servants whose duty it is to serve the gods.

There’s a slight hitch to Lord Ha-baek’s plan though: So-ah mistakes his ramblings about being a god for a mental health condition and she tries to treat him in a facility.

The show is a spin-off from the popular 2006 graphic cartoon series Bride Of The Water God.

This 20-episode drama from 2012 follows two timelines as the main characters have flashbacks of defining moments in their lives. Brilliant medical student Kang Ma-ru (Song Joong-ki) is madly in love with his older neighbour Han Jae-hee (Park Si-yeon), a struggling news reporter whose world goes from good to bad overnight.

While Han is interested in Kang romantically and she wants love, she becomes the object of affection for an evil CEO who uses his endless supply of money to woo Han. And being in her horribly stressful financial situation, Han can’t help but walk away from romance and towards the stacks of cash even though she doesn’t feel love.

The Innocent man was one of the first South Korean shows streamed across mainstream Western platforms, and was originally titled Nice Guy.