Not all K-dramas can be as fascinating, captivating, and touching as IU and Yeo Jin Goo’s ‘Hotel Del Luna’ and maybe that’s the reason why it is one of the most loved shows on worldwide scale. The series was just a perfect balance of fantasy, mystery, romance, and comedy featuring themes of destiny, horror, past life, and immortality.
The show centers on a thousand years old extraordinary hotel, ‘Hotel Del Luna’ whose owner, Jang Man Wol is a greedy and mysterious being. Unable to live as a human being or go to the afterlife as a dead soul, Man Wol stays on the Earth attending to the dead souls in her grand hotel and help them go to the afterlife. Just as everyone thinks that she will have to spend an eternity looking after the hotel, Ku Chan Seong appears to work at the place as a manager and the interesting thing about this man is, he might be the one to set Man Wol free from her curse. If you are here to find your next favorite and similar K-drama sharing similar themes with the one mentioned above, you can look for them right here.
Missing: The Other Side (2020)
Screenwriter: Ban Ki Ri, Jung So Young
Director: Min Yeon Hong
Starring: Go Soo, Heo Joon Ho, Ahn So Hee, Ha Joon, Seo Eun Soo, Song Geon Hee
Total Number of Episodes: 12
‘Missing: The Other Side’ is a fantasy-thriller K-drama revolving around a fraud named Kim Wook, who with his appearance and smooth-talking skills swindle everyone out of their money. After an unforeseen mishap, he ends up at Duon Village, a mysterious place where the missing dead souls gather. The village is invisible to the living human beings and is inhabited by all those dead people whose bodies remained missing. However, Kim Wook finds himself being able to see the villagers and gets drawn to them somehow. With the help of Jang Pan Seok who connects Duon Village to the outside world and Lee Jong Ah, a white hacker, Kim Wook decides to help the souls solve the mystery of their deaths.
Goblin (2016)
Screenwriter: Kim Eun Sook
Director: Lee Eung Bok
Starring: Gong Yoo, Kim Go Eun, Lee Dong Wook, Yoo In Na, Yook Sung Jae, Lee El
Total Number of Episodes: 16
The K-drama known widely for the use of amazing soundtracks, Goblin is a fantasy melodrama that features an immortal general from Goryeo’s military, Kim Shin, who is stuck on Earth receiving his punishment from the deity, just as the female lead from Hotel Del Luna. Kim Shin had to face a tragic death in the past and then got revived, but after living for more than 900 years, he is tired of his life, watching all the others die before him. The only one who can put an end to his immortality is his bride who happens to be a nineteen years old orphan, Ji Eun Tak, a cheerful and upbeat girl, who has the ability to see the dead. When both of them come across each other, the simple task of ending his life by pulling out the sword from his chest gets complicated as both of them fall for each other.
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)
Screenwriter: Jo Yong
Director: Park Shin Woo, Jung Dong Yoon
Starring: Kim Soo Hyun, Seo Ye Ji, Oh Jung Se, Park Gyu Young, Jang Young Nam, Kim Chang Wan
Total Number of Episodes: 16
One of the most recommended series on this list, ‘It’s Okay to Not Be Okay’ is a psychological rom-com that revolves around Moon Gang Tae, a community health employee working at a psychiatric ward, and Ko Moon Young, a famous writer of children’s literature. however, both of them are poles apart from each other as far as their personalities are concerned. While Moon Gang Tae is known for his sympathetic and patient attitude towards everyone, especially his autistic elder brother, Moon Sang Tae, Ko Moon Young suffers from an antisocial personality disorder which makes her extremely selfish, rude, and arrogant. Gang Tae denies love, while Ko Moon Young doesn’t understand what love is. However, both of them share a common experience in their childhood of being deprived of love from their respective families.
The drama wraps up the process of healing, finding their souls, and acceptance in spooky fairytales. In case you haven’t watched the show yet, you will be amazed to find how much the female lead is similar to the character of Hotel Del Luna’s Jang Man Wol.
Read: Top 7 Asian Dramas Like Netflix’s Nevertheless
Bring It On, Ghost (2016)
Screenwriter: Lee Dae II
Director: Park Joon Hwa
Starring: Ok Taec Yeon, Kim So Hyun, Kwon Yool, Kim Sang Ho, Lee David, Kang Ki Young
Total Number of Episodes: 16
‘Bring It On, Ghost’ is an action horror comedy that revolves around the ghost of a high school student, Kim Hyun Ji, and an exorcist college boy, Park Bong Pal who can not only see and hear ghosts but also can fight them. Although Hyun Ji has been dead for five years, she doesn’t remember anything related to her life along with the process of her death. After a chain of incidents, when she realizes that she can get her memories back with the help of Bong Pal, she follows him and makes a deal with him to let her stay at his place while she will help him catch ghosts in his part-time exorcism job. Although Bong Pal despises the idea at first, he agrees to it later and they gradually become friends. However, what they think to be a friendship turns out to be an inter-species romance. The show has a bunch of similarities with ‘Hotel Del Luna’ but ‘Bring It On, Ghost’ bends on a lighter side.
Arang and the Magistrate (2012)
Screenwriter: Jung Yoon Jung
Director: Jeong Dae Yun, Kim Sang Ho
Starring: Lee Joon Gi, Shin Min Ah, Yeon Woo Jin, Kwon Oh Jung, Hwang Bo Ra, Han Jung Soo
Total Number of Episodes: 20
Set during the period of the Joseon Dynasty, the series follows the story of a cynical, selfish, and unfriendly magistrate named Eun Oh who keeps wandering across the whole nation hoping to find his mother who has left him because of a mistake that he had committed. Eun Oh possesses the ability to see ghosts because of this, he gets used to being bothered by them over the years without being afraid of them anymore. One day he comes across the ghost of a young girl named Arang who was murdered. She wants the uncover the truth about her unjust homicide and seek vengeance for it. She requests Eun Oh to help her out and Eun Oh promises to fulfill her request.
Sell Your Haunted House (2021)
Screenwriter: Ha Soo Jin, Jung Yeon Seo, Lee Young Hwa
Director: Park Jin Suk
Starring: Jang Na Ra, Jung Yong Hwa, Kang Hong Suk, Kang Mal Geum, Baek Eun Hye, Ahn Kil Kang
Total Number of Episodes: 16
Although the style of the drama is similar to other ghost-themed shows, featuring various short stories within, it actually has a different approach to exorcism. The story is about a woman named Ji Ah, who has inherited exorcism abilities from her mother, owning a company that sells haunted houses. Although Ji Ah is very smart and beautiful, she has no control over her mouth. When she comes across a con man named In Beom, who is best at exorcism fraud, he makes a deal with her of helping her sell all those houses that have been haunted by evil spirits and vengeful ghosts. The show is a perfect urban fantasy featuring a strong female lead who has an amazing partnership with the male lead along with emotional and action-packed exorcisms, sweet bromance, and blood-boiling antagonists.
My Love from Another Star (2013)
Screenwriter: Park Ji Eun
Director: Oh Choong Hwan, Jang Tae Yoo
Starring: Kim Soo Hyun, Jun Ji Hyun, Park Hae Jin, Yoo In Na, Shin Sung Rok, Kim Chang Wan
Total Number of Episodes: 20
‘My Love from Another Star’ is one of those rare Kdramas that have aged like a fine wine. The story is about an alien named Do Min Joon who had arrived on Earth during the Joseon Dynasty, 400 years ago but has never been able to go back. Although he looks exactly like a normal human being who does not age, he has supernatural powers that let him have an enhanced vision and hearing skill, the ability to teleport himself, and even to pause the flow of time. After he discovers that he might have the chance to go back to his planet, he thinks of settling everything before going within three months. However, just as everything was going fine, he crosses paths with Cheon Song Yi, a famous but self-absorbed actress of Korea, and feels a connection with her. Apart from bearing the similarity of being shows with a similar supernatural theme, we would like to mention the cameo appearance of Kim Soo Hyun close to the end of ‘Hotel Del Luna’.
My Roommate is a Gumiho (2021)
Screenwriter: Baek Sun Woo, Choi Bo Rim
Director: Park Joon Hwa, Nam Sung Woo
Starring: Jang Ki Yong, Lee Hye Ri, Kang Han Na, Kim Do Wan, Bae In Hyuk, Park Kyung Hye
Total Number of Episodes: 16
One of the newest shows on this list, ‘My Roommate is a Gumiho’ follows the story of a handsome and smart writer named Shin Woo Yeo who in reality, is a 999-year-old nine-tailed fox. He has spent all these centuries in the hope to become a human after collecting enough human energy to turn the red Gumiho marble blue. One night, he accidentally comes across a university history student, Lee Dam who, while trying to help her drunk friend, ends up swallowing the Gumiho marble. The presence of the marble inside a human body is very dangerous and can exist inside for a maximum of one year after which the person will die. After analyzing the situation, Shin Woo Yeo asks Lee Dam to live at his house during which he will find a solution to the current problem along with keeping an eye on the marble. Although this is an inter-species romance like ‘Hotel Del Luna’ with one of the leads being centuries-old, ‘My Roommate is a Gumiho’ is lighter and more comic than the former one.
Oh My Ghostess (2015)
Screenwriter: Yang Hee Seung
Director: Yoo Je Won
Starring: Park Bo Young, Kim Seul Gi, Jo Jung Suk, Im Joo Hwan, Kang Ki Young, Kwak Shi Yang
Total Number of Episodes: 16
The story revolves around an extremely shy woman, with zero self-confidence who works as an assistant at a restaurant. She is not very talented and gets rebuked by others most of the time. Owing to her unappealing nature, she doesn’t have many friends and stays alone most of the time. Although she harbors feelings for the skillful chef Sun Woo working at the same restaurant, who is a conceited star chef, full of confidence, he doesn’t notice her much. She has a special ability to see ghosts since her grandmother was a shaman. Overall, Bong Sun’s life is not very interesting up until gets possessed by the spirit of a lustful virgin. The possessed Bong Sun suddenly starts to act differently, giving up her mousy personality and it hardly takes any time when she constantly begins to end up on Sun Woo’s mind.
Mystic Pop-up Bar (2020)
Screenwriter: Ha Yoon Ah
Director: Jun Chang Geun
Starring: Hwang Jung Eum, Yook Sung Jae, Choi Won Young, Jung Da Eun, Lee Joon Hyuk, Na In Woo
Total Number of Episodes: 12
Adapted from a popular webtoon of the same name, ‘Mystic Pop-Up Bar’ is a supernatural mystery comedy that centers on a mysterious food tent run at night by a picky woman, Weol-ju, a naive part-time worker named Han Kang-bae and a former afterlife detective called Chief Gwi who resolve the grudges of their customers by visiting them in their dreams. Whoever visits the bar, irrespective of their living or dead status can grab a drink with the owner, consuming a special drink that lets her into the customer’s brain. Weol-ju has been punished to settle the problems of 100,000 souls. Meanwhile, Kang-bae has the ability to manipulate the customers into pouring their troubles out to him just with a touch. Both ‘Hotel Del Luna’ and ‘Mystic Pop-up Bar’ follow the similar ‘human or story of the week’ pattern to the episodes. The character of the female leads in both the shows is quite similar, along with their backgrounds.
Read: Top Ten Most-Watched K-Drama OST Music Videos Of All Time
