K-DRAMA NEWS - Sept 2025
By Sharon Stern
There is a larger number than usual of dramas beginning in September that haven’t announced a streaming service in the U.S. yet, which is just completely frustrating! We aren’t featuring them here yet, but certainly will cover them as soon as they are available in the U.S. There is a really wide array of dramas coming out in September and a couple that found a U.S. streaming home late in August. Several different versions of thriller are coming our way, all with very different stories and some strong directing/writing teams. Our every-present rom-com/rom-dram themes are here too, but with some potential good twists.
I feel like I need to at least mention the success of K-Pop Demon Hunters. If you have a kid at home, you undoubtedly know more than I do. If you haven’t seen it on Netflix or in a movie theater, you surely must have heard about it. It is an animated fantasy story that is kind of a K-pop meets Disney-like animation meets Marvel superheroes meets Harry Potter. It has some very indirect and direct references to Korean folklore and history and there is definite K-culture throughout. There’s even a K-drama wrist grab. It’s cute. The music is good. But most significantly, it is an insane hit.
Salon de Holmes – 살롱 드 홈즈
OnDemandKorea – Starring: Nam Ki-Ae, Lee Si-Young, Kim Da-Som, Jung Young-Joo
Genre: Action, com-dram
This drama is about four different women who live in the same apartment complex. Jeon Ji Hyun (Nam Ki Ae) used to be a queen of insurance sales, but now runs a neighborhood supermarket where all of the apartment complex residents gather, making it a hub for gossip. Chu Kyung Ja (Jung Young-Joo) is a former ace detective known for being completely no-nonsense. Gong Mi Ri (Lee Si-Young) has keen detective skills and is known as the Sherlock Holmes of the apartment complex. She can piece together bits and pieces and fill in clues to mysteries. Park So Hee (Kim Da-Som) is a collector of part-time jobs, working around the clock and buzzing through the apartment complex on a motorcycle. She knows a lot of people and a lot of stories because of all of those jobs. Together they team up to hunt down and weed out the bad guys in the neighborhood. This should serve up some silly, high-paced fun.
Butterfly – 버터플라이
Amazon Prime – Starring: Daniel Dae Kim, Reina Hardesty, Louis Landau, Piper Perabo
Genre: Spy, thriller
This is a bit of a hybrid, but I am including it. It’s an American drama that takes place mostly in Korea. The story is about a former US intelligence operative, David Jung (Daniel Dae Kim) who went into hiding to protect his daughter by faking his own death. He comes out of hiding when he learns that his daughter, Rebecca Jung (Reina Hardesty), is now part of a spy organization he was part of and is given orders to kill him. They both want to help stop the organization, which takes them to Korea. It is lauded as a well-written story, but weak on some of the characterizations and follow-through. It is only six episodes long. It features a mixed US, Korean and Korean-American cast.
My Troublesome Star – 금쪽같은 내 스타
Viki – Starring: Uhm Jung-hwa, Song Seung-heon, Lee El, Oh Dae-hwan, Jang Dan-ah
Genre: Rom-com, rom-dram
A young actress, Se Ra (Jang Dan-ah), is number one on the star charts when she is hit by the truck and is shot 25 years into the future and into the middle-aged body of Bong Cheong Ja (Uhm Jong-hwa). In her new body and time, she tries to revive her acting career and begins to investigate what happened to her. She teams up with a once-detective-now-traffic-cop Dokgo Cheol (Song Seung-heon), who is somehow (part of what gets revealed through the drama) connected to Se Ra.
My Youth – 마이 유스
Viki – Starring: Song Joong-ki, Chun Woo-hee, Lee Joo-myung, Seo Ji-hoon
Genre: Rom-dram. youth
Premieres Sept 5 | Sun Woo-hae (Song Joong-ki) had a tough childhood as an actor, pushed around by greedy adults. Ten years down the road, he has found his peace as a florist and writing novels. Suddenly, his first love, Seong Je Yeon (Chun Woo-hee), crosses his path. He’s confronted with his past. Seong Je-yeon is a team leader for an entertainment company. She is driven by success, but re-meeting Woo-hae forces her to look at her past as well. She has actually been looking for Woo-hae to make him participate in a documentary.
You never know in advance with dramas, but this one has a strong cast and a good director and writer. All the right pieces are there to be strong.
Queen Mantis – 사마귀: 살인자의 외출
Netflix, Viki – Starring: Go Hyun-Jung, Jang Dong-Yoon
Genre: Thriller, crime, mystery
Premieres Sept 5 | This drama is based on a French thriller series released in 2017. A woman sits in prison, charged with being a serial killer. Her estranged son, who has hated his mother for the crimes she committed, is a detective who has to investigate a copycat killer. He reluctantly seeks his mother’s help to understand the crime’s patterns. Does she help or is something else going on psychologically?
The drama looks dark and pretty disturbing, but has the potential to be very strong. I don’t usually spend a lot of time talking about writers and directors (maybe I should), but this drama has another incredibly strong pairing. The writer is one of the writers of 12.12: The Day. The director is a notable director, Byun Young-joo, known for her documentary work on women’s rights, gender rights, rights of the “Comfort Women,” human rights in general.
Confidence Queen – 컨피던스 맨 KR
Amazon Prime – Starring: Park Min-young, Park Hee-soon, Joo Jong-hyuk
Genre: Comedy, action, crime
Premieres Sept 6 |This is a remake of a 2018 Japanese drama called Confidence Man JP. It is the first original K-drama for Amazon Prime. It is a story about three con people, tricking greedy scammers out of their money, using complex real estate and investment schemes. They pick their victims carefully: corrupt politicians, greedy CEOs and the lot. Yi-rang (Park Min-young) is a genius who teams up with James (Park Hee-soon), who lies so consistently he almost cons himself all the time, and Myung Gu-ho (Joo Jong-hyuk), who is younger and a bit goofy, to outsmart and swindle the swindlers. None of them are really friends, but they help make use of each other’s talents.
Tempest – 북극성
Disney+ – Starring: Jun Ji-hyun, Gang Dong-won
Genre: Romance, spy, thriller
Premieres Sept 10 | I have to say that I’ve been waiting for a good Jun Ji-hyun drama. This drama features a pretty large ensemble cast, but Jun Ji-hyun and Gang Dong-won have the largest central roles. The story is about an ex-Ambassador to the US, Seo Mun-ju (Jun Ji-hyun) who teams up with a mercenary, Baek San-ho (Gang Dong-won), whose role and who he reports to is not so clear, to look into what is behind an assassination that threatens the relative peace of the Korean peninsula and beyond. What they uncover is a complicated web of secrets and political maneuvers.
You and Everything Else – 은중과 상연
Netflix – Starring: Kim Go-eun, Park Ji-hyun
Genre: Friendship, slice-of-life, melodrama
Premieres Sept 12 | Two women, Ryu Eun-jung (Kim Go-eun) and Cheon Sang-yeon (Park Ji-hyun), are both rivals and best friends from a young age. Jealousy, sometimes disdain, cause tensions, but they remain close friends in their youth. Over the years, they drift apart – sometimes in contact with each other, sometimes not. In their early 40s, Sang-yeon suddenly comes to Eun-jung to tell her she has cancer. The reunion helps them hash through their past and reconsider the influence they had on each other’s lives.
A Hundred Memories – 백번의 추억
Viki – Starring: Kim Da-mi, Shin Ye-eun, Heo Nam-jun
Genre: Youth, historical, rom-com, rom-dram
Premieres Sept 13 | This story is about two women who were bus attendants in the 1980s. The mostly female bus attendants existed on buses in South Korea from the 1960s-1980s. They took the bus fares, called out the stops and also pushed passengers into the bus so that they weren’t hanging out. This story is about Go Young-rye (Kim Da-mi) who is doing this job even though she has motion sickness and wants to urp throughout the day. She’s working to try to help the family finances. Her best friend, Seo Jong-hee (Shin Ye-eun) also works as a bus attendant. They are both in love with Han Jae-pil (Heo Nam-jun), the owner of a department store.
The Murky Stream - 탁류
Disney+ - Starring: Rowoon, Shin Ye-eun, Park Seo-ham
Genre: Historical, drama
Premieres Sept 26 | This is a story about the fates of three people: the gangster Jang Si-yool (Rowoon), who focuses his crimes at Mapo Ferry at the Gyeonggang River as he tries to bury his painful past; Choi Eun (Shin Ye-eun), a righteous merchant; and Jeong-cheon (Park Seo-ham), an idealist who is seeking a government position and who wants to clean up crime at the Gyeonggang River that is central to all trade. In a period of chaos and corruption, the three lives become entangled and in a place where justice is not being served, they find that survival has a cost.
This one looks very dramatic and pretty epic. The cinematography looks beautiful.
