End Report: Top K-Dramas of 2015

Over the next week or so, I've put together a series of posts to do with both my life and k-drama related articles (which will include choices and upcoming January 2016 dramas). Anyway, I'll be talking about the best dramas that this year has given us. I don't know how other years have gone, but I'd say 2015 has been pretty good for Korean dramas. Anyway, here they are, my 10/10 dramas for this year.

Mask

Bun Ji Sook is working as a sales clerk at a department store when she suddenly comes across her doppelgänger Seo Eun Ha. Whereas Ji Sook's family is hounded by loan sharks because of her father and brother's crippling debt, Eun Ha is the daughter of a congressman and fiancee of chaebol heir Choi Min Woo. Min Woo is the illegitimate son of the chairman of SJ Group and the company's presumptive heir, to the bitter resentment of the chairman's wife and her daughter, Min Woo's half-sister Mi Yeon. Despite his wealthy background, Min Woo had grown up without the love and warmth of family and friends, and his and Eun Ha's future marriage is understood by both parties to be a mutually beneficial business arrangement. He also doesn't know that the man Eun Ha is having an affair with is Mi Yeon's husband, the manipulative and ambitious Min Seok Hoon. Seok Hoon will stop at nothing to prevent his brother-in-law from being named successor, including conspiring with the latter's psychiatrist into gas lighting Min Woo and making him think he's going insane. But his plans go awry when Eun Ha ends up dead, so Seok Hoon threatens and blackmails Ji Sook into taking Eun Ha's place. As Min Woo begins to live in close quarters with Ji Sook, he is puzzled and intrigued by his new wife and how different she is from what he expected.

Genres: Family, Melodrama, Revenge + Melodrama.

Cheer Up!

Set at the elite Sevit High School in Seoul, the drama follows the lives of five students as they attempt the survive in a vicious environment where academic elitism takes place. Kang Yeon Doo is the leader of outcast street dance club "Real King", a group of students who band together because of their poor academic performance, whereas Kim Yeol is the president of "Baek Ho", an elite club composed of students from the top five percent. When the two clubs are forcibly merged to create a cheerleading squad, the two put their differences aside for the benefit of their clubs. As they go on with their adventures, lots of things happened that has resulted to a great and unbreakable bond. Cheer Up! is a story that aims an ordinary high school student's misadventures including love, heartbreak, pain and friendship.

Genres: Drama, Friendship, Romance, School + Youth.

Splash Splash Love

Jang Dan Bi is a senior high school student applying for the College Scholastic Ability Test. She has a special ability which allows her to transport to any time on rainy days. For her college entrance exam, Dan Bi can't deal with the pressure and runs off to a playground. Without knowing why, she goes into a puddle and finds herself transported to the Joseon period. She then falls in love with Lee Do, the young king who is in a difficult situation due to droughts and the spread of an epidemic.

Note: this is a 2-episode drama special, and doesn't count as an actual k-drama. However, this is just too great not to mention. And since this is only a special, that is why I have not done a review on it.

Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Historical, Romance + Supernatural.

Lee Do + Jang Dan Bi.