Following the phenomenal success of Squid Game, Netflix’s K-drama slate has been going strong for months, with Business Proposal, one of the streamer’s newest Korean series, taking the lead.
The Korean romantic comedy’s most recent no. 1 ranking on Netflix’s global non-English television ranking was from late March to early April, with four of the top five that week all being new K-dramas. Since its premiere at the end of February, the show has remained in Netflix’s top ten global rankings for the past five weeks.
According to FlixPatrol, the show was ranked second among the top television shows on Netflix worldwide last week, behind only Bridgerton.
Business Proposal is one of the first Korean rom-com series to achieve such high rankings since Squid Game, breaking away from the typical sci-fi/horror genres that have often drawn audiences to Korean content (such as All of Us Are Dead, Kingdom, and Hellbound).
The series, which is based on a Korean webtoon of the same name, follows Ha-ri (Kim Se-jeong from Netflix’s The Uncanny Counter) as she agrees to help her best friend avoid a blind date set up by her family.
Pretending to be her friend, Ha-ri shows up for the date and pulls some ridiculous, laugh-out-loud stunts in an attempt to scare off the suitor (Tae-mu, played by Ahn Hyo-seop from Netflix’s Abyss and Dr. Romantic). However, things become complicated when Ha-ri discovers that her surprisingly attractive blind date is the CEO of the company where she works.
1. Crashing Landing on You
Son Ye-jin, who plays the daughter of a wealthy “chaebol” (a Korean family conglomerate) and the head of a luxury beauty brand, finds herself in unexpected territory in Netflix’s Crash Landing on You.
She crosses the border into North Korea after a paragliding experiment goes wrong, where she meets the captain of a North Korean army unit (played by Hyun Bin). The soldier finds her stranded on a tree and falls in love with her while attempting to smuggle her back to South Korea.
2. Descendants of the Sun
Descendants of the Sun (available on Netflix) follows a captain of a South Korean special forces unit (Song Joong-ki, who most recently starred in the streamer’s hit K-drama Vincenzo) who falls in love with a surgeon (Song Hye-kyo) after a chance meeting at a hospital and later at a military base abroad.
The series will keep you glued to the screen, smiling one moment and crying the next, thanks to its cute and witty banter, sweet interactions, and dramatic twists.
3. Itaewon Class
Park Seo-joon (the Parasite actor who will star alongside Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and others in the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels) plays a high school student whose father is killed in a hit-and-run car accident that is covered up by the powers that be.
Years later, with the help of several friends he meets along the way, he plots the ultimate vengeance against those responsible for the cover-up, including a sassy social media influencer with a clever business brain (played by Kim Da-mi) who falls hopelessly in love with him.
4. Our Beloved Summer
In Netflix’s Our Beloved Summer, Choi Woo-shik (who played a tutor to the daughter of the wealthy Park family in the Oscar-winning film) and Kim Da-mi (from Itaewon Class) play former lovers whose paths are forced to cross again for the filming of a documentary series.
The pair are forced to revisit their unresolved feelings a decade after their dramatic and painful breakup in a docuseries that traces the progression of their lives since high school, where they first met one summer.
5. Encounter
Encounter (available on Netflix) is a slight twist on the plot of Business Proposal, in which the CEO of a major corporation (played by Song Hye-kyo from Descendents of the Sun) falls for a hotel employee (played by Park Bo-gum, a major Korean actor from various K-dramas and films) in an unlikely office romance.
The two meet for the first time on the hotel manager’s work trip to Cuba, where she is left penniless one day after her bag is stolen. She is aided by a charming Korean man dressed in a bohemian style whom she meets by chance while wandering through town.
6. Romance Is a Bonus Book
In this Netflix K-drama set at a trendy book publishing house, a former high-flying advertising copywriter (played by famed actress Lee Na-young, who is married to major Korean actor Won Bin from the Bong Joon-ho film Mother) tries to relaunch her career by working from the ground up. She lands an intern position at the publishing house where her male best friend (Lee Jong-suk) is the editor-in-chief by accident.
As a dashing book designer who falls hard for Lee’s character, viewers get to see an irresistibly charming side to Squid Game actor Wi Ha-jun (who played the cop in the runaway hit Netflix drama).
7. Record of Youth
Record of Youth follows the lives of a young makeup artist (Park So-dam, who played Jessica, the wealthy Park family’s art therapist) and her biggest celebrity crush—a fashion model from a humble, working-class family trying to break into acting (Park Bo-gum, who played Park So-dam in Parasite).
After meeting behind the scenes at a fashion runway show where the makeup artist is assigned to style the model and his childhood best friend (played by Byeon Woo-seok)—another famous fashion model-turned-actor who has had more success thanks to his family’s wealthy background pulling a few strings—the two grow closer. After that, a love triangle develops when the best friend is also drawn to the makeup artist.