WatchAsian

The dramas of Asia

WatchAsian is an English guide to 156 television dramas of seven countries of Asia: Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines. The old WatchAsian, a site of Asian dramas with English subtitles in the skin of the better known Dramacool, sorted its catalogue in a menu called Drama List, one entry per country, and this guide keeps that order: the dramas sit on twelve shelves of thirteen, four for Korea, two for Japan, two for China and one for each of the four other countries, grouped in three families. Every drama has an English synopsis, the creators, the cast, the network, the list of its episodes and a Watch now button that opens it on JustWatch, which shows where it can be watched in your country.

The Asian drama is a form of its own. A Korean drama, the K-drama of its fans abroad, usually tells one story in a single season of sixteen episodes, a Japanese drama in ten or eleven, a Chinese drama in thirty to sixty, and the series of Hong Kong and the Philippines can run for hundreds or even thousands of episodes, broadcast every evening of the week. The 156 dramas of the guide hold about 10,400 episodes, carry about 79,000 votes on TMDB and have a high average rating of 7.99, because the viewers who vote for Asian dramas are mostly their fans. The most voted is Squid Game, of 2021, the survival game of Netflix that became the most watched series in the history of the service, with about 17,900 votes. The guide Start with WatchAsian gives a first route through the shelves.

The dramas also travel between the countries. One Japanese manga about a poor girl at a school of four rich boys, Hana Yori Dango, became four of the dramas of this guide: the Japanese version of 2005, the Korean Boys Over Flowers of 2009, the Chinese Meteor Garden of 2018 and the Thai F4 Thailand of 2021, all four rated 8 or more. The guide The Asian drama follows the form across the region.

The name and the look

The name WatchAsian says what the site did: it showed the dramas of Asia, with English subtitles, to viewers far from Seoul, Tokyo or Bangkok. The Wayback Machine holds watchasian.co, watchasian.to and watchasian.vc from 2018 to 2021 in the skin of Dramacool, one of the best known sites of its kind, and the home page of 18 February 2020 and its stylesheet were read and measured. Only the look was measured; every picture and file of this site is new.

From that capture come the grey bar of the letters A to Z at the very top, #C0C0C0, here a thin grey line over the header; the teal navigation bar, #3EC2CF, with its links in bold capitals divided by thin lines and the yellow of the current item, #FDB813; the white blocks with a pale border, #EAEAEA, each opened by a small yellow tab with its title in white capitals over a teal line; the dark band at the bottom of the posters, and the teal footer. The menu Drama List becomes the board of the home page, with the twelve shelves in three columns and their families on small teal, yellow and grey labels. The guide The look of WatchAsian explains each colour.

How the countries work

The dramas of the guide were chosen from TMDB by their country of origin and their language, the most voted first, and then sorted by hand into the shelves. Korea has four shelves because it has by far the most voted dramas: romance and comedy, thrillers and crime, fantasy and horror, and the historical dramas called sageuk. Japan has two, love and life, and thrillers and games; China has two, the modern dramas and the costume dramas of the empires and the immortals; Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines have one each. Animation, reality shows and variety shows were left aside, as were the tokusatsu series of masked heroes, and each drama sits on a single shelf.

The three families each hold 52 dramas: Korea; Japan and China; and Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines. Because the voters of TMDB are fewer for the smaller countries, the shelves of Hong Kong and the Philippines hold dramas with only a few dozen votes, but their ratings are as telling as any. The guide How the countries work sums up the rules.

The Asian drama

The modern Asian drama grew from the television of the 1980s and 1990s. Hong Kong was its first great exporter: the series of TVB, from the adaptations of the martial novels of Jin Yong, like The Legend of the Condor Heroes of 1983, to the family sagas and police dramas of the 1990s, were dubbed and watched across Southeast Asia. Japan followed with the trendy dramas of the 1990s and the adaptations of manga, and Taiwan with the idol dramas of the 2000s, among them the first adaptation of Hana Yori Dango, Meteor Garden, in 2001.

Korea changed the scale. The Korean wave, Hallyu, began with the dramas of the early 2000s, from Jewel in the Palace, of 2003, the cook who became the first woman physician of the king, a hit in China, Iran and dozens of countries, to Boys Over Flowers, of 2009, and My Love from the Star, of 2013. In the 2010s the streaming services found in Asia a new source of series: Netflix made Kingdom, its first Korean drama, in 2019, and Squid Game in 2021, while China built its own giants of streaming, iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku, which made the costume dramas of the 2020s, and Thailand found a vast audience abroad for its romances between young men. Of the 156 dramas of the guide, ninety began in the 2020s.

Korea

The first family, Korea, holds the romance and comedy, the thrillers and crime, the fantasy and horror and the historical dramas of Korea. Its 52 dramas carry about 64,300 votes, more than four fifths of the votes of the guide, with an average rating of 8.24, the best of the three families, and 43 of them are rated 8 or more. Its most voted are Squid Game, All of Us Are Dead, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and True Beauty, and the networks tvN, of the cable group CJ, and Netflix made the most of them. The guide Korea sums up the family.

Korean romance and comedy

The shelf Korean romance and comedy holds thirteen dramas from 2009 to 2022, and it is the best rated shelf of Korea, with an average of 8.33 and twelve dramas rated 8 or more. Its most voted is True Beauty, of 2020, for tvN, from the webtoon of Yaongyi, a girl who hides her face behind make-up at her new school, with about 2,700 votes and an 8.3, followed by Boys Over Flowers, of 2009, for KBS2, the Korean version of the manga, with Lee Min-ho and Koo Hye-sun. Five dramas share the best rating of the shelf, 8.5: the tvN drama of 2020 about a writer of fairy tales and a caretaker of a psychiatric ward, with Kim Soo-hyun and Seo Yea-ji; Extraordinary Attorney Woo, of 2022, for ENA, a young autistic lawyer; Crash Landing on You, of 2019, the heiress of Seoul and the officer of North Korea; Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, of 2016, a student who lifts weights; and Business Proposal, of 2022, the blind date with the boss; What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, of 2018, the secretary who resigns from her vain boss, follows at 8.3.

The romance of the shelf takes many forms. Descendants of the Sun, of 2016, for KBS2, a captain of the special forces and a surgeon in a country at war, one of the great successes of the Korean wave; She Was Pretty, of 2015, a girl who was beautiful as a child and her first love; the MBC comedy of 2017 about a woman who poses as a robot for a man allergic to people; The Heirs, of 2013, the rich students of a school of Seoul, with Lee Min-ho again, and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, of 2021, a dentist of Seoul in a seaside village, rated 8.2. The guide Korean romance and comedy follows the shelf.

Korean thrillers and crime

The shelf Korean thrillers and crime holds thirteen dramas from 2019 to 2023, and eight of them were made for Netflix, the service that turned the Korean thriller into a global genre. Its most voted is Squid Game, of 2021, by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the debtors who play deadly versions of children's games for a fortune, with Lee Jung-jae, three seasons and about 17,900 votes, rated 7.9, the most voted drama of the guide. The best rated is Weak Hero, of 2022, a quiet student at the top of his class who fights the bullies of his school with his wits, rated 8.7.

Three dramas share an 8.5. Vincenzo, of 2021, for tvN, with Song Joong-ki as a lawyer of the Italian mafia who returns to Seoul and fights a corrupt corporation with its own methods; The Glory, of 2022, by Kim Eun-sook, with Song Hye-kyo as a woman who spends eighteen years planning her revenge on the girls who tormented her at school; and Bloodhounds, of 2023, two young boxers against a loan shark. Vagabond, of 2019, for SBS, a stuntman who investigates the crash of a plane, is rated 8.3. My Name, of 2021, with Han So-hee as a young woman who joins a gang and then the police to avenge her father, is rated 8.2.

The rest of the shelf is crime and its consequences. Flower of Evil, of 2020, a husband who hides his past from his wife, a detective; Mouse, of 2021, a policeman and the gene of the psychopath; Big Mouth, of 2022, with Lee Jong-suk as a lawyer mistaken for a criminal genius, rated 8.4; Extracurricular, of 2020, a model student who runs a dark business; D.P., of 2021, the soldiers who hunt deserters of the army, and Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area, of 2022, the Korean version of the Spanish series, set in a Korea about to reunify. The guide Korean thrillers and crime follows the shelf.

Korean fantasy and horror

The shelf Korean fantasy and horror holds thirteen dramas from 2013 to 2024 of zombies, monsters, goblins, aliens and the dead. Its most voted is All of Us Are Dead, of 2022, for Netflix, a high school where a virus turns the students into zombies, with about 4,500 votes and an 8.3, still returning. The best rated is Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, of 2016, by Kim Eun-sook, for tvN, also known as Goblin, a warrior of Goryeo cursed to live for nine centuries until his bride pulls the sword from his chest, rated 8.6.

Netflix made five dramas of the shelf: Love Alarm, of 2019, an app that rings when someone nearby loves you; Sweet Home, of 2020, the residents of an apartment block where people turn into monsters of their desires; Hellbound, of 2021, by Yeon Sang-ho, angels of judgment who drag sinners to hell in public; The Silent Sea, of 2021, a mission to an abandoned base on the moon, and All of Us Are Dead. The other networks gave the shelf its romantic fantasies: My Love from the Star, of 2013, an alien who has lived in Korea for four hundred years and falls for an actress; W, of 2016, a doctor pulled into the world of a webtoon, rated 8.4; The King: Eternal Monarch, of 2020, a king of a parallel Korea; Hotel Del Luna, of 2019, with IU as the owner of a hotel for ghosts, and My Demon, of 2023, a demon who loses his powers to a woman of business, both at 8.5.

Two dramas of the 2020s complete the shelf. Marry My Husband, of 2024, for tvN, a woman murdered by her husband and her best friend who wakes up ten years earlier and changes her fate, rated 8.5, the newest drama of the shelf; Death's Game, of 2023, for TVING, a man condemned by Death to die again and again in other bodies, rated 8.4. The guide Korean fantasy and horror follows the shelf.

Korean historical dramas

The shelf Korean historical dramas holds thirteen sageuk, the dramas of the kingdoms of Korea, from 2003 to 2025, and five of them come from tvN. Its most voted is Kingdom, of 2019, the first Korean drama made for Netflix, by Kim Eun-hee, a crown prince of the Joseon dynasty who fights a plague that raises the dead, two seasons with about 1,300 votes and an 8.2. The best rated are two dramas at 8.6: Alchemy of Souls, of 2022, for tvN, a world of mages where an assassin is trapped in the body of a weak girl, two parts and thirty episodes, and Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, of 2025, the newest of the shelf, a modern chef sent back in time to the kitchen of a tyrant king.

The oldest drama of the shelf, and one of the great hits of the Korean wave, is Jewel in the Palace, of 2003, for MBC, the story of Jang-geum, a cook of the royal kitchen who became the first woman to be the physician of the king, 54 episodes rated 8.5. Two more share that 8.5: Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, of 2016, a woman of today sent back to the Goryeo dynasty among the princes, from a Chinese novel, and Mr. Queen, of 2020, the soul of a modern chef in the body of a queen of Joseon. Mr. Sunshine, of 2018, by Kim Eun-sook, is rated 8.4, a Korean boy who returns as an officer of the American marines at the end of the dynasty.

Love and the court fill the rest of the shelf. The King's Affection, of 2021, a crown princess who lives disguised as her dead twin brother; Moon Embracing the Sun, of 2012, a king and the shaman who was his first love; Love in the Moonlight, of 2016, a crown prince and a girl who poses as a eunuch; Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth, of 2016, the young warriors of Silla; Under the Queen's Umbrella, of 2022, a queen who fights for her troublesome sons, rated 8.3, and Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung, of 2019, one of the first women historians of the court. The guide Korean historical dramas follows the shelf.

Japan and China

The second family, Japan and China, holds the love and life and the thrillers and games of Japan and the modern and costume dramas of China. Its 52 dramas carry about 10,400 votes, with an average rating of 7.98, and its most voted are Alice in Borderland, Meteor Garden, the Japanese Boys Over Flowers and Sky of Love. The Chinese dramas are long, with 1,159 episodes on the two shelves of China, against 336 on the two shelves of Japan. The guide Japan and China sums up the family.

Japanese love and life

The shelf Japanese love and life holds thirteen Japanese dramas from 2005 to 2022 of school, love, work and illness, and five of them come from TBS. Its most voted is the Japanese Boys Over Flowers, of 2005, for TBS, the first Japanese adaptation of the manga, with Mao Inoue and Jun Matsumoto, rated 8.1, followed by Sky of Love, of 2008, a love story of high school and illness from a novel written on a mobile phone. The best rated, at 8.5, are 1 Litre of Tears, of 2005, for Fuji TV, the true story of a girl of fifteen with a degenerative disease, from her diary, and Legal High, of 2012, an arrogant lawyer who wins every case he takes.

The love stories of the shelf are many. First Love, of 2022, for Netflix, a story across two decades inspired by two songs of Hikaru Utada, rated 8.1; The Full-Time Wife Escapist, of 2016, a young woman who takes a job as the wife of a shy programmer, with the dance of its ending that all Japan copied; Good Morning Call, of 2016, two students who share an apartment by mistake; My Love Mix-Up!, of 2021, a boy who misreads a love note, rated 8.0, and the long title of Cherry Magic! of 2020, a man of thirty who can read the thoughts of whoever touches him. Life fills the rest: Hanzawa Naoki, of 2013, the banker who swore to pay back twice, rated 8.3; Midnight Diner, of 2009, a small restaurant of Tokyo open from midnight to seven, rated 8.2; The Hours of My Life, of 2014, a young man with a disease of the muscles, and The Naked Director, of 2019, for Netflix, the producer of adult films of the 1980s. The guide Japanese love and life follows the shelf.

Japanese thrillers and games

The shelf Japanese thrillers and games holds thirteen Japanese dramas from 2015 to 2026, and eight of them were made for Netflix. Its most voted is Alice in Borderland, of 2020, from the manga of Haro Aso, a young gamer and his friends trapped in an empty Tokyo where they must win deadly games to extend their visas, three seasons with about 2,900 votes and an 8.1, the most voted Japanese drama of the guide. The best rated is Rebooting, of 2023, for Nippon TV, by Bakarhythm, a woman who dies at thirty-three and lives her life again from birth, again and again, rated 8.8, followed by Unnatural, of 2018, for TBS, the forensic doctors of an unnatural death investigation unit, at 8.4.

Netflix gave the shelf its action and its horror. Last Samurai Standing, of 2025, 292 samurai who fight across Japan for a fortune in 1878, still returning; Yu Yu Hakusho, of 2023, the live-action version of the manga of a boy who becomes a spirit detective; House of Ninjas, of 2024, a family of ninjas who live as ordinary people; THE DAYS, of 2023, the days of the accident at the nuclear plant of Fukushima in 2011; Ju-On: Origins, of 2020, the cursed house of the horror films; Burn the House Down, of 2023, a woman who goes to work as a housekeeper for the family she blames for the fire that destroyed her home, and Human Vapor, of 2026, the newest of the shelf. The adaptations of manga for the networks complete it: Death Note, of 2015, the notebook that kills; Kakegurui, of 2018, a school ruled by gambling, and Gannibal, of 2022, for Disney+, a policeman in a village with a cannibal secret. The guide Japanese thrillers and games follows the shelf.

Chinese modern dramas

The shelf Chinese modern dramas holds thirteen dramas of today's China from 2018 to 2023, made for the streaming services Youku, Tencent Video and iQiyi and for the television of Hunan, Zhejiang and CCTV. Its most voted is Meteor Garden, of 2018, for Hunan Television, the Chinese version of the manga of the four rich boys, fifty episodes with about 600 votes and an 8.5. The best rated is The Long Season, of 2023, for Tencent Video, a taxi driver of a town of the northeast who reopens a murder of twenty years before, rated 8.9, followed by When I Fly Towards You, of 2023, for Youku, the first love of two students of a high school, at 8.8, and Hidden Love, of 2023, the crush of a girl on her brother's friend, at 8.5.

The family dramas of the shelf are Go Ahead, of 2020, a girl raised with two boys by two single fathers, rated 8.4, and Find Yourself, of 2020, an older woman and a younger man. Three-Body, of 2023, for CCTV-8, the adaptation of the science fiction novel of Liu Cixin, is rated 7.8, and Reset, of 2022, a bus that explodes again and again until two passengers find the bomber, 8.1. The crime drama The Knockout, of 2023, twenty years in the rise of a fishmonger who becomes a gangster, was the most watched series of China that year. Romance completes the shelf with Go Go Squid!, of 2019, a cellist and a champion of computer games; You Are My Hero, of 2021, a soldier and a doctor; Falling Into Your Smile, of 2021, a girl in a team of video games, and Love Once Again, of 2021. The guide Chinese modern dramas follows the shelf.

Chinese costume dramas

The shelf Chinese costume dramas holds thirteen dramas of the empires, the martial worlds and the immortals of China, from 1986 to 2026, and with 752 episodes it is the longest shelf of the guide after Hong Kong and the Philippines. Its most voted is Princess Agents, of 2017, for Hunan Television, a slave girl who becomes a warrior and a spy in the wars of the Western Wei, 67 episodes with about 230 votes. The best rated are My Own Swordsman, of 2006, for CCTV-8, the comic adventures of the staff of an inn of the martial world, rated 8.9, and Nirvana in Fire, of 2015, a strategist who returns under a new name to clear the name of his family, rated 8.8, followed by The Untamed, of 2019, for Tencent Video, two young cultivators who solve a mystery across sixteen years, rated 8.6.

The palace dramas of the shelf are Empresses in the Palace, of 2011, the rise of a concubine at the court of the Yongzheng Emperor, 76 episodes rated 8.5, one of the great successes of Chinese television; Joy of Life, of 2019, a man of today reborn as the son of a minister of an imaginary empire, still returning, and Pursuit of Jade, of 2026, the newest of the shelf. The fantasies of the immortals, called xianxia, give it Love Between Fairy and Devil, of 2022, a fairy and a demon lord whose fates are bound together, rated 8.2; Eternal Love, of 2017, three lives of love between a goddess and a prince; Till The End of The Moon, of 2023, and Word of Honor, of 2021, two swordsmen of the martial world. Legend of Zang Hai, of 2025, a young man who hides his identity to avenge his family, and the oldest drama of the shelf, the Journey to the West of 1986, for CCTV, the Monkey King and his three companions on the road to India, complete it. The guide Chinese costume dramas follows the shelf.

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines

The third family, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines, holds the dramas of four countries that each have a style of their own: the idol dramas and thrillers of Taiwan, the long series of TVB in Hong Kong, the romances and dark tales of Thailand and the daily series of the Philippines. Its 52 dramas carry about 4,300 votes, with an average rating of 7.76, and its most voted are Girl from Nowhere, 2 Good 2 Be True, Love By Chance and KinnPorsche. The guide Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines sums up the family.

Taiwanese dramas

The shelf Taiwanese dramas holds thirteen dramas of Taiwan from 1998 to 2023, and five of them were made for Netflix. Its most voted is Copycat Killer, of 2023, a prosecutor of Taipei on the trail of a killer who plays with the media, with about 110 votes. The best rated is Someday or One Day, of 2019, a young woman who travels back to 1998 in the body of a girl she resembles, after the death of her boyfriend, rated 9.0, one of the best rated dramas of the guide, followed by The World Between Us, of 2019, for HBO Asia and PTS, the families of the victims and of the killer after a mass shooting, rated 8.6, and Wave Makers, of 2023, the staff of a presidential campaign, at 8.3.

The idol dramas of Taiwan are here too: It Started With a Kiss, of 2005, the Taiwanese version of the manga Itazura na Kiss, and Love Me Or Leave Me, of 2012. My Fair Princess, of 1998, the oldest of the shelf, a costume comedy of the Qing court made with China, ran for 192 episodes. Netflix gave the shelf Light the Night, of 2021, the hostesses of a bar of Taipei in the 1980s; The Victims' Game, of 2020, a forensic photographer with Asperger syndrome; Detention, of 2020, the horror of a school under martial law, from a video game, and Shards of Her, of 2022. We Best Love, of 2021, and HIStory, of 2017, are romances between young men, the genre of Thailand that Taiwan also made. The guide Taiwanese dramas follows the shelf.

Hong Kong dramas

The shelf Hong Kong dramas holds thirteen dramas of Hong Kong from 1983 to 2026, and twelve of them come from TVB Jade, the great channel of the city, which for decades made the series watched by Chinese viewers around the world. It holds 3,469 episodes, because its most voted drama is a daily sitcom, Come Home Love: Lo and Behold, of 2017, the Hung family across 2,868 episodes. The adaptations of the martial novels of Jin Yong are its classics: The Legend of the Condor Heroes, of 1983, with Felix Wong and Barbara Yung, the oldest drama of the guide; The Condor Heroes 95, of 1995; The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, of 1997, rated 8.3, and The Duke of Mount Deer, of 1998, with Jordan Chan as the trickster Wei Xiaobao, rated 8.2.

The best rated drama of the shelf is War and Beauty, of 2004, the concubines of the Qing palace, rated 9.1 by its voters. The others are A Step Into The Past, of 2001, a policeman of Hong Kong sent back to the Warring States; The Greed of Man, of 1992, two families ruined by the stock market, rated 8.0; Gods of Honour, of 2001, and the Journey to the West of 1996, the version of TVB of the Monkey King. The new century gives Line Walker, of 2014, the undercover police of Hong Kong; The QUEEN of News, of 2023, the anchors of a news channel, and Sammy's Children's Day, of 2026, the newest. The guide Hong Kong dramas follows the shelf.

Thai dramas

The shelf Thai dramas holds thirteen dramas of Thailand from 2018 to 2024, and it is the best rated shelf of the guide, with an average of 8.41 and nine dramas rated 8 or more. Six of them come from GMM 25, the channel that made Thailand the capital of the romance between young men, the dramas called BL. Its most voted is Girl from Nowhere, of 2018, for GMM 25 and then Netflix, a mysterious student who appears at a new school in each episode to expose its lies and cruelties, with about 970 votes and an 8.5. The best rated is The Loyal Pin, of 2024, a romance between a princess and the young woman she loves in the Thailand of the past, rated 9.6, the best rated drama of the guide, ahead of GAP, of 2022, the first great romance between two women of Thai television, at 9.0.

The romances between young men fill the rest of the shelf: Love By Chance, of 2018, two students brought together by an accident; 2gether: The Series, of 2020, the fake relationship that became real and a phenomenon across Asia during the pandemic; TharnType, of 2019; Bad Buddy, of 2021, two sons of rival families, rated 8.4; Love in the Air, of 2022; Cutie Pie, of 2022, and A Tale of Thousand Stars, of 2021, a young man who becomes a teacher in a village of the mountains, rated 8.7. KinnPorsche: The Series, of 2022, adds the gangsters of a mafia family, rated 8.8, and F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, of 2021, the Thai version of the manga, also at 8.8. School Tales the Series, of 2022, for Netflix, tells the ghost stories of the schools of Thailand. The guide Thai dramas follows the shelf.

Philippine dramas

The shelf Philippine dramas holds thirteen dramas of the Philippines from 2015 to 2025, the teleseryes broadcast every weekday evening by ABS-CBN, GMA and TV5, and with 3,828 episodes it is the longest shelf of the guide. Its longest drama is Brothers, of 2015, known at home as Ang Probinsyano, the police officer from the provinces who takes the place of his murdered twin brother in Manila, with Coco Martin, nine seasons and more than 2,000 episodes; Coco Martin also stars in Batang Quiapo, of 2023, a young man of the streets of Manila, still returning after nearly 800 episodes. The most voted is 2 Good 2 Be True, of 2022, the love of a caretaker and a young heir, with Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, with about 260 votes, and the best rated is The Jewel of Section E, of 2025, a student of a class for the troublemakers, rated 8.4.

The rest of the shelf shows the variety of the teleserye. Dirty Linen, of 2023, maids who take revenge on a rich family; The Iron Heart, of 2022, the action series of a secret agent; Voltes V: Legacy, of 2023, for GMA, the live-action version of the Japanese robot cartoon loved in the Philippines; Pulang Araw, of 2024, the Philippines under the Japanese occupation of the Second World War; Pieces of Paradise, of 2023; Luv Is, of 2023, a romance of students, and two romances between young men of YouTube, Gameboys, of 2020, and Like In The Movies, of 2020. High (School) On Sex, of 2022, a series for adults about the sex lives of students, completes it. The guide Philippine dramas follows the shelf.

Manga, webtoons and novels

Many dramas of the guide began on paper or on a screen of a phone. The Japanese manga gave the region its most travelled story, Hana Yori Dango, and the guide many more: Alice in Borderland, Kakegurui, Death Note, Yu Yu Hakusho, Gannibal and It Started With a Kiss, the Taiwanese version of Itazura na Kiss. The Korean webtoon, the comic made to be read by scrolling on a phone, is the great source of the 2020s: True Beauty, Sweet Home, All of Us Are Dead, Weak Hero, Love Alarm, Marry My Husband and Death's Game all began as webtoons, and Business Proposal as a web novel, so that their readers became their first viewers, while Extraordinary Attorney Woo was written for television and later became a webtoon itself.

The Chinese web novel is the source of the costume dramas. The Untamed comes from the novel of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Joy of Life from the novel of Mao Ni, Nirvana in Fire from the novel of Hai Yan, and Hidden Love from a romance of Zhu Yi; the novels of the immortals, written in hundreds of chapters online, became the long xianxia of iQiyi, Tencent and Youku. The classic novels have their place too: Journey to the West, one of the four great classical novels of China, appears twice, in the version of CCTV of 1986 and in the version of TVB of 1996, and the martial novels of Jin Yong give Hong Kong its Condor Heroes and its Duke of Mount Deer. Three-Body adapts the science fiction of Liu Cixin, and the Japanese 1 Litre of Tears the real diary of Aya Kito. The guide From page to screen follows these sources.

The stars of the dramas

The great actors of Korea move from shelf to shelf. Lee Min-ho is the rich heir of Boys Over Flowers in 2009 and of The Heirs in 2013, and the king of a parallel world in The King: Eternal Monarch; Kim Soo-hyun the alien of My Love from the Star, the king of Moon Embracing the Sun and the caretaker of the tvN drama of 2020 about a writer of fairy tales; Park Seo-jun the vain boss of What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, the first love of She Was Pretty and a warrior of Hwarang. Song Kang appears in three dramas of fantasy, Love Alarm, Sweet Home and My Demon; Lee Do-hyun in Sweet Home, The Glory and Hotel Del Luna; Kwak Dong-yeon in Vincenzo, Big Mouth and Love in the Moonlight, and Lee Sang-yi in Bloodhounds, My Demon and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. In Taiwan, Hsu Wei-ning appears in four dramas of the shelf, from It Started With a Kiss of 2005 to Shards of Her of 2022. The guide The stars lists them all.

The writers

In Korea the writer is often the true author of a drama, and Kim Eun-sook is the great name of the guide, with four dramas on three shelves: The Heirs, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, Mr. Sunshine and The Glory, from the romance of rich students to the long revenge of a bullied girl; two of them, Guardian and Mr. Sunshine, were directed by Lee Eung-bok, who also directed her Descendants of the Sun. Park Ji-eun wrote My Love from the Star and Crash Landing on You, two of the great successes of the Korean wave; Yeon Sang-ho, the director of the zombie film Train to Busan, made Hellbound for Netflix in Korea and Human Vapor in Japan, and Yoo In-sik directed Vagabond and Extraordinary Attorney Woo. In Thailand the writer MAME created three of the romances of the shelf, Love By Chance, TharnType and Love in the Air. The guide The creators follows them.

The networks

Netflix is the first network of 32 dramas of the guide, from Squid Game and Kingdom in Korea to Alice in Borderland in Japan and Copycat Killer in Taiwan, the sign of how much the service invested in Asia after 2016. The Korean cable channel tvN follows with sixteen, from Guardian to Crash Landing on You and Alchemy of Souls, then TVB Jade with thirteen, all the dramas of Hong Kong but one plus My Fair Princess, and the Korean networks MBC with eight, SBS with seven and KBS2 with five. Japan's TBS has six and Thailand's GMM 25 six. The guide The networks lists them all.

WatchAsian in figures

The 156 dramas of the guide carry about 79,000 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 7.99, and 92 of them are rated 8 or more; the collection Rated 8 or more gathers those with at least twenty votes, best first, from The Loyal Pin at 9.6 to GAP and Someday or One Day at 9.0. The most voted are Squid Game, with about 17,900 votes, All of Us Are Dead, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, Alice in Borderland, True Beauty and Love Alarm. Together the dramas hold 223 seasons and about 10,400 episodes; the longest is the daily sitcom of Hong Kong, Come Home Love: Lo and Behold, with 2,868 episodes, and the Philippine Brothers follows with more than 2,000.

By the decade of their first episode, the guide holds two dramas of the 1980s, six of the 1990s, eleven of the 2000s, 47 of the 2010s and ninety of the 2020s; the collection Before 2010 gathers the nineteen oldest, from The Legend of the Condor Heroes of 1983 to Midnight Diner of 2009. By language, 52 dramas are in Korean, 39 in Mandarin, 26 in Japanese, thirteen each in Thai, Tagalog and Cantonese. The guide The figures gathers every number.

Where to begin

For a first evening, take one drama from each family: Crash Landing on You or Squid Game for Korea, Alice in Borderland or Meteor Garden for Japan and China, and Girl from Nowhere or Someday or One Day for the other countries. Then follow your mood: Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and Hotel Del Luna for fantasy, Kingdom and Mr. Queen for the palaces of Joseon, Nirvana in Fire and Empresses in the Palace for the courts of China, 1 Litre of Tears for tears, Rebooting for a second chance at life and 2gether: The Series for the romances of Thailand. The guide Start with WatchAsian gives a first route.

How to use WatchAsian

The home page opens with an introduction in a white block under the teal navigation bar and the board Drama List, opened by a yellow tab, with the twelve shelves in three columns, one per family, each with a small label of its family in teal, yellow or grey. Each row is a white block with a yellow tab for its title over a teal line and a View more link, which opens the full shelf. The menu in the header leads to the three families, and the search box finds any drama by its title; the guide Search tips explains how.

Each poster shows the year of the first episode on a teal tag, the TMDB rating on a yellow tag and, on a dark band at the bottom, the tag of its shelf, for example K-romance or Thailand; under the poster come the title, the first genre and the number of episodes. The drama page has the English synopsis, the creators, the cast, the network and the list of episodes. The Watch now button opens the drama on JustWatch, which shows the services that offer it in your country, and the button Add to My List keeps it in My list, stored in your browser. The guide How to use WatchAsian explains each part, and the guide The Watch now button explains how JustWatch works.

Questions