Joo Dan-tae (Um Ki-joon) (The Penthouse: War in Life, all three seasons)

Lady Park from Matchmakers. I love a good villain with well-fleshed-out motivations you can understand, and even empathize with.

Lady Mishil from Queen Seondeok.

There is no villain that smexy that makes me watch the entire drama, but there are villains that send a shiver down my spine everytime they are on screen. It's Jung Hyunsoo in Suspicious Partner and Min Joongook in I hear your voice.

Jayden Lee in Doctor Lawyer
I don't know if this counts Lee Rang in TONT

Park Hee-soon in My Name is the smexy villain who you wind up watching the entire drama for. He was the only reason to watch My Name.

The last villain to leave me breathless with awe and angst was Park Sung Woong in Bloodhounds. He completely embodied that evil character. He was relentless and scary!

Lee Chung-ah in My Dearest was SO, SO ANNOYING. I literally wanted to strangle her, and I haven't felt like that about a character in a long while... so I guess she did her job well.

Jeong Bo-seok - Giant
- Probably the greatest Kdrama villian of all time

Other great ones:
Kim Joo Young - Sky Castle
Baek Hee Sung - Flower of Evil
Mo Tae Gu - Voice 1
Lee Jung-hye - Perfect Marriage Revenge

Jo Yeo Jeong when she plays an intense, scary and dangerous woman. In MS. PERFECT she discretely played a friendly sociopath to perfection. In BABYSITTER, she is a humiliated wife of an adulterer whose calm mental state masks a scary rage for revenge. Even in CHEAT ON ME IF YOU CAN, her demeanor was like a cold blood killer staring you in the eyes. In all three shows, her character was completely different but the vibe was the same.

Lee Hyuk in The Last Empress. The villain who stole my kdramaheart.

Mishil from Queen Seondeok remains my hands-down pick in this category, although other favorites include Jo Pil Yun (Jeong Bo Seok) in Giant and Oh Seung Ha (Joo Ji Hoon) in The Devil. Without giving spoilers I'll also say that Forest of Secrets season 1 and Pied Piper have exceptionally nuanced and well-acted villains as well.

Haechi managed to make me feel sorry for the villian! It also had me unsure if a villainous character was, in fact, villainous. It made for a really interesting watch. Then there are all the k-drama bad boys that end up sweet at the end (Boys Over Flowers archetype). They are often pretty villainous at the start.

Ooh, now this is a fun topic!

Ahn Oh Joo (Choi Min Soo) on Lawless Lawyer is one of my all time faves. His character is so campy and fun with his 70’s Vegas lounge singer vibe.

And then there is Jeong Seo Min (Song Ha Yoon) from Marry My Husband whose self delusion and manipulation is so well hidden under that act of innocence that she’s scary!

Lee Dong Gun's Yeonsangun in Queen for Seven Days

Kim Yeong Chul's Prince Suyang in The Princess Man

Jang Hyuk's Yi Bang Won in The Country: The New Age. Was he even the villain?

Kim Bum's Lee Rang in Tale of the Nine Tailed - I just cant hate him even if be does whatever to his brother.

Hands down, Shin Sung Rok in You From Another Star. Because I was literally scared of him there, which I think did not happen with any other villain in a K-drama for me, ever. Yes, there are flat and boring villains, cartoonish villains, so-annoying/eeevil-that-you-want-to-rip their-head-out villains, smexy villains, sympathetic and/or nuanced villains, and my second favorite type: the almost-antihero, Loki-like villains (often overlapping with the smexy category), but none of those ever made me want to hide behind my pillow while watching. P.S. Second place: Lady Park from the Matchmakers, because that was the most nuanced and true-to-life villain persona I have ever seen in a drama.

I don't like plain villains, so this is a difficult question.

I'd say Mishil (Queen Seon Deok) because her charisma was outstanding.

Is Baek Yi Hyun (Yoon Shi Yoon) in The Nokdu Flower a villain? I'm not sure yet. But it was an easily hateable character. His evolution was really painful to watch.

Very different cases are the funny characters played by Son Ho Jun in My Secret Terrius or Lee Jun Ho in Chief Kim.

And the character played by Park Hoon in Memories of The Alhambra was so creepy.

Thinking about Chinese dramas, Joy of Life has some great villains.

Mishil (Go Hyun-jung) in Queen Seondeok. Every moment of watching her sashay on the screen was either a learning moment for me or me just stunned to silence at the way she exercised herself in the Shilla court.

I love a villain who knows how to count their losses, take a win, take a loss, and most importantly, teach the protagonist something in the art of war. Mishil fulfilled all these categories to the perfect sense - dotting her i's and crossing her t's. There was no dulling moment with Mishil.

Honorable Mentions

Won Sang-ah(Uhm Ji-won) and Park Jae-sang(Uhm Ki-joon) in Little Women. They are also my favorite villain couple.
Shin Sung-ruk : You From Another Star, The King's Face.
I'll have to dedicate a paragraph to this honorable mention...
Jung Nan-jung (Park Joo-mi) in The Flower in Prison. Something sets her in the same rank as Lady Park in The Matchmakers, another villain worth mentioning, yet sets her distinct from Lady Park. While Lady Park had to step into the spotlight as the story unfolded, Jung Nan-jung was always in the spotlight. Never in the background, but ever spearheading the affairs of her clan in broad daylight. So distinguished Jung Nan-jung is, her name is etched in Korean history as one of the prominent women, ranked alongside politically active queens and empresses of Goryeo and Joseon.

Lady Park in the Matchmakers> Because she was a nuanced villain. She had good sides like her love for her family and bad sides like her ambition.

Choi Min-Soo in any drama like Warrior Baek Dong-so or Numbers> He's so charismatic!

Eugene Han in Money Game> Again, this character was nuanced and Yoo Teo did a good job in this role.

??? in Nothing to Loose> It was surprising.

Yoon Hyun-Moo in Come and Hug Me> He had a redemption arc and Kim Kyung-nam stole the show in this role.

it's still Ki Cheol from Faith!

A delicious thread! I always felt kdrama is not so good with villains, tending toward caricature and the overly obvious, but there are some standouts. Lee Dong-gun in Queen for Seven Days made me think he wasted his time playing nice guys. Lee Sung-min in Reborn Rich. Kim Min-jung was a fun villain in My Fellow Citizens.

Oh So Min was a truly evil villian. I don't even know what to say about her cause to give compliments feels weird but the actress did such a good job with her.

I honestly feel like she would still be trying to ruin Ji Won's life from prison as well as possible have a hit put on her (in the world beyond the drama).

Min Hwan is also unbelievably disgusting. Again, another good performance and it's weird to compliment him.

It's been a long time but over the years no other drama villain has ever taken my fancy like Ji Se-kwang in Incarnation of Money. Park Sang-min came close to stealing the drama. One blogger started calling it the "Park Sang-min show."

Tagon from Arthdal Chronicles. His story was just so interesting to watch, from his rise as a villain in S1, to his reign and eventual downfall in S2. I think he's just a well-written character in general. He's calculating, and pretty smart I think. He managed to completely fool me in S2 when I thought he'd gone mad, when in reality that was just one of his crazy plans. Even his final desperate plan in S2 was actually pretty smart, and he probably would've succeeded if it wasn't for Taealha coming in to make a deal at the last second. I hate him, but I also love him. Speaking of Taealha, she's an excellent villain too.

Cha Yool-moo played by Kang Tae-oh in THE TALE OF NOKDU.

I think the reason why Yool-moo’s villiany lives rent free in my head, is that I watched this drama after a certain (non-kdrama) ship penetrated the mainstream and I was baffled by its popularity. Look yeah I’m normally a ‘ship and let ship’ kinda person but Yool-moo was such a great deconstruction of the “I can fix him” or “love can cure him” or “he’s just misunderstood and he’s not that bad” type of rational.

(Copying and pasting my previous comment which pretty much sums up my thoughts about Yool-moo)

TALE OF NOKDU not only showed the horrors of unrequited love/abuse from a man who couldn’t take no for an answer, but the drama also didn’t put the onus or burden on the FL Dong-ju to change him. The fact his “love” was never going to override his power hungry ambitions was the whole point.

I don't count these my favorite villains because I don't fall for villains, especially when they are too powerful, and I'd sure never finish a show for a villain. But there have been many villainous characters who have been memorable for one reason or other.

How many villains did Connection have? It was basically a villain ensemble, every single one (minus one) amazingly drawn and acted.

Park Hoo Ja in My Fellow Citizens because she was so dumb but thought she was so smart! 😂

Seo In Woo in Psychopath Diary because of how hilariously he was mistaken at every turn! 😂

Noona in King the Land because she was so understandable she could be the hero of her own story.

Baek Sang Ho in Nobody Knows because the audacity of that man.

Jun because he is too good at it, dammit.

The other ones are spoilers 😄😄

does the White Truck of Doom (tm) count as a villain or just a plot device? lol

Princess Wan Ning (played by Li Meng) from the c-drama *the double* is my favorite one atm. she is so BAD! and then she gloriously spins around leaving everyone confused or seething is amazing lol i def want to see more of this actress in the future!

Hmm, this is a fascinating thread, because one of the great qualities that set one Kdrama better than the other Kdramas lies in its antagonists and how they handle it. The depth of the characters, the delivery/acting from its performers, and the storyline (arc) given to them all matter.

I think I will only mention the ones released this year (2024) as there are too many to count for me in recent memory. Some Netflix originals this year have a unique bunch of antagonists, all of them happen to be female villains:

- Chun Woo Hee as No. 8 in The 8 Show
- Kim Hee-Ae as VP Minister Su-Jin in Whirlwind
- Just watched it tonight, Go Min-Si as the guest in The Frog (I really think she may get nominated/won award for this)

[Tried to make it spoiler-free but I'm not sure]

I like villains who aren't the real real villains, you get me?

Min - Hello Monster: he just wanted his brother's love and attention. 😭 His methods are questionable (no shit tabong), but he was confused about what's good and what's bad, okay?? 😭😭
Seon Ah - The Devil Judge: she was the most relatable (and least self righteous) character in that show. She just got a little twisted after having to suffer all the toxic traits of our patriarchal society.
The dad - W: this poor ahjussi just wanted to make a living. 😭😂
Lee Rang - Tale of the 9 Tailed: I'll defend my boys with hyung issues till the end, okay?
Yong Tae Terius Behind Me & Jaden The Kidnapping Day: villains have no business being that hilarious.

Honorable mention to:
—The villains I don't skip. Those characters that I wanted to punch but they actually made the show interesting. Like in cool sageuks, dramas and makjangs: Sky Castle, Nobody Knows, Life on Mars, Happiness, Six Flying Dragons, Payback, Black, etc.
—Those villains you don't know who they are. I love it when they keep you guessing! Like right now with Perfect Family.

Maybe I should also give a shout-out to Eun-delulu from QoT. His nicknames became the most interesting part of the show at some point.

Without spoiling the show - the villain, from Blind still makes my heart hurt because of his story and his background. I swear I was always rooting for him, till the end.

Alchemy of Souls also had some fun villains, especially, Jin Mu, Lady Jin, and the Shaman in the queen's body. They were all epic and had their moments where they took center stage and I hated them with a passion!

Ok Eul-tae (Lee Joon) in Bulgasal, the tormented immortal Dark Hole. My view of him kept changing, with the final understanding that he was just as much a victim as everyone else.

Kim Hye-Ri, evil mother in law extraordinaire. Mediocre villains just stress you out and make you depressed. Sometimes the acting is just bad and painful to watch. But it's impossible to not fall in love with Kim Hye-Ri at the same she's unleashing destruction and plotting to take over the world because she is so watchable and so charismatic. She is so natural and earthy. It's like she was born to play villains lol. Out of all the dramas I have watched, her soulful and fiery performance as the villain in The Promise made the strongest impression on me. As a wanna be director, she would be the first one I'd call for a villainess role.
And then there's that actor that plays gangsters with a big wide smile. I can't remember his name or the dramas he was in, but he is the rare villain with joie de vivre. Most villains don't exactly look happy, but he is just killing people and ruining lives left and right with exuberance. You almost forget he's the bad guy and start rooting for him. I remember a Beanie mentioned that this actor happens to be their daughter-in-law's uncle. Yes, the most random things I can remember but not his name...
And then I also remember being impressed by the casting and acting of the villains in Through the Darkness. Usually the villains in crime shows are not that great, but in this drama they were very well chosen and their performances were above average.

The real villain of Class of Lies. I'm not going to name the character to avoid giving spoilers. Still my most favorite villain for kdrama.
Shin Sungrok in Liar Game was fantastic as well. So was the villain from Forest of Secrets season 1.
I'm not sure about this, but can the game itself in Memories of Alhambra be considered villain?

Favorite male villian: Kim, Kang woo as Chae Do Woo in A Story of a Man. Favorite female villain: Park Si Yeon as Han Jae Hee in the Innocent Man.

Some vilains made such an impression that the actors had another chance to play psychopath : Mo Tae Goo (Kim Jae wook) in Voice 1 and Jung Gyu Chul in Death's game where he faced Park Tae Woo (Kim Ji hoon).

Kang Do Yeong (Shin Sung Rok) of Liar game was chilling. As with Joo Hyun Gi (Choi won Young) in Mad dog we could never predic where, and if, he will stop crossing the line. Same for Baek Sung Mi (Cha Ji Yeon) in Taxi driver.

Baek Hyun Jin has so often a role of despicable humain that the real surprise for me would be a decent character, opposite Oh Joo Hyeong of Happiness.

The effect is similar with Uhm Ki Joon, who I saw first as Cha Sun Ho in Defendant.

I cannot not cite Seo Do Young (Kim Young Kwang) in Evil live. Fascinating as Jung Seon A (Kim Min Jung) in The devil judge.

A character that I truly despite is Baek Tae Min (Kwak Shi Yang) in Chicago typewriter.

I'm a bit surprised to see no mention of Jang Jun Woo (Ok Taec Yeon) of Vincenzo yet. He is my friend's favorite villain.

I fully agree with the comical frustration of Seo In woo (Park Sung Hoon) in Psychopath diary and the hero-to-villain grand descent of Tagon (Jang Dong Gun) and Tae Al Ha (Kim Ok Bin) in Arthdal chronicles.

Taealha from Arthdal Chronicles. She is beauty, broken, strong, ruthless, cunning and strong.

Jin Yang-Cheol in Reborn Rich. Another iconic performance from the inimitable Lee Sung-Min.

@isaloveasia already mentioned Jin Yong-Tae (Son Ho Jun) in My Secret Terrius and Seo Yool (Lee Jun Ho) in Chief Kim. I've heard of villains you love to hate, but these are two villains you love to love. 💕

Without a doubt, TaecYeon in Vincenzo.

Choi Siwon is once again starring in a comedy, what a coincidence given this question because a case can be made that his best role was as the ML in MY FELLOW CITIZENS. Part of what made that show shine was its villainess Park Hooja. It is rare when a villain is actually fun, but she managed to do it.

Two of the best villains:
Kimura Shunji in Bridal Mask (Gaksital), who starts out so adorable and sweet and turns so evil. He and the male lead were on opposite arcs with the male lead going from bad to good while his best friend Kimura Shunji went from good to evil.

Prince Su Yang in The Princess's Man - a great 3 dimensional character - shown as a loving husband and father who was willing to destroy anyone standing between him and the throne.

Uhm Ji-Won’s villainess in Little Women.

Lady Park - The Matchmakers. Fabulously fleshed out and surprisingly human.
Oh Joo-Hyeong - Happiness. He makes Evil seem like an angel with a halo.
Park Yeon Jin - The Glory
No Yul Seong - The Queen of Divorce

Most vile villain: Min-hwan and Soo-min (Marry My Husband), for being the most vile, vicious, toxic and evil.
Most honorable villain: Lady Park (The Matchmakers) She means well, she has an entire set of good reasons and good intentions, and that's what she paves her path to hell with.
Cutest villain: You know it's Taec Yeon in "Vincenco". Until he gets into the "Goriest villain" category.
Scariest villain: Do Min-seok (Flower of Evil) made my blood freeze when he appeared as a hallucination.
Chicest villain: Go Yang-hee (My Sweet Mobster), because noone wears Chanel like that.

Ryu Shi-o from Strong Girl Nam Soon is the only villain for whom I watched the entire drama for.

And I think Kim Min-jung was great as the calculating villain - Jeong Seon-a from The Devil Judge and an amusing one - Park Hoo-ja from My Fellow Citizens.

Yoo Yeon Seok/Dong Mae in Mr Sunshine

Tricky one, but if I limit myself to 2023 K-dramas, I'd say Kim Hae-sook in Revenant. She was the recluse villain with a hefty responsibility in the plot. More to the point, I don't think a character not as morally black as her would have been able in the brief moments before death to self-mutilate in the sheer effort to harm a spirit. This is the level of pettiness that I expect from a true villain.

Also she does have a formidable phone scream in one scene, which will forever remain my new way to get rid of importuning callers (also works wonders with Jehovah's witnesses at the door)

I can't say I really like villains - characters with no moral bottom line - but some of the villains who have impressed me most are:

The wicked stepmother in 'The K2'

The psychopath in 'Defendant'

The entire cast of villains in 'Awaken' - what a chilling bunch!

Royal Inspector and Joy has this guy, who slits throats without even blinking. But ... when he looks with an open face at you ... as his co-villain says, "so sincere" ... it is just hard to remember that he slit that nice person's throat. I was absolutely mezmerised by him and so wanted some redemption for him, as things moved along.
More than half of my gifs for that show ended up being about him, and it turns out @sicarius long before me had fallen for him and given him the nickname "Bead Boy".
The villain behind the villain was the one who made him like that, but I won't spoil the whole thing.
I have giffed a lot here: https://www.dramabeans.com/members/CecilieDK/activity/1546606/
I liked the OTP well enough in the beginning, but honestly, toward the end they behaved like *-holes towards some other people in very vulnerable positions, when they wouldn't have had to.

In Nam-soon, Ryoh - Beyon Woo Seok as seen in the illustration for this category - also ended being the most interesting about the show, and if anyone ever deserved a redemption arc, he did. More than in the inspector show, all my gifs ended up being about him, because everything else in that show was different degrees of horrible.
Here is my Grease Fantasy of the Bad Boy becoming Good and Getting the Girl:
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/CecilieDK/activity/1475462/
And here are some of the many many gifs about him:
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/CecilieDK/activity/1489015/

I actually made an account so that I could gush about Kang Tae Oh as Yoolmu in the Tale of Nokdu. I became his fan after watching him in Extraordinary Attorney Woo and then started watching all of his projects. The story of Yoolmu is fascinating because at first his story was meh - I actually wondered how could they waste his talents on portraying a smitten nobleman who likes to cook. Then, the way he revealed himself as the mastermind behind the coup was just WOW! If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here at min 21:33:

https://youtu.be/i4LtInIiS9Y?si=-_OOsrnYUKaZo73_

I have never ever fallen for a villain before. But the way Tae Oh portrayed Yoolmu made you wanna smack him then hug him. He was never the one dimensional typical villains you see on kdramas. All he wanted was to be loved or at least liked, by Dong Ju. It made me wonder if he would’ve turned out differently, since there’s a saying in Korean that history is made at night, which alludes to women controlling men in bed and thus rewriting history. Probably not, but every time Yoolmu would be on this murderous spree, and then instantly soften as soon as Dong Ju was in the picture, just made me wonder.

I have never seen such a sexy, manly yet soft, despicable yet understandable, villain before. I wanted to strangle him then turn around and hug him the next instant. And that to me, makes the best villain.

Ah this.... Let's tick every box shall we?

First, evil just because:
1. Lee Jae Kyung from My Love From Another Star (dude literally killed his brother and girlfriend like they were flies dropping in his honey. Made me pay attention to him)
2. Gu Jun Pyo's mum from Boys Over Flowers (that woman... I mean, the F4 were afraid of her. Enough said)
3. The main villain in Gu Family Book (can't count how many times I wanted to climb into my TV and smack him!)
4. Lee Sang Min's character in While You Were Sleeping (that guy... Sigh 😪😒)

The conflicted villain:
1. That b#$&@th Oh Sena from Rooftop Prince (I hated her but I understood her)
2. Lee Se Young's character from Boys Over Flowers (Hated but understood)
3. Lee Min Hwa in Moon Embracing the Sun (sigh... A selfish eleven year old killed her brother's wife)
4. Ki Cheol and his goons from Faith (ah, an annoying but understandable bunch. That prince character that tried to marry Eun Soo and poisoned her was more evil to me)

The smexy (yes babe 😍):
1. Park Hee Soon in My Name (come on, come on 🙈)
2-4. Gwi in Scholar Who Walks the Night (I fell hard!)