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[Beanie Recs] Feel-good fantasy?


Ahoy, Beanies! It’s time to gather your collective genius for a recommendation series that features you and your drama knowledge. We’ll drop a drama conundrum and leave it up to you to provide a drama rec, and the appropriate rationale behind it, be it long or short.
 

Even though I don’t count myself a fantasy fan, after reading the K-Movie Night review, I watched Miss Granny and I loved it. Now I’m super excited for the upcoming drama rendition. But since we still have a few weeks to go, I’m looking for something similar to hold me over. What are some other feel-good fantasies that are worth the watch?


Have a very particular drama itch that needs scratching? In need of a Beanie Rec? Email us at hello @ dramabeans.com and we’ll feature your topic in a future post.
 
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Mystic pop up bar.
I love me a good fantasy but I haven’t yet come across one that I’d like to rewatch multiple times (or even at all) This one checks the boxes though.

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Oh wait. Does go back couple count as fantasy?

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Splish Splash Love (actually listed on Viki as Splash Splash Love) is a classic, short, feel-good time-travel drama about an unsuccessful student who goes back in time and learns about life, history and love, first-hand. It's a high-school drama and one needn't ask too much of it.

I'll totally second Mystic Pop-up Bar here too. There are some bumps on the way to the feel-good, but for me, that's the best kind of feel-good, an earned one.

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I'm watching Mystic right now! And it's funny and mostly light, and even the sadder parts are handled with hope and the promise of a satisfying resolution. (I'm gonna be SO MAD if that's not how the main story works out in the end.)

I guess a lot depends on your definition of "feel-good" and of "fantasy." A fantasy-genre show that takes you on a prolonged white-knuckle, bumpy flight and barely touches down at the end with a (sort of) happy ending for (some of) its characters - is that "feel-good" in the way the post suggests? Is a show with a light futurist/sci-fi touch but otherwise grounded in current reality a fantasy? Especially if it spends most of its time on suspense, tragedy, frequent violence, or murder? These recommendation posts often end up with people listing their favorite shows with barely a nod to what was requested, which is fun for the commenters but hardly helpful for the person who asked the original question. The Miss Granny example gives an idea of what they were looking for and is about as far from, say, W - Two Worlds (which I love beyond reason, but yikes!) or Tomorrow (which I mostly enjoyed but which has suicide as its consistent theme) as a show can get. Buyer beware! But no need to beware of Splish Splash Love, which is as sweet and fun as the title suggests.

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I can't help feeling good while rewatching W!! 🤣🤣

But I concede that watching first time needs a Caution sign! 😂 Ok, I'm taking back all my suggestions! I definitely don't know what feel-good means! 😂

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From Now On, Showtime! Never have I ever come across such a fun bunch of ghosts who do magic shows!! 👻

Alchemy of Souls and Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow. An amazing amount of detail and world building. I love almost all characters and hate the villain with passion. Win-win.

The King: Eternal Monarch, again fantastical amount of world building and time slips. If nothing else just watch for the feel-good fantasy that is Lee Min-ho. 😊❤

The Legend of the Blue Sea, just because I want to squeeze in another Lee Min-ho drama and there is nothing more feel-good than him. 😉

The Tale of the Nine-Tailed and Tale of the Nine-Tailed, 1938. Lee Dong-wook, Kim Bum in suits. Nuff said. 😂

See You In My 19th Life, if you don't fall headlong in love with Seo-ha. Check for your heartbeat. Shin Hye-sun's performance is more fiery than her red hair.

Last but certainly not the least Extraordinary You!! 🤩💕 Everything and everyone is beyond adorable. A true blue feel-good fantasy.

Honorable Mentions:

Goblin, it has Gong Yoo and Lee Dong-wook, what is not to love.

Zombie Detective, Choi Jin-hyuk definitely feels good in this one. 😂💪🏻🧟‍♂️

The Atypical Family definitely surprising.

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Goblin as a feel-good fantasy?

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I read through this list and had a similar reaction hahaha! 🤨

I also paused at Alchemy of Souls, but I think mostly because I was expecting all-out tragedy the whole time I was watching it 😅 and not because it didn't also make me feel good!

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Well it made *me* feel good. 🙃😂😉

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Spot on about Alchemy of Souls. The whole time I was scared it might go the Game of Thrones way in killing of supposed MLs. I heaved a sigh of relief at how happily it ended overall for almost everyone. Teacher Lee's (Im Chul Soo) heartbreak notwithstanding. 😭

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LOL, same for both. I’d describe Goblin as completely the opposite of that. Which is fine in its way - and I love the show - but not what the prompt asked for.

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Ditto on Tale of the Nine-tailed 1938. Perfect feel-good camp.

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🖐🏻 *high five* chingu. 😊❤

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This reminds me I have to watch From now on, Showtime!
I wish my life were like a fantasy drama and I could stop time to watch all the shows on my list.

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Or timeslip and watch different dramas each time!!

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Totally agree about Splish Splash Love - an absolute must-see!

I think for me Twinkling Watermelon also fits nicely into this category. There are some heavier sections, but also lots of bromantic pettiness (in a mostly good way) and nostalgic high school feels.

You could also try Strong Woman Do Bong-soon? There is an annoyingly creepy/dark villain in the picture, but the leads are uncompromisingly feel-good and adorable. If you ever decide you're sick of the gangster storyline, you can skip right over those parts and lose nothing relevant.

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Feel-good fantasies are one of my favorite genres:

_ Definitely you have to give a try to Twinkling Watermelon. One of the best fantasy shows.
_ The Best Hit. Somehow it's like the father of Twinkling Watermelon.
_ Hwayugi. Flawed but funny and entertaining.
_ Splash Splash Love and Vivid Romance. Short, light and definitely feel-good.
_ Dog knows everything. In a word: endearing.
_ Meow: Secret boy. Cute and nice. A comfort watch.
_ My Holo Love. With one of the sweetests MLs.

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All wonderful recommendations. 👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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My Holo Love 👌👌👍👍

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One of the rare dramas where it was difficult to choose between the two *ahem* MLs. And I don't mean Chan-sung who I adored in the drama, by the way.

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Is it a fantasy? I guess I thought of it as having some sci-fi elements, but mostly was fairly grounded (for a kdrama hahaha). Still a great drama though.

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Honestly, although I LOVE fantasy/sci-fi, although I grew up on Asimov, Daneel, and Giskard, I rarely ship the unhuman characters, whether robots* or holo. So I was always team Nando!

And Chansung! Omg, the cutest secondary couple! Love love love his role!

* Daneel, is a unique case that has not been repeated in decades...

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⚠️ My Holo Love spoilers ahead:

I was team Holo since the first moment. I wanted Holo to end up (I don't know how, but that's why it's sci-fi/fantasy) in a human body 🥲 (his "brother"'s body, for instance).

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I second Twinkling Watermelon and The Best Hit - both shows have heavier moments, but they also have gloriously delightful ones as well, plus a ton of 90's music nostalgia.

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Dog Knows Everything, how could I forget? A good choice! I really enjoyed the senior actors. And Sophie. 🙂

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Deserving of the Name

Ghost Doctor

Unlock My Boss

May I Help You (Skipping the last case)

Familiar Wife

W

Faith

Arang and the Magistrate

365 Days: Repeat the Year (It's fantasy crime thriller, but not overly dark, depends on how much that makes you feel good!)

Room No. 9 (same as above)

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I considered Live Up to Your Name/Deserving of the Name and May I Help You, but both made me cry on a pretty regular basis, and LUTYN in particular had me straight up ugly sobbing so many times in the last few episodes! I still loved it (it's in my top 10 dramas ever), but I wasn't sure I could call it "feel-good" for me. 😅

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I watch kdramas because they make me cry in the most unexpected wholesome scenarios! It makes me feel so good!! 🥹🤩

On a more serious note, I know what you are saying. If we are interpreting feel-good as completely light and happy, then none of my choices apply. Sorry folks! 😅😅

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I 💯 agree with each and every word of your first paragraph.

Beanies are well-known to twist the prompt as per their interpretation. 😉😂

However in this case I do think feel-good is what makes "us" feel good because fantasies are rarely known to be completely light and happy. Not even fairy tales are that. 🙃🙈

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Lol at interpretation 😂👌

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Also considering the prompt mentioned Miss Granny, it can *cough* perhaps be difficult to categorize it as feel-good. 🙃😅🙈

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😄😅

In the end it truly comes down to what makes whom feel good.

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💯💯💯 To each his/ her own.

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Ha, it really depends how we interpret feel-good. 😄 Because although I like many dramas from your list, none is exactly feel-good for me. 😄😄

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I like fantasy fueled by heartache and regret!

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I agree, so many of my "feel-good fantasy" picks are tinged with a good dose of "what-if's". I mean, for me the heart of fantasy is getting to go back in time to "correct" some things. I'm not really interested in fluffy fantasy, but fantasy with purpose - man, that stuff gets me.

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Right??

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A good, actually excellent fantasy drama which made me cry buckets even more than May I Help You was Tomorrow. Midnight totally agree with skipping the last case. All your other recommendations are top-notch. 👌🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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* are "also" top-notch. 😅

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That's why I have not included it, because it made me cry so much. (And I don't cry easily watching dramas/movies).

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I agree with Mystic Pop-up Bar (I really enjoyed that one!) and Twinkling Watermelon (with a little warning that one has to first plough through the first episodes to get to the feel-good stuff).
And if Go Back Couple counts, a big yes as well. 💕

Adding
- Hello, Me
- Queen Cheorin (aka Mr. Queen)
- Crash Landing On You (because sadly, that was still a fantasy)

(And if I may sneak in a cdrama, The Romance of Tiger and Rose 🙂)

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I LOVE Go Back Couple, because it introduced me to Son Ho Joon, because Choi Ban Do is one of the loveliest most tangible male characters ever written, and because of his storyline with his mother-in-law.

But, the fl character makes me raging mad angry. I want to shake her every time I rewatch it. I know it's the writer's fault, not her fault, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

All that rant just to explain why I can never recommend it as a feel-good sweet show.

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Not a kdrama, but LOST ROMANCE would be my feel-good fantasy drama recommendation. Good comedy, fun romance, spunky and savvy FL, and a really swoony Marcus Cheng as the ML (or both MLs, depending on how you look at it).

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Mr. Queen, except you need to fan fic the ending; the chef stays with his King and they live happily for many years. The soul of the queen comes up from the pool, and there's a whole new season about her. She learns to live as a handsome, strong man in our time - after some beginner's difficulties she can't believe that life can be that easy. She can't cook, but she's a master embroiderer, and even if some few people in this time are as good as her , they are just women, and as a man she gets much more attention and everybody are in awe of her and she gets TV-shows and what not.

A good day to be a dog ... ending with episode 8.
My Love from the Star - except for the murders and betrayals
Mystic Pop Up Bar
Strong Girl/Woman Bong-soo - except for the kidnapper. I have not problem with the gangster scenes , even if they are vulgar.
With reservations again for the violence and well, bad things;
See you in my 19th Life, and
Doom at your Service.
My Demon? No, probably not, there's too much evil and sadness ... but there are some very happy moments along the way.
Zombie Detective
Atypical Family - at least in the end. It's pretty sombre from the beginning.
I am not sure about Extraordinary You - would those of you who've seen it say it ends happily enough to be feel-good?

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Imo, Extraordinary You had too many angst moments to be considered a feel-good drama. Or maybe I remember those moments more than the light ones.
The happy ending was more bittersweet than sweet, but I liked it.

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For a similar body switching theme in a movie format and the Christmas movie "Switch" (2023) is right up your alley. It has some of the best movie dialogue and ending I've seen in Korean movies (or any movies). Light but with depth, witty, funny, thought-provoking, tinged with just a bit of bittersweet. You're going to love it.
Feel good fantasy dramas with depth: Come Back Mister, Missing: The Other Side I & II, Tunnel, Marry My Husband, Rooftop Prince, Master's Sun, Yume Wo Kanaeru Zo, Hello Francesca. Of these, I would recommend Come Back Mister first because it's a relatively lesser known K-drama gem in the fantasy genre. It aired at the same time as the Song-Song drama but was the much better watch (at least for me)

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