August 2024 is packed with many exciting new K-dramas spanning a wide range of genres, from romantic-comedies to thrillers. Kicking things off this month is Bad Memory Eraser, in which a failed athlete erases his painful past only to wind up with false memories of his psychiatrist being his first love.
Other upcoming K-drama rom-coms in August 2024 include No Gain No Love starring Shin Min-a and Kim Young-dae and the drama adaptation of popular webtoon Cinderella at 2AM. Meanwhile, Love Next Door sees a pair of feuding childhood friends reunite in adulthood.
Those in search for more melodramatic can look forward to Love Andante, in which a South Korean pianist and North Korean pharmacist form an unlikely romance in a post-war peace village, as well as the second season of AppleTV+’s Pachinko.
Fans of action and thrills should stay tuned for Disney+ original The Tyrant, which chronicles the hunt for a bioweapon created by the government. Netflix is also set to premiere The Frog, which follows two motel owners in different timeless as they experience strange happenings.
Here’s all the upcoming K-dramas premiering in August 2024 on Netflix, Disney+ and more
Bad Memory Eraser
This romantic-comedy revolves around promising tennis player Lee Goon (played by Kim Jae-joon), who sustains a career-ending injury. His life and self-esteem take a nosedive as a result, and he winds up at rock bottom. With nothing to lose, he takes a gamble with a memory erasing procedure, and is reborn with newfound confidence.
Jin Se-yeon plays neuropsychiatrist Kyung Joo-yeon, who unintentionally becomes Lee Goon’s first love in his manipulated memories. Unaware of his painful past and not fully understanding the role she plays in his memory loss, Lee Goon begins to relentlessly pursue Joo-yeon.
Episodes: 16
Cast: Kim Jae-joong, Jin Se-yun, Lee Jong-won, Yang Hye-ji
Director and Screenwriter: Yoon Ji-hoon, Kim Na-young, Jung Eun-young
How to watch: Bad Memory Eraser premieres August 2 on MBN, and will also stream on Viki
Love Andante
Love Andante is set in a fictional peace village project that is implemented in the DMZ after North and South Korea declare the end of the Korean war. As part of the project, a Seoul-based piano prodigy Im Joo-hyung (Kwon Hyun-bin) is sent to live in the village for a year.
There, he starts living with Ha Na-kyung (Song Ji-woo), a pharmacist and the daughter of a high-ranking North Korean official who has only experienced strong emotions such as love through books. Upon meeting Joo-hyung, who she bonds with through music, her emotional world begins to transform.
Episodes: 12
Cast: Kwon Hyun-bin, Song Ji-woo
Director and Screenwriter: Min Doo-shik
How to watch: Love Andante premieres August 7 on Lifetime Korea
Romance in the House
Romance in the House follows a family after their estranged father returns, hoping to reconcile with them after they cut him off. Byeon Mu-jin (Ji Jin-hee) and Geum Ye-yeon (Kim Ji-soo) are the parents of Mi-rae (Son Na-eun) and Hyun-jae (Yoon Sanha). After attempting to set up several failed businesses when Mi-rae and Hyun-jae were children, Ye-yeon divorced Mu-jin and struggled to raise them herself.
Mu-jin returns 11 years later, claiming to be the owner of the building they now live in, and tries to seduce his beloved ex-wife. Mi-rae, now the breadwinner of the family, opposes his return, while her troublemaker brother is glad to reunite with Mu-jin. At the same time, Mi-rae begins a romance with former taekwondo athlete and security guard Nam Tae-pyeong. Unbeknownst to her, his family owns the company where she works.
Episodes: 12
Cast: Ji Jin-hee, Kim Ji-soo, Son Na-eun, Minho, Yoon Sanha
Director and Screenwriter: Kim Da-ye, Kim Young-yoon
How to watch: Romance in the House premieres August 10 on JTBC
Your Honor
A remake of the American television series of the same name, Your Honor stars Son Hyun-joo as judge Song Pan-ho, a righteous man with a squeaky-clean past who brings justice and comfort to those living in Woowon City.
Opposite him is Kim Gang-heon (Kim Myung-min), the cruel leader of a cartel operating in the same city. Despite his cold exterior, he is a loving and dedicated father. The series sees the pair facing off to protect those around them.
Episodes: 10
Cast: Son Hyun-joo, Kim Myung-min, Kim Do-hoon, Yoon Chan-young and Jung Eun-chae
Director and Screenwriter: Pyo Min-soo
How to watch: Your Honor premieres August 12 on ENA
Perfect Family
Based on the Naver webtoon by Nyangpa and Joo-eun, Perfect Family is a thriller series following Choi Seon-hee (The Forbidden Marriage’s Park Ju-hyun), a student who seems to have the perfect life and family.
However, her world shatters after the death of her friend Park Kyung-ho (Kim Young-dae), with her family growing increasingly suspicious of one another. SKY Castle’s Yoon Se-ah and Kim Byung-chul also reunite in this series, playing Seon-hee’s adoptive parents.
Episodes: 12
Cast: Park Ju-hyun, Yoon Se-ah, Kim Byung-chul, Kim Young-dae
Director and Screenwriter: Isao Yukisada
How to watch: Perfect Family premieres August 14 on KBS2, and will also be available to stream on Viki and Viu in selected regions
The Tyrant
In this upcoming Disney+ original, the South Korean government runs a research programme called Tyrant, through which it develops a powerful biochemical enhancer. However, they are forced to shut down the programme after US intelligence learns about their research. A covert handover of the bioenhancers to the US government goes awry when the last Tyrant sample goes missing.
Cha Seung-won stars in the series as Im Sang, a former agent-turned-hitman who is tasked with eliminating all parties involved in the Tyrant project. Meanwhile, the missing sample is discovered to be in the hands of Director Choi (Kim Seon-ho), who continues to run the Tyrant project off the books along with his team.
Episodes: 4
Cast: Cha Seung-won, Kim Seon-ho, Kim Kang-woo
Director and Screenwriter: Park Hoon-jung
How to watch: The Tyrant premieres August 14 exclusively on Disney+
Black Out
The upcoming thriller series Black Out is loosely based on the 2010 novel Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus. Reinterpreted for the Korean context, the series will follow a pair of detectives investigating strange events in a village, through which the ugliness of human nature is exposed.
Black Out is led by Byun Yo-han (Mr. Sunshine) as Go Jung-woo, who was a promising student who got into medical school on early admission. However, a post-exam trip with his high school friends goes awry, and he is accused of the murder of two classmates. The series begins when he returns to his hometown as an adult after spending 11 years in prison.
Episodes: 14
Cast: Byun Yo-han, Go Jun, Go Bo-gyeol, Kim Bo-ra
Director and Screenwriter: Byun Young-joo, Lee Kyoo-man, Seo Joo-yeon
How to watch: Black Out premieres August 16 on MBC
Love Next Door
In romantic-comedy Love Next Door, Jung Hae-in (Snowdrop) and Jung So-min (Alchemy of Souls) play a pair of former childhood friends who reunite as adults. They became close as young children after their mothers formed a friendship, but later went their separate ways.
As an adult, Choi Seung-hyo is a rising young architect who is near-perfect at his craft. Despite his success, attractiveness and popularity, Seung-hyo finds himself wishing to forget certain incidents in his past. Meanwhile, Bae Seok-ryu pursues a high-level career as a product manager of a major conglomerate, but suddenly leaves her job one day. Returning to her hometown, she reconnects with Choi Seung-hyo.
Episodes: 16
Cast: Jung Hae-in, Jung So-min, Kim Ji-eun
Director and Screenwriter: Yoo Je-won, Shin Ha-eun
How to watch: Love Next Door premieres August 17 on tvN, and will also be able to stream on Netflix
Pachinko season 2
Based on Min Jin Lee’s bestselling novel of the same name, Pachinko follows several generations of a Korean family told through its matriarch, Sun-ja (played by Kim Min-ha and Youn Yuh-jung).
The upcoming second season picks up where season one left off, as Sun-ja’s family struggles to survive World War 2 in Osaka during the 1940s. Meanwhile, her grandson Solomon struggles to start anew in 1989 after reneging on an important business deal at the end of season one.
Episodes: 8
Cast: Kim Min-ha, Youn Yuh-jung, Lee Min-ho, Jung Eun-chae, Jin Ha, Anna Sawai
Director and Screenwriter: Soo Hugh, Leanne Welham, Arvin Chen, Lee Sang-il
How to watch: Pachinko Season 2 premieres August 23 exclusively on Apple TV+
The Frog
Netflix thriller The Frog tells the story of two pension owners in different timelines, who experience similar strange happenings. Yoon Kye-sang (The Kidnapping Day) stars as Gu Sang-jun, who runs a small motel in a rural area during the summer of 2000 while Kim Yun-seok plays Jeon Yeong-ha, who runs a pension in the present.
Both men’s lives unravel when a mysterious woman arrives on their property. However, they go on to make completely different decisions. The Frog also stars Sweet Home’s Go Min-si, Lee Jung-eun (Miss Night and Day) and EXO’s Chanyeol.
Episodes: 8
Cast: Yoon Kye-sang, Kim Yun-seok, Go Min-si, Lee Jung-eun, Chanyeol
Director and Screenwriter: Mo Wan-il
How to watch: The Frog premieres in August 23 exclusively on Netflix
Cinderella at 2AM
Based on the webtoon of the same name written by Aigome, Cinderella at 2AM is an upcoming office romantic comedy following a pragmatic woman who tries to break up with her hopeless romantic boyfriend. Hospital Playlist’s Shin Hyun-been stars as Ha Yoon-seo, who has a successful career as a team leader at her workplace. She begins a relationship with Seo Joo-won (Moon Sang-min), a younger man who works at the same company.
Yoon-seo later learns that her boyfriend is a son of the family that owns the company when his mother reaches out to her offering a large sum of money to break up with him. Yoon-seo decides to accept the offer, believing that fairytales don’t exist in reality. However, Joo-won, who believes in true love, refuses to accept and continues to try to win Yoon-seo back.
Episodes: 10
Cast: Shin Hyun-been, Moon Sang-min, Yoon Park, Park So-jin
Director and Screenwriter: Oh Eun-ji, Seo Min-jung
How to watch: Cinderella at 2AM premieres August 24 on Coupang TV
No Gain No Love
In No Gain No Love, Shin Min-a (Our Blues) stars as Son Hae-young, a calculative woman who refuses to lose money under any circumstance. Facing the possibility of losing a job promotion, Hae-young decides to hold a fake wedding for her bosses and co-workers to attend.
Convenience store worker Kim Ji-wook (Kim Young-dae) is a kind-hearted young man who is unable to ignore those in need and struggles with saying no, making him well-loved among his customers. When Hae-young approaches him to play her groom, he becomes caught up in a convoluted plot.
Episodes: 12
Cast: Shin Min-a, Kim Young-dae, Lee Sang-yi, Han Ji-hyun
Director and Screenwriter: Kim Jeong-sik, Kim Hye-young
How to watch: No Gain No Love premieres August 26 on tvN. It will also be available to stream on TVING and Amazon Prime Video in selected regions