We can all agree that Kdramas are comfort-evoking content; however, many of them have left us crying but in a beautiful way. Sometimes the most beautiful Kdramas have left us in tears. These tearjerker shows have somewhere made a special place in our hearts. We’ve seen sad drama about lovers as well as families. we are quite sure we’ve all cried at least once watching these shows. We have created a list of 15 such sad kdramas shows that will make you cry, and each episode will leave you with strong emotions that are happy and sad.
Whether it’s unrequited love, a drama dealing with mental health, or a best friend who falls in love. This list of Korean dramas will surely make you question life, relationships, and their importance. Do checkout to know more about the shows.
15. Flower of Evil
- Director: Kim Cheol-kyu
- Writer: Yoo Jung-hee
- Cast: Lee Joon-gi, Moon Chae-won, Jang Hee-jin, Seo Hyun-woo
- IMDb: 8.8
- Streaming Platform: Hulu, Viki
The series is about a family who is happy and well on the outside, and nothing or anyone could point out any flaws. The series looks at Baek Hee-sung. He has a mysterious past and hides it from his wife, Cha Ji-Won. They both are married and have a beautiful Daughter.
Things start to take a turn when his wife, a detective, starts working with her team on a case, and she is faced with unexplained murders that lead somewhere to a connection with her husband. Her all so perfect might not be the person he shows to be.
14. Hi Bye, Mama!
- Director: Yoo Je-won
- Writer: Kwon Hye-Joo
- Cast: Kim Tae-hee, Lee Kyu-hyung , Go Bo-gyeol
- IMDb: 8
- Streaming Platform: Netflix
Cha Yu Ri died in a car accident five years ago and always longed to hold her child and spend time with her. Finally, she receives an opportunity to live again for 49 days. However, the conditions set will only cause pain to everyone. She can live as a human for 49 days and has to get her place back before the end of 49 days.
Her husband has now remarried, and Yu Ri will have to face the difficult decision of whether she will choose her happiness of being next to her kid or her husband’s new life that has already set course.
13. Uncontrollably Fond
- Director: Park Hyun-suk & Cha Young-hoo
- Writer: Lee Kyung Hee
- Cast: Kim Woo-bin, Bae Suzy, Lim Ju-hwan, Lim Ju-eun
- IMDb: 7.9
- Streaming Platform: Netflix
The story is about Shin Joon Young and Noh Eul, who were classmates during school but were separated, and they both went on to live their own lives. One had it all while the other struggled for every small thing. Noh Eul had to drop out of school because of the sudden death of her father and later on became a documentary producer, and shin became a successful actor/ singer.
Fate makes both of them meet once again. The two meet once again when she convinces a producer that she can persuade shin to allow them to film his documentary. However, at the start, Shin doesn’t treat her right and makes her life miserable. But, later on, we see him falling for her and eventually agreeing to film the documentary.
12. Goblin: The Lonely and Great God
- Director: Lee Eung-bok, Kwon Hyuk-chan
- Writer: Kim Eun-sook
- Cast: Gong Yoo, Kim Go-eun, Lee Dong-wook, Yoo In-na, Yook Sung-jae
- IMDb: 8.7
- Streaming Platform: Viki
The goblin story revolves around the four main characters of the show. Kim Shin – a military general of the Goryeo Dynasty, Ji Eun-Tak – a school student who is also the goblin’s bride and living a miserable life. The second lead couple, the Grim Reaper, and a woman named Sunny, also run relations from previous ones.
As the story moves forward, we get to know that these four have more history than visible to our eyes. We learn about their last time, how they were all related, and how they all turned out to be in the present time.
11. Youth of may
- Director: Song Min-yeob
- Writer: Lee Kang
- Cast: Lee Do-hyun, Go Min-si, Lee Sang-yi, Keum Sae-rok
- IMDb: 8.6
- Streaming Platform: Kocowa, Viki
The story is set during the Gwangju Uprising in the year 1980. The story follows the lives of Hwang Hee Tae and Kim Myung-Hee, who are medical students and nurses, respectively. The drama mainly focuses on the tragic love story of these two lovers who will be twisted in a time when democracy didn’t exist.
In the drama, we get all the feels of them going through difficult times of the period they were living and how life would have been different if not for the lack of democracy. The drama tears the viewers because of its amazing portrayal of a love story while everything else is perishing.
Read More: The Best Korean Drama to Watch Right Now
10. Chicago Typewriter
- Director: Kim Cheol-kyu
- Writer: Jin Soo-wan
- Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Im Soo-jung, Go Kyung-pyo
- IMDb: 8.3
- Streaming Platform: Viki
The series Chicago Typewriter is about a Writer, A ghostwriter, and a die-hard fan. The series is about three resistance fighters who lived during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1930s, who are now reincarnated into the present time as the characters stated above. The drama is peaceful yet has soo many elements in it.
The drama shows the complications of love, friends, and betrayal in 80 years. The three of them are seen finding answers to their previous lives and why it haunts them and will finding out their previous lives stories end up ruining their present.
9. Snowdrop
- Director: Jo Hyun-tak
- Writer: Yoo Hyun-mi
- Cast: Jung Hae-in, Jisoo, Yoo In-na, Jang Seung-jo, Yoon Se-ah, Kim Hye-yoon, Jung Yoo-jin
- IMDb: 9.0
- Streaming Platform: Disney Plus
This heartbreaking drama will leave you crying. The story is about Lim Soo-ho and Eun Yeong-Ro, who meet at the wrong place at the wrong time. The story is set when it was a major event for South Korean History. In the year 1987, mass protests took place to hold fair elections.
Soo-ho gets injured, and Yeong-ro helps him hide him in the girl’s dorm room. She soon starts falling for Soo-ho, but soon she is shaken to her core when she comes to know that he is a North Korean Spy. The story is about how their love blooms in these unfavorable situations.
8. Go back Couple
- Director: Ha Byung-hoon
- Writer: Kwon Hye-Joo
- Cast: Son Ho-jun, Jang Na-ra
- IMDb: 8.0
- Streaming Platform: Kocowa, Viki
The story looks at the lives of two main characters, Choi Ban-do and Ma Jin-Joo. Both of them are married and are in their late 30s. They have reached the breaking point of their marriage and are living their daily lives unhappy and exhausted. Ban Do works as a Pharmaceutical salesman while Jin-Joo is a housewife raising her son alone and questions the meaning of her life.
One day both of them wake up in the bodies of 20-year-olds and are shocked at first, but they soon decide since they don’t know the reason for their change, they might as well enjoy it till it lasts. So they decide to use this second chance and make better choices than the last time. However, every decision will affect their friends and family.
7. The smile has left your eyes
- Director: Yoo Je-won
- Writer: Song Hye-jin
- Cast: Seo In-guk, Jung So-min, Park Sung-Woong
- IMDb: 7.8
- Streaming Platform: Viki
This sad story will make you cry and leave you heartbroken. The story revolves around Kim Moo Young, who has lost his memories. He is met with Yoo Jin-Kang and soon falls in love with her, but she has a pretty bad impression of him; however, that changes later on in the series. We are then introduced to her older brother, Yoo Jin, a homicide detective.
Yoo Jin suspects Moo Young and thinks there is more to him than what he shows. However, he is unknown because he is a key element in Moo Young and Yoo Jins history. Things start to get complicated when Moo-young starts regaining his lost memories and discovering the truth of his father’s death, and more things start to uncover.
6. Hotel Del Luna
- Director: Oh Choong-hwan
- Writer: Hong Jung-eun, Hong Mi-ran
- Cast: Lee Ji-eun, Yeo Jin-goo
- IMDb: 8.2
- Streaming Platform: Netflix, Viki
The k drama Hotel Del Luna is about Jang Man-Wol, whose soul is tied to a hotel where the deceased souls are offered a place to stay before they go on their afterlife journey. She is the owner of the hotel. One day she meets Gu Chan-sung’s father, who had promised her that she could take in his son after he turns 20.
When Gu Chan-Sung turns 20, he returns to Korea and meets Jang Man-wol, who informs him about the promise made by his father. However, he doesn’t agree at first but starts working as the hotel manager. The series looks at the painful yet happy stories of its customers and its employees.
Read More: The Funniest Korean Drama To Watch For a Good Laugh
5. Winter Sonata
- Director: Yoon Seok-ho
- Writer: Kim Eun-hee, Yoon Eun-Kyung, Oh Soo-Yeon
- Cast: Bae Yong-joon, Choi Ji-woo
- IMDb: 8.0
- Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Winter sonata’s dramas are a classic tale of love and forgiveness and will surely make you cry. The k drama looks at the lives of Joon-sang and Yoo-jin. Joo-sang is an academic student but thinks no one loves him due to circumstances. However, Yoo-Jin was his classmate, and they both soon fell for each other.
Things don’t go as planned. They both are separated and bought back together, but they are now at very different stages of their lives, and it will be a difficult choice for them.
4. A Korean Odyssey
- Director: Park Hong-kyun, Kim Jung-hyun, Kim Byung-soo
- Writer: Hong Jung-eun, Hong Mi-ran
- Cast: Lee Seung-gi, Cha Seung-won, Oh Yeon-seo, Lee Hong-gi, Jang Gwang
- IMDb: 8.1
- Streaming Platform: Netflix, Viki
The series looks at Son Oh-gong and Woo Ma-wang’s conflict with each other as evil surrounds them all the time. They lookout for a beam of light in their world filled with darkness. Son Oh-gong had saved a little girl, Jin Seon-mi, years ago and had promised to protect her during her lifetime.
Since he made a contract to protect her whenever she would be in danger, she summons him when she faces danger and meets him again. This protection contract came in an agreement that she would free him.
3. Move to Heaven
- Director: Kim Sung-ho
- Writer: Yoon Ji-ryeon
- Cast: Lee Je-hoon, Tang Jun-sang, Lee Jae-wook, Ji Jin-hee, Hong Seung-hee
- IMDb: 8.6
- Streaming Platform: Netflix
The series is inspired by the book “Things Left Behind” by Kim Sae-Byul, a former “trauma cleaner”. Get-Ru has Asperger Syndrome. He meets his uncle, who is an ex-convict. This meeting takes place because his father dies suddenly. His uncle is termed as Geu-Ru’s legal guardian.
They both start working together to run the family business of Trauma cleaners named “Move to Heaven”. The duo soon bond and deal with the tales the dead couldn’t tell but left clues in the living world for those living.
2. Stairway to Heaven
- Director: Lee Jang-soo
- Writer: Park Hye-Kyung
- Cast: Choi Ji-woo, Kwon Sang-woo, Kim Tae-hee, Shin Hyun-Joon
- IMDb: 7.9
- Streaming Platform: Viki
Out of all the tearjerker shows, this has to be one of the saddest Korean dramas, and viewers should keep their tissues ready. The series is a perfect example of how love can go to great lengths. The plot follows the lives of three people’s intertwined experiences with each other.
The series tells us the main characters’ sad but true love story. Cha Song-Joo, Han Jung-Suh / Kim Ji-soo, Han Tae-Hwa / Han Chul-soo, and Han Yoo-Ri, the lives and fate of death are shown along with their parents and especially the death of Jung Suh’s mother.
1. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo
- Director: Kim Kyu-Tae
- Writer: Cho Yoon-Young
- Cast: Lee Joon-gi , Lee Ji-eun , Kang Ha-neul
- IMDb: 8.8
- Streaming Platform: Viki
In the drama Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Go Ha Jin, a woman of the modern-day gets transported to the Goryeo dynasty in the past after a solar eclipse. She gets transported to the year 941, during King Taejo, and is in the body of Hae Soo. As the story moves forward, she falls for the 8th prince but later develops feelings for the 4th prince, who is feared and has a label of “wolf-dog”.
As the series moves forward, all the princes of the Wang family are seen fighting each other for the sake of the thrown. In this fight of the palace brothers, Hae Soo is caught up in politics and rivalry.
Ending this list, we all know many more sad dramas have a special place in our hearts. Right from the moon lovers to Korean dramas like move to heaven. Read the list and pick your favorite. Watch them to your heart’s content while you cry your heart out. These k dramas will give you a good cry session.
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