jeonKi are definitely worth shipping

K-dramas remain as South Korea’s most consumed cultural content export according to the study titled, Global Hallyu Trends 2021 by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, and its continued success is attributed to two factors: solid and well-structured storylines; and attractive actors. And we couldn’t agree more.  

Through the years, the Korean entertainment industry has been consistently giving us the most out-of-the-box storylines one could ever imagine. South Korean actors, writers, directors and producers are incredibly talented too, and as proof are several prestigious international awards that they have earned in recent years including the Oscar’s, Golden Globe and Cannes. On top of this, they seem to be exceptionally good at casting actors, and where the romance genre is concerned, they almost always come up with the most swoon-inducing pairs to grace the screens. 

Who could ever forget the couple from Lovers in Paris in 2004, who swept the world by storm at a time when Netflix as a video streaming platform was not a thing yet? Or the phenomenal tandem of Gong Yoo and Kim Go-eun in Guardian: The Lonely and Great God? What about the North-vs-South love affair of Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin in Crash Landing on You, which eventually turned into a real-life romance? While the list of notable Korean drama couples goes on, we have selected 12 of our all-time favourites in no particular order. Help yourselves and fall in love with them all over.

Vincenzo Cassano and Hong Cha-young, "Vincenzo" (2021)

Who would have thought that a cold-hearted Italian mafia consigliere would finally open up and fall in love with a jolly, feisty South Korean lawyer? Such is the story of Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong-ki) and Hong Cha-young (Jeon Yeo-been) in the epic dark comedy, Vincenzo, which aired in the first half of 2021. With the initial goal to reclaim Geumga Plaza as its real owner, Vincenzo returned to South Korea and serendipitously met Cha-young, then an associate at Wusang Law Firm, the legal representative of the hellish Babel Group. A series of events, later on, resulted in Cha-young leaving Wusang and joining forces with the consigliere to take revenge against the Babel Group. While we got lured by their witty—and often full of twists—scenes, we also can't deny the fact that we have been rooting for the two to have a happy ending whether in Italy, South Korea, Malta or elsewhere in the world.