8 K-Dramas So Heartbreaking, You'll Never Be Able to Rewatch Them

For many, South Korean shows such as Squid Game showed that K-dramas can be incredibly dark, touching on ethical issues, and not offering a definitive happy ending.

Today, we will touch on shows whose plots can just as easily break the viewer's heart. Here is a list of the best and most heart-wrenching K-dramas.

8. Reflection of You (2021)

Jeong Hee-joo had it all. She was a successful artist and essayist, had a rich husband and two beautiful children. But she was missing one thing: true passion in life. With such thoughts in her mind, an old acquaintance reappears, a less successful art teacher who could bring new colors into Hee-joo's life.

7. Uncontrollably Fond (2016)

Uncontrollably Fond follows the story of a successful singer-actor and a documentary producer who were separated in their teens. Years later, they reunite on the set of the latter's film and try to rekindle their old passion.

6. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (2018)

The protagonist has fallen in love with a young man with a radiant personality. Their relationship is complicated by her brother, a detective, who believes her partner is hiding many terrible secrets. Yet, there are enough skeletons in both men's closets to leave the heroine with a broken heart.

5. Youth of May (2021)

South Korean authoritarianism led to the intertwining of fates and their tragic separation. The plot centers on a medical student and a nurse who fall in love in the midst of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980.

4. The Red Sleeve (2021)

Set in 18th century Korea, this emotional historical drama follows the love story between the future king Jeongjo, who values Korea's prosperity, and a court lady, who values freedom over prestige and security.

3. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016)

This drama takes the female lead from the 21st century to a thousand years ago, to the Goryeo Dynasty, where she falls in love with two princes. Despite the seemingly trivial description, every moment of this drama is full of tragedy.

2. Twenty Five, Twenty One (2022)

Told through the diaries of the female lead many years later, the series tells the story of the love between two people whose hopes and plans were shattered by the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

1. Mr. Sunshine (2018)

This tragic historical melodrama, set in the years before the Japanese occupation of Korea, centers on a man born a slave who returns to Korea as a US Marine, and a woman who is a member of the Righteous Army fighting against the occupiers.