PUBLISHED ONDecember 28, 2024 7:30 AMBySyarifah NadhirahNew year, new shows.
While fans debated whether 2023 was a boring year for the K-drama scene, 2024 has arguably been a better one.
From action drama A Shop for Killers and romantic hits like Lovely Runner and Queen of Tears to recent releases like the mystery-horror Light Shop and melodrama The Trunk, there was something for every one this year.
Japanese and Chinese serials have also grown in popularity, as seen with Shogun breaking an Emmy record and costume C-dramas like The Double and Love Game in Eastern Fantasy making waves on social media.
Here are the Chinese, Japanese and Korean dramas that you can look forward to in 2025.
We're starting the year with Lee Min-ho and Gong Hyo-jin in When the Stars Gossip.
Gong Ryong (Min-ho) is a charming yet clumsy tourist who travels to a space station where he meets astronaut Eve Kim (Hyo-jin) and falls in love.
The series explores human connection in a world where every resource is precious.
When the Stars Gossip premieres Jan 4 on Netflix.
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Veteran actress Kim Hye-soo is known for playing headstrong women in her projects, and her role in the upcoming drama Unmasked is no exception.
Set in modern-day Seoul, the series follows a team of investigative journalists who are fighting for their careers after broadcasting a controversial story.
Hye-soo plays the main character Oh So-ryong - a tenacious and unconventional journalist who is "nuts for justice".
Co-star Jung Sung-il takes on the role of rookie producer Han Do.
At the Singapore press conference for the show, AsiaOne asked the two actors about a memorable moment during filming, and you can read about that here.
Unmasked is set to premiere on Disney+ on Jan 15, 2025.
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Blackpink’s Jisoo will be back with a new drama after two years.
Newtopia follows Lee Jae-yoon (Park Jeong-min), a young man grappling with the struggles of late military conscription, and his girlfriend Kang Young-joo (Jisoo), a rookie professional.
Due to challenges from being apart, the couple go through a sudden breakup before a zombie outbreak spreads in the city, leading their paths to intertwine once again.
The drama explores love, resilience and humanity in a world overrun by chaos.
Newtopia premieres Feb 7 on Prime Video.
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The hit Japanese suspense thriller Gannibal announced its second season last September and fans have been eagerly waiting its premiere date.
In season one, police officer Daigo Agawa (Yuya Yagira) relocates his wife and daughter to the remote mountain village of Kuge. Despite seemingly a perfect place, there is an unsolved missing person case there — that of the previous officer.
One day, the body of an old woman is found on the mountain. The Goto family claims it was a bear attack, but Daigo notices a human bite mark on the body and discovers there are cannibals on the loose.
At the recent Singapore press conference, not only was the premiere date announced, Yuya and co-star Show Kasamatsu also revealed more about season two.
#YuyaYagira and #ShowKasamatsu from #Gannibal are here! #DisneyContentShowcase24 #DisneyPlusSG pic.twitter.com/KcYt1BP9Oj
— AsiaOne (@asiaonecom) November 21, 2024
The former said: "The tendency of Japanese people to not say everything they think can work in a good way, and at times can be very scary. I once again feel that the multi-faceted nature of the work makes it interesting.
"There is more gun action than in season one, which gives the story a more fast-paced feel."
Gannibal season 2 premieres March 19 on Disney+.
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We're turning back time for this series.
Set in the 1970s, Low Life follows Oh Gwan-seok (Ryu Seung-ryong) and his nephew Oh Hui-dong (Yang Se-jong), who rush to salvage a recently discovered priceless treasure before other treasure hunters arrive.
Desperate to change their life of selling counterfeit goods, the two will do whatever it takes to win.
Given the success of his previous series Moving (2023), Seung-ryong was asked at the Singapore press conference if he felt pressure for Low Life and his answer was simple. Read about it here.
The 10-episode Low Life also stars Lim Soo-jung and premieres on Disney+ in July next year.
It's been five years since her last drama Hotel Del Luna.
IU, whose real name is Lee Ji-eun, will be back on the small screens in the first half of 2025 with When Life Gives You Tangerines.
Set in the 1950s, the drama follows the lives of rebellious Ae-soon (IU), who dreams of becoming a poet despite not being able to attend school due to her family's poverty, and stoic Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum) who harbours a long-standing crush on her.
When Life Gives You Tangerines is scheduled to premiere on Netflix in the first half of 2025.
Lee Je-hoon is rocking silver hair for his upcoming drama The Art of Negotiation, where he plays M&A (mergers and acquisitions) expert Yoon Joo-no.
The cast also includes Sung Dong-il, Kim Dae-myung and Ahn Hyun-ho. Kwon Yuri of Girls' Generation will also be making a special appearance.
The Art of Negotiation is scheduled to premiere in the first half of 2025.
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Rowoon, Shin Ye-eun and Park Seo-ham will lead the historical drama The Murky Stream which follows three unique stories connected by the lawless land of Joseon. More details about the show will be released later.
The Murky Stream, which also stars Park Ji-hwan, premieres on Disney+ in the second half of 2025.
He wasn't her leading man back then but he will be soon.
Many might recognise Byeon Woo-seok from his recent hit series Lovely Runner, but some may not know that he briefly played IU's cheating boyfriend in the first episode of the drama Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016).
But unlike their previous show where IU's character time-travels back to the Goryeo dynasty, 21st Century Grand Prince's Wife is set in a modern-day alternate South Korea ruled by a constitutional monarchy.
The story - which won the 2022 MBC Drama Script Contest Excellence Award - depicts the romance between Prince Lee An (Woo-seok) and heiress Sung Hee-joo (IU).
21st Century Grand Prince's Wife is scheduled to premiere in the second half of 2025.
A blend of romance and suspense, Chinese drama Reborn tells the story of Qiao Qingyu (Zhang Jingyi), a 16-year-old transfer student who investigates her sister's mysterious death with the rebellious school heartthrob Ming Sheng (Zhou Yiran).
The show follows them to their university years, where they fall in love.
Reborn will be streaming on Viu and iQiyi in 2025.
She's saying goodbye to school uniforms for now.
Kim Hye-yoon, who gained recognition for Sky Castle (2018), Extraordinary You (2019) and Lovely Runner (2024), is shaking things up as a nine-tailed fox in the upcoming fantasy rom-com I'm Human from Today.
As the title suggests, her character Eun-ho transforms into a human after an unexpected accident with world-class football player Kang Si-yeol (Park Solomon).
According to the SBS website, it is scheduled to premiere sometime in 2025.
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Chinese actress Bai Lu was appointed the iQiyi International Global Ambassador earlier this year and in 2025, she's expected to have two dramas on the streaming platform - one of them being Moonlight Mystique.
On a journey to seek immortality, Bai Shuo (Bai Lu) unexpectedly saves powerful demon god Fan Yue (Ao Ruipeng).
They later navigate their romance amidst countless difficulties.
Moonlight Mystique is expected to premiere on iQiyi in 2025.
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Adapted from the best-selling Japanese novel of the same name, Glass Heart follows college student and aspiring drummer Akane Saijo (Yu Miyazaki) who gets kicked out of her band.
She meets Naoki Fujitani (Takeru Satoh) who notices her talent and invites her to join his new ensemble.
Glass Heart, which also stars Suda Masaki, Jun Shison, Keita Machida, is scheduled to premiere on Netflix in 2025.
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Jun Ji-hyun, also known as Gianna Jun, will be returning after a four-year hiatus in Tempest.
The spy thriller follows diplomat Seo Mun-ju (Ji-hyun) who teams up with former mercenary Baek San-ho (Kang Dong-won) to pursue the truth behind an attack that threatens the future stability of the Korean peninsula.
Tempest also stars Korean-American actor John Cho and it premieres on Disney+ in 2025.
In the Chinese drama Ski into Love, manga artist Wei Zhi (Esther Yu) loses her pen name and copyrights after a scandal, and turns to skiing for a fresh start.
She meets ski coach Shan Chong (Lin Yi) at a snow resort and they fall in love.
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Ski into Love premieres on Youku in 2025.
Led by two of South Korea's biggest names, Made in Korea might be one fans are excited for.
Hyun Bin faces off Jung Woo-sung in this crime thriller set in the 1970s.
The former plays Baek Ki-tae, an ambitious man who thirsts for wealth and power while Woo-sung plays Jang Geon-young, a prosecutor determined to stop him.
Made in Korea premieres on Disney+ in 2025.
This modern Chinese drama centres around hotel manager Shen Xifan (Xu Ruohan), who is a workaholic and suffers from migraines and insomnia. While trying to find a cure for her ailment, she meets the handsome and gentle Chinese physician He Suye (Zhang Linghe).
Linghe, who was recently in Singapore for Asia TV Forum & Market, told media that he learned Chinese medicine for a month, including acupuncture and prescribing medication, from a physician before filming began.
The Best Thing is slated to premiere on iQiyi in 2025.
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He was a loyal and tender-hearted husband in 2024's hit series Queen of Tears.
Next year, Kim Soo-hyun will be back on the small screens with a completely different character in the series Knock Off.
"In my previous drama Queen of Tears, my character Baek Hyun-woo is a warm-hearted person. But in this drama, the character I play, Kim Sung-joon, is cold-hearted, cool-headed and a realistic character focused solely on survival," he said at the Singapore press conference for the show held at the Disney APAC Content Showcase in November.
Knock Off follows Sung-joon, a regular office worker who loses his job in the 1997 Asian financial crisis and turns to the shadowy world of counterfeiting in an attempt to rebuild his life, eventually climbing to the top of the counterfeit market.
In the process, he meets his ex-girlfriend Song Hye-jeong (Jo Bo-ah), a special judicial police officer who cracks down on counterfeit goods, beginning a tense relationship.
How was his chemistry with Bo-ah on set? Find out here.
Knock Off will premiere on Disney+ in 2025.
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The Manipulated follows mild-mannered Park Tae-jung (played by Ji Chang-wook) who was wrongfully imprisoned for a heinous crime.
He discovers that a mysterious An Yo-han (Doh Kyung-soo) orchestrated his downfall. Fueled by vengeance, Tae-jung sets out to make him pay.
The Manipulated, which also stars Lee Kwang-soo and Jo Yoon-su, premieres on Disney+ in 2025.
She was a lovable lawyer with autism in Extraordinary Attorney Woo and aspiring singer in Castaway Diva. Park Eun-bin is putting on medical gloves this time to star in the medical thriller HypercKnife.
The story follows Se-ok (Eun-bin), a visionary neurosurgeon consumed by the pursuit of perfection. Once an incredible star in the surgical field, she is permanently stripped of her medical license after a clash with her mentor and supervising doctor, Choi Deok-hee (Sul Kyung-gu).
Unwilling to give up on her dream, Se-ok continues to work as an illegal doctor carrying out back-alley operations. A battle of wits ensues when Deok-hee comes back into her life again.
At the Singapore press conference for the series, Eun-bin shared how she felt when reading the script for the first time and some difficulties she experienced playing a surgeon. Read more about it here.
Hyper Knife is slated to premiere on Disney+ in March 2025.
If you enjoy crime shows, this one's for you.
Nine Puzzles is a mystery thriller that follows Yoon E-na (Kim Da-mi), the sole witness in a 10-year murder cold case. Detective Kim Han-saem (Son Suk-ku), who suspected E-na of the murder back then, is surprised when she shows up as a criminal profiler in his unit.
They work together to uncover the truth as new murders emerge with telltale signs that it's the same killer behind them all.
At the Singapore press conference, Da-mi told AsiaOne that she had "nice meals" with Suk-ku while filming, and the latter recalled a funny memory. Read about it here.
Nine Puzzles is scheduled to air on Disney+ in 2025.
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Moving was a huge success and at the recent Disney APAC Content Showcase, Disney+ broke the news and confirmed that the superhero K-drama will have a second season.
The show is in its early stages of production and it is unclear if the original cast will return. The premiere date has also yet to be confirmed.
In a post-credit teaser on the last episode of Disney+'s K-drama Light Shop, actress Go Youn-jung appeared as her Moving character Jung Hui-soo, who has supernatural healing abilities. In the brief scene, Hui-soo is at a police station and tells officers she doesn't get injured.
Chinese youth-romance series Hidden Love was a hit internationally, and fans are looking forward to its sister drama.
The 2023 drama revolves around Sang Zhi (Zhao Lusi) who had a long crush on her older brother's friend Duan Jiaxu (Chen Zheyuan) from her middle to high school days.
They part ways before reuniting as adults and falling in love.
Adapted from the same book series, The First Frost takes place in the same timeline and fictional world as Hidden Love. It tells Sang Yan's (Sang Zhi's brother) story albeit with a different cast this time.
In The First Frost, reporter Wen Yifan (Zhang Ruonan) bumps into her high school crush Sang Yan (Bai Jingting) at a bar he co-owns. They somehow become housemates and fall in love.
The First Frost currently has no release date but is expected to premiere on Youku in 2025.
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We thought their story was over but it appears there may be more trials to come.
In September last year, Netflix confirmed that the Japanese survival thriller Alice in Borderland will be back with a third season, with Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya reprising their roles as Arisu and Usagi.
They began filming the following month, and though there haven't been updates since, fans are expecting it to drop in 2025 after comparing season three's production timeline against the first two seasons.
Disney+ is working with Nippon TV to bring more Japanese unscripted content to their platform.
As part of the collaboration, they'll be releasing a travel reality show with one of Japan's top boy bands, Snow Man.
The nine-member group - consisting of Hikaru Iwamoto, Tatsuya Fukazawa, Daisuke Sakuma, Shota Watanabe, Ryota Miyadate, Ryohei Abe, Koji Mukai, Ren Meguro and Raul - will "embark on a fun adventure".
In a promotional video for the show, Tatsuya shared that the members will sit down for "heart-to-heart conversations" and talk about their dreams while enjoying their travels.
Travelling with Snow Man will premiere on Disney+ in 2025.
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