6 of the best new K-dramas to watch in June 2024, including, on Netflix, Hierarchy with Lee Chae-min and The Whirlwind
With several major shows currently on air and networks keeping back some of their series for midsummer, June looks to be a comparatively light month for new Korean dramas.
Yet there is still plenty to choose from, with classic romantic dramas being readied for launch, as well as a con artist thriller and high-school mystery drama.
We preview six of the best K-drama series debuting in June.
1. The Player 2: Master of Swindlers
Lead cast: Song Seung-heon, Lee Si-un
OCN’s hit 2018 series about con artists, The Player, is returning to our screens courtesy of cable channel tvN.
Song Seung-heon will reprise his role in The Player 2: Master of Swindlers as master confidence trickster Kang Ha-ri, who leads a band of scammers. Also returning is Lee Si-un as the brilliant hacker Lim Byung-min, and Tae Won-suk as the beefy fighter Do Jin-woong.
Krystal Jung, who played one of the lead characters in the 2018 series, will not be reprising her role, although it has been confirmed that she will make a cameo appearance in the new series. Rounding out the gang in her stead will be Jang Gyu-ri (It’s Okay to Not Be Okay), playing the skilled driver Cha Je-yi.
Also joining the cast is Oh Yeon-seo (Cafe Minamdang) as Jung Soo-min, a mysterious benefactor who leads Ha-ri back into the world of crime. (tvN, June 3)
2. Hierarchy
Lead cast: Roh Jeong-eui, Lee Chae-min, Kim Jae-won
Netflix Korea’s June offering will be Hierarchy, another teen drama set in a prestigious school.
That school is the Jooshin High School, which belongs to the Jooshin Group, whose students are chosen at birth to attend thanks to their family lineage.
Among the leads are Roh Jeong-eui (Badlands Hunters) as Jung Jae-yi, the heir to the Jaeyool Group, while Jooshin Group heir Kim Ri-an will be played by Kim Jae-won (King the Land).
Lee Chae-min (Crash Course in Romance) will play mysterious transfer student Kang Ha, whose innocent smile hides a dark secret. Thanks to him, the carefully maintained hierarchy at the school begins to crack.
Hierarchy is directed by Bae Hyun-jin, known for Big Mouth and Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow. (Netflix, June 7)
3. My Sweet Mobster
Lead cast: Uhm Tae-goo, Han Sun-hwa, Kwon Yool
My Sweet Mobster, based on the web novel The Woman Who Plays, features Uhm Tae-goo (Night in Paradise) once again playing a gangster. This time he is Seo Ji-hwan, a retired gangster who went straight and is now the chief executive of a legitimate company. He strives to disband gangs and reform gangsters who are released from jail.
Meanwhile, Han Sun-hwa (Work Later, Drink Now) appears as Go Eun-ha, a YouTuber who runs a channel for children that isn’t very popular. One day she accidentally injures Ji-hwan while doing some part-time work, and he seems to recognise her. (JTBC, June 12)
4. Miss Night and Day
Lead cast: Lee Jung-eun, Jung Eun-ji, Choi Jin-hyuk
Lee Jung-eun (Parasite) and Jung Eun-ji (Work Later, Drink Now) play the same character in the fantasy drama Miss Night and Day.
Jung is Lee Min-jin, a twenty-something single woman who has been struggling to find work for years. One day she wakes up in the body of a 50-year-old woman, played by Lee. Following this, she returns to her younger self at night and back to the older woman each morning.
She uses her unusual condition to help land a job under the name Im Soon, and starts working under Prosecutor Kye Ji-woong, played by Choi Jin-hyuk (Mr. Queen). (JTBC, June 15)
5. DNA Lover
Lead cast: Choi Si-won, Jung In-sun, Lee Tae-hwan, Jung Eugene
In DNA Lover, Jung In-sun (Let Me Be Your Knight) plays Han So-jin, a genetics researcher with an unusual obsession: she wants to find the perfect man and believes the only way to do so is to find a candidate who is a perfect genetic match for her.
Choi Si-won (Love Is for Suckers) of the K-pop band Super Junior plays Shin Yeon-woo, a handsome obstetrician who runs his own practice and generally has women falling all over him. The trouble is, when he gets involved with someone and they get too attached, he breaks things off.
Lee Tae-hwan (Thirty-Nine) stars as So-jin’s hunky firefighter friend Seo Kang-hoon, and Jung Eugene () plays Yeon-woo’s advice-columnist ex Jang Mi-eun. (TV Chosun, June 22)
6. The Whirlwind
Lead cast: Sol Kyung-gu, Kim Hee-ae
After teaming up in The Moon last summer, Sol Kyung-gu and Kim Hee-ae will share the screen again, this time in the political thriller The Whirlwind.
In his first drama role, veteran actor Sol plays Park Dong-ho, a prime minister of South Korea who goes against a president he believes to be corrupt.
Kim (The World of the Married) will portray Jung Soo-jin, the deputy prime minister for economic affairs, who goes head to head with Dong-ho.
The Whirlwind is directed by Kim Yong-wan (The Cursed) and written by Park Kyung-soo (Punch). (Netflix, June 28)
