The Soompi Awards celebrates the best of Korean entertainment. Here are the nominees for Drama of the Year - make sure you watch them all and then vote for your favorite at https://www.soompi.com/awards!

The 13th Annual Soompi Awards: Dramas of the Year

Ever since she was a child, field reporter Nam Hong Joo (Suzy) had the ability to see bad events before they occurred. However, she is often powerless to stop them from happening. Living across the street from her family’s restaurant is the prosecutor Jung Jae Chan (Lee Jong Suk) who has seemingly also acquired the ability to foresee future events as well. Jae Chan receives a premonition of Hong Joo being framed for the death of a police officer by the corrupt lawyer Lee Yoo Beom, who was once his tutor, and rushes to prevent it from happening. The police officer (Jung Hae In) survives and also gains the ability to see the future. These three individuals realize that their lives are somehow intertwined through the dreams they keep having of one another.
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Together this unlikely trio work to take down Lee Yoo Beom (Lee Sang Yeob), discover the reason why they were given these abilities, and find ways to protect the ones they love most from harm.&nbsp;
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“While You Were Sleeping” is a 2017 South Korean drama series directed by Oh Choong Hwan. It is not related to the 1995 American film by the same title starring Sandra Bullock. The script is written by Park Hye Ryun, who previously worked with Suzy on her acting debut in the television drama “Dream High” (2011) and with Lee Jong Suk in the drama “I Hear Your Voice” (2013) and “Pinocchio” (2014). The cast of While You Were Sleeping fills the Kdrama with laugh-out-loud moments, seamlessly transitioning to nail-biting sequences that are sure to get you hooked.

While You Were Sleeping

The Dream Team ✨

JTBC

Do Bong Soon (Park Bo Young) is no ordinary woman. She is the latest in a long line of women who possess monumental strength. However, Bong Soon’s incredible powers can only be used for good. If she happens to use her abilities for selfish reasons or to harm others, she’ll end up like her mother, Hwang Jin Yi (Shim Hye Jin), who lost her powers forever.
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Although Do Bong Soon uses her bloodline’s remarkable force for good, her one true desire is to create a video game where she appears as the main character. While she struggles to find employment as a developer, Bong Soon’s abilities help her secure a position as the bodyguard for Ahn Min Hyuk (Park Hyung Sik), the chaebol heir and the CEO of the gaming company, Ainsoft.
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As Bong Soon helps her new boss track down someone making dangerous threats against him, she also strives to capture attention from her childhood friend and rookie police detective Guk Doo (Ji Soo), who’s searching for an insidious kidnapper. Between helping to solve both cases, Bong Soon finds great romance and humor along the way.

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Small but Mighty Team

Noh Ji Wook is a brainiac prosecutor and Eun Bong Hee is a rookie justice department intern, who always seems to find herself in the most unfortunate and embarrassing situations. Bong Hee is falsely accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend, and Ji Wook gets demoted because he risks his career and reputation to save Bong Hee. Things get complicated as their careers, and love lives get entangled, but one thing brings them together- catching the real culprit responsible for a series of murders before they run out of time and get themselves killed. Ji Eun Hyuk used to be a good friend of Ji Wook, and their friendship used to be the strongest ever. During Eun Hyuk's troubled childhood, Ji Wook used to feel like his only family.

Suspicious Partner

The Suspicious Team

KBS02

This drama is about the youth who is not qualified for what the heartless society demands. Without backgrounds such as high education and certificates, the world tells them to focus on playing supporting roles in life. However, they all have their advantages and deserve to be the main character in their own lives. This is a story about four individuals, Dong Man, Ae Ra, Joo Man, and Sul Hee, and the dreams they are pursuing. Dong Man used to be a top athlete in taekwondo. However, his dreams of becoming a national athlete is shredded into pieces when he helplessly loses against authority and money. Choi Ae Ra has always dreamed of becoming an announcer. Although for now, she works at a department store, she continuously goes to job interviews and fights for her way. When the world turns its back on one of them, the other rushes to comfort them.

Fight For My Way

The Fighting Team

Who has time for love when finances are on the mind? Nam Sae Hee (Lee Min Ki) is a socially awkward man in his early 30s who has spent his life’s savings purchasing his own house. While he can now be called the master of his own home, his finances are in a sorry state and his job as an IT employee provides him with next to no disposable income after paying off his mortgage. Yoon Ji Ho (Jung So Min), also in her 30s, is a homeless writer who barely makes enough to feed herself. Dating is the last thing on the mind for these financially strapped singles. Through a turn of events, Ji Ho comes to rent a place to stay in Sae Hee’s house and they find themselves as landlord and tenant.
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How will these individuals grow in the unexpected circumstance of being thrust together? Is there room for romance in such impoverished situations? Can they help each other work through their personal, familial, and financial issues?
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“Because This Is My First Life” is a 2017 South Korean drama series. Reinventing a relatively predictable drama plot, this heart-fluttering and highly addictive Kdrama, together with its stellar cast, might have you on a binge spree.

Because This Is My First Life

The Scrimp & Scrape Team

Betrayed by the king he faithfully served, Kim Shin (Gong Yoo), a decorated military general from the Goryeo Dynasty, is forced to watch his family die before being transformed into a goblin by the higher powers. Cursed with the lonely burden of immortality, Kim Shin dedicates the rest of his long life to saving people with his supernatural abilities. Still, he wanders through his days searching for the prophesied Goblin bride. The bride is the only one who can pull out the sword piercing his body which will finally set his soul free to rest in peace in the afterlife.
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19 years ago, Kim Shin saved a woman from a life-threatening accident. From then on, the woman’s daughter Ji Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun) gained the ability to communicate with beings from the other side. Despite this, she grows up well and remains an optimistic high schooler who works a part-time job at a chicken restaurant. The restaurant’s owner, Sunny (Yoo In Na), finds herself falling in love with a grim reaper (Lee Dong Wook), who is also the goblin’s roommate.
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Unknowingly, the lives of these four individuals intertwine to reveal a fated story more complex than any character could have imagined. Will Kim Shin’s bride finally release him from his eternal misery?
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Also known as “the Lonely Shining God” or “Goblin”, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God is written by fan-favorite writer Kim Eun Sook, the pen behind other successful series like “Heirs” (2013) and “Descendants of the Sun” (2016).&nbsp;If you’re a fan of well-written romance stories with a twist, this Kdrama is a must-watch. The numerous awards, high ratings, and rave reviews received by this show speak for itself.&nbsp;

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God

The Immortal Team

Queen for Seven Days is a historical drama that draws attention to the Queen who was dethroned from her position after merely just seven days during the Joseon dynasty. While she was on the throne, Lady Shin, or Queen Dan Gyeong, is said to have been forcibly expelled from the palace by her political rivals. She's been known to be the shortest person to have reigned as a Queen in the history of Korea. It's also been known that the King and the Queen spent the rest of their lives longing for each other after she was dethroned and abandoned. Unlike how everyone else used to look at him with fear in their eyes, Lee Yung met a young woman who reached out to him first. For her, he desired to become a good king, but the world was too cruel to him. This fictional drama focuses on the love and struggle of the woman who was unwillingly drawn into the political world.

Queen for Seven Days

The History Tellers

Mi Yeong, Hye Yeong, Ra Yeong, and Joon Yeong are the kids of Yeong Sil and Han Soo. They seem like the average Seoul family, with the typical Seoul problems, but that all changes when Jung Hui, an actor, and former K-Pop idol, ends up in their doorstep claiming that Han Soo is his biological father. The family goes through thick and thin, one marriage after the other, trying to figure out why their father happens to be strange.

My Father is Strange

The Strange Squad

Zhejiang TV

During the Warring States Era, the most beautiful woman in the land captures the hearts of two very powerful men.


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Gong Sun Li (Dilraba Dilmurat) is the granddaughter and disciple of the powerful military commander Gong Sun Yu. The first disciple Jing Ke (Liu Chang) and Li have always been in love with each other since childhood. When the Qin troops attack, Jing Ke is poisoned while trying to protect Li. In order to save Jing Ke, Li agrees to marry Ying Zheng (Zhang Bin Bin), the King of the Qin State, but discovers that she is already pregnant with Jing Ke’s baby.


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Ying Zheng has always been in love with Li and accepts the child as his own. As Li gets to know the kinder, gentler side of the ruthless ruler, she begins to fall in love with him. Where will her allegiance lie when Jing Ke comes to the palace to assassinate Ying Zheng?


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“The King’s Woman” is a 2017 Chinese drama series. It is adapted from the novel The Legend of Qin: Li Ji Story written by Wen Shiren.

The King's Woman

The King's Beloved Team

We have been living in a country that is generous to small and big of all corruption for a long time. When such tolerance has been rotten to the core, a man proudly shouts out for the fact that when one should be punished when one earns ill-gotten money, and those who regard such wickedness as normal should also be punished. Sung Ryong joins the TQ Group to make more money with his inborn persistence and extraordinary brain but ironically saves the crumbling company, fighting injustice and absurdity.

Good Manager

Workaholics Team

Hunan TV

During the lawless times of the Northern Wei, innocent citizens were kidnapped and turned into slaves.


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Chu Qiao (Zhao Li Ying) is one of the unlucky people who becomes enslaved and then thrown into a forest as a hunting target for the rich lords. Yan Xun (Dou Xiao), the Prince of Northern Yan, rescues Chu Qiao, and they develop a strong bond. But when she becomes embroiled with the powerful Yuwen family and Yuwen Yue (Lin Geng Xin) takes an interest in her, Chu Qiao will have to decide where her loyalties lie.


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“Princess Agents” is a 2017 Chinese drama series directed by Wu Jin Yuan. It is based on the novel 11 Chu Te Gong Huang Fei written by Xiao Xiang Dong Er.


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Princess Agents

The Dancing Fingers

EBC, CTV

A boy and a girl were destined to be together since birth.

A long time ago, two best friends each had a child. One named his son Li Zheng (Wang Zi), which means “attention,” and the other named his daughter Shao Xi (Joanne Tseng), which means “at ease” in military terminology. The two kids grew up to embody their names, with Li Zheng being diligent and paying extra attention to everything he wants to achieve in life and Shao Xi being more laid back and lazy in her approach to life and school.

When Li Zheng returns to Taiwan after growing up in Japan, he meets Shao Xi for the first time in high school. Despite their polar opposite personalities, the strong pull of their fates bring them together. Can they each adapt to be with each other or will the strong forces of life keep the two apart?

“Attention, Love!” is a 2017 Taiwanese drama series.

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