10 K-Dramas About the 70s, 80s and 90s For The Ultimate Throwback

Even though we all had our history lessons in school and know how many events our parents and grandparents had to live through, sometimes it still feels like they had it easier. To escape the threatening reality of today's world, many people tend to seek out more comforting and hopeful stories from the past century.

If you're looking for some bright, funny, and touching stories set in the Korea of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, you've come to the right place. Just choose the genre of your choice and get ready to jump a few years back in time.

Youth of May (2021)

Although the majority of Korean period dramas focus on the Joseon era, recent Korean history also has much to offer viewers. Set in 1980, Youth of May tells the story of two ordinary people, medical student Hwang Hee-tae and nurse Kim Myung-hee, and their friendship and love that begins to blossom in the midst of the Gwangju Uprising.

Twinkling Watermelon (2023)

Ha Eun-gyeol is the only hearing person in his family, as both of his parents are deaf. He has a passion for music, but his father doesn't seem to approve of his interest. So, after another argument and falling back in time to 1995, he decides to find his parents, find out what their lives were like and give them more happy moments with the help of music.

Girls Generation 1979 (2017)

This drama is a perfect mix between a light-hearted story of rivalry and friendship in girl groups in 70's Korea and a real crime investigation story. While the two main heroines, Lee Jung-hee and Park Hye-joo, fight for popularity, the local toy factory begins to report the disappearance of its female workers.

Twenty-five Twenty-one (2022)

Set in 1998, this story shows the consequences Korean youth suffered after the 1997 IMF crisis. Na Hee-do is an aspiring fencing star. But when her school team's budget is cut, she has to fight twice as hard to prove her worth and reach the level she has always dreamed of. It is her daughter who now learns her story from her diary.

Reply 1997 (2012)

Sung Shi-won may be a 33 year old woman now, but she still remembers exactly what kind of girl she was back in 1997. When she meets her classmates, she remembers the simpler times when her biggest dream was to marry Tony, a member of the boy band H.O.T., and her biggest problem was her terrible grades.

Reply 1994 (2013)

After the huge success of the first series, the second takes viewers even further back into the past. This time, the story follows six university students living together in a boarding house. Throughout the series, the male characters are never referred to by their real names in order to keep viewers guessing who the female lead will end up married to in 2013.

Reply 1988 (2015-2016)

Even though the setting of the show is very much the same, throwing the audience back into the 80s was a great way to shake things up for the fans of the Reply series. This might be the most fun way to get your basic knowledge of what the 80s looked like in Korea and what pop culture references you might need to know from that era.

Through the Darkness (2022)

The 90s were not the most stable of times in Korea, not only in terms of economic crisis, but also in terms of crime rate. Through the Darkness follows Song Ha-young, the talented profiler of the Criminal Behavior Analysis Team, who is paving the way in determining the behavioral patterns of serial killers for all modern professionals to use.

20th Century Girl (2022)

One thing that is much easier now than it was in the 1990s is stalking your crush online. Since social media wasn't a thing back then, Yeon-du, who suffers from a heart condition, enlists her best friend Bo-ra to find out everything about her crush while she undergoes surgery in the U.S. However, Bo-ra accidentally falls in love with him.

Go Back Couple (2017)

Sometimes love is not enough to save a marriage. Sometimes all we want is a time machine to take us back and fix our mistakes. 38-year-olds Choi Ban-do and Ma Jin-joo suddenly get the chance to jump back into their fun and roaring 20s and make sure their choices don't lead them to the same disappointment in the future.