Starring: Lee Min Ho, Jun Ji Hyun

How can a mermaid from the Joseon era survive in modern society? Shim Cheong (Jun Ji Hyun) is a mermaid who follows her one true love, a nobleman’s son named Kim Moon from the Joseon Dynasty, to modern-day Seoul. Moon’s modern doppelgänger is Heo Joon Jae, a highly skilled scam artist who first becomes interested in Shim Cheong because of a jade bracelet worth $6 million that Shim Cheong wears. With nowhere to go, Shim Cheong is taken in by Joon Jae, who also finds his con partners, Jo Nam Doo (Lee Hee Joon) and Tae Oh (Shin Won Ho), hiding out in his home from a vengeful past victim of their scams. Shim Cheong discovers a rival for Joon Jae’s heart in Cha Shi Ah (Shin Hye Sun), a researcher at KAIST who deals with ancient artifacts. When a dangerous killer named Ma Dae Young (Sung Dong Il) sent by Joon Jae’s stepmother who wants to make her own son the heir to Joon Jae’s fortunes, can Shim Cheong survive her strange new environment while also helping Joon Jae avoid the dangers that await him? “The Legend of the Blue Sea” is a 2016-2017 South Korean drama series directed by Jin Hyuk. The story is inspired by a historical tale about a mermaid contained in a short story anthology known as “EouYadam” by Joseon-era scholar Yu Mong In.

Starring: Lee Sung Kyung, Nam Joo Hyuk, Lee Jae Yoon

What else could there be to life than barbells and heavy weights? Kim Bok Joo (Lee Sung Kyung) is a weightlifting phenom who has only focused on barbells her entire life while growing up with her father, Kim Chang Gul (Ahn Gil Kang), is a former weightlifter. She attends Hanwool College of Physical Education, a university full of top-notch athletes who are driven to succeed in the hopes of representing their country in national and international competitions. She went to the same elementary school as Jung Joon Hyung (Nam Joo Hyuk) but reunites with him in college. He is now a competitive swimmer who is having trouble recovering from the trauma of being disqualified for a false start in his first international swim competition. Song Shi Ho (Kyung Soo Jin) is a fiercely competitive rhythmic gymnast who won a silver medal at the Asian Games when she was 18, but the pressures of her sport drive her to break up with Joon Hyung. Bok Joo’s tunnel-vision life starts to change when she falls in love with Joon Hyung’s older cousin, Jung Jae Yi (Lee Jae Yoon), a former athlete who became an obesity doctor after suffering a career-ending injury. Will Bok Joo learn that there is more to life than weightlifting? “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo” is a 2016-2017 South Korean drama series directed by Oh Hyun Jong. The story is inspired by the life of weightlifter Jang Mi Ran, who won the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics, the gold medal in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and four world championships.

Starring: Kim Hyun Soo, Jang Dong Yoon, Seo Ji Hoon, Seo Young Joo

What can a group of determined high school students accomplish? On Christmas day, high school student Bae Joon Young (Seo Ji Hoon) discovers the dead body of his friend Lee So Woo (Seo Young Joo) buried under snow at school. Shocked, So Woo’s friends ask school administrators to investigate his death, but the adults seem unwilling to do anything. Prior to his death, So Woo gets into a fight with class bully Choi Woo Hyuk (Baek Chul Min) and is sent to talk to Han Kyung Moon (Jo Jae Hyun), the legal counsel for the school’s foundation, who wants So Woo to hide some damaging information. As Han Ji Hoon (Jang Dong Yoon) plays the cello at So Woo’s memorial service, Go Seo Yeon (Kim Hyun Soo) gets an anonymous note slipped to her questioning So Woo’s death. With school officials and authorities trying to rule the death a suicide, Seo Yeon and her friends decide to investigate So Woo’s death on their own. Will they find out who killed So Woo and what the adults are trying to hide?