[HanCinema's Feature] HanCinema's Top 5 Dramas for December 2022

Fifth place for the tracking period of November 10th to December 8th is "Revenge of Others" on Disney+.

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The strong performance for the high school murder mystery is a bit surprising, mainly because it, like most Disney+ exclusives, suffers from airing on a platform with spotty Korean drama coverage in many international regions. Still, there's no denying the appeal of Lomon as a leading man (albeit not the protagonist) as his fans wait for "All of Us Are Dead" to release its second season.

Fourth place goes to another Disney+ joint, "Connect" from director Miike Takashi. This sci-fi drama stars Jung Hae-in as a man unwittingly connected to a serial killer via an eye transplant. Much like "Revenge of Others" though, interest in "Connect" seems to be mainly driven by the actor. There was surprisingly little interest in this interview I published a few days ago which discussed, among other things, Jung Hae-in's leadership role on set.

Third place goes to "Reborn Rich" on JTBC. Now this drama needs no introduction. The three articles I've written on the reincarnation plot mixed with a corporate power struggle have been among the most popular on HanCinema in recent weeks. However, early weekend figures show that "Reborn Rich" only had 17% ratings in its ninth episode on Friday night. While these ratings are incredibly high, record-setting even, "Reborn Rich" had been hoping to hit the 20% mark this weekend.

Second place goes to "Weak Hero Class 1" on wavve. While Disney+ might be bad with international distribution for Korean drama fans, wavve, as a Korea only platform, at least manages to license its dramas to other streaming providers. As to why the high school action drama is so popular, I'm honestly not sure. I published two interviews about "Weak Hero Class 1" to little interest. Is it all the still photos we publish? Or maybe fans are just clicking in the hopes of news about a second season? No news on that front yet, unfortunately.

Lastly, the most popular drama on HanCinema for the current tracking period is..."Under the Queen's Umbrella" which ended on December 4th with ratings of 16.9%. "Under the Queen's Umbrella" would have been the big success story of the season easily if not for "Reborn Rich" doing even better. This is especially true since it was a more risky project in general. The titular leading lady, Kim Hye-soo, is fifty-two years old, and her chief antagonist played by Kim Hae-sook is sixty-six years old.

But these leading ladies have very effectively anchored a palace intrigue centered on, of all subjects, the role of classical education in the context of royal succession in the Joseon era. Despite the almost comical specificity of the subject matter, "Under the Queen's Umbrella" has also had over ninety million hours viewed on Netflix worldwide, still going strong as latecomers catch up on all the episodes they missed. "Under the Queen's Umbrella" is a truly worthy champion for this month's Top 5 Dramas.

Written by William Schwartz