7 new K-dramas to watch in March 2023: Netflix’s The Glory Part 2 and Divorce Attorney Shin, Pandora: Beneath the Paradise, and more

This month’s offerings include two legal dramas – Divorce Attorney Shin, starring Cho Seung-woo, and period piece Joseon Attorney, with Woo Do-hwan
Yoon Chan-young plays a cab driver for ghosts in Delivery Man, while Song Hye-kyo’s character Moon Dong-eun continues to plan vengeance in The Glory season 2

Carrying on 2022’s hottest Korean drama trend, March will see the launch of a number of series featuring lawyers.

The evergreen genres of period drama, action and melodrama also feature in the K-drama line-up for the month, as well as the follow-up to one of last year’s biggest Netflix hits.

Here is our preview of the seven most exciting K-dramas debuting in March 2023.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

1. Delivery Man

While Lee Je-hoon busies himself with picking up vengeful fares in Taxi Driver season 2, All of Us Are Dead actor Yoon Chan-young will also play a cab driver in Delivery Man – but his clients are ghosts.

Just like last year’s May I Help You? with Lee Hye-ri, this show follows a character who has the ability to see ghosts and the duty to help fulfil their last wishes so that they may pass on to the afterlife.

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Yoon plays Seo Young-min, who is helped by the ghost Kang Ji-hyun (Bang Min-ah of the K-pop group Girls’ Day), who steps into his cab without any memory of who she was, and the handsome ER doctor Do Kyu-jin, played by Kim Min-suk (Lovestruck in the City). (ENA, March 1, and streaming on Viu)

2. Divorce Attorney Shin

Cho Seung-woo’s most famous role is as a lawyer in Stranger, and now he returns as a lawyer in Divorce Attorney Shin. As the title suggests, Shin Sung-han is a divorce lawyer, but his path to that job was an unconventional one.

Sung-han was a talented piano player who became a professor at a music conservatory in Germany. After hearing some terrible news one day, he returns to Korea and strives to become a lawyer.

Thanks to his difficult childhood memories, Sung-han decides to specialise in divorce law, and now he stands up for his clients while steadily digging towards the truth he is searching for.

Cho’s co-stars include Han Hye-jin (Hold Me Tight), Kim Sung-kyun (D.P.) and Jung Moon-sung (Hospital Playlist). (JTBC, March 4, and streaming on Netflix)

3. Oasis

For a sweeping nostalgic youth tale, look no further than Oasis, a drama that follows the ups and downs of three young people in the 1980s and ’90s.

Jang Dong-yoon (Search) leads the cast as Lee Doo-hak, a provincial high school student from a poor family. He falls in love with Seoul transfer student Oh Jung-shin (Seol In-a, Business Proposal), who always fights against injustice and forms a bond with Doo-hak and his friend Choi Cheol-woong (Choo Yeong-woo, Police University).

Cheol-woong also falls for Jung-shin, only she doesn’t return his feelings, setting the stage for a complicated friendship triangle as the three of them grow up. (KBS2, March 6)

4. The Glory Part 2

One of last year’s most popular Netflix series returns with a new batch of eight episodes that will chronicle the completion of Moon Dong-eun’s epic revenge.

Song Hye-kyo returns as Dong-eun, alongside Lee Do-hyun’s mysterious plastic surgeon Joo Yeo-jeong and Lim Ji-hyun’s weather announcer Park Yeon-jin.

Rounding off the story created by hit writer Kim Eun-sook (Descendants of the Sun), The Glory Part 2 will see how far Dong-eun is willing to take her plan to get back at the school bullies who tormented her two decades ago. (Netflix, March 10)

5. Pandora: Beneath the Paradise

The Penthouse actress Lee Ji-ah leads Pandora: Beneath the Paradise, a new action melodrama preparing to burst onto screens.

Lee plays Hong Tae-ra, a woman who is single-mindedly pursuing her goal of becoming the first lady of Korea in order to protect her family. Tae-ra lives a picture-perfect life with wealthy developer husband Pyo Jae-hyun (Lee Sang-yoon, One the Woman) and their daughter, except for the fact that she can’t remember her past.

Once she does regain her memories, her life falls apart and she is thrown into an uncontrollable situation. Park Ki-woong (Monster) and Lee’s The Penthouse co-star Bong Tae-gyu also appear. (tvN, March 11)

6. The Secret Romantic Guesthouse

After appearing in Yumi’s Cells season 2, Revenge of Others and The Glory last year, Shin Ye-eun is beginning 2023 by leading the cast of period romantic comedy The Secret Romantic Guesthouse.

Shin is Yoon Dan-oh, the youngest daughter of a well-to-do family whose comfortable life comes apart one day. She is forced to become the family breadwinner and begins running a guest house for scholars studying in the hopes of becoming high-ranking officials.

Among the scholars are Kang San (Ryeo Un, Through the Darkness), Kim Si Yeol (Kang Hoon, Little Women) and Jeong Yoo Ha (Jung Gun-joo, Monthly Magazine Home). Beyond their studies, they also band with Dan-oh to solve the case of a missing girl. (SBS, March 20)

7. Joseon Attorney

The lawyer drama trend extends to period dramas in next month’s Joseon Attorney. Woo Do-hwan of The King: Eternal Monarch plays the conniving lawyer Kang Han-su, who stages lawsuits and emotionally manipulates people.

However, his deceptions make him a hero of the people and, over time, his morals begin to align with the just lawyer he has been held up as.

In his legal dealings, Han-su faces off with Princess Lee Yeon-joo (Bona, Twenty-Five Twenty-One) and judge Yoo Ji-sun (Cha Hak-yeon, Mine). (MBC, March 24)

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