Korean dramas about friendship: Have you seen 'Thirty-Nine' yet?

Son Ye-jin, Jeon Mi-do and Kim Ji-hyun in 'Thirty-Nine'. (Image: Screen grab via Netflix)

Clever, clever strategy, Netflix! Take a dull, uninspiring midweek and inject a wonderful gem with a subject that marketing people typically steer clear of: grown women.

The marketing chaps and their devotion to algorithms have given us a universe where everyone is 18 -25 years old, and has genial grandparents and a dog. But they often skip the parents of these 18-year-olds.

K-dramas do have parents who show up to cook or to scream their disapproval. Bollywood has otherwise genial babujis or Amrish Puri who is genial only to pigeons, and mothers who cook for their sons and daughters. But you don’t want to see them as series leads. (A recent exception on OTT was, of course, Hiccups & Hookups with Lara Dutta in the lead.)

It’s still cool to sing, ‘Ye dosti hum nahi chhodenge’ or ‘Bambai se aaya mera dost’, but when was the last time you actually got involved in the lives of three women who have been friends forever?

I watched Thirty-Nine on Netflix on Wednesday when it dropped. Sounds rather straightforward when you see the description: This series revolves around the life, friendship, romance and love of three friends, who are about to turn 40...

And you stop at the number ‘40’. Seriously? They made a show about almost 40-year-olds? Before you can put a question mark over it, you realise that you are hooked.

Son Ye-jin, Jeon Mi-do and Kim Ji-hyun have been best friends since grade 11, and the first episode will make you fall in love with all of them. A dermatologist, an acting coach and a cosmetics saleswoman - such diverse career choices for three friends - are clever choices for the series makers. They cover science, creative arts and commerce. That’s a triple whammy in one go. In addition to their jobs, the three single women are also so different in their attitudes.

And because the women are so different, it’s easy to take sides. One has overworked herself to a point of exhaustion but needs sleeping pills; one has been in love with a married man for 10 years but knows she needs to put a stop to that; the third lives with her mother and is happy to watch shows on her phone until she falls asleep… But right from the start we know they have each others’ back.

K-dramas know how to ‘do friendships’. I was happily watching the romantic Crash Landing On You, when I discovered something bigger than the romance offered between a South Korean heiress and a North Korean soldier. It is a soldier squad. Four North Korean soldiers who would be awesome to have as friends. They know the meaning of loyalty and well!

Reply 1988 has a bunch of friends who have grown up with one another, and their camaraderie is so genuine, it will make you look up your own high school group and make an effort to meet them. The group is so relatable, you know you have met them before. Their joys, their sorrows, their relationships with parents are something you too have seen and felt. This one scene dubbed ‘bad dancer’ is everything that will make you want to turn back the clock.

If there’s one thing friends bond over, it is food. And ever since K-dramas have shown up on Netflix (and Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar, and in dubbed versions on Zee5 and MX Player as well), we've become more curious about bibimbap and tteokbokki, soju and makgeoli. The joy with which the girls bond over food is best in the restaurant, the jealous rage with which she confronts the boy she likes flirting with another girl… These are episodes in our lives too… Although it’s touted as a love story, Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo is so much fun:

Closer to my heart and Bollywood-themed Itaewon Class brings a diverse group of people together to run a restaurant. Their skills are different, and heck so is the colour of their skin, but what awesomeness they display in friendship! When one is attacked, the other comes to help; when one is miserable, there is always the group who cheer them up… The theme is pure Bollywood: revenge. Yet the twists in the plot will keep you binge watching. But this show is all about friendship.

My First First Love has a home that feels like you belong there. Their sleepovers, their love, the heartbreaks. The home is a safe haven for the four of them. Makes you nostalgic for the friend’s hostel room, or your home that was your group’s adda. So long the bunch stayed on that mum would actually pop in and ask: When are you guys leaving? Go to your own homes!

It was just an amazing thing to watch friendships and everything else come alive when one daughter reluctantly drives her mother and aunts to a reunion. This show made me laugh and cry and cross my fingers hoping to have such lasting friendships in my life as well. Dear My Friends is the Hum Saath Saath Hain that everyone would like in their lives:

If Coffee Prince had a girl dressing up as a boy in order to make ends meet, and you loved the friendships she cultivates with the lads who work with her, and also with the owner's cousin, then you will love Sungkyunkwan Scandal even more. This is a period drama about a time when women were not allowed in schools. Our plucky heroine decides to pretend to be her brother and even though it is a love story, it is first a story of friendship.

K-dramas seem to get the friendship goals just right. And there’s a long list of shows that I haven’t even begun to talk about - like Chicago Typewriter, Boys over Flowers, Hospital Playlist and more… But wait! Netflix dropped episode two of Thirty-Nine as I type this? And the third lad in this story of three women friends is a chef?! Why should you watch Thirty-Nine if it’s just about women and you are a guy and follow that gent who claims loudly in the most misogynistic way that he doesn’t get women? I would say this is why.

Plus no other show will have a hero say, ‘Do you realise Soju also has calories?’ and the heroine replies, ‘It was Soju or carbs. I like Soju better!’