Television series
High Society
Other titles called High Society: the 1956 film.
A 2015 Korean drama about a chaebol heiress working undercover in a market, searching for genuine love. It's a romantic fairy tale with family drama and class commentary woven through, designed for viewers who enjoy the comfort of Cinderella stories updated for contemporary Seoul. Sweet-natured, warm, and occasionally weightier than it first appears.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like a romance where money and pride create real friction, and the banter between two stubborn leads earns its sweetness slowly.
Skip it if you want a brisk, light comedy; at sixteen episodes of roughly seventy-five minutes each, it lingers, and its sweetness arrives at a patient, sometimes repetitive pace.
What it asks of you: Settle in for a long commitment: sixteen roughly 75-minute episodes, with comedy and heartache unfolding gradually instead of in quick bursts.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Boys over Flowers2009
The template for wealthy-boy-meets-ordinary-girl K-drama romance. Addictive, funny, with real chemistry and enough class-conflict tension to ground the fantasy. If you love the premise of High Society, this is essential viewing.
But The lead male character is genuinely unpleasant for stretches, and some viewers find the tone uneven—it wavers between comedy and melodrama in ways that don't always work.
It's Okay, It's Love2014
A mature romance with real emotional intelligence. Two damaged people find each other; the writing trusts its audience, and both leads deliver performances that sting. Explores mental health without turning it into a plot device.
But The pacing in the middle section drags, and if you want a purely feel-good experience, the bleaker stretches might sit uneasily with you.
Her Private Life2019
A woman hiding her true self while searching for authentic connection—the exact emotional core of High Society. Clever, funny, with a leads who have genuine rapport. Perfectly paced for binge-watching.
But The central plot reveal is somewhat predictable, and the second lead romance feels like obligation rather than genuine investment.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from High Society
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Alchemy of Souls2022
Both explore whether love can exist across fundamental social or circumstantial boundaries, and both ask whether the real person can be loved when circumstances are stripped away.
A fantasy framework allows High Society's core question—what happens when someone falls in love with you, not your money or status?—to become literal and urgent. A mage wakes in a stranger's body; romance blooms across that impossible divide. Gorgeously made and surprisingly moving.
But The fantasy plot is genuinely complicated, and if you're watching purely for romantic comfort, the spell-magic subplot will feel like noise rather than enhancement.
More like this (7)
What's Wrong with Secretary Kim2018
Effortless chemistry between leads, a wealthy male lead who's actually likable, and a woman whose competence is never diminished by romance. Funny, touching, and genuinely hard to stop watching.
But The plot is gossamer-thin, and if you're looking for emotional depth or stakes that feel real, you won't find them here.
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon2017
A heroine with her own agency and goals, a male lead who respects her completely, and a genuinely inventive premise. The tone balances comedy, romance, and darker material with surprising grace.
But The thriller elements in the second half undercut the lighter tone some viewers came for, and it occasionally feels like two dramas stitched together.
Descendants of the Sun2016
Sprawling, gorgeous, operatic romance set against international intrigue. Two leads with real star power, production values that justify the hype, and sequences that will stay with you.
But The melodrama can feel overheated, and the geopolitical backdrop sometimes distracts from rather than deepens the central love story.
My Love from the Star2013
A time-displaced alien and a modern actress; the premise alone is a gift. Charming, funny, with genuine warmth and a lead female character who's ambitious and flawed in equal measure.
But The sci-fi premise is largely window-dressing, and if you want that element to matter, you'll feel shortchanged by the back half.
The Heirs2013
Wealth, inheritance disputes, and romance among Seoul's elite. Beautifully shot, with a cast of genuinely interesting secondary characters and political intrigue that gives the fantasy weight.
But The male lead's early behavior is toxic in ways the narrative doesn't adequately reckon with, and some pacing issues make it feel longer than it is.
My Mister2018
Both centre on someone crossing class boundaries to find genuine human connection, but Mister does it with zero sentimentality and zero resolution—the connection exists because it exists, not because it solves anything.
Not a romance—a story of a young woman and a middle-aged man from opposite social worlds who form a complicated, non-sexual emotional bond that becomes sustaining. Devastating, quiet, shot with real artistry. Restores faith in K-drama's ability to tell grown-up stories.
But There is almost no plot. It moves at the pace of real life, which means long stretches of nothing happening. If you need narrative momentum, this will feel like standing still.
The Housemaid2010
Where High Society romanticizes crossing class lines, Housemaid shows the power imbalance as a trap. Same world, opposite emotional truth—worth sitting with both to understand what either is really asking about wealth, vulnerability, and trust.
A woman takes a job in a wealthy household and discovers nothing is as it seems. Psychologically unsettling, beautifully composed, with a twist that recontextualizes everything. A masterclass in building dread through implication rather than action.
But This is a horror-thriller, not a romance. It's genuinely disturbing, and the wealthy family are monsters. If you want the fantasy of luxury validated, you'll find it inverted here.
People
Cast
Directing
- Gil So JinAssistant Director
Production
- Han Jung HwanProducer