What Are The Best Time Travel KDramas To Watch?

Time travel KDramas elevate romantic, detective, and historical stories with sci-fi or fantasy twists, and you can explore these stories with SIXT.VN to discover Korea. While some KDramas overuse time travel, the best ones cleverly use the trope to tell captivating and unique stories. With SIXT.VN, planning your South Korean getaway is as easy as booking a ride or finding the perfect hotel for an immersive KDrama experience.

1. What Is A Time Travel KDrama?

A time travel KDrama is a Korean television series that incorporates the concept of time travel as a central plot device. These dramas often blend elements of science fiction, fantasy, romance, and historical settings, creating captivating and unique stories. While some KDramas overuse time travel, the best ones cleverly use the trope to tell intriguing narratives.

In KDramas, time travel serves as a narrative catalyst, enhancing various genres with a sci-fi or fantasy twist. These shows often involve characters traveling to the past, particularly the Joseon era, a period rich in political distress, turmoil, and drama. Other KDramas creatively employ time travel to solve crimes, unveiling clues through time to resolve heinous murders from the past.

2. How Does Time Travel Enhance Romantic Stories In KDramas?

Time travel significantly enhances romantic stories in KDramas by adding layers of complexity and intrigue to the relationships. It often creates situations where lovers are separated by centuries, challenging them to overcome temporal obstacles and societal norms to find their way back to each other. According to a survey by the Korea Tourism Organization in 2023, 78% of international viewers find the blend of romance and fantasy in KDramas highly appealing.

The concept of time travel elevates romantic stories with a sci-fi or fantasy twist. This happens so frequently that many KDrama viewers agree it has become an overused plot device. Nevertheless, numerous shows cleverly utilize time travel to tell captivating stories, whether primarily romantic, detective, or historical. The best time travel KDramas employ this trope to create some of the most unique narratives on the small screen.

3. A Time Called You

Released in 2023, A Time Called You is a South Korean romantic fantasy drama based on the Taiwanese TV series Someday or One Day. The series centers around Koo Yeon-jun, a young woman grieving her boyfriend’s passing, whose life is disrupted when she wakes up in the 1990s in the body of an eighteen-year-old girl named Min-ju.

As she tries to solve the mystery and return to her original body, her life is further complicated when she meets a young man who looks identical to her former lover. The series features science fiction elements beyond time travel, including characters jumping into the bodies of others and encountering their doppelgangers. The story follows two sets of characters, played by Jeon Yeo-been and Ahn Hyo-seop, whose pasts and futures are controlled by an old cassette player.

4. Again My Life

Released in 2022, Again My Life is not a typical time travel KDrama. Instead of featuring someone traveling straight into another time, the main character is murdered early in the series but comes back as a college student. This works to his advantage since he was a prosecuting attorney in his previous life, making him intelligent and excelling in academics.

This allows him to spend his free time figuring out who set out to kill him. Because this is more of a thriller, there’s also an action element to it. Lee Joon-gi, who stars as the lead, has a black belt in taekwondo and does many of his own action scenes in the show.

5. Twinkling Watermelon

Released in 2023, Twinkling Watermelon features shades of Back to the Future as a teenage boy (Ryeoun) ends up in his father’s high school years. The boy and his father (Choi Won-young as an adult and Choi Hyun-wook as a teenager) don’t see eye to eye when it comes to music. While he wants to pursue a career as a musician, his father doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

Their fight is the catalyst for the time travel experience. While in the past, he finds that his father is desperate to connect with another young woman, not the one who becomes his mom. He also realizes that his father isn’t hearing impaired as he is as an adult. He decides to try to prevent the accident that causes the hearing loss as well as make sure his father ends up with his mother, even as he’s forming a band with him.

6. Lovely Runner

Released in 2024, Lovely Runner is perfect for those who enjoy K-Pop, athletics, and love stories. The series sees a former superstar named Sun-jae (Byeon Woo-seok) who lives a life of mostly isolation while his career explodes. Im-sol (Kim Hye-yoon) is a superfan who has been supporting his career. In their 30s, however, they both wonder what their lives would have been like if they had done things differently. Of course, they also have a past connection.

Lovely Runner (2024)

When one of them dies, the other gets a chance to travel to the past to change their future. It’s revealed that they have both been doing everything they can to protect one another, even if it means their own lives might never be the same. The theme of the show is self-sacrifice as it explores what lengths someone will go to for someone they care about.

7. Reborn Rich

Released in 2022, Reborn Rich was the most-watched KDrama in South Korea in 2022. Like Again My Life, this series sees someone who is murdered get a chance to start a new life in a new body, but with the awareness of their previous life. This time, it’s someone who is a hardworking employee at a chaebol – a sprawling family-owned business, the kind that truly runs the economy in South Korea.

When he sees something wrong and tries to do the right thing, he is killed for it. He ends up returning to life as the youngest member of a chaebol family in an earlier time and starts putting his knowledge of the future to use. While the bare bones of the two stories are similar as both characters want revenge on those who took their lives, the worlds they explore are very different.

8. My Perfect Stranger

Released in 2023, My Perfect Stranger takes a risk in making both of its main characters time travelers. One does so on purpose though, while the other does not, which is where much of the intrigue comes from. Hae Jun (Kim Dong Wook) is a journalist investigating a serial murder case who discovers a time machine and uses it to follow his own investigation.

Yoon Young (Jin Ki Joo) discovers her mother dead and is then struck by a car, waking up in the same time that Hae Jun traveled to. As is true for many time travelers, they become trapped instead of able to travel between times. When the two cross paths, they find that maybe their time traveling, and their lives, are actually linked to one another.

9. Tunnel

Released in 2017, Tunnel is a time travel KDrama that takes the audience to the future – in a manner of speaking. The present-day of the story is actually 1985 in which a string of murders are being investigated. When the detective (Choi Jin Hyuk) pursuing a lead runs after a suspect through a tunnel, he’s hit in the head and ends up 30 years in the future.

The murder mystery element of the series is inspired by a real string of serial killings in Korea, but the story is very much fictional. While the show presents itself as a murder mystery with a time-travel element, there’s also a romantic subplot and a family at the center of the story that makes it a drama that really shines.

10. Familiar Wife

Released in 2018, Familiar Wife features a married man (Ji-Sung) with two kids who is unhappy in his life. He’s depressed, hates his wife, and is unsatisfied at work. If he had only made different choices in his youth, he might have had a happier life. After traveling through a toll booth and losing control of his car, he winds up in the past and is able to change some of those decisions.

This is one time travel series that doesn’t confine the protagonist to one time. Able to travel back and forth between the past and the present, he’s able to see how his different decisions have big outcomes later in life. It’s a similar concept to something like Sliding Doors but with many small changes to help someone understand their path in life.

11. Times

Released in 2021, Times isn’t a traditional time travel KDrama in which one character is transported to another time period completely. Instead, the time travel is a result of a phone line that is able to traverse timelines. Several series have used similar ideas, often with the use of radios instead of phones, with varying degrees of success.

Times 2021 Kdrama tv series poster

Two journalists, one in 2015 and one in 2020, connect over the use of the same phone line. Initially, they work together to prevent the death of one of their fathers, but while investigating, they uncover a conspiracy that involves time travel and corrupt politicians. The series is definitely a unique take among the time travel shows created for Korean television, which usually focus on history and a romantic subplot instead of political intrigue.

12. Tomorrow With You

Released in 2017, Tomorrow With You does use romance like most time travel KDramas do, but it also has a unique idea for the time travel itself. While most Korean time travel shows involve time traveling by accident, the main character in Tomorrow With You can decide to travel in time. It’s also done so while traveling the subway instead of falling through a portal or suffering a life-threatening injury in order to do it.

Yoo So-Joon (Lee Je-Hoon) takes on time-traveling adventures when he discovers that Ma-Rin (Shin Min-A) and he are linked by a tragic accident in the future. Intrigued by her, he decides to save both her and himself. He believes that he can change their fates thanks to his ability, but he has to figure out just how they are connected. He resolves to marry her in order to make sure, and they become truly linked as he falls in love.

13. The Best Hit

In The Best Hit, 1993 K-pop idol Yoo Hyun-Jae (Yoon Shi-yoon) gets accidentally transported to 2017, discovers that he is presumed dead after he disappeared in 1994, and investigates why he traveled through time. He does all this while struggling with living in the future, of course.

Meanwhile, Hyun-Jae’s biological son, Lee Ji-Hoon (Kim Min-jae), is secretly training to become an idol himself and is even enrolled in Star Punch Entertainment’s program – while making his parents believe that he’s studying for the civil service exams. The Best Hit is an underrated gem in the world of the best time travel KDramas.

14. Sisyphus: The Myth

Released in 2021, this Netflix KDrama has some serious Terminator vibes to it, but it’s full of good laughs, color, and drama. Han Tae-Sul (Cho Seung-woo) is a talented engineer who is determined to uncover the real reason behind his older brother’s murder.

If that wasn’t enough, the storyline introduces a character who travels from the future to his current time. In the future, the world is dominated by gangs and military cliques. Survival entails having serious combat skills, and Gang Seo-Hae (Park Shin-Hye) is just the right warrior. She travels back in time to help Tae-Sul on his dangerous journey after learning key evidence about his brother’s death.

15. Splash Splash Love

Splash Splash Love is one of those KDramas that combine time travel with romance. In the television series, a high-school student gets transported to 15th-century Korea.

She soon meets the young king of the kingdom who wants to learn more about mathematics. Thankfully, the heroine of the show is a patient teacher who is more than willing to tutor the King. Splash Splash Love is a quick and easy watch as it is one of the shortest KDramas out there, with only two episodes.

16. Rooftop Prince

Rooftop Prince has a lot of storylines to process, but they’re well worth it. The titular protagonist is a prince who wakes up in present-day 2012, even though he’s actually from the Korean Joseon dynasty/era. The crown prince and his two confidants find themselves on the rooftop of Park-ha’s (Han Ji-min) home.

After the prince realizes he’s time-traveled 300 years into the future, he also sees the long-lost sister of Park-ha – who is the spitting image of his late wife who drowned. The prince is convinced he will find the answers to his past in 2012 and poses as the grandson of a powerful CEO, who in reality was killed by another family member.

17. The King: Eternal Monarch

The King: Eternal Monarch has a phenomenal female lead in Jeong Tae-eul (Kim Go-eun), but it’s also full of riveting action, features a unique story of parallel worlds, and is also one of the unique time travel KDramas available on Netflix. In the show, there are two co-existing realities: present-day South Korea and the Kingdom of Corea.

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The current king of Corea witnessed his father’s murder as a child at the hands of his uncle. When he discovers a doorway to the parallel world and present-day South Korea, he also discovers that his uncle has been traveling between the two worlds and trying to raise his own army. The king must stop his uncle, but along the way, he learns the truth about the mysterious figure who once saved his life and finds he must travel to a moment in the past.

18. Queen In-Hyun’s Man

A Joseon Dynasty scholar meets an aspiring actress in the year 2012 in Queen In-Hyun’s Man, one of the best time travel KDramas. In 1694, a noble-born scholar is the only survivor after his family was murdered, but there’s a bigger story at play while he supports the reinstatement of the deposed queen and there’s a conspiracy involving a royal concubine.

Due to a magical talisman, he time travels 300 years into the future and meets an actress who he has a connection with. What makes the rom-com elements of the scholar from the past meeting the actress from the future is that the actress, so far, is not a household name. instead, her big break is about to be playing Queen In-Hyun, the very woman the scholar is a supporter of.

19. Faith

The time travel KDrama Faith follows the story of a plastic surgeon who gets transported to 14th-century Goryeo. She soon learns that a royal guard warrior was the reason why she was brought back more than 600 years into the past. The royal guard begs the plastic surgeon to help their injured queen. However, the plastic surgeon has actually caught feelings for her kidnapper.

Faith is considered one of the better time travel and fantasy-themed romance KDramas thanks to the stellar performances of the actors, as well as the detailed story that shines a light on Korean history and mythology.

20. Nine: Nine Time Travels

In the time travel KDrama Nine: Nine Time Travels, Park Sun-woo (Lee Jin-wook) discovers nine incense sticks that could take him back 20 years in time. He uses his time in the past to save his family, who have been victims of a terrible tragedy.

However, he needs to be extra careful when he goes back in time, as he can only do it nine times – the twist that makes Nine: Nine one of the best time travel KDramas. Park soon finds out that whatever he changes in the past also resonates and affects his present life.

21. Go Back Couple

Inspired by a webtoon called Do It One More Time, Go Back Couple is a Korean miniseries where a couple wishes that they never met each other. They have both become unhappy and exhausted with their marriage and wish they could have changed their unhappiness at the seeming source of all of their problems – meeting each other.

The couple soon finds that they’ve reverted to their 20-year-old selves, faced with trying to make decisions that will make their future selves happy and satisfied.

22. Chicago Typewriter

Out of the most compelling and best time travel KDramas, Chicago Typewriter is one of the few that’s about reincarnation rather than strictly about traveling through time. Three resistance fighters from the 1930s Japanese occupation of Korea find themselves in a new time period, but not because of mysterious scientific machines or magical objects.

Instead, the three are reincarnated as a writer, a fan, and a ghostwriter. Switching between the 1930s and the 21st century, these three characters start to see parallels between both time periods. As they start to uncover the truth behind their pasts, they worry about how it might affect their present.

23. What Are The Common Tropes Used In Time Travel KDramas?

Common tropes in time travel KDramas include accidental time slips, destined encounters, altering the past to change the future, and the consequences of time paradoxes. These tropes often add depth and emotional resonance to the stories, exploring themes of fate, free will, and the impact of choices. According to the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, KDramas frequently use cultural and historical elements to enhance the authenticity and appeal of their narratives.

Time travel KDramas frequently utilize these tropes, adding layers of depth and emotional resonance to their narratives. They explore profound themes such as fate, free will, and the ripple effects of choices made across time.

24. How Do Historical Settings Influence Time Travel KDramas?

Historical settings significantly influence time travel KDramas by providing a rich backdrop for the stories and adding cultural depth. The past, particularly the Joseon era, is often portrayed with detailed costumes, traditions, and societal norms, creating a stark contrast with modern times. These settings allow for explorations of historical events, political intrigue, and the clash between past and present values.

These settings enrich the narratives, allowing explorations of historical events and the interplay between past and present values. The visual contrast between traditional attire and modern clothing emphasizes the character’s dislocation in time, enhancing the overall viewing experience. The historical context also adds a layer of authenticity, making the KDramas more engaging.

25. What Are The Benefits Of Using SIXT.VN For Planning A Trip To Korea To Experience KDrama Locations?

Using SIXT.VN for planning a trip to Korea offers several benefits, including convenient airport transfer services, a wide selection of hotels, and curated tours of popular KDrama filming locations. SIXT.VN simplifies the travel planning process, ensuring a hassle-free and immersive experience for KDrama enthusiasts looking to explore Korea’s cultural and scenic attractions. According to TripAdvisor, travelers who plan their itineraries in advance and use local transportation services report higher satisfaction levels.

Convenient Airport Transfer Services

SIXT.VN offers convenient airport transfer services, providing a smooth and stress-free start to your trip. Knowing that transportation from the airport to your hotel is prearranged allows you to relax and focus on the exciting KDrama experiences ahead.

Wide Selection of Hotels

With SIXT.VN, you can choose from a wide selection of hotels that cater to different budgets and preferences. Whether you’re looking for a luxurious stay or a cozy, budget-friendly option, SIXT.VN has accommodations to suit your needs.

Curated Tours of KDrama Filming Locations

SIXT.VN provides curated tours of popular KDrama filming locations, allowing you to step into the world of your favorite shows. These tours offer a unique and immersive experience, bringing you closer to the stories and characters you love.

Ready to explore the captivating world of time travel KDramas and experience the beauty of Korea? Let SIXT.VN take care of all your travel needs! From convenient airport transfers and comfortable accommodations to expertly guided tours of KDrama filming locations, we ensure a seamless and unforgettable journey. Contact us today at +84 986 244 358 or visit our website at SIXT.VN to book your dream Korean adventure. Our address is 260 Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam.

FAQ About Time Travel KDramas

1. What defines a time travel KDrama?

A time travel KDrama is a Korean television series that centers on characters traveling through time, often blending genres like romance, fantasy, and historical drama.

2. Which era is most frequently visited in time travel KDramas?

The Joseon era is the most frequently visited in time travel KDramas, offering rich cultural and historical context.

3. What themes are commonly explored in these KDramas?

Common themes include fate, free will, the impact of choices, and the challenges of adapting to different time periods.

4. How does time travel affect the relationships in KDramas?

Time travel often complicates relationships by creating temporal obstacles, societal differences, and the challenge of maintaining connections across time.

5. Are time travel KDramas purely romantic, or do they include other genres?

Time travel KDramas often blend romance with elements of mystery, thriller, historical drama, and fantasy.

6. Can you name a few popular time travel KDramas?

Popular examples include A Time Called You, Rooftop Prince, Queen In-Hyun’s Man, and Tomorrow With You.

7. What makes a time travel KDrama stand out from other shows?

The unique blending of time travel elements with Korean culture, history, and emotional storytelling makes these dramas stand out.

8. Do these dramas usually have happy endings?

The endings vary, but many aim for satisfying resolutions, whether happy, bittersweet, or thought-provoking.

9. How do Korean traditions enhance the storyline?

Korean traditions add authenticity and emotional depth to the storyline, enriching the visual and narrative experience.

10. What impact do these KDramas have on tourism to Korea?

KDramas boost tourism by showcasing Korean culture, landmarks, and scenic locations, inspiring fans to visit and explore the country.