From critically acclaimed dramas like The Glory to heart-pumping action thrillers like Taxi Driver, there are plenty of brilliant K-dramas about revenge. The theme of revenge is a popular and perfect subject for many amazing K-dramas. By nature, it provides so much potential for creating drama through lies, deception, and complex issues like psychological trauma and bullying. The burning desire of the characters to get what they want drives the story’s pace forward at a thrilling speed, leading to exciting fight sequences, dramatic confrontations, and dark and intense tones.
Prime Video’s newest successful revenge K-drama, Marry My Husband, proves how popular these stories are. Shows like Vincenzo showcases a unique blend of mafia drama and dark comedy, featuring a protagonist who battles corporate greed and corruption with his cunning and resources. Meanwhile, Itaewon Class tells a more gripping story of personal and professional revenge, pulling at the heartstrings and focusing on the journey of a young entrepreneur fighting against the odds to make his mark in the competitive world of Itaewon. Each of these shows, with their unique exploration of revenge, makes them fascinating and captivating K-dramas.
15 Pyramid Game (2024)
A High School Tale Of Revenge
Pyramid Game is inspired by a webtoon of the same name, and it’s set in an area ripe for revenge: an all-girls school. The show doesn’t take a long-term look at revenge like so many other K-dramas do, but a more immediate one.
In this school, popularity polls are used to rank classmates. Those with the most positive rankings are treated well by the other students and teachers while those who fall to the bottom are relentlessly targeted and bullied. When a transfer student finds herself the target of harassment and even violence, she decides to change the game. She makes it her mission to climb the social pyramid of the school in order to save herself, but it leads to revenge and rebellion.
The series was named among NME’s best K-dramas of 2024 and earned Jang Da-ah a Blue Dragon Series Award nomination for Best New Actress.
14 Crazy Love (2022)
A Secretary Attempts To Get Revenge For The Way Her Boss Treats Her
Most revenge K-dramas are some of the darker series to come out of South Korean television. Crazy Love takes a slightly more light-hearted approach to revenge because the series is a romantic comedy with some telenovela tendencies.
When a high-powered man receives death threats, he fakes amnesia so that others will be more likely to help him. His secretary decides to take advantage of that amnesia, pretending to be his fiancée as a way to enact revenge against him for the way he’s treated her at work. That isn’t the wackiest plot point in this series though as it gets both more dramatic and sillier as the show goes on.
There are exes enacting schemes of their own, terminal illnesses, and an attempted murder plot. The revenge plot might not be exactly the same as those looking for a darker series would expect, but it’s definitely a unique entry into the subgenre.
13 The World Of The Married (2020)
A Woman Wants Revenge For Her Husband’s Infidelity
The World of the Married took some fire from critics when it first premiered in 2020, with some believing that it featured too much sex and violence. Despite that, it became one of the most-watched shows in South Korea in 2020 as well as one of the highest-rated K-dramas on television at the time.
The series follows a woman who appears to have the perfect life to outsiders. She’s a successful doctor with the seemingly perfect husband. She, however, discovers that her husband has been having an affair and that her friends know about it. With the knowledge that everyone in her life has been lying to her, she decides to attempt to take revenge on everyone who has hurt her.
The World of the Married is a riveting drama that leaves the audience on the edge of their seats and wondering just how far one woman will go to get even.
12 Reborn Rich (2022)
Time Travel And Revenge Combine
Time travel shows make for a fascinating subgenre on Korean television. There has been an influx of them since 2020, but only a few of them tie into the concept of a revenge K-drama. Reborn Rich melds the two concepts together in an interesting way, and South Korean fans loved it, making it the most-watched K-drama of 2022 in the country.
This series kicks off with a murder. An employee at a chaebol (a huge family-owned business in South Korea) sees something he suspects is wrong and ends up killed for trying to do the right thing. He gets a second chance to make things right though because his soul is brought back to life as the youngest member of a chaebol family years before his murder.
He decides to start using what he knows of the future to improve his life and to take revenge against those responsible for his death.
11 Perfect Marriage Revenge (2023)
A Woman Gets A Second Chance For Revenge Against Her Family
Perfect Marriage Revenge was originally a webnovel before being adapted into a webtoon, and finally, a live-action K-drama. Like Reborn Rich, the series combines time travel elements with those of revenge.
It features a young woman who was adopted by a wealthy family and tries her best to please them. Nothing she does is ever good enough though as she discovers her husband has feelings for her little sister and her mother has been selling her reproductions of paintings as counterfeit art and framed her for the crime. When she ends up dead, she wakes up one year before all of these events unfold, giving her the chance to get revenge on her family.
She strikes up a deal with the man she knows her little sister has had a crush on, marrying him and agreeing to help gain the approval of his grandmother in exchange for his help. The family drama combined with the revenge elements make this one fascinating K-drama.
Related
20 Best Enemies-To-Lovers K-Dramas
A number of great K-dramas employ a romantic theme that calls for the two lead characters to go from hating each other to falling in love.
10 Rugal (2020)
A Former South Korean Police Officer Embarks On A Quest For Revenge After Being Framed
Rugal is a sci-fi action thriller following a former South Korean elite police officer who, after being framed for his wife’s murder, joins an organization armed with biotechnological enhancements to fight against a national crime syndicate in his quest for vengeance. The show is extremely bloody, featuring very realistic execution-style murders, so it’s not for the faint of heart.
Rugal is based on a manga by Rel.mae.
Rugal also features impressive production quality and visuals, but being a webtoon adaptation, it encounters some pitfalls common to adaptations, with forced musical montages and network TV quality. The series is a bloody revenge tale, with Kang Gi-beom not only seeking revenge for his wife’s brutal murder but also for framing him for her murder. It also has tinges of sci-fi, as he is blinded in the attack on his wife and receives two artificial eyeballs to regain and enhance his sight, a sort of superpower.
9 Revenge Of Others (2022)
A High School Student Sets Out To Avenge The Death Of Her Sister
Revenge of Others follows Ok Chan-mi (Shin Ye-eun), a high schooler seeking revenge after her twin’s mysterious death. Teaming up with the morally upright but troubled Ji Soo-heon (Lomon), they navigate a creepy, gothic school filled with suspects, including school bullies and a repeat senior with a shady medical history. The show’s excessive use of dramatic plot twists can be overwhelming.
Yet, the engaging lead performances and the show’s stylish execution that blends in early 2000s teen horror still make it worth the watch. The series is all about revenge, as Ok Chan-mi is looking for the person she believes is responsible for her brother’s apparent suicide, and she won’t stop until they find those responsible and make them pay for the death. Since the police deemed it a suicide, she is in this alone, which adds to the stakes of everything she does. The series premiered on Disney+ in the United States.
8 The Innocent Man (2012)
A Having His Heart Broken, A Gigolo Pursues The Stepdaughter Of His Ex
The Innocent Man, listed on Netflix as Nice Guy, follows the story of Kang Maru (Song Joong-ki), who seeks revenge against the woman who betrayed him. Once a promising medical student, Kang Ma-ru’s life spirals when his love, Han Jae-hee, lets him take the blame for a crime he didn’t commit. Years later, Ma-ru, now a bartender and gigolo, plots against Jae-hee using Seo Eun-gi, a chaebol heiress and the woman he once loved’s step-daughter, only to fall for her.
The Innocent Man
is retitled
Nice Guy
on Netflix in America.
Despite criticisms due to a particular amnesia plotline, the show is full of some emotional moments that tug at the heartstrings. This is a very different revenge tale, as it isn’t revenge against criminals, but it is revenge against someone who hurt him, and he is targeting a daughter instead of the woman who betrayed him. However, as a romantic story, it hits the right notes and is a fan favorite. It went on to win six honors at the KBS Drama Awards with 13 nominations.
7 Vincenzo (2021)
An Italian Mafia-Raised Lawyer Plans To Dismantle A Powerful Corporation
Adopted into an Italian mafia family, Vincenzo follows Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong-ki), a skilled lawyer and mafia consigliere. When a power struggle forces him to flee to Seoul, he tries to recover hidden gold stashed in a plaza now claimed by the Babel Group. Teaming up with fierce attorney Hong Cha-young (Jeon Yeo-been), whose father was murdered for exposing Babel’s criminal activities, Vincenzo uses his mafia tactics to dismantle the corporation.
Despite a sluggish start, Vincenzo maintains its momentum with tight plotting, compelling character arcs including one of K-drama’s most menacing villains, and a satisfying number of vengeful undercurrents. This series approaches the revenge a little bit differently, as Vincenzo is going after the gold and the Babel family first and foremost. but he still has a grudge to settle against Paolo, Fabio’s biological son, who tried to kill him, setting Vincenzo on his path to independence.
6 My Name (2021)
An Undercover Cop Infiltrates A Drug Gang After Her Father’s Death
In My Name, after her father’s sudden death, Yoon Ji-woo (Han So-hee), an undercover cop, seeks revenge by infiltrating the drug crime gang Dongcheon, led by Choi Mu-jin (Park Hee-soon). Alongside her partner, Detective Jeon Pil-do (Ahn Bo-hyun), she delves deep into the underworld to uncover the truth behind her father’s demise. The series is all about revenge, but it takes a slightly different look since it is a police officer who seeks revenge.
My Name has a 100% critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yoon Ji-woo sets out to get revenge despite being part of the force that upholds the law. The show’s realistic depiction of the challenges within the criminal and legal realms make it a standout dark and gritty revenge story. It’s a tense thriller jam-packed with some great action sequences and strong performances by the cast. The series earned Han So-hee a Best Actress nomination at the Baeksang Arts Awards.
5 Taxi Driver (2021)
A Former KMA Graduate Drives A Taxi For A Company That Serves Revenge-Call Services
Taxi Driver follows Kim Do-gi (Lee Je-hoon), a former Korea Military Academy (KMA) graduate turned taxi driver for a company that offers vengeance services to victims of injustice. Motivated by his own past inability to avenge his mother’s murder, the show brilliantly intertwines thrilling revenge missions with commentary on broader social issues. The K-drama series, based on the webtoon The Deluxe Taxi (Red Cage) by Carlos and Lee Jae-jin, is actually influenced by real-life crimes in Korea.
The show has fantastic, fast-paced action and deep dives into societal themes, highlighting corruption, privilege, and legal system failures. Watching Kim Do-gi take justice into his own hands is cathartic, as those wronged often don’t see justice. The entire concept of revenge is the basis of the story as the company’s sole purpose is to seek revenge and right wrongs for those who suffered. It was a huge success, with 15 SBS Drama Awards in 18 nominations.
4 Secret Love (2013)
After Going To Prison For The Crimes Of Her Ex-Boyfriend, A Young Woman Is Determined To Get Her Revenge
Secret Love tells the story of Kang Yoo-jung (Hwang Jung-eum), who takes the blame and goes to jail for a hit-and-run caused by her boyfriend, Ahn Do-hoon (Bae Soo-bin), who dumps her after she does this for him. After her release, she’s determined to get revenge, crossing paths with Min-Hyuk (Ji Sung), a wealthy bad boy mourning the loss of his girlfriend from the same accident.
As they work together, they start falling for each other and finding love while trying to settle their pasts. It’s a must-watch for fans of romantic dramas that explore themes of betrayal, retribution, and second chances. The series is all about getting revenge both against a person who let his girlfriend take the fall and for a man who lost his girlfriend at that man’s hands. The series was critically acclaimed and won seven KBS Drama Awards with 12 nominations.
Related
20 Best Friends-To-Lovers K-Dramas
Though romance is often a big part of k-dramas, sometimes it is even better when the main pairing start as friends before letting a relationship grow.
3 Graceful Family (2019)
15 Years After Her Mother’s Murder, A Chaebol Heiress Returns To South Korea To Claim Back Her Rightful Place.
Graceful Family follows Mo Seok-hee (Im Soo-hyang), the heiress of the vast MC Group empire, whose life is upended by her mother’s murder. Fifteen years later, she returns to South Korea to confront her family’s dysfunction and the mystery of her mother’s murder, teaming up with a lawyer, Heo Yoon-do (Lee Jang-woo), to uncover the truth and claim her rightful place.
The series explores the dark underbelly of a wealthy, dysfunctional family, including power struggles, hidden secrets, betrayals, and deep-seated corporate corruption. This was a series with revenge in its bones, as Mo Seok-hee wants to make the people responsible for her mother’s death pay, but it is also a family drama about who she can and can’t trust when she returns home. It became the highest-rated drama in MBN network history at the time of its run (via Soompi), since surpassed by Bossam: Seal the Fate.
2 Itaewon Class (2020)
After His Father’s Death & Jail Time Served For Beating Up His Rival, A Vengeful Man Opens Up A Restaurant
After being jailed for attempting to kill his rival, whose actions led to his father’s death, Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) opens DanBam, a restaurant, in Itaewon upon release, seeking success and revenge against the Jangga Group. Itaewon Class wonderfully emphasizes the importance of community as Sae-ro-yi gains resilience through the support of his tight-knit friends.
Itaewon Class
earned seven nominations at the Baeksand Arts Awards.
Coupled with great performances, the series is visually striking, set against the backdrop of Seoul’s vibrant Itaewon district. There is a lot to unpack in this series, as it is not only about Park Sae-ro-yi seeking revenge against the Jangga Group, but also his unresolved feelings toward Oh Soo-ah, who joins the group he blames for his dad’s death. The show won Best Drama Series at the 25th Asian Television Awards, a testament to its fantastic storytelling and why it is one of the best K-dramas of all time.
1 The Glory (2022-2023)
A Woman Seeks Vengeance Against Her Childhood Bullies
Transitioning between Dong-eun’s (Song Hye-kyo) harrowing high school experience and her meticulous plans for vengeance as an adult, The Glory delves into the depths of abuse and its long-lasting impacts. Beyond the plot’s intensity, The Glory’s true story shines a spotlight on bullying, a pervasive issue with devastating consequences, as the K-drama is rooted in the real-life bullying problem in South Korea.
This is a highly controversial K-drama, as the bullying victim targets the children of the people who bullied her, making her almost no better than them when seeking her revenge. The Glory received both critical acclaim and viewership success, receiving eight nominations at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards, and winning three – Best Drama, Best Actress for Song Hye-kyo, and Best Supporting Actress for Lim Ji-yeon. It also swept the Asian Academy Creative Awards, with six wins.
