We love dramas with dark/bad boys and there are many of them, but are there female leads like that?

unfortunately FLs are mostly same, not deep characters, but there are interesting females too, but not bad ones.

please recommend dramas with dark or mysterious or just bad girl dramas with romance (even slight romance with that bad girl). 

I'm not talking about just cold FL or just badass/successful, not wanting/trusting love or this kind characters, there are many of them.


examples:

It's Okay to Not Be Okay (she is mysterious and quite dark)

The K2 (she is listed as SFL but I think she is more main character than FL)

A Man's Story 

Hotel del Luna (haven't watched but I know she is bad girl, I just can't stand ML :(
Doctors (same here, I cant like ML, but Park shinhye looks so great in trailer)

p.s. Korean dramas please :) If they are good maybe Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese 

chinese drama - The Legends

Evil female lead, thats really relative concept because everybody has some light and dark sides. Maybe they had to some bad things because somebody changed them or forced them to do bad things, so maybe these: Unexpected, Romance of tiger and rose, Heroine disqualified, Lost romance, Love and redemption, Mask. Or some dramas where they want revenge such as  Plerng ruk plerng kaen, Conspiracy of love, Birth of beauty, Renascence.

https://mydramalist.com/discussions/recommendation-forum/58693-dramas-with-a-evil-female-lead?page=1


Also maybe:

  • Cinderella's Sister
  • Girl K
  • Middle school student A
  • My daughter sooyoung
  • Yuttakarn Prab Nang Marn
  • Byakuyakou
  • Nagareboshi
  • Extracurricular
  • Boku no yabai tsuma

Miss Ripley.  (Many people disliked this drama because they couldnt forgive what the FL do. But it's why I liked very much, it's a quite complex caracter, and the actress performance is great).

Jang Ok Jung. (Here, unlike others adaptations of this caracter, Hui Bin, the FL start as a good person, but gradualy, you discover her dark side, arrogance, and many other humans flaws you find traditionnaly in a bad SFL. Here too, crazy good actress performance).

Queen Seon Deok. (Here it's not the FL but Lady Mishill, the big bad of the drama. Anyway, you watch this drama first because this caracter, she carry all, and it's her you see more, starting from the first episode. Amazing actress performance, and amazing caracter, with some details reals about history. In fact, she got many mens, 4 or 5 in the drama, but in real, I find they forget one more as I was reading the historical biography of this woman).

Queen of Ambition. damn bad FL.

Now, if you just want a very good evil SFL, watch "Rooftop prince". I didnt find a better bitche until now, and she's more pretty than FL. In fact, she's my favorite caracter in this story.

 W two worlds Season 2:
I didnt find a better bitche until now, and she's more pretty than FL. In fact, she's my favorite caracter in this story.

first, thank you, I didn't new any of these dramas and recommendations with synopsis always more helpful, I'll try all of them <3

second - problem with good second leads is that you ship/like them more than lead characters and get disappointed because leads get all good and they are left without girl/boy or good end. I loved SFL in K2 but... though I started drama because FL, I loved yoona from "King in Love" (so great drama and rare case when second lead is really good and has good end, better then ML).

third - I remember your nick name because somewhere (now don't remember where) I read your review and it was so good and 100% I couldn't agree more, I remember to think she/he has so good taste, analyses so great, only thing I couldn't understand why someone who appreciates really high quality dramas and multilayered characters most of all likes W (sorry, Lee jong suk was my first love in kdrama world, but this drama had too many primitive cliche elements, ML has good start/idea/potential, but even he become 1 dimentional)


Hi!
That's how the audience often feels, but the reason why I sometimes prefer second leads is not the same. I'm OK with the fact that the second lead is not the one chosen for the main couple, I just like the character itself, or the dynamic it provides as an antagonist. Ji Pyong's character in Start-Up turns out to be a good character in this register, for example.
The rare time I've reacted differently is in the drama "Stranger". Not only because Kang So-Ra is 100x prettier than LF and better actress! It's just that the sentimental relationship that was beginning to emerge between her and the ML was becoming stronger than that of a forgotten past, with an unpleasant and somewhat psycho LF (or with obscure motivations). The authors do not change their script at the last minute, because if they had, they could have changed the story along the way, and made Kang So-Ra the real LF in the end.

Let's look at it from a different angle: Maybe it's precisely because I like high quality dramas that W is my favorite ;-)
I'd be happy to answer you, but it's going to be long here and probably out of context. I often visit the dramabitches blog and I've learned that the author of the blog might be doing some articles about W. In that case, I'd probably write about that. But if the drama didn't hit you, maybe it's useless to talk about it? It's better to wait a bit. Maybe one day you'll want to see it again and you'll see things with another depth view? What's strange is that you really like the other dramas by screenwriter Song Jae-Jung. I took a quick look at your dramalists and we have more than one drama in common!

Also, I don't watch a drama for a specific reason. Like looking for characters built very finely and at long length. Unless it's done well psychologically, these dramas often bore me, and I prefer stories that are "plot driven" rather than "character driven". The problem is that stories based on psychology are often failures, then boring in this case. I am more likely to find something good without expecting anything, or by watching a plot driven drama, which by surprise also features interesting characters. For example, I almost never watch "slice of life" type dramas, which are essentially character-driven.

The expression "one dimensional" character is too overused to make sense and I rarely use it. And many "one dimensional" characters are among the favorites of the audience. They are "one dimensional" but thick. El Temur in Empress Ki for example, or Lady Mishill in Queen Seon Duk. Even Sherlock Holmes, one of the most beloved characters in the world can be seen as "one dimensional". So I'm wary of this expression, although I have an idea of what it means, and that it would be appropriate for certain characters in Hollywood blockbusters.

Kang Chul looks a lot like Sherlock for his intellectual abilities. And he also has hidden layers. Let's not forget that in this drama the characters have to be consistent and that's one of the main themes that manhwa characters have one and only function in manhwa, so being "one dimensional". This is even why they disappear when they are no longer useful or act contrary to their main function. Or that the killer wants to kill Yeon-Joo, not because he hates her, or because he has his own motivation, but just because he himself admits that it is his function to do so.

Kang Chul reacts very strangely from the beginning. Why is it that when he looks at Yeon-Joo, he says she's just ordinary? Why when he looks at her again, he doesn't understand why other people say she's pretty? He's a caricatured character of a main hero who is gradually coming out of his conditioning as such. In the 3rd episode, Yeon-Hee (assistant chubby) says that the author Oh Sung Moo has banished romantic situations from manhwa. So, the manhwa makes Kang Chul look like a playboy (many times) with female conquests, but since the manhwa never shows this in action, Kang Chul is actually totally unfit for romance and knows nothing about women or even why they are beautiful. He even needs a book to study this. Just for these details alone, the character already has more layers than Sherlock Holmes. And funny thing, the drama contains a reference to Sherlock Holmes (episode 3), when Yeon-Joo's mother is watching TV.
KC manages to gradually extract himself from his role as a cartoon hero in the second part of the drama, while retaining some of his character traits. Like an intellectual game, one could say that he ceases to be one dimensional because another dimension is involved, two worlds. The way he considers his romantic story with Yeon-Joo is very cold at first glance. He just logically notes that she was his wife. And just by pure logic, he thinks that in this case, he should start dating her again, because it's like an experiment that should produce the same result with the same basic variables (remember that the second kiss in the drama is actually a "scientific experiment" of Kang Chul, LOL!). He is not trying to feel love at first sight. I don't remember any other drama that has staged such a character, as far as psychological strangeness is concerned.
Everything in W is multi-layered or meta. The direct interpretation is always wrong, and the story is completely incomprehensible if you stay at the first level. It's a story within a story, driven by the rules that build stories. That's what makes drama so powerful. Whether it's the plot-twists, the crazy side of fantasy laws, the characters or even comedy.

 NiSkywalker:
please recommend dramas with dark or mysterious or just bad girl dramas with romance (even slight romance with that bad girl).
  • +1 The Legends - At full power or with no power, she's always  a badass. Her titles include sect leader and demoness. As sect leader she is feared and respected. 
  • My Mister - The FL makes a point of isolating herself from people around her, because when people get to know her they inevitably find out that she killed a man in her past and end up ostracizing her. She's tiny, but emotionally tough. She's dealt a very difficult hand in life, but doesn't waste time on self pity. She's the type to grit her teeth and do what needs to be done, even unpleasant things (including spying and manipulating), so that she and her grandmother can survive.
  • Empress Ki - Badass as a warrior and badass in dealing with politics and internal palace affairs.
  • Bloody Romance - She starts out very timid and innocent, but ends up very dark. I didn't find her development compelling.
  • The Villainess - She's basically a human weapon. This is a movie and it's very action heavy. I personally didn't enjoy this one.

Edit: I didn't include Misty because you said you wanted more than just cold women who don't believe in love, but on second thought I think if you liked the SFL in the K2 you would probably like the FL in Misty too. Her mysteriousness and badassery go beyond just being cold and jaded.

 W two worlds Season 2:
The expression "one dimensional" character is too overused to make sense and I rarely use it. And many "one dimensional" characters are among the favorites of the audience. They are "one dimensional" but thick.

that's also true ))

Overall I agree to you on most things, maybe I expressed myself little hardly, sorry for that :)

I'll just tall you what was my main problem with W and Kang Chul .

I really liked show and mostly ML from beginning, the idea of fictional character who has his own will and strength, who becomes real and independent, it was really cool, I loved scenes when he becomes in this world, I loved that drama makers had courage and Kang Chul made that shoot, he could kill (tried at list) his maker (and killing/moving on from maker/father is serious point in character development, especially with villains/anti heroes but anyway I like it and in W he deserved it from Kang Chul), I loved that speech from Kang Chul, when he said to FL "you wanted some romantic adventure so I must fall for you, am I just puppet?" (of course there was different words). everything until that scene was really great! but after that...

Kang Chul unexpectedly kiss her and asks "what kind romance do you want?" first I thought it was cynical joke, but after that scene he really become puppet in love :( and after that I skipped most of the scenes, I just couldn't watch how was wasted that really original and good chracter.

another case is Memories of the Alhambra I think it's perfect, without cliches and realistic good characters/relationships and Hyun Bin is different level - it just fact - as I said Lee Jong Suk was my one and only favorite, first love in drama world, but then I saw many dramas and actors who are also soo great... 

p.s. you love liar games too, I enjoyed it, though I had some issues too (mostly FL who was not for this game and somehow she goes to final, not only game, how she was - it's not kind and naive, it calls stupid... also everyone hating SML from the beginning wasn't logical - yes he was bad person, but for characters it wasn't obvious, he wasn't doing anything wrong, but ML hates him and his show without reasons, and every character sees him as biggest evil also without reasons(at list first half of the drama or even until last episodes only we saw that SML is evil end psycho), everyone had done bad thing in game, Jamie was worst, but everyone could be forgiven except of SML - why?)

but Shin Sung Rok is that brilliant any show is worth watching with him. I liked him in "You came from stars" (though I didn't liked drama, very primitive, I love Kim Soohyun but even he was bad in it), then I watched one very old drama, Shin Sung Rok is gay character and he was so different there. but after Liar game I was in love, he shadowed all my favorites )))) he is so talented and also has some different very very sexy charisma <3 I'm watchin Kairos now and wow <3

 AH :
The Legends

I have it in watchlist soo long, I just hadn't historical/wuxia mood for long time, also ML is my favorite here, after Arsenal Military I adore him )))

I'll check others too, thank you for recommendations <3

Hi, Liar game, but japanese version, not korean one.  ;-)

When KC ask for romantic choice, it's not because he's a puppet. Episode 7 give proof he love Yeon-joo too, when she confess. The genius of this scene is he don't need to say it. Just, he make her disapear, so it means he feel the emotion, then of course kiss her hot after that, shared love kiss.  It look like you missed a lot if you skip scenes. If there is a drama you can't miss something it's really this one, because otherwise, you really understand nothing. And it's already difficult, even when watching all. Anyway, the drama was too much for many people for many differents reasons, so I know what people think, and how they sometimes missed many points.  There is nothing I can do about that, except give some answers if someone curious ask me. Of course I liked very much Memories of Alhambra, it's the same writer. I prefered W a bit more because it's more original, crazy and fast paced. But MOA is also original and a bit crazy. There is the same kind of genius. Like the scene outside the hospital with the hug, or scene of the dead friend coming back as a NPC. I think even without knowing the writer name, you could recognize it's the same, as it's the same style of enigmatic and mind blowing story.

 W two worlds Season 2:
I think even without knowing the writer name, you could recognize it's the same

I didn't knew author but wrote recommendations about this 2 ))) but I wrote that MOA is way more good and it's best if you watch after W ))) I first watched MOA and after that W was kind of primitive (for my taste) especially after that scene, maybe I really missed some points and some ray will rewatch.

BTW there is movie also very similar, I think it's remake of W, at list very similar, I haven't watched yet, though ML is my favorite chinese actor (koreans are best, and he isn't as great as actor like Hyun Bin or Jong Suk, yet, he is very young, 21-22 I think but already very popular with many dramas, but he is sure very handsome )))))

so as W fan maybe you will try it

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