My Drama/Movie Recommendations (Not in English)

While I've been interested in languages since I can remember, for most of my life I was pigeon-holed into watching shows and movies only in English. Movies with subtitles felt so far detached from me that I didn't even venture to try them.

I genuinely didn't know what I was missing. Now that I've entered "foreign territory," I no longer want to leave.

Are dramas and movies perfect replicas of everyday speech? Not exactly; you won't find as many slang words and contractions, expressions and tones will typically be more exaggerated, and depending on what you like to watch, there will probably be a lot of unlikely scenarios.

But...next to having native-speaker friends or living in the country where your target language is spoken, TV in other languages is one of the fastest (and most enjoyable) ways to get yourself familiar with the nuance of a language, from the most commonly used words/phrases to authentic cadence and intonation.

If you haven't tried it yet, here is a list of my favorites in several languages to get you started (with links to reviews)! (Disclaimer: I'm a bit biased toward romance and romantic comedy. Bet you could never tell, right?)

Italian

• Sul più bello (Out of My League) + its two sequels, Ancora più bello (Still Out of My League) and Sempre più bello (Forever Out of My League)

  • Quick summary: A bubbly young woman with cystic fibrosis develops an obsession with a college athlete

    
    

• 4 metà (Four to Dinner)

  • Quick summary: A couple invites two female friends and two male friends over for dinner; the story follows what would happen depending on who they pair up with

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Spanish

• Hasta que nos volvamos a encontrar (Without Saying Goodbye)

  • Quick summary: A free spirit and a business mind go head to head over the preservation--or destruction--of a beautiful Peruvian landmark (this may not be the best movie ever made by far, but it's a pleasant watch)

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German (+ Turkish)

• Beyto

  • Quick summary: The son of a Turkish immigrant family falls in love with his German swimming coach, but his family has other plans

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Norwegian

• Ragnarok

  • Quick summary: A young man is granted the abilities of Thor and uses them to fight modern monsters in Norway

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Korean

• 이상한 변호사 우영우 (Extraordinary Attorney Woo Young Woo)

  • Quick summary: An autistic lawyer finds a place for herself in a firm of misfit attorneys

    
    

• 구미호뎐 (Tale of the Nine-Tailed) and its spinoff/season 2 구미호뎐 (Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938)

  • Quick summary: A mountain god gives up his title to search for his reincarnated first love

    
    

• 히어로는 아닙니다만 (The Atypical Family)

  • Quick summary: The daughter of a family of grifters gets in over her head with a family who has endless money...and endless mysteries

  
  

• 남자친구 (Encounter)

  • Quick summary: A suffocated CEO and a photographer who is the human equivalent of a ray of sunshine spend a night exploring Brazil before finding each other again in South Korea

Mandarin

• 偷偷藏不住 (Hidden Love)

  • Quick summary: The slow burn romance between an innocent young woman and her older brother's caring best friend

  
  

• 流星花园 (Meteor Garden) (check out all of the variations of this series from other countries, under titles like Boys Over Flowers or F4)

  • Quick summary: A spunky girl butts heads with the leader of the intimidating F4, the four sons of the wealthiest families in China

  
  

• 白色橄榄树 (The White Olive Tree)

  • Quick summary: A journalist bonds with a volunteer explosive engineer in a war-torn region

    
    

• 英雄 (Hero) (one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, a Jet Li classic)

  • Quick summary: A nameless official gradually grows closer to the king by claiming to have killed the three assassins who had threatened his life

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Japanese

• 僕らの食卓 (Our Dining Table)

  • Quick summary: A lonely office worker falls for a college student--and his sweet little family

  
  

• ライオンの隠れ家 (Light of My Lion)

  • Quick summary: A tired older brother and his autistic younger brother take in a little boy and go on a search for the boy's mother

  
  

• 顔に泥を塗る (Make Up with Mud)

  • Quick summary: A woman who has only ever known modesty and tradition finds a new life when she befriends a makeup artist

  
  

• ひだまりが聴こえる (I Hear the Sunspot)

  • Quick summary: A college student who has recently gone deaf bonds with one of the loudest, most outgoing people on campus

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Thai

• ต้องรักมหาสมุทร (Love Sea)

  • Quick summary: A writer who holds everyone at arm's length gets his world shaken by a laid-back island boy

  
  

• บรรยากาศรัก เดอะซีรีส์ (Love in the Air)

  • Quick summary: Two college best friends have their own love stories with two drag racers

  
  

• โลกสองใบ ใจดวงเดียว (Two Worlds)

  • Quick summary: A boy in rural Thailand loses his first love and accidentally slips into a parallel world where his love is still alive, but their relationship is challenged by the son of a mafia boss

  
  

• สถานะกั๊กใจ (Gelboys)

  • Quick summary: Four high school students experience intertwining storylines woven together by the pursuit of a rare nail polish color

  
  

• เชือกป่าน (Between Us)

  • Quick summary: A freshman scholarship swimmer and his senior coach find comfort in each other amidst their individual family stress

  • Bonus: If you aren't afraid of shedding some tears, watch Until We Meet Again to get the full story

Comment your recommendations in these languages or your target language!