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[Beanie Recs] Twins and doppelgänger stories


Ahoy, Beanies! It’s time to gather your collective genius for a new recommendation series that features you and your drama knowledge. Each week we’ll drop a drama conundrum and leave it up to you to provide a drama rec, and the appropriate rationale behind it, be it long or short. Respond below!

 

Adamas and its twin Ji Sungs have got me wanting to watch more dramas with the twin and/or doppelgänger element. Do you have any recommendations? Bonus points if they swap places and cause either delightful hijinks or serious melodrama!


Have a very particular drama itch that needs scratching? In need of a Beanie Rec? Email us at hello @ dramabeans.com and we’ll feature your topic in a future post.
 
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Who are you: School 2015 (Kim So-hyun)

The Kings Affection (Park Eun-bin)

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Bride of the Century! Not twins but doppelgängers and plenty of melodrama.

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The show that comes to mind which includes the doppelgänger element is Mask.

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Plus cliffhanger and the ultimate deer-in-headlights -- both in the first 2 minutes.

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Yes!! I had forgotten about that!

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It's not my favourite trope, so I don't have any to recommend but there are :

- The one that has never been released Genesis.

-Your Honor with Yoo Shi-Yoon who plays a criminal who takes the place of his Judge brother.

-Are You Human with Seo Kang-Joon, it's a human and a robot.

-My Holo Love with Yoon Hyun-Min, it's kinda the same but with an AI this time.

-School 2015 with Kim So-Hyun

-The Crowned Clown with Yeo Jin-Goo, I really liked this drama. It was beautiful (a remake of the movie Masquerade)

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Oh, I forgot the bad Hyde Jekyll, Me with Hyun Bin, it's the same character with a split of personality.

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Which is a Watch.Under.No.Circumstance.

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Such.a.stinker!:) I bailed after 10 minutes. The truism of ‘life is too short’ was particularly apt there.

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Was it the bad ape, or when he jumped from a high floor into a retaining pool that would be 2-3’ deep at best? I watched the whole thing as a die hard HB fan and have never regenerated the brain cells I lost. 🤯

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It was the gorilla scene. The magical disappearing gorilla that was never seen again.
It's not as bad as the boar scene in Bride of Habaek. But it was pretty bad.
I spent the rest of the drama wondering where the gorilla was and how it was going. We never found out.

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Why does dramaland give us so many memeable animals...
Clams, Magic Horse, wild boar... and GORILLAS?

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Re YOUR HONOR (2018) (Viki US). It is one of my favorite Yoon Shi-yoon dramas but it didn’t start off that way. Let me explain.
YH was only my second YSY drama with his immediate predecessor drama GRAND PRINCE (2018) being my first. I had been warned that in GRAND PRINCE YSY had suppressed his natural ebullience if you will.
Well when YOUR HONOR appeared and I watched YSY’s performance as twins (criminal Han Kang-ho and judge Han Soo-ho) in the first 2 (of 32) episodes I was in shock. As Kang-ho he went totally over the top imo. (All his natural ebullience was back in spades lol). Things settled down. It seems YSY and director-nim knew what they were doing and he gave a great performance as the brothers.
On my fanwall I have a clip from my favorite scene in episode 26 with YSY, Lee Yoo-young and as always evil Heo Sung-tae.
If you don’t plan on watching YH and want to get an idea of YSY’s performance you can check it out there.

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The Crowned Clown is great and has one of my all time favorite characters, Haksan played by Kim Sang-kyeong! Both he and Yeo Jin-goo were just killing it in these roles.

I also enjoyed My Holo Love, where the ML has created an AI that looks exactly like him and is also a major character. I don't think the drama stands up to a ton of scrutiny, but was a really fun watch and was quite quick.

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@jls943: TCC is wonderful and what can I say about YJG’s dual-role acting that hasn’t been said before? Just superb but deeply sorrowful in vast stretches.

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YJG’s work in episodes 7 and 8 (combined) of TCC may be one of the best performances of his career. Superb!

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I watched My holo love not so far after Healer and I found so many similarities in the plot that it inspired me to create a spreadsheet of trope and cliches. But I was mistaken about the falling elevator that is not frequent at all! (unless you watch Healer, K2 and Holo love closely).
So I found My holo love pleasant, but the main lead has not enough charisma. (Poor Yoon Hyun Min, first pitted against Ji Chang Wook and later facing Choi Jin Hyuk he had no chance to reach me). The music is good though: Love again by Ji Pyeong Kwom is still one song on my bedtime playlist.

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Right? I keep playlists of all my favorite songs from drama soundtracks, and Love Again was on repeat for a while.

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Both of these are robot dramas where the robot is made to look just like a human:
I Am Not a Robot
Are You Human Too.

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Bride of the Century is one of my favorites. I love it.

Train

Switch

Rooftop Prince

Does Kill Me Heal Me count? There are no hijinks more delightful than Ji Sung and his OPPA!

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Rooftop Prince: I remember @javabeans wrote in the recap

Apparently his name is Muchang-gun, but no need to introduce new names at this point, is there? Joseon Tae-mu it is.

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How I miss her!

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I miss her, too. 🥺🥺

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Hmmm.. does Master's Sun count?

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When I read the title, my first thought was Link: Eat, Love, Kill and Beyond Evil, but they were fraternal twins.

So The King: Eternal Monarch had doppelgängers, but I wouldn't recommend it.

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But Woo Do-Hwan and his doppelgängers were the best part!

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Watch a compilation of only his scenes on YouTube?

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It's a good compromise 🤣

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Viva les Infinite Woo Do Hwans!

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Duel (clons) [Yang Se Jong] (2017)
Queen of ambition [Kwon Sang Woo] (2013)

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Who remembers the twin wreck at the start of warm and cozy!

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Lol, that drama 😄

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You Are My Spring's Ian Chase and Choi Jung-min is the current foremost. Yoon Park did a good job with this two characters.

Another twin drama I enjoyed was Ruby Ring. Played by Lim Jung-eun and Lee So-yeon.

The creme of the top will be the well done doppelganger The Crowned Clown. Yeo Jin Gu did wonders portraying polar opposite characters. You can tell crazy King from sweet King, anytime.

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I think Alice counts, not twins or doppelgangers but different dimensions. But it was really bad that i wouldn’t recommend it 😂😅

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Defendant had an evil twin

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If I could physically prevent people from watching Alice, then I would. It would be for their own good.

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Run away from Alice though haha

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My nominee:
OCN’s DUEL (2017). Tour de force performance by Yang Se-jong playing 3 parts: clones Lee Sung-joon and Lee Sung-hoon and their creator Lee Yong-seob. One could argue that he also performed a 4th part when the story called for one clone to impersonate the other. Unfortunately I originally watched DUEL on DramaFever and have no idea where it is legally available which is a shame.

Bonus. DUEL was my first Yang Se-jong drama and made me a fan for life. A video of his 2017 audition for DUEL is available on YouTube.
Enjoy:
https://youtu.be/lDLJkGejO60

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@marcusnyc20: Thank you for posting this clip and introducing me to “Duel”. I wonder if I will ever find it.
I love seeing clips of auditions. They can be captivating and this is one of them for sure. He is a wonderful actor: He has the capacity to evoke a range of emotions and conveys vulnerability so well. And, I love his voice for some reason even if it is not the most resonant or deep.

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@dncingemma, you are welcome. YSJ gave an incredible performance in DUEL. It wasn’t until episode 16 that he flashed his famous million dollar smile (which you get a bit of at the end of the audition). Since it was my first YSJ drama when he gave that smile I was in shock lol. I am sure I wasn’t the only one.

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Duel seems to be on yepdrama with English subs, if you're up for sub-rosa streaming.

I worry that it looks like I'm promoting that site and I'm not - just saying, it's there. There are lots of good reasons for avoiding unlicensed streaming sites and proceeding with extreme caution if you do use them.

Thanks for the recommendation, @marcusnyc20. The show looks intriguing.

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@Elinor: Please don’t worry as I didn’t interpret it as such. I’m a scaredy cat re sub-rosa streamers even if I’m so tempted.

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oh you're so good! me on the other hand would just flat out fly that flag lmao 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

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Ahoy mateys!!

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Duel made me YSJ's fan for life too!

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Were you able to watch Yang Se-Jong in the tvn reality show COFFEE FRIENDS (2019)? It was my first reality show and I loved it. Yoo Yeon-seok was the main guy and brought a group of four friends and guests together to do good on Jeju Island and one of the four friends was YSJ. I loved it. I had no idea how eccentric (in a lovable way) Yang Se-Jong is. I swear when he acts he consciously suppresses this eccentricity to appear regular if you will.
Unfortunately I believe COFFEE FRIENDS a is only available on one of those ‘alternate’ site which I no longer patronize.

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My first thought was "School 2015"

Then "Are You Human, too?"

Followed by "Kill Me, Heal Me"

"Rooftop Prince" should count, also.

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I love Twins and Doppelgängers but for all that, I'm gonna have a hard time reccing anything since the one that will be most recced is The Crowned Clown, which is my most hated drama of all time and I cannot recommend it in good faith to anyone, because of why I dislike it so much, despite Jingoo as the King especially being so phenomenal lol.
And yes I'm fully aware of being the odd one out for that right now.

I'm also actually suprised nobody has mentioned the other famous twin drama I infamously dislike; Circle, lol.

So I guess I'll just say Your Are My Spring, which I adore, despite all its flaws, and would recommend for basically any reason.

Not a recommendation but just twinsies things that should've happened or I'd like to see:
I still maintain that Kwak Dong Yeon should've played both brothers in Vincenzo, twins or no, and as such now desperately need KDY as doppelgangers or twins in *anything*.
TCC made me want Jingoo to play every character in that drama, and since he's now played Twins essentially THREE times, I think we all deserve the Jingoo X Minjae Twin pair up we've all been waiting for.
Honestly I'd love to see basically any of my favourite actors play twins so, Ziggy, twin drama with yourself when????

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Jingoo x Minjae clone army war with Kwak Dong Yeon
Circle 2, except not (don't mention the war)

I feel like somebody at db has been lurking in our discord chat

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Not a twin role, but Ziggy played his character's older brother in High School King of Savvy, and that's when I became his fan.

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Oooh yes technically a doppelgänger role, even though I don't think we ever see him as the real brother???
I don't like that show either but as usual Ziggy was very good in it 🤣

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No we did see him, Ziggy managed to portray two men who looked somehow slightly different with one clearly older than the other. He was quite amazing.
I love that show, although I feel the appropriate amount of shame about it. It's not a good drama.

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I didn't actually... finish the show... (for the reasons it is not a good drama)... so hence my question mark pfft.
I have now been corrected lol

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Yes my love of Highschool King is my increasingly not-so-secret shame.

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🤣🤭🤭🤭
There there, we all have guilty pleasures.

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I unabashedly love the show, no shame ☺️

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Jin-goo, in his deep "Jackpot" voice, is overdue for a non-Joseon sageuk.

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You purposely left carrot boy out, but I will mention him cause I still love Joong-ki. Shoot me. Lol

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I did purposefully leave him out lmao. Because I can't RECOMMEND Arthdal, Kiara! 😅😅😅

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I'm so glad he is not going back for Part 2.

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Same. He is FREE.

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Yes!!!!! Yang Se-Jong, Yang Se-Jong and Yang Se-Jong as Lee Sung-joon / Lee Sung-hoon / Lee Yong-seob in Duel!!!

How has no one mentioned this?!? Oh, wait, someone did. 😆

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First that comes to mind is Mask with Joo Ji Hoon, Soo Ae and Youn Jung Hoon. YJH was very appealing in this drama which makes me forever lament why he does not make more dramas or movies. 2D1N is only where I see him and I know he can take in more roles like Min Seok Hoon and even Vampire Prosecutor.
Bride of the Century is another good one with doppelgangers. Its light makjang but I really like Lee Hongki in this and the FL Yang Jin Sung was also good.
One the Woman I found the show really entertianing because of Honey Lee. And she did well portraying both characters that you can tell which is which since they were polar opposites.
Kill Me Heal Me JiSung was amazing in this and it has my favorite twins.

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I forgot to mention The Crowned Clown - Yeo Jin Goo and Lee Se Young, and You are My Spring with Kim Dong Wook, Seo Hyun Jin and Yoon Park.

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Kill Me Heal Me got both twins and the 6 personalities of Ji Sung! LOL!

I also recommend One the Woman. I just binged it and loved it. The sassy prosecutor Jo Yeon-ju is the main character and a bout of amnesia had her mistaken for the elegant, quietly suffering, abused Kang Mina. The drama had snappy dialogue so it was fun seeing her sass back at her evil in-laws.

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How could I forget You Are Beautiful. I have been racking my brain since I know I was missing something. Its has the twins and switcheroo trope. I love this drama and even if its an oldie, I still rewatch it.

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All the recommendations are serious, so I'm going for silly aburd fun chinese romances : *Time to fall in love* where the ML is very nice and patient, and *Nothing but you* where the ML (the same actor) is rather toxic and manipulating.
These are not work of art, but are entertaining. (and that's my guilty pleasure)

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Twins with a huge dollop of makjang twist would be the daily drama with Lee Yu Ri: The promise (2016). A solid revenge drama!

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I also loved The Promise. Needed a FF for the first 2 dozen episodes before the tragic switch.

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Don't know if it's been said yet but my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE is

Duel

Not twins, not doppelgangers...they're clones!

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I see no one has recommended Nice Witch yet. I hesitated to watch this at first because the plot summary made it sound like this was about a married woman posing as her sister and having an affair with her sister's man; but this was actually a very fun, though sometimes silly, ride.

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Sung Dong-Il & Lee Il-Hwa in the Answer Me franchise takes my vote for the best doppelgängers in kdrama history

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Is it possible to have a post on dramas without the breakup arc?

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I may recommend "the Duo", it is not exactly a twin/doppelgänger story.; However it tells the story of switched children and is a rare saguk happens outside the palace

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DUEL.

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Kim Hyun-joo in I Have a Lover, her second outing with Ji Jin-hee. 50 episodes long, but a nice popcorn watch.

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