Trigger warning: This article discusses bullying and abuse.
South Korean entertainment industry is popular for romance dramas. However, many hit K-dramas come with darker storylines, including school violence. Some of the best K-dramas on bullying include True Beauty and All of Us Are Dead.
Interestingly, these two series’ main plotline is not school violence. While True Beauty is considered a romance comedy drama, All of Us Are Dead revolves around a zombie apocalypse. Song Hye-Kyo’s 2022 K-drama, The Glory, was also entirely based on bullying.
On that note, here’s a list of some of the best K-dramas on bullying.
True Beauty
True Beauty is one of the K-dramas on bullying. Lim Ju-Kyung (Moon Ka-Young) gets bullied in her school for her looks. The abuse lowers her self-confidence and makes her believe that she is not pretty. Therefore, when she moves to a new school, she decides to cover up her natural look with makeup.
She even goes to extreme lengths to hide her true face. Lee Su-Ho (Cha Eun-Woo) is the only one who knows how she really looks and falls in love with her. Eventually, Ju-Kyung realizes the meaning of true beauty.
All of Us Are Dead
All of Us Are Dead is a 2022 K-drama about a virus outbreak at a high school. Before students turn into zombies, the series focuses on the topic of school bullying. In fact, some of the scenes are so graphic that the director released an apology statement.
One of the characters, Yoon Gwi-Nam (Yoo In-Soo), is a bully and turns into a halfbie after being immune to a zombie bite. It showed that he already lived by his darkest impulse, which is why the deadly virus couldn’t affect him.
The Glory
Starring Song Hye-Kyo as Moon Dong-Eun, The Glory is one of the best K-dramas on bullying. When Moon Dong-Eun was in high school, she dreamed of being an architect. However, she dropped out of school after some of her classmates repeatedly bullied her. Following this, she decided to seek revenge on her bullies and those who spectated the incidents.
Years later, Dong-Eun is seen as an elementary school teacher at a school where her bully’s child studies. The plot begins as she plans her revenge.
Weak Hero Class 1
With Park Ji-Hoon and Choi Hyun-Wook leading the cast, Weak Hero Class 1 is another K-drama on bullying. It revolves around a model high school student named Yeon Si-Eun (Ji-Hoon) and his smart ways to fight against school abuse.
Although he initially appears as a fragile person, he is intelligent. He uses smart tools and psychology to escape his bullies. Ahn Su-Ho (Hyun-Wook) is one of the main bullies in the drama. The other main cast members include Hong Kyung, Lee Yeon, and Shin Seung-Ho, among others.
Revenge of Others
Revenge of Others is also one of the best K-dramas on bullying. The Disney Plus series is a teen revenge thriller about a 19-year-old girl, Ok Chan-Mi (Shin Ye-Eun), and her fight to seek justice for her brother. When her twin brother dies, she goes on a mission to find out the truth, which leads her to be bullied.
During her fight, she meets Ji Soo-Heon (Lomon). Even though he is terminally ill, he decides to seek revenge on the tormentors before dying.
Aside from the aforementioned dramas, there are a few more K-dramas on bullying that viewers might consider watching. This includes Extracurricular, Save Me, Class of Lies, and School 2017, among others.
