Shows Like Durian's Affair
Fans of Durian's Affair, you will appreciate how these films questions the purpose and weight of our choices while grounding the story in targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this definitely worth a watch.
Standard feature-length experiences.
Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.
★ Top Picks
Mr. Queen
A modern chef suddenly becomes trapped inside the body of a queen from the Joseon era, which causes chaos for everyone involved.
The Story of Park's Marriage Contract
A woman travels from 19th century Joseon to modern-day Seoul, her fate takes a twist with a ‘fake marriage’ with a man who resembles her ex-husband.
My Only Love Song
Song Soo-Jung is an arrogant pop star who believes not only that status and money can get you anywhere, but that it defines your worth. She accidentally falls into a time-slip portal and travels back in time to the Joseon era where she meets On-Dal, a man who loves money yet is generous to those without.
Queen In Hyun's Man
Kim Boong Do is a scholar who had supported the reinstatement of Queen In Hyun when Jang heebin's schemes resulted in her being deposed and replaced as King Sukjong's queen consort. He travels 300 years into the future of modern Seoul and meets Choi Hee Jin, a no-name actress who is expecting a career renaissance through her role as Queen In Hyun in a TV drama.
Dear Hongrang
When a long-missing heir returns with lost memories, love and suspicion entwine. Is he truly Hongrang, or a stranger disturbing hearts and family ties?
Dong Yi
Set during the reign of King Sukjong in the Joseon dynasty, the story focuses on Dong Yi, a water maid who gains the trust of Queen Inhyeon and later the favour of the king when he is moved by her prayers for the health of the Queen during the court disputes caused by Jang Hee Bin. Dong Yi becomes a concubine with the rank of sook-bin and bears a son who will later become the 21st king of Joseon, Yeongjo.
100 Days My Prince
Lee Yool falls off a cliff and nearly dies in an attempted assassination. He loses his memory, and wanders for 100 days under a new name and personality. During this period, he meets Hong Sim, head of the first detective agency in Joseon.
Scarlet Heart: Ryeo
A story of a 25-year-old Go Hajin who is transported back in time to the Goryeo Dynasty. She then wakes up in the body of Lady Hae Soo and finds herself amongst the ruling princes of the Wang Family.
More Shows Like Durian's Affair
Tale of Arang
The foolhardy ghost of the young girl Arang seeks to discover the truth behind her unjust death and meets a magistrate named Eunoh, who has the ability to see ghosts.
Plan B
Plan B offers clients the chance to travel back in time to change the past, but each alteration has unintended consequences, revealing the complexity and limitations of personal agency.
Journeyman
This mystery-drama revolves around a newspaper reporter named Dan Vasser who suddenly begins to travel through time to change the lives of those around him. When his travels reunite him with his long-lost fiancée Livia, life with his present-day wife gets very interesting.
Faith
After being found in 918, the kingdom of Goryeo faced a critical existential crisis when the powerful Yuan dynasty tried to subjugate them. In the fictional setting of this drama, a warrior living in the timeline of Goryeo meets a plastic surgeon living in the present day. The plastic surgeon gets kidnapped by the warrior who got an order from the king to find a doctor who can cure the fatally injured queen. The two individuals who were not meant to coexist are brought together to fight their way through the ordeals on the land of Goryeo. The warrior makes a promise that he will return her to her world, but a scheming royal advisor persuades the king to force the surgeon to stay as she can be useful to him. There, the surgeon falls in love with the warrior who is the leader of the royal guard. In this era of change and chaos, love that transcends time and space blooms.
Rooftop Prince
Crown Prince Yi Gak finds that he has been transported from the Chosun Dynasty to modern-day Seoul. He meets Hong Se Na, who bears a striking resemblance to his dead wife, and is determined to solve the 300-year-old mystery of her death. With his own resemblance to the CEO’s grandson at the company where Se Na works, Gak assumes the identity of the young man to stay close to her. Can the Crown Prince navigate a modern corporation to find clues to his own time period?
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung
The story takes place at the beginning of the 19th century. Goo Hae-Ryung is a historian who tries to fight gender stereotypes as her work is often looked down on. She meets Prince Yi Rim.
The King: Eternal Monarch
Korean emperor Lee Gon tries to close the doors to a parallel world which was opened by demons; a detective tries to protect the people and the one she loves.
Moon River
In Joseon, a vengeful crown prince and a memory-lost merchant mysteriously swap bodies, unraveling a web of chaos, secrets, and unexpected fate.
The Haunted Palace
In a world of folklore and mysticism, a vengeful spirit and a devoted shaman cross paths, sparking a journey of love and redemption
Alice
It’s the year 2050 and time travel exists thanks to Alice, the mechanism through which the intriguing practice is made possible. But a rumor based on a prophecy beings to spread about time travel coming to an end. When You Min Hyuk and Yoon Tae Yi are sent to the year 1992 to find out about the prophecy, Tae Yi realizes she’s pregnant and decides to stay in the past by herself. She changes her name to Park Sun Young and eventually gives birth to a beautiful son named Park Jin Gyeom, whose mental health suffers due to radiation exposure. Fast forward to the year 2010, and Sun Young is murdered by someone. 10 years after her death, her son Jin Gyeom is on a mission to find who is responsible for his mother’s death. But while searching, he runs into Yoon Tae Yi, a physics professor who looks exactly like this mother. What will become of these individuals caught tragically between time and space?
Seven Days
"Ever wish you could live your last week all over again? Well, my name's Frank B. Parker, and I do it all the time. I work for a secret government project experimenting in time travel. When things really get screwed up, I'm the guinea pig they send back to take care of it. The catch is, I can only go back 7 days."
The Crowned Clown
The story takes place at a time in Joseon history, when upheaval and power struggles surrounding the throne had reached extreme levels. In order to escape those who plan to assassinate him, the king puts a clown, who looks exactly like him, on the throne.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Durian's Affair (2023): Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of Durian's Affair.
See full details for Durian's Affair (2023)
