Donggung Just Reclaimed Netflix Korea No. 1 From Kim Bujang

Occult sageuk Donggung knocked Kim Bujang off the top of Netflix Korea's chart — and the fact that it had to fight for it makes the win more interesting than a clean sweep would have been.

Kim Bujang finished its run on SBS with a peak minute rating of 27.1% — the highest of any miniseries this year — and a cumulative reach of over 25 million viewers across its broadcast run, meaning more than half the country tuned in at some point. That's the show Donggung had to displace. It did it by holding its own in the global rankings while Kim Bujang was still airing, then reclaiming the top spot once the SBS drama wrapped. The three-way competition with tvN's Ossakhan Yeonae (a romantic-comedy horror starring Park Eun-bin, Yang Se-jong, and Ong Seong-wu) rounding out the top three is the real story here: three completely different genres — workplace thriller, palace occult mystery, supernatural romcom — all charting simultaneously.

So what is Donggung, exactly? It's a Netflix original palace occult mystery set in Joseon. Nam Joo-hyuk plays Gucheon, a man who can cross between the world of the living and the world of spirits (gwi). Noh Yoon-seo plays Saenggang, a court lady investigator who can hear ghosts. The two are dispatched by King Yi-yeon (Cho Seung-woo) to uncover the curse haunting the Eastern Palace — a curse tied to a string of mysterious deaths among royal crown princes and a pond ghost rumored to have returned. Jang Young-nam plays the queen dowager, obsessed with royal authority; Kwak Dong-yeon plays the crown prince whose fate sets the tragedy in motion.

The creative team is worth noting. The script comes from writers Kwon So-ra and Seo Jae-won, who co-wrote tvN's Bulgasal. Director Choi Jeong-gyu previously helmed The Devil Judge and Red Moon Blue Sun. Production is by Shownerous and Imagineus. The show is also being positioned as the first Netflix original Korean historical drama since the Kingdom series — a roughly six-year gap that explains a lot of the pre-release anticipation.

The casting itself generated headlines before a single episode aired. Nam Joo-hyuk is returning to screens for the first time in three years after completing his military service — Donggung is his comeback project. Noh Yoon-seo is attempting her first sageuk role since debuting. Cho Seung-woo is back on television for the first time since his 2023 drama. At the press conference held at Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeouido on the 8th, director Choi said he cast Nam Joo-hyuk because "a loneliness that shows through at a glance felt right for Gucheon," and praised Noh Yoon-seo for a natural, direct, and bold quality on set that matched the character.

The global numbers are specific enough to be worth quoting. On its second day of release, Donggung entered FlixPatrol's global Netflix TV series chart at No. 8. By the following day it had jumped to No. 4. Netflix's own views metric (watch time divided by total runtime) put it at 4.9 million views within three days of release — good enough for No. 2 in the non-English TV category globally. The most recent Tudum data adds another 8.1 million views in a single week, with the show ranking No. 1 in six countries and in the top 10 across 69 countries, including strong performance across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. IMDb sits at 7.6 out of 10 based on over 1,500 user ratings.

There is a real debate running alongside the ratings. Cho Seung-woo and Jang Young-nam are performing in a classical sageuk register; Nam Joo-hyuk's Gucheon speaks with a noticeably lighter, more contemporary tone. Viewer reactions split on whether that contrast works or breaks the immersion. Nam Joo-hyuk addressed it directly in a press meeting on the 21st: "If Gucheon had a weightier tone, I didn't think it would suit Donggung." He accepted both the positive and critical responses without deflecting. Whether you land on the pro or con side of that debate, the show's cultural footprint is already settled — viewers are calling the occult-sageuk genre combination unexpectedly cohesive, praising the visual production and CG, and a second season conversation has already started online.