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Manila Bulletin devider Entertainment devider Movies and TV devider Kakao Entertainment wraps up 2025 with hits 'When Life Gives You Tangerines,' 'Karma,' 'Nine Puzzles,' 'You and Everything Else'

Kakao Entertainment wraps up 2025 with hits 'When Life Gives You Tangerines,' 'Karma,' 'Nine Puzzles,' 'You and Everything Else'

Published Dec 5, 2025 12:33 pm  |  Updated Dec 10, 2025 01:05 pm
(Clockwise from top left) "When Life Gives You Tangerines," "Karma,’ "Nine Puzzles," and "You and Everything Else" (Kakao Entertainment)
(Clockwise from top left) "When Life Gives You Tangerines," "Karma,’ "Nine Puzzles," and "You and Everything Else" (Kakao Entertainment)

Korean company Kakao Entertainment is wrapping up 2025 with K-dramas that have gained artistic and commercial success. 

Based on its multi-studio system, Kakao Entertainment maximized synergies with its subsidiary production houses and management companies while reinforcing its creative capabilities. 

Kakao Entertainment adapted many of its popular story IPs, including webtoons and web novels, into dramas on its own, drawing on expansive knowledge and experience. 

The Netflix series “You and Everything Else” highlights the IP value chain synergy between Kakao Entertainment and its subsidiary management company, BH Entertainment. 

(Clockwise from top left)
(Clockwise from top left) "When Life Gives You Tangerines," "Karma,’ "Nine Puzzles," and "You and Everything Else" (Kakao Entertainment)

The series was produced by Kakao Entertainment and featured Kim Go-eun of BH Entertainment. 

“You and Everything Else” portrays two friends–Ryu Eun-jung (Kim Go-eun) and Cheon Sang-yeon (Park Ji-hyun)--who share an enduring, complicated love-hate relationship as their lives become intricately intertwined through various phases of life. It secured the No. 5 spot on Netflix’s global top 10 non-English TV shows chart. 

The Netflix series “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” starring IU and Park Bogum, is another big hit of 2025, underscoring the work between two Kakao Entertainment subsidiaries: Baram Pictures and Edam Entertainment. The series was co-produced by Baram Pictures and starred IU of Edam Entertainment. 

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” depicts the adventures of Ae-sun, “the remarkable rebel,” and Gwan-sik, nicknamed “unyielding iron,” through four vibrant seasons on Jeju Island. IU played the dual roles as Ae-sun and her daughter Geum-myeong, earning global acclaim for her versatile acting. 

The series ranked first on Netflix’s global top 10 non-English shows list and remained on the chart for nine consecutive weeks. 

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” also won several trophies at prestigious awards in Korea and beyond, including the Baeksang Arts Awards, while grabbing No. 1 on the global drama review platform MyDramaList among 5,000 other works as of Dec. 1. 

The Netflix series “Karma” is another example of Kakao Entertainment’s synergy-boosting IP value chain. 

Based on the Kakao webtoon of the same name, “Karma” was crafted by Kakao Entertainment, Moonlight Film, and Baram Pictures. 

Actors Park Hae-soo and Lee Hee-joon from BH Entertainment, as well as Lee Kwang-soo from Kingkong by Starship, elevated the series with their dexterous acting. 

Kakao Entertainment and its production houses contributed their own strengths – genre-driven thrills and solid storytelling – to the series, adapting the webtoon’s unique characters and story with some creative variations. To increase audience engagement, they reconstructed some of the story’s tricks as well. 

Creative hits 

Kakao Entertainment also delivered some of the year’s biggest creative hits, marked by outstanding planning and directing. 

One of them is the Disney+ original series “Nine Puzzles,” produced by Kakao Entertainment and its subsidiary Moonlight Film. 

It is the second series by director Yoon Jong-bin, which stars Kim Da-mi and Son Suk-ku. It garnered rave reviews as a prime example of a well-made mystery thriller. Upon its premiere, “Nine Puzzles” immediately ranked as the most-watched Korean content worldwide. 

The SBS drama “Queen Mantis,” produced by Mega Monsters, also made headlines at home and abroad. 

Based on the French drama “La Mante,” the series follows a serial killer nicknamed “The Mantis” who unexpectedly partners with her detective son to track down a copycat murderer imitating her past crimes. 

Thanks to its shocking, unconventional mother-son dynamic and nail-biting storyline, the drama made it onto Netflix’s global top 10 non-English TV shows chart for two consecutive weeks. 

Kakao Entertainment’s films also made a remarkable splash in 2025, with Lee Byung-hun’s “The Match” and Song Hye-kyo’s “Dark Nuns” captivating viewers worldwide. 

Future plans

Kakao Entertainment unveiled its future projects. One is IU and Byeon Woo-seok’s “Perfect Crown” that will be available on MBC and Disney+ in the 1st half of 2026. 

“The Rat (WT,)” a Kakao webtoon-based Netflix series starring Ryu Jun-yeol and Sul Kyung-gu, and “Notes From the Last Row,” another Netflix series featuring Choi Min-sik and Choi Hyun-wook, are currently under production. The company is also developing numerous other projects across genres, and premiere dates will be announced soon. 

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