Under the Queen's Umbrella

|| OVERALL ||

A unique historical drama with a competent queen that takes matters into her own hands. As such, the story could get quite unrealistic as it defies the usual perceptions of what a queen embodies, but nonetheless an entertaining drama to watch.

**I recommend this drama to those that like unorthodox historical dramas. A mixture of lighthearted scenes and the usual political turmoil in palace dramas.


|| DETAILS ||

= Story =
*Premise - The story of how a competent queen navigates the usual palace politics, reveals hidden truths, and takes care of her sons.
*Genre - A historical drama with some focus on comedy and romance.
*Main plot - The main plot of deciding the heir, the king's legitimacy and the palace politics was nothing special as most historical dramas have that type of thing. The highlight of the story was really the queen not being the usual quiet, reserved, minds her own business, gets taken advantage of type of person. To be honest it was quite satisfying to have a queen this competent that can sleuth and scheme, while being so caring and wholesome. However, her flawlessness and invincibility felt like she was just smoothly sailing through everything. She always had countermeasures and always seemed to have the upperhand, which just didn't seem too realistic. I guess it had to be this way to save plot time for other story arches. Either way, I was entertained throughout and really liked the character of the queen. Another part of the plot I enjoyed was the competition for the grand princes which was fun to watch. On another note, it is very rare that both the king and queen are reasonable righteous people, not to mention majority of the secondary characters are "good" compared to "bad". Those that are meant to be antagonists just seemed very inadequate - as if after enthroning the current king the way they did, they lost their ability to do effective bad deeds. It's quite new and fresh, but again, unrealistic.
*Side plot - There are lots of side plots with the concubines and their sons, each of the grand princes' problems, and the whole Consort Hwang situation. It was a bit here and there, each taking part of an episode. It was nice to give them screen time but I felt like it didn't add much to the plot, and some might've even taken away from the story of the crown prince and crown princess which I'm sure the audience wanted to see more of. The whole Consort Hwang love situation and son plotting treason was a bit random, as it was just mentioned and nothing really came of it.
*Ending - Just like how everything seemed to go smoothly for the queen, everyone in the end just seemed happy, and everything seemed solved. Summarized the drama cleanly.

= Cast =
*Acting - Kim Hye Soo. That's basically it.
*Chemistry - Nobody can beat the chemistry between the queen and her thoughts. She just overpowers everyone and everything it seems. Joking aside, for the supposed main love line between the crown prince and crown princess I felt like it could've been a lot more if there were more scenes, also if the crown prince had more expression (sorry but his acting fell a bit short and was a bit dead).

= OST =
There weren't many songs, nothing really stood out.


|| A LESSON ABOUT GROWING UP ||

For children with loving parents / guardians, it feels safe and sheltered to be cared for. However, there comes a time when you move away from the umbrella and let the rain fall on you. That way, you can learn how to prevent the raindrops yourself. At some point, you grab the handle and can then shelter your parents / guardian or your own children. Alternatively, there also comes a time to let go of the handle and let the one you've always cared for learn to care for themselves or let them care for you.

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Why this umbrella has pores ??

Under the Queen's umbrella. I got recommendations as a woman empowerment series and great motherhood but
1)why the great mother is unaware that her 1st born is ill over a year and constantly losing consciousness?? 2nd ones preferences, intelligence or capability?? 3rd one is transgender?? 4th one's having affair?? 5th one is good for nothing??
And she started discovering her son's when the crown prince got in death bed . So , she doesn't care about her children as long as one of them is securing throne and security??
2) the death of crown prince is absolutely Queen's fault. You're leaving him in the hand of one physician without knowing his origin ?? If she informed the king the prince could have got more physicians so physician known wouldn't dare to experiment poison on him.
3) what's wrong with crown prince selection?? Is it child's play to do better in college and doing a reality show" who's gonna bring the escaped minister " and why would the ministers choose the crown prince?? It's not like king died so they need to fill the throne immediately and have heir !
A) don't a prince needs to build political power and support of powerful families??
B) getting war achievements and public favour??
C) having strong hold of parts of the empire??
why the corrupted ministers have more saying rather than the king and the achievements of princes ?? it's not a crown scholar selection!
And I do support taekhyon or choosing the more capable prince .
4) the queen doesn't even have support system after being a queen over 20 years. Concubines have support system better than her .Neither the king ! Sage king my ass more like a puppet king! Ministers are the real king here . The king asking them to stop investigation, harming his children or be partial. They're like " chill dude you're illegitimate, so you have no say in this " they even has audacity to say queen cheated king and have a son out of affair! They don't care about treason too .
5) umm what about queen Yoon ? I don't blame physician known ( previous grand prince) a little. It would have been one of the best revenge drama from their perspective( like rise of phoenix or nirvana in fire). Okay big baddie ganny died , jealous concubine gone mad . But what's about corrupted ministers ?? Who's gonna give guarantee that another concubine won't poison a crown prince openly with the help of corrupted ministers?? Who's gonna guarantee about crown prince's safety??
6) after doing soo much bas things the dowger queen died without receiving proper punishment or suffering !
7) I don't understand why drag the plot so much . Like what's about the prince being transgender?? The royalty can keep this a secret and let him be , he's a prince after all.... it's not like he's the king or having homosexual relationships! What's about having a child born out of wedlock? It's not uncommon on Those days . And even after crown prince died how can they remain so casual , when they can die at any moment. Other concubines can come and go on their chambers, investigate on queen and her sons soo easily!
8) queen had one crown prince and 4 spoiled brats. Thank God the crown prince thaught one of his brother otherwise the queen's umbrella has so many pores that they could have easily drenched her total family in blood........
I personally didn't like it at all . It's soo disappointing. They made politics a joke in order to show the queen's greatness.

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This show was a political drama - but it was also about Motherhood

I think for traditional Sageuk fans - this story may not be what they are expecting. Yes - the political elements were a key part of the story - but they were not the main part. This shows strength comes from diving deeply into the absolutely batsh!t things mothers will do for their children. Or what they ‘think’ is ‘best’ for their children.

We get to see this play out in multiple ways throughout the drama - because this show covers the many consorts of the King. This part is usually glossed over or romantized in most historical dramas. In UTQU, it is at the forefront, as each mother is putting her child in the running for being the next King.I cannot emphasize how important these depictions of different kinds of mothers - the good, bad and ugly - was to me. I felt for each and every character - even those I hated - in this show. It will stay with me for a very long time, and I really would recommend it.

Firstly, we have Kim Hye-soo who excellently portrays Queen Im Hwa-ryeong, a dedicated, loving, and absolutely spitfire of a Mother. In the beginning, her goal is to turn her four unabashedly troublesome sons - the Grand Princes - into dutiful, filial children. Her eldest son - the Crown Prince - is for all purposes perfect - studious, produced an heir, and heavily involved in Royal politics. Queen Im Hwa-ryeong has her hands full of very boisterous and mischievous sons - but I love each of them, and so does she. She went to desperate ends to protect each of those boys, her biological sons and their half-brothers as well. On top of that, she also truly wants to help them live as happily and authentically themselves as possible. She did this without sacrificing a shred of her morals either! However, the misbehaviour of her sons, is pulling the attention from the Queen Dowager - played by the absolute legend Kim Hae-sook - and not the good kind of attention. The conflict between these two mothers - the mother of the current King, and the mother of the future King, is the strong undercurrent of the show.

I think the best part of Queen In Hwa-ryeong's methods - in comparison to the other mothers on the show - is that she did not resort to backhanded tactics. Yes, she uses information and she manipulates situations, but never does she resort to harm. In fact, she spends a lot of her energy trying to find a solution that benefits the most number of people. This is in stark comparison to the Queen Dowager - Kim Hae-sook is a veteran actress, and she’s excellent in everything. Her portrayal of the Queen Dowager was so devilishly wicked. She used others - even her own son and grandchildren - to get what she wanted. She was the definition of a manipulative witch, caring only for her own wants.

I cannot talk in detail about the boys - the sons of the king - without giving major spoilers. Their individual narratives were fullfilling and heartfelt. My personal favourite was Prince Seongnam (Moon Sang-min) - for obvious reasons - I love a stoic boy with a hidden warm heart (a tsundere, if you will). He also does have the most involvement with the plot.

I liked Grand Prince Muan (Yoon Sang-hyun) and Grand Prince Gyeseong (Yoo Seon-ho) getting properly developed storylines as well, although I didn’t find them as grounded in the setting of the story as the rest of the brothers. I could see the intention - but I doubt that their stories could happen in history as happily.

I felt bad for the remaining Princes - especially Prince Bogum (Kim Min-gi) and Prince Simso (Moon Seong-hyun) - they definitely had the worst luck. How their respective mothers approached them and their upbringing was so interesting to me - they both cared so deeply about their children, but it showed up in the most misguided ways. What an excellent narrative choice as a comparison point for our MVP mother Queen Hwa-ryeong herself.


10/10 would recommend.

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definitely overrated

This story really is so unsatisfactory
I'll make this review super short.
firstly it didn't feel like any genre at all,it felt like a thing of it's own
secondly the storyline was going haywire and not properly executed, take the prince that likes to dress as a girl for example... what exactly were they trying to illustrate
thirdly as per the title I thought the queen would do more as a character but it's really not like that... another thing, I don't get people's mentality, I support what physician kwon did for revenge, I might have killed both the current king and his mother if I was in his shoes, assuming that the physician was the main lead, like the story revolves around him, he would have been appluaded for his revenge even if he killed the entire family, he would have been seen as a cold and unfeeling person who of course would eventually find love
To sum it up, the story wasn't really clear and it's not something I would ever think of rewatching

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A Mothers' Love knows no boundaries

How to move on from this wonderfully written sageuk drama of 2022? I just cannot believe that it ended, I want more of them.

Great casting, spectacular performances, crispy and well written dialogues, OST is used perfectly on each scenes, face off/slap scenes (figuratively) and you'll feel a whole lot of emotions from the drama. There's character growth and development, and I loved it!

This drama shows different types of motherly love: there's a kind, warm, supporting, forgiving, accepting and protective love; a love that is ruled by greed and obsession that is poisonous to one's child.

I love how they tackle issues, especially related with the 4 grand prince, the other children as well as the King, I'm surprised, I enjoyed his character. As most of the dramas, the father (King) usually is a jerk who's obsessed with power and greed.

Kim Hye Soo is one of my favourite SoKor actress, she knows how to deliver emotions and lines. Her face says it all, even when she's just lifting her eyebrows, you know it wants to express something. She's such a powerful actress, you'll feel all the emotions/character she wanted to portray. I love her!!!

If you haven't watched it, you should start watching it now and surely you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Though, the Queen Dowager had it easy which was kinda lacking as she is a nasty
character. What happened to her doesn't give justice to everything she did from the past.

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Best Historical Drama of 2022

The first Korean historical drama I watched was Scarlett Heart Ryo, which I still consider the best. Next to that comes Mr Queen. I really loved the main lead's acting. From these two I get to understand all the politics, relationships, jealousies, hyprocricies, and issues of trust/mistrust within the palace. I didn't watch Under the Queen's Umbrella until December 2022, when the series had already completed, and as I finished watching all the episodes I could only say: Wow, what a great story line.

Of course the acting was all good: the queen, queen dowager, the king, princes, court ladies were all superb. But the story itself was very strong. You get so many surprised in each episode, not knowing what the queen did before hand. Sometimes as a viewer, I felt "deceived" by her actions by not knowing she did many thing for good purposes, such as accusing her daughter-in-law for murdering the crown prince (when in fact she was saving the crown princesses life). Her relationship with the other wives, the princes, the court doctor, the deposed queen was so beautiful protrayed with many twists and suprises.

I think this is one of the best historical drama I saw in 2020. It was also a visual treat for me to see the costumes, country scenery, and court ceremonies.

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LOVE IT!

As a person who cannot finish a drama unless it really intrigues me in every possible way, I can say I totally binge-watched this series to the very last episode in 2 days, it was just that good! The main actress for the queen did such an amazing job portraying an exasperated, loving, protective mother and a stunning, confident queen so perfectly, you can't help but fall in love with her. I love how the character she plays grows into this strong and badass mother as the story develops, and not from the very beginning as it really adds depth to her character. The story has everything you could ask for, intriguing plotlines and since it's a periodic piece about royalty, oh you can definitely expect some political and family drama. What makes me love this more is the familial bond and interaction between the royal family! the grand princes are such an adorable, troublemaking bunch (poor queen lol) and how the drama isn't too messy and is cleanly resolved. I absolutely couldn't predict the plotline at all, which makes it even better to watch. There really weren't many filler moments that you could skip in this drama either. Overall, an amazing job by the cast and the producing team, and totally one of the must watch k-dramas for 2022!

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Absolutely breathtaking!

I started watching this as soon as it was released and actually stopped in the middle of episode 1 as I felt there were a whole host of characters and they were introduced all at once. It was a bit hard to keep up with it. So I DROPPED IT!!! But there was that one weekend, I had some time and nothing good to watch..so I decided to give it a go. The series had finished airing by then and OMG am I glad I gave it a second chance. I binge watched the whole thing in 2days and 1 night. Here are some of my reasons:
Cinematography - So many beautiful scenes in this show. This is some quality program. You can really see that powers beyond the actors took time to stitch the story well. Simply amazing.
Costume - I watch a lot of Sageuks. But this one takes the cake for costumes. It might be because there are a lot of female characters in it, but the hanboks in this drama deserve their own series I think.
Acting - Top notch acting all around Period!
Story - Going into it I was not convinced that story of palace "back office" would be that interesting. This was proven wrong by episode 2. You really do not need heavy romance, always conspiring Left/Right state ministers for a really good Saguek.
Restraint - We often do not value restraint that much. Most stories do not exercise it and while they all make decent watch, they do not make for memorable, impactful pieces. I loved how the storyline had so much restraint. It was classy all around.
Romance - There was very little of it. However it felt really relevant to the story. They did not overdo it which made the romance itself very enjoyable
Characters - The story had such strong characters. If you have young adults in your family, I highly recommend watching it with them. There are a lot of life lessons here that they would enjoy.

I could go on. All in all, this is one of the most memorable dramas I have watched in a long while. We need more of this!

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