Queen of Tears (2024)

they really tried

they really tried to make me feel sorry for a rich conglomerate family 😹😹😹😹

soundtrack was top notch 🙂‍↕️
storyline was cray but made sense as a whole in kdrama terms lol but i do feel like they kind of left off the exiled son plot and randomly patched it up in the last ep ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the ending was beautiful i joked they would do an “up” montage and they lowkey did 😅 i wish they added more to the losing a child plot bc i feel like it would’ve been more powerful in terms of why they were slowly drifting instead of instances here and there to remind us that it happened. losing a brother and losing a child must’ve been hard for haein and i would’ve loved to see the complexity in that, especially since she was also sick herself.

Read More

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda as Taylor Swift says

This show was a great promise from the trailers on Netflix. I loved how they tried to showcase that sometimes happy endings aren't the marriage itself. I laughed out loud with the first episodes, Kim Soo Hyun is an amazing actor, and if they had led him interpret the character as he did with the improvised scenes he pulled off, the character would have made so much sense.

I loved it at the first episodes because it brought the sitcom factor into a kdrama that is not often seen in romantic genres. I would have enjoyed it so much if they left it that way and didn't start all the unnecessary drama plot lines that threw off attention from the actual problem, the marriage between the leads.

Started it for the comedy but finished it because of the crush I have on Kim Soo Hyun, take it or leave it.

Read More

a good melodramatic drama, but!

The final episode literally killed me inside.
Seeing Baek Hyun-woo as an elderly at Haein's lapid, then the portraits of every family member, then everyone passing trough the screen...I'm so damn sad.
For me, Life is so short and all we have as humans, that really has any sort of value, are our beloved ones and our memories :(

I loved the ending although I've might repeated constantly to myself that i hated (cause i cried lol) but it was so pretty, it's been a while since i last cried over a drama.
----
Besides, casting 10/10 everyone did amazingly.
OST is totally top tier! i loved every single one and the production is so so pretty! I felt like i was watching someone's memories.
---

Now, here comes my criticisms! LOL

First off, the premise of the drama is really good, but it has plot holes.
Like, for example, when Hae-In said they were gonna open her head but she came out of the surgery without any bandage on her head or some hair loss from the surgery.

Plus, her cure was way too easy in my perspective.
I mean, it's a RARE disease and she suddenly got a surgery just like that.
I know it wasn’t exactly sudden, Hyun woo did at lot of research, but I don't know, it was too easy for me. A rare disease getting cured that easily.
Not even the richest person can find a cure so fast or even find one.

Also, i think the romance between Beom-ja and Yong-song was weird. They just don't have chemistry to me. Both were funny a few times, but I don't think they'd really work out.

Now, about the mothers of the protagonists.
Hae-In's mom...she was very soulless. I couldn't feel any emotions from her even when she was crying/desperate, neither from Hyun Woo's mom. His mother felt kinda empty, maybe she was supposed to show strength and always be strong in front of everyone, but I think it was too much.

Also, Soo-cheol (Hae-In's brother) getting up easily in the fight scene after being beaten up, felt like one of those anime scenes where the main character is all hurt but suddenly remembers someone special and finds strength from who knows where. If he could beat those guys, why didn’t he do it earlier?

Oh, and the original president of Queens (was a character that should've been important but ended up being pointless, just a plot device. Plus, President Hoon's oldest son got no character development, neither on his own nor in his relationship with his dad.

To finish, the romantic relationships of Hyun Woo's siblings were unnecessary. You know that scene in the final episode where Hyun Woo's parents give his sister a plane ticket to go to the U.S.? That could've been replaced with another scene of the main characters.

Well, yeah i guess that's all.
If someone read this entirely review, thanks! 🫂

Read More

They can do a lot better.

The things I am going to say may offend some viewers, so SORRY!!!

NEGATIVE

1. the story could be a lot better

2. The guy at first wants her dead. god, this is highly absurd

3. Too much negativity—just tooooo much. The Villane came at the 2nd episode and scammed till the end.And there is too much screentime of the villane duo, which, as a viewer, I dont want to see

4. The happy moments are short lived, and as a viewer, you will be in a fear that something bad will happen. You cannot watch in peace; the ending is also the last ending monolog is unrequired and instead they could show their marriage affter all of this The fans atleast deserve this so ending is not satisfying.

5. The FL character is somewhere not impactful and just driven by others too much and highly self-centered. She somewhere too much occupied her own problems and hardly thought about ML, her business, her ex coming back, her illness, her family, etc. The story always occupies those things, and the boy just suffers. Somewhere she allowed many things that she should not do with the villain even if she is mad, like holding her, going under an umbrella, and drinking with her ex when the meeting is not happening. Anything that happened, she ran towards him to make the ML feel bad. After her oparation, he only believed in him, not anyone, and she was never sorry about this to ML. So she hardly thought logically and always doubted the ML, from fraud to cheating and accusing. She also very little cared about her brother.

6. The side characters are just useless somewhere; they are not able to do anything. The friend and the ML family have done much more here, and his friend literally does everything. Here, many characters are just carried through the show and nothing but weight in the show.

7. The brother and his wife story is very odd and frustrating. She cheated him with her ex and told him that he was not her child's father—that's a big blow—and flown away and got beaten, came back, and got accepted without asking any questions—I mean, is it a joke? Yes, she is regretful, but still, at least make her pay for her dids. Some other day, if she thought she would do those again, who knows? On the other hand, they show that she somewhere loves him, like in childhood, the doll he gave; the first time she saw him after a long time; then I can understand that she has to do those things somewhere out of willingness at first and in a situation in later stages. But if you truly love him, you cannot cheat him. I mean, cheating is somewhere odd and absurd; again, somewhere the story lags. Who is his ex, and why was he chasing what happened at then? nothing said.

8. They are big businessmen but fail to pick such easy scams, and in spite of telling them they didn't even bother to listen to him making her the legal guardian. those are some rookie mistakes

9. One thing is this show is a show of unsatisfying endings: brother and his wife, the ML and the FL, villanes, and many more.

10. The show is very unstable in nature The FL and ML relationship is highly unstable in nature; at moments they are good, and the next day they are in a misunderstanding situation falling apart that is not pleasing to see.

11. The show seems to be in a time span of around six to ten months, and there isn't any good character development there. The brother-sister relationship is not like that in any way.

POSITIVE

1. The biggest positive thing is the acting In spite of the plot hole and the story lines, the acting is what makes this show some where special I like everybody acting the ML and the FL and many more.

2. The screen chemistry of them is great; they just suited with each other; there caring moments at the middel are good. and somewhere holds the show.

3. The caring and good nature of the villagers are very good to see.

4. The detectives and friends are good, and they are only countable characters.

5. In the end, the regret scene of the FL—I mean, it is not good to see, but boy suffers a lot, so this much is tolerable and this shows how much she cares for him now.

6. One thing I must say that the ahow has done is they constantly did interaction between the ML and the FL, which is as a viewer, you definitely wanna see the interaction may be bad or good but wanna see their interaction as a viewer, they are not separated for too long like may other those kinds of shows generally show, which I really love about this show.



Now you may ask, if there are so many negatives and small positives there, then why is the show so popular?
because this show somehow hit the typicalness that many want to see, let me line them up

- A love story.
- A rich girl CEO and the poor (relatively) boy from the village.
- The boy works in her company.
- The boy lives with in-laws.
- The In laws always torment and demean him, but he is good and bearing everything for her.
- The ex of the FL came back and caused a problem.
- The ML is telling her not to entertain her ex, but she is constantly ignoring him and doing her things.
- After all the humiliation, he is there because he loves her.
- Broken a car glass for her love.
- The FL is constantly hurting the ML, but he is enduring everything silently.
- He got into an accident, twice got bitten (one time he almost died), one time got shot and for her and many more and still has not left her.
- The girl forgets everything and thinks of him as a stranger, but still he was around her.


So moreover, the ML bears all things mentally and physically and bears all of her tantrums and still loves her. That's somewhere the large majority of viewers want to see; that's why it is so famous. But they could change the name to "king of tears." No wait, "queen of tears" is an ideal name because the only thing she has done in this drama is cry.

Read More

shame about the ending

A rich girl and a lawyer has married and after 3 years he wants to divorce but his wife tell him she has 3 month to live so he decided to resist next to her untill her death.

Kim Soo Hyun's role reminds me of "It's okay not to be okay", such a man who is always calm and super kind, submissive to a strong and crazy woman, who is in love with him.
There is a palpable chemistry between the couple. They act very well.
I personally liked her aunt and also his lawyer friend.
My least favorite episode was episode 11th. When the bad guy blackmailed her, I hated these moments. A trash man who takes advantage of her weaknesses even though he knows she isn't interested in him.

The last episode disappointed me a lot.
She who still keeps him on edge with marriage (after what happened, hasn't she learned that life is short? She should have been the one to propose to him), the sight of his tombstone could have been spared, the brief glimpse of their daughter without seeing the joys of this event is a sin as is the hasty summary of all the stories, including the aunt's relationship.
Then, when he runs away from the hospital in his condition (absolutely not), when he is shot with all the special forces present and no one moves to see his condition (not real).

This series is compared in terms of share to the series "Crash landing on you" which still remains my favorite.
Certain scenes seem copied, for example the field of flowers at the end, but the sensations they convey are not the same.

NB: Is Mercedes a sponsor of this series by any chance? It wasn't clear enough.

Read More

Queen of Tears is very complicated because parts of it were so beautiful and I also kind of hated it. The drama started off very rough because, regardless of their marital problems, seeing his excitement at her terminal diagnosis and then disappointment when there was hope in treatment was kind of disgusting. I remember watching it and thinking THIS is who we’re meant to be rooting for?! It was hard for me to get past that.

I think one of the biggest issues with Queen of Tears is that it does way too much. I thought this drama would be focused on her terminal diagnosis and this couple finding their way back to each other, but the constant kidnapping, fraud, stolen companies, murder plots, and hostage situations really distracted from the main idea. There was a huge stretch of this drama where it seemed like her cancer was completely forgotten about by not only the characters but also the writers, so it just never felt as high stakes as it should have. The villains were so poorly written that I could hardly stand it. The motivations and actions made little sense. It was infuriating to see Hae-in get abducted, held hostage, or almost murdered just over and over again. I actually thought that the storyline where her family loses the company and has to go move in with her ex’s family was one of the best parts of the show and the show would’ve been a lot better if they’d focused on that instead. Seeing her family attempt to live normally and be at the mercy of these people they’d looked down on was funny and very satisfying. I loved Hyun-woo’s mom especially and her relationship with Hae-in. Her brother’s storyline with his wife was actually a huge highlight as well. He was kind of a doofus but he was so deeply devoted to her and his child, and seeing him grow up and fight for his family was so heartwarming.

The last few episodes were infuriating because it felt like there were just constant plot holes. The way the villain got Hae-in after her surgery and manipulated her felt so crazy and her loved ones had such pathetic attempts to help her, when there were so many things that could have been done. Hae-in’s mother also really did not deserve her redemption arc and her treatment of her daughter was so heinous.

This show only worked because of Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won. Even with all of my frustration, I could not stop watching QoT because of their amazing performances and chemistry. These two actors have to be some of the best criers in the world and their emotion got to me every time. The best scenes in the show were when it was just the two of them crying, especially the car crash and the church scenes.

Queen of Tears was a true soap opera. If you want constant attempted murder and kidnapping along with your romance, this is the show for you. The writing was not great and I think the only reason this show was so popular is because of the strong performances by the two lead actors. There are some truly fantastic scenes between the main couple that made me glad I watched it but it was still a drama that left me feeling annoyed by the wasted potential.

Read More

Eun Seong when I catch you Eun Seong...

First half rekindled my love for kdrama, the second half reminded me why I quit.

It starts off so strong. Great characters, great acting, great OST, great plot (relatively--the terminally ill plot is nothing new but I loved the prospect of accidentally rekindling a dead romance when he just wanted her to put him in her will).

The second half was painful. There were good parts. I loved every scene where the relationships between characters stood centre stage. I also adored the way that the greedy, hyper-individualistic family grew closer throughout the drama (Hae In's mother can still kiss my ass though). These good parts were almost entirely overshadowed by the stupid thriller plot. I hate Yoon Eun Seong so much that words escape me when I try to describe my hatred. Not because he's a villain, but because he's annoying. He wants their money, sure. Whatever, people are greedy sometimes, I get it. What I don't get is why he's so obsessed with Hae In. I'd have understood jealousy, because he thought his mother abandoned him to live with the Hong family, but why does he want to own her? They spoke like once. That one time then somehow led to him scamming her entire family, framing Hyun Woo for murder, abducting her from the hospital by pretending they're close, trying to murder Hyun Woo, and finally trying to murder her when he realises she'll never want to be with him because he's garbage. Also, he's so utterly inept in everything he does when trying to break up Hae In and Hyun Woo that it makes me wonder how he managed to scam the family out of everything they own in the first place. It just doesn't make sense.

Read More

Love conquers all

Dramas with casting like this either end up being really good or overrated. This landed somewhere in the middle for me.

CHARACTERS - Hae In was a refreshing change up from the typical FLs in kdramaland. I found her apathy and dark sense of humor amusing. She wasn't exactly painted as a super nice person but nuance was def there. Granted she had a lot of family issues and suffered a big loss. Even still, the way she treated Hyun Woo made me feel for him at times. Gotta say, I was taken aback by the interactions between the two. This couple was supposed to be married and they treat each other like this?? And this is before we get into the messed up family dynamics. A huge reason why I continued watching was to see how their marriage reduced to such toxicity. Hyunwoo truly was the beating heart of this drama. I never believed he really wanted to divorce Hae In, and a huge reason why is because it was obvious he still loved her dearly, even after everything. Ofc he's wrong for withholding the truth and playing in her face but let's be real--neither person was innocent in this situation. No matter how ugly things became, Hyunwoo's unwavering dedication to the relationship came through. It was easily the most compelling aspect of the show. I hope one day someone loves me the way Hyunwoo loved Haein cause damn lol. The other characters didn't particularly stand out to me. The villains had an ok setup but were ultimately one-dimensional. We learned again that Park Sung Hoon is good at playing scummy people lol. Kwak Dong Yeon continuously playing pitiful characters has become the norm. Will he ever escape?

In conclusion, this was a decent ride, all flaws considered. Things did get draggy, even feeling a little chore-ish towards the end. But when this hit it hit. Rather than being overrated QOT is overhyped, but that was bound to happen given the actors involved. I prob won't rewatch but i don't regret investing my time at all.

Read More

Finally, it's over!

Finally done with this… show. Was CLOY’s plot this messy too?? It started out so nice, but fell flatter than a pancake. I made the mistake of taking a two-week break between episode 12 and 15, so I had to catch up episodes 12-15 in one day because I wanted to finish it with everyone else. Thank the Lord for double speed and skipping.

The show was successful due to a handful of factors: the screenwriter, regardless whether one likes her or not, has created many successful dramas. The amazing leads that are known for their skills. KSH and KJW were great, though I find KSH had less to show in the first 10 or so episodes. KJW had a much more consistent performance in my opinion. The insanity of the plot. And the OST/any technicality such as cinematography, styling etc. The plot of this show was pure dogshit. It got worse with every episode especially after episode 12 (for me).

Now, me personally, I hated BaekHong! 😊 I did not like Hyun Woo as a male lead. I could never fully sympathize with him, which I did easier with Hae In. HW was just kind of unlikable to me, and I’m also quite annoyed that Hae In had to start the mature conversation at the very end of the last episode (even when she apologized for being mean after her surgery?? Girl, it is NOT your fault). How they argued over trivial matters etc. and how that was the reason they grew apart. On one hand you can argue that she takes agency to speak up (especially when you consider how YES took her autonomy the second he appeared on screen until his last breath. That man was obsessed with her and wanted full control over her. He disguised himself as a nice guy, but he was never able to hide that little psychotic sparkle in his eyes. When he wanted to have dinner with her, he chose everything: the plates, the wine glasses, the food, the wine. When he showed up as her guardian at the hospital, when he kidnapped her, when she wanted to collaborate with this dude to be part of the Trillion Club thing, etc.) , on the other it is once again her who takes accountability. Throughout the whole drama, I felt that HHI was sidelined – despite being the female lead. Her feelings, point of view, thoughts… all felt like a second-thought. Both from the POV of the other characters, but especially from the writer. HHI never felt like the priority, it seemed like she had to compromise and put herself second in order to make others “happy” or whatever, and that was annoying. Kim Ji Won is such a stunning actress, capable of giving a nuanced performance of a character that could have been so interesting. However, she gave her best with what she was given – which wasn’t much in my opinion.

The villains. You guys, I laughed so hard when Eun Seong died. Lmao. Anyway, these villains were so over the top that I could not stand it after a certain point. They felt too cartoonish. They got their karma, so that’s good.

This drama could have been a nice little character-driven story – had the writer given the characters more depth. Instead, we got a mix of insanity, barely any (good) romance, lots of trauma, annoying villains… To be very straightforward: this was a clusterfuck of a drama, and I’m happy it’s over.

---

“Annoyed that Hae In apologizes to Hyun Woo about her treatment towards him after surgery. Not her fault she didn’t remember him, why must she take accountability… also, when has his ass ever apologized to her? Seems like she compromises all the time for him throughout the show – oh, finally an apology at the end for forgetting his promise to always love her. Instead, he caused her pain.” – live commentary/thoughts while I was watching the last episode LOL.

Read More

Too much drama in a drama

Was this supposed to be all about actors crying? I should have paid more attention to the title cause the sobbing was sooooo unnecessary omg please stop making Kim Soo Hyun cry for the love of all that is dear!

There is something truly twisted going on in the directors heads because plot and script were all over the place no moderation whatsoever! The ML started out as a man who does not care if his wife died (is a human so unfeeling they wouldn't care if a person close to them died?) and then did a 360 spin in his personality and became the perfect loving husband? Right I get it.

And why all the misery???? There is a thing called balance and some people prefer to just add everything incoherently in a script leaving the viewer perplexed and tired. I feel tired.

AND NO KISS IN THE LAST EPISODE? WHY? WHERE IS THE ATMOSPHERE? Oh I know where perhaps it was lost somewhere between the tombstones...

Kim Soo Hyun tried really tried but the script and direction did not allow for much. He is -no matter how infinitely unrealistic- the perfect husband and we swoon. (He is the reason I give this an overall 6,5 the solid production cause we did see some pretty outfits and nice scenery).

Park Sung Hoon's role was wronged by the script because they simply portrayed him as evil when he was just desperate for affection. He was as always great.

Kwak Dong Yeon + Lee Joo Bin were PHENOMENAL as a side couple, like I would love to see them somewhere together again amazing work, loved their scenes!

Also loved the scened where the two families got together so I guess the side moments were entertaining. Ah so tired.

Read More