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Queen of Tears korean drama review
Completed
Queen of Tears
2 people found this review helpful
by Beatrice
Jul 18, 2024
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 4.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Queen of endless villain meetings

The drama boasts an exorbitant runtime that's around 90 minutes per each of it's 16 episodes but it's filled with constant meetings of the villains planning, enacting, or going over what they did for their schemes instead of strengthening the relationships of the characters, the most important one being the main pair Hae In and Hyun Woo. Their chemistry really fluctuated as to when the writing really understood them as characters with history, which the scenes when they are at odds at each other capitalized the most well on, giving them pathos informed by their shared traumas, whereas it's the weakest in the romantic sections where the writing and direction portrays them like teenagers dating for the first time rather than estranged spouses whose years of resentment (that lead to Hyun Woo to the point of celebrating the news of Hae In's terminal illness) stemmed from shared overwhelming grief over a miscarriage and miscommunication. There are moments where their current romance reflects on moments in their dating past that gives their current relationship a bit more depth, but otherwise there is this astronomical void that is never reconciled so Hae In and Hyun Woo falling in love again, all the sweet scenes, and emotional declarations feels hollow. It doesn't matter if they kept meeting each other throughout their childhood into their adulthood and elderly Hyun Woo is the one visiting her grave in Germany after she has passed from old age in the future if the biggest obstacles that utterly destroyed their love for each other is never addressed properly.

The most affecting relationship of the show is Soo Cheol and Da Hye. Soo Cheol is a comically petulant man child who can't do anything right, but he understands that he's been sheltered and stunted by his parents and wants to step up to be a good husband and father and he absolutely is. His pure unconditional love and acceptance for his wife and child even after he's discovered that Da Hye had scammed him and he's not the biological father of his child and every moment that he will do whatever it takes to protect them are the most powerful emotional parts of the show. The key moments are Soo Cheol waiting endlessly until Da Hye logs in to the game not to confront her, but to send her their son's shot records, not allowing his parents to speak down to his wife, learning to ride a bicycle so he can teach his son, learning to take hits and to box to protect his wife, calling her over the lost and found speaker, him choosing to recontextualize her confessions of picking on him when they were little in the sweetest way, and waiting for her release from prison. It's so sweet the both of them share a genuine enjoyment of gaming together. We get to see Da Hye have very good knife skills, chopping up copious amounts of vegetables swiftly. It would have been nice if we could have seen Da Hye and Soo Cheol work together for a business for themselves or something instead of the endless villain meeting scenes.

Kim Soo Hyun did a good job portraying Hyun Woo from his sweet vulnerable side to his cold combative side. Kim Ji Won's Hae In was most effective as the past version where she manages to be balance being cocky and romantic in a charming way. None of Hae In's supposedly comedic moments hit as funny in the current day portions. Hyun Woo's friendship with Yang Gi and the lawyer crew as well as Secretary Na being the closest thing to a best friend that Hae In has were also enjoyable. It would have been nice seeing Hae In explore her friendship with Secretary Na some more. It was trippy to see Sebastian Roche show up as one of the German doctors and seeing the German nurse station where they gossip about the situation, filmed in that specific kdrama style. Hae In's rare brain tumor being magically healed with no resulting issues other activating an amnesia plotline is also another wasted opportunity in the writing. There's a lot of potential in this drama, it's a shame that they couldn't edit the show down and focus in the writing stage to the more important parts to keep a good momentum and give more substance to the story of the main leads recovering from their broken relationship.
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