Queen of Tears (2024) - Kdrama Review

-May contain major spoilers-

Photo source: TvN

Queen of Tears (눈물의 여왕) is a 16-episode TvN romantic comedy Kdrama starring Kim Soo-Hyun and Kim Ji-Won.

Summary

Baek Hyun-Woo (Kim Soo-Hyun) is a corporate lawyer and legal director of Queens Group. He is known as the pride of his rural town Yongdu-Ri because he graduated from SNU (the top university in South Korea). Hyun-Woo is married to Hong Hae-In (Kim Ji-Won), CEO of the Queens Group Department Store. Hae-In is also the granddaughter of the Chairman of Queens Group and strives to become a trillion-won seller with her department store.

Although Hyun-Woo and Hae-In married out of love, the feelings Hyun-Woo had for Hae-In have faded to the point where they don't sleep in the same room and eat as far as possible from each other. The bitterness of Hyun-Woo's feelings is in part because he feels like he is no family but a mere servant to his family-in-law, with the main culprits being his grandfather-in-law Hong Man-Dae (Kim Kap-Soo), father-in-law Hong Beom-Jun (Jung Jin-Young), his mother-in-law Kim Seon-Hwa (Na Young-Hee) and brother-in-law Hong Soo-Cheol (Kwak Dong-Yeon).

Hyun-Woo can't stand feeling like he is invisible and mistreated, so he decides to divorce Hae-In. When he is about to serve her the divorce papers, Hae-In tells him that she only has 3 months left to live...

Thoughts

Queen of Tears has officially won my heart. At first, I thought that it was going to be a tad boring, and although the premise is a bit sad this Kdrama is heartwarming and very funny. The episodes are quite long and the final episode is almost 2hs (but totally worth it), but to be sincere, while I was watching, it didn't feel like they were that long; the episodes felt like a breeze. The only bad part is that the villains storyline feels like too much towards the end. I really like how in this Kdrama the protagonists are a married couple and that she is the chaebol of the relationship it feels refreshing.  

This Kdrama has one of the best cinematography and editing I have seen and it has consistent beautiful movie-like visuals throughout all the episodes.

The acting is seriously good, everyone was great and there wasn't a weak link not even in the extended cast. As I wrote before in my Review of The Moon Embracing the Sun, I love Kim Soo-Hyun, he's really good at crying and his cute acting when he's drunk was really cute. I can understand why Hae-In would get jealous. I do have a small complaint about Hyun-Woo's character SPOILER I understand that he was overworked by his in-laws and tired, but I disliked how he was happy about Ha-In's diagnosis. I'm glad that he snapped out of it SPOILER ENDS. Kim Ji-Won as Hae-In was outstanding, she really does a great job acting like a arrogante rich girl, like Kim Soo-Hyun she is also great at crying, and the scenes where SPOILER she loses her memories after the surgery were really convincing and felt as if she was the Ha-In from the start of the drama SPOILER ENDS. Kim Soo-Hyun and Kim Ji-Won's chemistry was fantastic, they really feel like a couple. Park Sung-Hoon portrays Yoon Eun-Sung a psycho with every letter, but towards the end, I got really tired of his behavior. I think Park Sung-Hoon is a fantastic actor and I'm afraid that he will get typecast as that kind of villain after The Glory and this Kdrama (if he likes those roles better, no problem). Eun-Sung was more of an emotional type of villain compared to SPOILER Lee Mi-Seok who portrayed his mother, the cold and calculating Moh Seul-Hee SPOILER ENDS. I have to say -write- that I was quite shocked when I noticed that Hae-In's secretary, Chae-Yeon, was portrayed by APink Bomi. I truly didn't recognize her, but she looked so familiar that I had to read the cast list. 

I loved every character, they were all well-written. I had to stop myself from writing about all of them.

The OST has some indie ~vibes~ I really liked it. My favorite songs from the soundtrack are "Can't Get Over You" (좋아해요) by Paul Kim, "Love You With All My Heart" (미안해 미워해 사랑해) by Crush and I also loved "My Way Home" by Kim Soo-Hyun a lot (T_T). I'm so glad he sang in an OST again.

I recommend this Kdrama if you like corporate settings, rural settings, heartwarming stuff, beautiful visuals, funny characters, good dynamics, and relationships that get mended (like a family relationship).

If you aren't sure about watching this Kdrama because you're worried if the ending is sad or happy read the following spoiler (I won't spoil the ending, don't worry) SPOILER The ending is a happy one, and is satisfying. I really LOVED IT SPOILER ENDS

Rating 

Acting - 10/10

Plot - 10/10

Romance - 10/10

Soundtrack - 10/10

Cinematography - 10/10

Overall Rating - 10/10

Extended Drama Info.

Quantity of Episodes: 16.

Run Time: 76min/each.

Release Date: March 9, 2024.

Network: TvN.

Directed by: Jang Young-Woo and Kim Hee-Won.

Cinematography by: Kang Yoon-Soon, Wang Ho-Sang, Park Se-Hee, Kim Ji-Hoon.

Written by: Park Ji-Eun.

Edited by: Yoo Hyun-Hye.

Music by: Nam Hye-Sung.

Starring: Kim Soo-Hyun and Kim Ji-Won with Park Sung-Hoon, Kwak Dong-Yeon, Lee Joo-Bin, Lee Mi-Seok, Jung Jin-Young, Na Young-Hee, Kim Kap-Soo, Kim Jung-Nan, Jeon Bae-Soo, Hwang Young-Hee, Kim Do-Hyun, Jang Yoon-Ju, Kim Young-Min, Yoon Bo-Mi, Kim Joo-Ryoung and Moon Tae-Yu.