1. Today’s Webtoon
Starring: Kim Se Jeong, Daniel Choi, Nam Yoon Soo
SBS Promotional poster
On Ma Eum (Kim Se Jong) is a former rising Judo star who quit and is looking for her own path outside of Judo. She is an upbeat and hard working. She is hired as an intern PD for a webtoon company. The company is the center of a power struggle and is at risk of shutting down.
I loved this show as a…
This series is not perfect, but it is still good. It has a solid storyline, and great characters. Hong Hae In and Baek Hyun Woo have been married for 3 years and the love that had united them at the beginning seems to have disappeared in their distance and silence after a miscarriage that broke their hearts. When Baek Hyun Woo finally has the courage to present the divorce papers to Hong Hae In, she tells him she has a tumor and doesn't have much time left. His decision to stay with her gives them an unexpected chance at finding that love that had united them once. Family interactions between their very different families questions dynamics and help characters grow.
I like the fact that they didn't take the easy way out with our main antagonist. The story in itself is really good and I loved it, however, production was a bit careless with details that were too big to miss: Hae In's operation - how can a person with a brain tumor have a surgery with her hair intact. Or Hyun Woo's neck injury suddenly disappearing in a second, ext. These kind of details show some careless oversight. But we can forgive them - we laugh it off and keep watching to see what happens next.
Queen of Tears strongest point are the performances, directing and cinematography, there's no doubt about this. Scriptwriter Park Ji Eun has a talent for teaming up with great talents, particular actors, and that's in my opinion the main reason why her drama are usually so successful. She manages to write really interesting and endearing characters, and put them in entertaining situations that grasp the attention of the viewer.
The casting director did a particular excellent job on this one because every single character was cast to perfection, every actor and actress fitting into the role as if it was written for them.
I am fascinated by the way scriptwriter Park Ji Eun has managed to mix genres in one drama, because Queen of Tears is a dark comedy, makjang, comedy, romance and melodrama all in one. This screenwriter is not stranger to making a successful and entertaining kdrama, but if you are looking for something that will dwell into the deeper reasons as to why the leads' marriage crumble, logic and cohesive editing, this story might not be for you.
Queen of Tears strongest point is the way both families come together, learning to respect and love each other but apart from that the drama is developed at a surface level. The scripts lean hard on the other genres which is perfectly fine but there were times when I was frustrated at the desiciones being made, the complete waste of time when the families are running against the clock to save one of their own AND the family's business, etc. This is when I think Queen of Tears is a lot like other Park Si Eun's kdramas: they start strong but run out of material towards the second half of the episode, almost as if she introduce a bunch of plotlines with proper solutions to a few of them.
Overall, I found Queen of Tears to be a really entertaining watch to disconnect from reality.
Writers: Lee Nam Gyu, Oh Bo Hyun & Kim Da Hee (based on the webtoon by Lee Ra Ha)
Mini-review:
When I heard this drama was coming out, I got a bit worried, since k-dramas don't have the best track record when it comes to handling this topic. Thankfully, this show's team mostly pulled it off. Sure, it falls into stereotypes from time to time, but its focus is always on empathy, acceptance and tolerance. It really tries to make the viewer understand how hard and undeservedly misunderstood mental illnesses are. For better or worse, that also means the drama doesn't shy away from showing the darkest parts of these illnesses, so please be very careful if this topic is triggering for you, cause there are a lot of hard-to-watch scenes. In terms of acting, the entire cast is great, especially the actors playing the patients, and Park Bo Young. In fact, this might arguably be her career's crowning achievement. The one thing I didn't really like were the romantic parts. I just didn't care for any of the romances, and the show would've been better off without them. Anyway, Daily Dose of Sunshine surprised me by handling a complex topic in a much more humane and hopeful way that I expected.