Reviews

Mai ChengHuan's growth to independence

TLDR: If you've read the discussions on Viki and MDL, you will have seen the overbearing, annoying and toxic mom labels. I won't deny that the mother was portrayed very well by actress He Sai Fei. And many people who are unfamiliar with Asian culture may not understand her portrayal, so they dropped the series because of her, even though she eventually strives to understand her children better, and they reach an understanding. Also, if you're just expecting a RomCom, this series is not for you.

This drama is more about family life and the relationships between the family members. Not many of us will have the economic background as the Mai family, who are living in government housing, and where the parents' big dream is for the government to demolish their building so they can collect the relocation money and move to the suburbs. Mr. and Mrs. Mai have sacrificed enough to be able to send their two children to college, and ChengZao had scholarships while also tutoring while attending school. He's in his early 20s and still sleeps on a cot in their living room. Older sister ChengHuan is 29 and diligently works in the hotel industry. She wants to be independent and to be able to alleviate her parents' difficult life. As her mom increasingly interferes with her life, the fragile balance between filial piety and independence breaks, leading to a public row between her and her mom.

Things I liked:
- the very gradual and realistic change in the relationship between Yao ZhiMing and Mai ChengHuan. They started off on the wrong foot. From my perspective, he fell first but could only support her without her knowing about it.
- Yao ZhiMing and Mai ChengHuan being there for each other, physically present and emotionally available, was the most romantic thing. Viewers define romance differently. Some go for the big ring, flowers, chocolate. Me - someone to hold me when I'm down and someone to listen so I can hear myself think.
- ChengHuan's journey growing up with an overbearing mom to being able to speak up for herself, not second-guessing herself, but being able to stand up for herself was a joy to behold.
- the friendship between siblings ChengHuan and ChengZao. They're the only ones who know their parents and know what the other is going through.
- the friendship between ChengHuan and MaoMao. They have each other's backs.

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The cast & plot make up for the poor editing & transitions

Despite the classic chinese drama style bad scene transitions, this drama roped me in firstly for its plot, and then for its cast. I have new favourites in, especially Bai Shu (yang bawan) & Sun Qian (chun yu) - their reactive acting was exceptional, and the rest of the cast were great too! In the beginning, I found Chun Yu's acting quite expressionless but, in time, that explains itself.

Few scenes (especially in the beginning) were not convincing enough, and repetitive dialogues made me roll my eyes, but again, the plot (what happens next) kept me going.
It's purely the cast and visual fx that pulled the 9 star rating. Even when I got bored in parts, I came back for them. I will definitely rewatch this drama for the cast. Their chemistry was spot on.

All in all, I highly recommend the drama.

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I usually keep my reviews spoiler-free, but to explain the reasons why I found this drama disappointing despite liking it in the beginning I can't help but refer to parts and details of the show. Therefore, if you haven’t watched the drama yet, you may want to skip this long review.

From the very beginning, my interest focused solely on the sentimental dynamics of the two main leads. I wanted to find out when and above all how the love that had evidently led them to marriage had turned into total indifference or even hatred. I found all the rest kind of redundant and started FF very early on.

At first, the most problematic character from a narrative point of view was undoubtedly Baek Hyun Woo. He can no longer stand his wife or her family and so far no one can blame him. However, a normal couple would at least try to discuss it, or quarrel about it, but Hyun Woo's tactic is to turn away and go sob in some corner alone. If, like me, you are hoping for at least one outburst of anger or passionate frustration, it is better to find a corner where we too can go and sob alone, because turning their backs on problems is the recurring pattern, regardless of the characters involved. Bar the volcanic aunt, that is.
When the terminal illness bomb is dropped, Baek Hyun Woo's reaction is: surprise, hug with declaration of love followed closely by relief of being able to escape the marriage without consequences. Am I supposed to find this funny? Only two scenarios are possible: either he has never stopped loving her and his hatred is just the other face of the love coin, or the contempt is real and we are left with a husband actively rejoicing in his wife’s untimely demise.

Hae-In's character is fleshed out a little better. Despite her apparent indifference towards her husband, on several occasions she highlights his intelligence and professional ability, thus proving proud of him. It is easier for the viewer to understand why she chose this man for her husband. It's a shame that instead of continuing along this line, the screenwriter prefers to introduce the usual K-drama banalities: "you're beautiful, you're sexy, I'm jealous of anyone who breathes, don't let anyone look at you, wear a burqa, blah, blah."

Given all these premises, I would have expected a much more passionate sentimental dynamic and not two spouses who obviously shared a bed at some point but whose simplest touch appears now unnatural. For the first four or five episodes, we see Hae-In trying to get closer to him physically and him backing away or denying himself as if he feared contagion. The absurdity is stretched to the point that Hae-In asks her secretary whether it is normal for a wife to be physically attracted to her husband, to which the “wise” secretary decrees this woman must be clinically crazy. What universe are we in?
Suddenly though, we are told that the love between them is the deepest in the cosmos and we have to take that for granted without further questions or explanation.

The pace of the entire narrative is fluctuating. It alternates poignant, almost lyrical moments with others full of completely irrelevant events, apples or pears and over-the-top, frankly irritating characters. The male lead's sister and her gossiping clients, anyone? Not to mention the family who arrives with 4 helicopters at the hunting lodge - not even the royals of England - the bad guy who does whatever he likes without consequences or control, the self-made patriarch who lets himself be fooled by a greedy prune of a woman and this last who goes around with a bevy of bodyguards/minions in tow like the queen of Joseon with her eunuchs.

When all this is said and done, what annoys me the most is the repeated trick of giving us a cliff-hanger of paramount importance at the end of every episode, only to start the next with either a flashback of the past or a conclusion to said cliff-hanger that is deflating my expectations at best or insulting my intelligence at worst. A few examples [very spoilery]

- Ominous press conference with the whole of South Korea gathered, Hae-In shocks everyone not only by revealing her illness, but also exposing the villain’s threats and manipulations to the world, even claiming she has recorded evidence of it. Fantastic! Next episode: the villain is still strolling the Queen’s corridors without a soul questioning him or the press dedicating a line to his involvement. Where did the recorded evidence go?

- Hae-In gets in the car with the what’s-his-name villain thinking he is Hyun Woo. The whole sequence is truly well made, giving the audience small but undeniable hints and a suspenseful car chase until Hae In finally realizes her mistake. End of episode. Here I am all excited at the prospect of a true confrontation, but the next episode Hae In coldly informs her husband she will go along with Villain to visit grandpa and Hyun Woo makes no objection. What? Cliff-hanger over, as well as my sanity.

- Grampa made a panic room built somewhere inside the family mansion, but he didn’t see it fit to tell anyone, which clearly defeats the object of a panic room. I’m still laughing out loud at a friend envisioning a bunch of criminals breaking in and the family dying of panic attacks because they can’t find the panic room. Remember, this is the same distrustful and overly cautious patriarch who made an unrelated woman his tutor without ever checking her true credentials. One wonders how he made all that money… So we have this suspenseful scene in which the family descends into the room via an elevator and Hyun Woo immediately gets the trick. How? You think they are going to tell you the next episode? Guess what: no.

There are other instances of logic defeating situations, but unless you like to be spoilt you have already watched the drama and know exactly what I’m talking about. They have crammed a gazillion open threads to be finally knotted back in the last two episodes, and yet they still find the damn time to introduce new, totally useless, eczema inducing characters, a murder mystery, a trial and a good 10 minutes’ village party with quacks and barks. I promise you, I almost got that eczema.

In conclusion, since the plot has got more holes than Swiss cheese and clichés abound, I watched and completed this drama because of the main leads. Alas, more often than not they disappointed me too: they never felt real as a couple of adults, despite their roles as individual characters being brilliantly acted. There isn’t a mutual alchemy between them, no sparks flying around: they exist as individuals who happen to repeat they love each other ad nauseam. There is no real in-depth conversation between them: why didn’t it work? When did we start to drift apart? Let’s be honest; if you don’t clear up the misunderstandings, they are definitely going to be repeated, no matter how many times you’re shot, driven over by a car, get tumours, surgeries or whatever catastrophe a scriptwriter can come up with.
There’s a beautiful dialogue sometime by the middle in which Hyun Woo comments: “what if we had applied a balm on our wounds every time we hurt each other in the past? How would our marriage be now?” That was such a wonderful cue, the type of conversation I would expect from an adult couple in a crisis. But what does Hae In reply to that? “No, we should have stopped by the ice-cream and put an end to our relationship then and there. We wouldn’t be in this situation now.” What kind of superficial, immature response is that?
Better we were never born, so we wouldn’t be suffering now, sort of clever philosophy.

I decided early on that I would add one point to the drama if they made Hae In and Hyun Woo finally sit down and address the elephant in the room: October 31. As it stands, the drama gets one point less for turning a promising story of healing into a buffoonish makjang.

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Everything-in-one-pan sort of comfort food.

I was trying to work out why this one blew up and got the attention it did. And I don’t think I was the only one, I think the whole company were probably a little surprised too. So what I came up with was that they managed to find the perfect recipe for how to appeal to the maximum number of possible audiences - a producer’s dream. And how, imo, did they do it?

By cherry picking from all the genres and eliminating the potential bitterness before making a judicious blend of sweetness, with a twist of out-of-the-ordinary, that is just sufficient to stimulate almost everyone’s tastebuds. It has the ingredients of a melo without excessive wailing (well it does get a bit wet though, just note the title…); a romcom without cringeworthy comedy (mostly); a makjang without full-blown psychosis (just regular hysteria); a conspiracy without frustrating mystery (but a few too many conveniences), and a slice-of-life romance (plus free homilies) without the plodding reality.

It manages to be a very clever balance of light and dark. Nothing stands out as particularly noteworthy in itself, but put together it becomes great comfort food. Somewhat like all our beloved, over-rated national dishes that tempt the foreigner into disappointment because they expect Michelin stars and it turns out to be your grandma’s cooking.

Overall, it failed to really impress in the creatively inventive/awesome stakes but it delivered a solid script; credible good characters (aside from the ML being ex-special services, puleeeeease…he would have been breakfast); dastardly bad characters and some hearty performances, especially from the leads (and a personal favourite, the shameless rum flip, Grace, played by Kim Ju Ryoung). However it stumbled on the plot front probably because it had too many chickens on the rotisserie. It worked well until about episode eleven, but then the plot began to curdle in certain areas as the focus shifted more to the melo. By the last two episodes, it was shredded and went into makjang meltdown followed by a layer cake of all the genres piled on top.

So, to sum up, if you want the equivalent of a Jamie Oliver everything-in-one-pan sort of meal, you have found it. It’s finger-licking quality with good home grown meat and veggies plus a grating of cheese. Such a thing is hard to achieve so credit to those concerned. It’s the sort of comfort food you’re happy to come home to, but not up there for a gourmet night out or a revelatory culinary experience.

‘Nuff said. There’s already at least 6 pages of “reviews”, posted well before it finished airing!

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The acting and production > the plot

the plot kinda went off the rails but the cinematography and acting was so beautiful that I will just forget about the writing ? that ending was so bitter sweet but beautiful till death do us part.
I kinda lowkey was hoping for more of their child’s story I wanted to know how their parenting is like now after dealing with the whole miscarriage ?


Throughout the series I was a bit bored with some parts since tbh it seemed like the revenge/fight for the company were never going to properly be disclosed but I suppose it did end up working out for them. All of the roles were so beautifully done as well (I still lowkey don’t like grace she switched up so fast). I loved all the family characters the character development of both hyun woo’s and hae in’s family was beautiful to see and the bond they had created compared to when they were first stuck together ?
anyways hyunwoo and hae in’s story was beautiful it was very cold business woman type love lmao the way she still called him mr baek (unless translations are wrong haha) but both actors were great in their roles and their chemistry was amazing together. people are hating on it too hard ngl it wasn’t as bad as people say it is. only part that I didn’t like was eunsung’s entire stupid existence GOSH HE ACTUALLY ANNOYED ME SO MUCH AND HIS STUPID PSYCHO MOM TOO ? the writer was definitely either on ao3 or wattpad in her childhood cause this was so all over the place maybe she was drunk when writing the last 5 episodes idk. ?

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Sassy Go Go is everything Cheese in the Trap Should've Been

I have never been more annoyed by a drama than I was with CIT. It was frustrating to watch the director lead Park Hae Jin through a maze of no redemption. I started out watching this drama because of Kim Go-Eun but continued watching for Park Hae Jin. It's a shame the drama's director took the direction they did with his character. Kim Yeol's character from Sassy Go Go was spot on what Park Hae Jin's should've been, but adjusted for maturity and a deeper context. I'm just laughing at all the "Second Male lead Syndrome" cooers because the second male lead was practically the male lead in this drama. The director gave him everything the male lead should've had-lots of screentime with the female lead and a redemption arc. I wish they did better because the storyline had such potential and I was glued till the end but ended up annoyed and disappointed.

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Very bad script, So many things do not make any sense

I agree with most points in Enigma05's review. I am not going to repeat here.

If not for DYQ and LYS, I don't think I would have finished watching it.
The relationship between DYQ and WS just does not make sense. I felt it is in there only because the author probably think there needs to be a love story in any drama. How can they became a couple? They are in different worlds. One is western educated, the other is barely literate. DYQ does not want to be in the marshall world (江湖） while the other does not know anything beyond 江湖. What do they have in common? Even if they were childhood sweet hearts, I would not even call them sweet heart, merely childhood playmates. They have grown worlds apart. I don't believe a relationship without anything in common not to mention love. I don't see the chemistry in their acting as well.. It just feels odd to see them together.

Chu Feng Ling's change to that extremely evil is not believable. she started out as a kind and innocent girl and changed to such an evil person who is willing to sacrifice everybody just because she became power hungry. does not make any sense.

To have Luo Jiu Tian character in the show.and give him so much screen time is a joke. Described his feeling for WS as love is even more of a joke.

In the end how the hell did DYQ survive. Is it just because the ML cannot die or WS should not be a widow?

Watching the show was totally a waste of time. I would not recommend it to anybody.

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The reason of my smile only for the couple interaction

It was so good from ep 1-8 then it add another "roller coster" plot twist every new ep
Until the viewer not focus on which one are the main problem
Divorce? Brain Tumor? Amnesia? Queens Bankrupt ?
Haein brother dead? The grandpa girlfriend motive
And the editor or writer just hoping the viewer glup and take it or leave it for 40 minutes redemtion arc
If the writer or director can show more and focus on divorce and just solve that brain tumor and focus on how the main lead love story more it would be better
Showing the past and present of their relationship
How he got shock on haein background, how the miscariage problem more detail
Now we only left with the visual ost and the top actor actress acting
As hard carry the whole show

The reason i watch is SooWon
Thanks for potraying kim ji won and kim soo hyun, if i rewatch it again i will skip of all the unecessary part
Villian arc, the extra story of muderer etc

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This story is Wild!

Many may not fully grasp the depth of this drama upon first viewing, but "Queen of Tears" encapsulates a poignant message: love means protecting those dear to us, regardless of their nature or station in life. This theme resonates powerfully throughout the narrative, particularly in the portrayal of a mother who forsakes her son in pursuit of wealth and influence which causes a problem for Baek Hyun Woo. The series serves as a poignant reminder that while wealth may be sought after, insatiable greed for it can exact a heavy toll, endangering not only one's own life but also the lives of those cherished.

Kim Soo Hyun's return to the screen as Baek Hyun Woo, the Attorney, marks a stellar performance, showcasing his acting prowess since his last appearance that I viewed him in 2020. As a dedicated follower of his work since his early guest roles in 2012, I've consistently admired his talent, and he doesn't disappoint in this role. Likewise, Kimin Ji Won, whom I adored as Tan Ya in the "Articles of Chronicles" series, delivers another remarkable performance as Hong Hai In, seamlessly embodying her character with echoes of her previous roles. Their contributions elevate the drama, leaving a lasting impression on viewers.

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Enjoyable…

I enjoyed this series and I really like the ship. I was a little on the fence about this series when I first started it. I didn’t really like it until about episode 3 when I started to get into it. I liked the main couple and thought the actors had great chemistry with each other. The plot was there but at times it was lacking. I feel like the chemistry between the characters made up for it but it was still noticeable. I did enjoy it though and I liked the ending. I would love to see more with this ship but I recently heard that it is no longer a ship which is upsetting. I liked the series and it was good but it definitely had more potential in my opinion.

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I would not have continue watching if not for both the main leads

-Full of emotional fluff
-Messy plot even though the story is basic
-Hong Hae In beautiful
-Repetitive and draggy
-Kim Soo Hyun is the same character in every single drama, not saying that he is a bad actor
-Not bad but not as good as the internet makes it to be
-Struggled to finish, the show peaked from episode 5-10
-If you keep lying nobody is gonna believe you, similarly if you keep crying nobody is going to feel sad anymore
-Lazy to write full length review because I know this show has a lot of fans and they are just gonna kill me for it
-Meh done, onto the next, won't miss this

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one of GMMTV best…

I absolutely love this BL…like there is nothing bad to say about it. Even though the plot is simple, it had a twist on it to make it more appealing and interesting. I love the main couple since this relationship has so much character and chemistry so it makes it more enjoyable. Especially when it was airing, after every episode I felt like I always wanted more and couldn’t wait until the next episode. I also love that it has a GL element to the story, since at the time, GMMTV never really had that element before. The ending was really interesting and went beyond what I could’ve expected or imagined. It was really good and definitely one of my favs from GMMTV. I wish we could see more of OhmNanon since this is their one and only BL series together. They had so much chemistry and potential but I respect them and any decisions they made.

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