Despite writing flaws, swoon-worthy romance with a touch of sorrow carried by super strong cast
Given its screenwriter and its main cast, I was expecting a lot from this drama. I overall really enjoyed it (especially in its first half) but I must admit that the writing and pacing let me down in its second half (and more particularly in its finale act). I'm always looking forward to the new work of screenwriter Park Ji Eun: I tend to really enjoy the way she builds her romances, with a lot of details, dramatic elements and fated lovers' narrative. Here again, she writes what I think is an iconic love story with a touch of sorrow, which is really her trademark.The premise of the series is super interesting as it hijacked the classical "male chaebol & poor hard working girl" trope. I loved so much how lines that are usually said by male lead are done by the female lead and vice versa. The series is really playing on the usual tropes of romantic comedy and diverting them, it is excellent on that aspect. However, the ending did not totally hold its promises : the plot got crazier with an overwhelming amount of coincidences, the villains losing their strategic edge to go into full madness territory. As the story unfolds itself, there were also much less gender reversal of dramaland tropes and it went unfortunately back to a more classical romantic dynamic between the two leads. Still cute, but much more expected.
The acting was the best part of the drama. Kim Soo Hyun, Kim Ji Won and Park Sung Hoon are actors/actress that I really love and once again, they showcased incredible performances. Even when the writing became clunkier, they made it work and made a lot in terms of making digestible some of the more bonker elements and rhythm issues of the last act. The chemistry between Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won was off the charts: their characters' relationship went through so many phases and they managed to sell every step of it. Park Sung Hoon's darkening and brooding face was incredibly chilling even when his character fell apart in terms of writing.
The production value was super high. There were some very pretty sets as well as incredibly swoon-worthy scenes (the helicopter one, the lavender field, the castle,...). The making was beautiful and above all, the soundtrack was amazing. With the acting, the OST did a lot in exacerbating feelings for the viewer. I will likely go back to listening to many of the songs of the drama which is clearly a sign of its addictive quality.
I would recommend this to people looking for an emotional love story. Given the episodes length, It is quite an investment in terms of time and there are some issues with the writing in the second half of the series. However, despite its flaws, I truly enjoyed the drama thanks to the incredible acting, great OST and iconic romantic scenes.If you loved other dramas from this writer (such as My Love From Another Star and Crash Landing on You), you are in known territory and should like it as well.
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Perfectly calibrated, except pacing
This is exactly what you expect from a production with this type of budget, so lots of cute and fun rom com moments with some dramatic B plot stuff. They did draw out the chaebol drama, then rushed other more rich storyline, which is why I say the pacing needed improvement.I'd love a spin off on Gwang Nam's next adventures, preferably rom com for him too.
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Underwhelming but by no means an awful show.
I think if you're more into melodrama than crime thrillers you might like it. But it's a soft mix of both.The plot unraveled in a way that wasn't as exciting as I expected. The finale felt kind of goofy in places too. Mainly unrealistic.
Some parts of the show felt like it was running in circles and got draggy at times but there was always at least one great scene in each episode the moved the plot forward and kept me interested. The actors played their roles very well and the cinematography was excellent.
Knowing me,I'll likely forget this show existed but I don't feel it was a complete waste of time.
Also Poor Bom. :(
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Really good actors, but a "total mess" storyline
I came to this series for Luo Zheng as ML (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)It starts with the bossy CEO trope (here, abusive) and the super competent assistant (FL) who adapts.
But then ALL the clichés follow one another: arranged marriage for the ML, break-up, 2nd ML (nice but without charisma), love linked to an organ transplant, suspicious accident which caused the death of the ex lover, the illegitimate son who returns to take revenge, ...
But what was the screenwriter thinking when writing this story????
I accept that the producer add a little angst / melodrama in the series to amplify the emotions, BUT:
### the FL still in love with a crush (which never materialized, she doesn't know if it was mutual) who has been dead for 4 years? who retraces the different places she had planned to confess? etc.
Nonsense !! The screenwriter has obviously never experienced real grief...
The 2nd narrative arc with the return of the illegitimate son / ex-crush, is a little more coherent, and the 2 mothers bring a touch of humor.
+ an excellent CL (which I would like to see again) with great chemistry,
+ very good supporting actors and endearing characters
+ nice but not memorable OSTs
+ production without downtime
### but you need to leave your brain at the door because the storyline is... a mess ¯\(©¿©) /¯
****************************************************************************
Avec Luo Zheng en ML (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
Cela commence avec le trope CEO autoritaire (ici, abusif) et l'assistante (FL) super compétente qui s'adapte.
Mais TOUS les clichés se succèdent ensuite : mariage arrangé pour le ML, break-up, 2nd ML (gentil mais sans charisme), amour lié à une greffe d'organe, accident suspicieux qui a causé la mort de l'ex lover, le fils illégitime qui revient se venger, ...
Mais à quoi pensait le screenwriter en écrivant cette story ????
Je veux bien qu'on en rajoute un peu dans les dramas pour amplifier les émotions, MAIS :
### la FL toujours amoureuse d'un crush (qui ne s'est jamais concrétisé, dont elle ignore si c'était réciproque) mort depuis 4 ans ? qui refait le parcours qu'elle avait prévu pour se confesser ? etc.
N'importe quoi !! Le screenwriter n'a visiblement jamais vécu un vrai deuil ...
Le 2nd arc narratif avec le retour du fils illégitime / ex-crush, est un peu plus cohérent, et les 2 mères apportent une touche d'humour.
+ un excellent CL (que j'aimerai revoir) avec une belle alchimie,
+ de très bons acteurs support et des personnages attachants
+ des OST sympa mais pas mémorables
+ une réalisation sans temps mort
### mais il fallait laisser son cerveau à la porte car la storyline est ... Meh ¯\(©¿©) /¯
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Queen of Ks
The K for K-drama is strong in this one.... offering us everything K- from the Cheobols, psycopaths, revenge bickering, hate to love, love to hate, amnesia and leads who are willing to take at least one bluet for the other.... Illnesses hidden, murder... countryside folks, evil parents, kind parents, soft tears, screamy tears You name it if it has been seen in a popular K odds are you will find it in here somewhere.While I do love my K's it also has my old nemesis healing, leads talking about stuff as one making me cringe just a little bit too much so though I did enjoy the story with all its more or less predictable twists it is the cringe that had me lowering the score but for those who can handle the cringe all the power to you!
Enjoy, for those who rather keep things clean and fluffy without the regular K-drama mess this is not a drama for you so I advise you to watch something else.
I also have to mention that Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won make a great hot and could couple and that Lee Joo Bin was phenomenal in this. The rest of the cast was pretty decent too.
P.s. None of this should be a surprise considering who wrote the script....
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This review may contain spoilers
Keep your box of tissue with you
So, "they lived happily and had many children" The moral what it means the end. For me, I really love the drama and all the episodes really enjoy all laughing, smiling, loving, caring, emotions, and crying lots. But the last minute of episode 16, (where you know 'old') I really don't like that part, I got a bit affected by this like idk, my heart and mind like a feeling of discomfort, disappearing, loneliness, like can't describe. And I dislike thing like that especially series, drama for what I have enjoyed soo much like my top drama. Sorry if that makes anyone unhappy. I really love and enjoy the drama lots, but the last minute, sorry.Overall an awesome, superb emotional kdrama. Always great works by the staffs, directors, actors and people behind the backgrounds.
I only want VINCENZO SEASON 2 PLEASE ?
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Unraveling Narratives and Character Flaws in the Realm of Deception
I might be the only one, but I'm baffled by the 8.7 rating this show has received. I'd generously give it an 8, but even that feels too lenient. Initially promising, I'm now on episode 38 and finding it increasingly unreasonable and frustratingly dumb. The once-intelligent and capable female lead seems to have lost her discernment, openly criticizing the king despite knowing the risks involved. Considering her past experiences with both her family's downfall and her ex-fiancee's family trouble, one would expect her to exercise caution, especially with such an incompetent and manipulative ruler. I mean ...while honesty is commendable when confronted with an evil and irrational king, it's prudent for those who are smart to seek alternative approaches.
Similarly, the male lead, initially portrayed as competent, now appears to be nothing more than a tool, failing to take meaningful action despite realizing his insignificance.
As for the king, his erratic behavior swings between unreasonableness and outright evil, yet when directly challenged, he inexplicably retreats into passivity when the male lead directly disobeys his command to help the female lead... It's utterly bewildering and frustrating to witness this decline in quality and coherence.
There are just a few episodes remaining, and I might stick it out to see if it improves. While undeniably entertaining, this show falls short of being a masterpiece. The acting is passable, with nothing particularly remarkable about the performances of the male and female leads. Additionally, their outward appearances are rather ordinary. Though the story showed promise initially, it has become increasingly ludicrous. I've found myself fast-forwarding through numerous scenes as a result. DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO REWATCH THIS!
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Nothing is perfect, nor are we
At a first glance this drama looks simple : a love triangle trope meant to examine the choices of the leads- what people chose to do? why? which are their lingering regrets & to what their insecurities leads to.What is different is that this drama was not afraid to explore very realistic and complicated women. Nothing is shallow in it and sometimes only a complicated woman can truly understand another one.
The dialogue is one of most thought provoking I' ve ever seen ,even if sometimes funny it just hits home and it hits hard.
" Sometimes we think what we are chasing is happiness, but perhaps what we truly love is pain."
On top of the great writing , acting & music were splendid! Everything was perfectly connected from title, to OSTs lyrics and placement in the episodes.
10/1O ❤️
Ps: I do recommend this one to a mature audience because it hits the right spots if you are able to understand through experience the career or family relations of the leads.
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Will Love in Spring is a gem among the sea of C-dramas.
The realities a relationship can face is portrayed well in this drama. Past traumas, issues with intimacy, hidden insecurity, forcing a smile but hiding pain and the biggest one, will the sacrifice be worth it. The solution to all problems is understanding and our leads learn this lesson together.What I love about the drama:
1)The well-woven story and dialogues (much better than the novel)
2) We finally have a male lead who is understanding and has empathy within him.
3) The FL has her dreams and a life outside of all love and knows the value of it.
4) The grandmother and FL's best friend, siblings are the best supporting characters to the FL.
5) The cinematography and the chemistry between the leads.
I hope whoever starts the drama, keeps an open mind to try and see human emotions of the characters. If you want two perfectly rich leads whose aim is to fall in love and live in a un-realistic fairy tale bubble, this drama is not for you.
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One for the guilty pleasure list
I am very conflicted because a huge part of me didn't want to enjoy this. However, did I end up getting excited and counting down the minutes every week? Yes, I did.Let me start by saying that I don't get the draw in BL for all these brothers falling in love types of stories. I know they never technically cross the line of incest, but if you need to add 'technically' before a word like 'incest', it's definitely too close to that line for my comfort. Which is why I was pretty certain I wouldn't be enjoying this series at all. So, what happened?
Good acting, phenomenal chemistry, and emotional storytelling happened, I suppose. This is one of the best acted shows I've seen. Chris is outstanding in the role of Qian. While he's portraying a pretty stoic character, he doesn't fall into the same issue of coming across comical or uncharismatic that most other actors fall into. He plays the role with nuance and behind his eyes, the emotion is always clear to see. Truly a wonderful job and other actors refusing to move any facial muscles when portraying similar characters should take note. Kurt was great as Yuan as well, and the two had impeccable chemistry. The acting of the side characters was all great too. There wasn't one weak link in this, at least not as far as I noticed. I wish other shows put that much emphasis on acting and chemistry, instead of just hitting us over the head with the same couples who struggle to get emotion across or have the chemistry of two dead fish kissing.
The storytelling was mostly well done too. There were some hiccups, like the gang storyline coming back for no reason other than a bit of drama. But all in all, it had deep emotions, actual characters instead of just stereotypes, and interesting dynamics. So it was easy to look past the imperfections.
The editing however... Boy oh boy. Whoever edited this thing really did the acting and the emotional beats dirty. Chris and Kurt are perfectly capable of carrying an emotional scene. There is no need to stuff in as many flashbacks as you can. It doesn't add emotion, it just takes away from it. The worst editing mistake was adding flashbacks of Yuan as A CHILD during their sex scene. Like please... I do not want to see the face of a child between scenes of them kissing and taking each others clothes off. Who's idea was that???? They honestly need to go to jail. This was supposed to be the emotional climax of the story. Yuan has literally been pining over Qian for soooo many years, and Qian has been trying to restrain himself for a long time. Now, they finally let go of everything and just give in to each other. It's beautiful, it's raw, it's emotion-- BOOM, HAVE A FLASHBACK TO YUAN AS A CHILD!! It was jarring. The scene of them waking up together in bed the next morning, cuddling and kissing, actually felt more emotional than the whole kissing scene did. Because it was just them with their great acting and great chemistry, not interrupted by weird scene cuts, flashbacks, or the overuse of the (admittedly beautiful) OST.
The childhood flashbacks between kissing and touching are part of an even bigger problem for me. I don't actually know how far apart in age the characters are supposed to be, but the way the story portrayed it, it seems like quite a bit of an age gap to me. On top of that, Qian basically raised Yuan. Sure, they didn't know each other since birth. But Qian took a parental role in Yuan's life from a childhood age. Which made my alarms go off because if someone told me this story, I'd definitely feel like there's a grooming issue. I know that Yuan fell for Qian without Qian having any intention of making that happen. But still, there's just something about the age difference and the raising him that doesn't sit right with me. I took a bigger issue with that than the actual "and they were brothers!" thing. Which is a whole other thing to unpack, but I don't really feel like doing that. Because the more I think about it all, the more it makes me feel iffy. If this were an actual real life situation, I'd definitely be very concerned about it. Luckily, it's just fiction though, so I can push down those thoughts with all the positives mentioned above. But it still makes me feel sort of weird about liking the whole thing as much as I did...
Like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. I'm aware of the issues, and I think if you are too, there's nothing wrong with enjoying this. As long as we view things critically and understand that in real life, things might need to be handled differently, it's perfectly fine to aww at this story. It had character and raw emotion and was so well acted. So, would I recommend this to anyone? I'd say give it a try, and if you feel too uncomfortable, just toss it aside. But I do think it's worth a chance, even if you - like me - suspect this isn't your cup of tea. If you turn off the critical side of your brain, you might just end up enjoying this as much as I did.
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A very entertaining watch
Queen of Tears is the story of Hae In, a chaebol heiress looking to get into the Billion Club. She is someone who is unable to express her feelings properly and is not very aware of the feelings of others. Someone like this would be a nightmare to deal with in real life, albeit this is a drama, and we have the advantage of seeing her side of things too. She is an excellent character, overall one of the most iconic FLs in Korean dramas. Her improvement over time is for me one of the best things about QOT. Kim Ji Won does a great job of portraying her.The ML is a stereotypical cardboard romance ML, a perfect man who is good at everything and loves the FL because of reasons. He has zero goals and dreams except loving and helping the FL. Like the FL, he doesn't cover himself in glory in the beginning but he quickly gets his head straight and becomes the FLs anchor. Those who are concerned about my description, don't be, Kim Soo Hyun's magnificent performance elevates this character at the same heights as the FL easily.
The cinematography is top-notch, OSTs are memorable and well-chosen. The acting here is second to none.
The only bad thing about this is the writing. The author is very talented in writing emotional scenes, but horrible in developing a decent plot.
I already rewatched a lot of scenes and I click on the videos from QOT more often than not when they pop on my youtube feed, so I would say that this drama has a high rewatch value overall.
And one more thing I would like to add, the ending scenes were some of my favorites from all the dramas I've ever watched.
9/10 from me. Everyone should watch this!
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Falls short of 'Crash Landind on You'...
In writing this review I wanted to provide my perspective for those who were potentially looking at watching Queen of Tears because of them loving Park Ji-eun's 'Crash Landing on You'.Queen of Tears is centered around a marriage, how those two characters interact with each other in varying circumstances, and on the larger scale, how their families respond to events that unfold.
Crash Landing on You is centered around two people that grow to like each other despite being from different worlds, about comradery and support among friends, and about the moments that change your life.
Here is the thing, Queen of Tears attempts to copy the above formula they used for Crash Landing on You too, but falls short on captivating that emotional impact.
SPOILERS BELOW
Take for example one scene where the FL in Q.o.T reveals to the ML that it was HER mp3 player he had all these years later, and the ML reveals he tried so hard to find the girl that dropped it all those years ago. The script in that scene was just so dry and matter of fact that I felt like I was watching the news rather than a drama. In C.L.o.Y in comparison, the lead up and reveal of the ML and the FL discovering the ML was playing the piano of the music piece that helped the FL with her will to live - that was a masterpiece... cathartic, deeply emotive and the fulfillment of the viewer's greatest desire in wanting something to happen. This for me is the epitome of how the dramas differ: Queen of Tears attempts to replicate the C.L.o.Y formula, but ultimately failed because it didn't tell its own unique story, it went to clichés and over-used plots.
Is it still worth watching? Yes, probably. Will you skip scenes centered around their families? Yes, also likely. But ultimately, as a word of caution for the hopeful: It might not captivate on the level that the characters in 'Crash Landing on You' did.
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Indeed ,Blossom in adversity
The drama began by introducing two main characters: a female lead who lived with her family and the heir to the kingdom. The heir had promised the king that he would never seek the throne, allowing his cousins to inherit it instead.However, following the king's orders, the heir exiled all the male members of the female lead's family, including children older than 10 years.
Although the king was selfish, the heir always obeyed him, even though he sometimes questioned the king's decisions.
As the story progressed, the female lead and the heir fell in love. Despite initially being unaware of his true identity, she eventually learned the truth. However, she continued to stand by him because she believed in his righteousness and trusted that he wouldn't harm her family.
While the drama had its moments of dullness and boredom, the chemistry between the lead characters remained strong throughout.
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Not a manga adaptation, but a storyline in the same timeline to show how it happens in Korea
Just finished watching it in one sitting. I like that it only used the Parasyte theme and not adapting the manga plot and storyline. So it makes it look like the Parasyte happening in Korea in the same timeline as Shinichi Izumi.You know how sometimes you read a manga about end of the world and the heroes are all fighting only in one country and it makes you wonder, "so how does other countries manage the apocalypse?" The Korean parasite is exactly that. It shows how the parasyte takes over Korea. That's why Shinichi can visit her, because they're not making Shinichi Korean ver., but rather making their own heroes. Love it so much. 9/10.
I would love different versions from different countries and have both the Korean and Japanese casts cameo-ing.
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Rookie crops , indeed
The drama touched on several important themes. Firstly, it emphasized the importance of not enduring harsh punishments for minor mistakes; it encouraged speaking out against unjust treatment. Secondly, it highlighted the value of trust in friendship. Thirdly, it underscored the significance of fighting for the truth, even if it puts loved ones in danger due to their involvement in past wrongdoing. Fourthly, it advised against making hasty decisions, especially when the original purpose for a chosen path has faded. Instead, it suggested taking time to reevaluate before deciding whether to continue or change course.I particularly enjoyed the development of the rookie cops' characters. One storyline that saddened me was the character who died before he could confess his love.
Although the drama occasionally became repetitive due to its case-solving format, each case ultimately interconnected with a past unresolved case, implicating the family members of two rookie cops. As the cases were solved, numerous revelations unfolded.
The chemistry between the lead characters was compelling, and I appreciated the inclusion of parallel love stories.
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