Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-4 review

Kim Ji-won and Kim Soo-hyun are mesmerizing in this new romance about two people who have just about fallen out of love—when a crisis becomes a second chance.

The latest romance drama from star screenwriter Park Ji-eun (Crash Landing on You, My Love from the Star) and director Kim Hee-won (Little Women, Vincenzo), starring Kim Ji-won and Kim Soo-hyun, was always going to be an insta-watch for me. With a writer and director whose work I’ve consistently loved, and lead actors I’m excited to see again, I was on board even though that title made me brace for an onslaught of pain. (Jang Young-woo of the I Need Romance series is co-directing, but I haven’t seen his work since 2016’s infamously bad Entourage.)

The show certainly earns that maudlin title, but four episodes in, I’m happy to report that the darkness is nicely balanced with just enough humor and sweetness. As the drama opens, Hong Hae-in (Kim Ji-won) and Baek Hyun-woo (Kim Soo-hyun) are an outwardly perfect couple whose marriage is already on the rocks after only three years. 

Hae-in and Hyun-woo sleep in separate bedrooms and go through the motions in public. (These two have tangible chemistry, which makes their unhappiness even more wrenching.) They live with Hae-in’s controlling and vainglorious chaebol family, who are calculating and cruel to her and treat him like a glorified errand boy.

Things aren’t much better for Hyun-woo at work, since he’s the company lawyer and his wife is the CEO of the department store her family owns—and as his boss, she has no problem humiliating and overriding him in front of their colleagues. Hyun-woo has just about reached his breaking point with Hae-in when the two of them face a crisis that changes everything between them. (I’ll get into the details of that crisis in a spoiler section below.)

So far, I’m really enjoying the show. It definitely has echoes of Park Ji-eun’s last work—the epilogues that give us sweet, quiet moments that build up the romance; a CEO heroine who has lived her whole life struggling to succeed in the shark tank of her chaebol family; a morally suspect but dashing second male lead who used to date the heroine; a hero who shows his commitment through dramatic, silent suffering. But so far the call-backs to Crash Landing on You leave me more nostalgic than annoyed, the cast is stacked with talented actors, and the story moves quickly. (Though I do find the Hong family politics about as yawn-inducing as Hyun-woo’s dad running for re-election as village head.) 

Kim Ji-won is killing it as Hae-in, a selfish, aggressive but secretly lonely chaebol heiress. She’s learned to hide her vulnerability because she grew up in a house where that would be seen and exploited as a weakness. I started the drama finding her charismatic but unlikeable, but the more I see of her, the more she grows on me. By the end of Episode 4, I’m fully rooting for her to overcome what life has thrown in her path, make her way out of the writhing clutch of snakes that is her family, and run into Hyun-woo’s once-again loving arms.

Hae-in is by turns strong, mean, funny, vulnerable and slyly cute—and that’s down to both the writing that slowly chips away at her hard shell, and Kim Ji-won’s masterful acting. There are elements of Kim’s earlier roles Yoon Myung-joo (Descendants of the Sun) and Choi Ae-ra (Fight for My Way) in Hae-in, but when she’s on the screen I remember none of Kim Ji-won’s previous performances. They’re very different actors, but in this way she’s like Park Shin-hye, who as we discussed in our most recent Long Yak, has the talent of embodying the role she’s in so completely that you forget she ever played someone else.

Kim Soo-hyun is also clearly having a blast playing the beleaguered Hyun-woo, who doesn’t want to quietly suffer in his miserable marriage for 50 more years. But he also knows that the Hong family would see him divorcing Hae-in as a betrayal they absolutely have the power to punish him for. It’s been nine years since Kim last worked with writer Park Ji-eun on The Producers, and you can tell she really enjoys writing scenes for him—he can do it all, from comedy to quiet pathos to high drama.

Going hunting like the Windsors with, appropriately, a look of death in their eyes

Unfortunately, the more the drama unfolds, the less I understand Hyun-woo’s choices, and I’m gonna need him to start acting better for me to be back in his corner. He has obviously been hurt deeply by his wife and her family, but that doesn’t justify the cruelty that underlies his actions in the first few episodes. (If we can trust his stated motivations; I think the drama is trying to have it both ways by showing us signs that he isn’t as scornful of her as he thinks, but subconscious empathy is not enough to excuse his very conscious actions.)

We also have Park Sung-hoon here playing a villain disguised as a second lead, and he’s suavely, smoothly psychopathic in a way that recalls his character in The Glory. (I’m not complaining—he’s excellent at it—but I do hope he’ll still occasionally play the type of naive, adorable goofball that stole my heart in Into the Ring.) The introduction of Park’s character Yoon Eun-sung, a man from Hae-in’s past with ill intentions, sets up a secondary plot that I’ll talk more about in a moment. 

So if you haven’t started this yet, I highly recommend it! I have some quibbles, but on the whole it’s shaping up to be a gripping romance with great chemistry, a good mix of comedy and drama, and excellent acting from the whole cast. 

Here go the spoilers! Stop now if you don’t want to know more plot details.

Okay, so it’s a cancer drama. I don’t know if they say that in so many words, but it seems clear from the tumor cells that have spread throughout her brain. (Doctors, don’t come at me with your facts, those have nothing to do with the way illness seems to work in this show). At the beginning of the show, just when Hyun-woo has braced himself to file for divorce, come what repercussions may, Hae-in reveals that she has three months to live.

I think that for the most part, the drama balances this very serious A-plot with a dark humor that never lets us dwell too much on the tragedy of it—which I think is necessary when you have the hero embarking on this unhinged seduction plot in order to inherit her wealth. I’m a lot less interested in the B-plot where apparently Eun-sang, Hae-in’s grandpa’s girlfriend, and the family matchmaker/spa lady/private investigator/lady-in-waiting (seriously, WHAT does the woman actually do and why do they trust her so much) are plotting to destroy the Hongs. 

One aspect in which this drama unfavorably echoes Crash Landing on You is that Queen of Tears gives its heroine’s evil family center stage, whereas CLOY made them second-half obstacles/villains. CLOY seemed to know that most of its strengths lay in that North Korean village, and thankfully moved the succession drama along swiftly. Here, not only do I know far too much about the Hongs’ vain pursuits and greedy maneuvering, the drama is clearly asking us to sympathize with them—and that feels gross.

Who would have thought this was the face of a man who’s been killing animals since childhood

Hae-in’s grandfather is a self-made man who started as a poor street vendor, a time-honored method of softening us up to aged chaebols. The Hongs are being plotted against by trusted insiders who know all their vulnerabilities, poor things. And the main villain, Eun-sang, is a textbook animal-killing sociopath, so of course we aren’t rooting for him—how convenient that we’ll have to root for the Queens family to keep their obscene and ill-gotten wealth instead!

And then we have the terminal illness. I do think that with this new 51% chance of success treatment, we can comfortably assume that Hae-in will not die in the end. But my main issue with the show is Hyun-woo’s joyful reaction when he initially finds out his wife is dying. He’s over the moon that he’ll be free without triggering the ire of his terrifying in-laws—not sparing a single moment of sadness for the fact that, again, his wife is dying. Which is deeply dark. 

I could buy it at the start of the drama, because it was clear to how deeply miserable he was, in a situation that’s arguably abusive. He was being gaslit day and night, without a single moment to breathe or be himself either at home or at work. But that can only excuse him to a point. The longer he persists in pursuing this truly heinous plan his best friend cooked up, to butter his wife up before she dies so she’ll change her will and leave him all her assets—I just. Ugh. Especially because as the drama progresses, it’s obvious that Hae-in still loves Hyun-woo, despite whatever happened between them. If an actor less doe-eyed and sympathetic than Kim Soo-hyun was playing this man, I might have noped out already. 

But. There are two reasons I haven’t given up on Hyun-woo as the hero.

One: Although this is making me increasingly impatient with the drama, we still don’t know exactly what happened between the couple to make him hate her so much. Because just living with that awful family and Hae-in’s uh, sparkling personality isn’t enough for the kind of cold manipulation Hyun-woo and his garbage pile of a best friend are carrying out. (Seriously, dump this guy! Not having a best friend would be better than having one who acts like the devil on your shoulder.) But we need to know what exactly caused the big falling out ASAP. I’ve had enough of cute flashbacks to their honeymoon period that tell us nothing.

Two: Until that final scene in Episode 4, neither Hyun-woo nor Hae-in have really had to reckon yet with the harsh reality of her illness. She’s in denial about the real risk to her life—or at least, she keeps up that strong facade in front of him. And to Hyun-woo, she’s always been this invincible, intimidating force in his life; he can’t imagine her being vulnerable enough to incite his sympathy.

That changed when she got lost at the end of Episode 4, and he nearly lost his mind searching for her. Until now, his behavior has shown signs that he still loves her deep down, like instinctively saving her life from the wild boar, or his jealousy of her relationship with Eun-sang. But he’s been in total denial about it. And her illness (and his seduction plan) provided a convenient excuse for all the small actions of care he’s started showing her, so he hasn’t had to actually confront the fact that he cares. 

Ugh, the eye contact here is pure agony and I love it

But I think that when he found her on that dark road and lost his temper, expressing genuine worry for the first time, it broke something open in him. I love how Hae-in clocked the sincerity in his sweat-drenched back, and that was what gave her the confidence to drop her guard and open up to him about how sick and scared she is. (It’s a beautiful callback to their previous clinch when she was drunk, wondering why she doesn’t feel fully secure in his love despite all his declarations.) And Hyun-woo finally realized that she’s not as hard and unfeeling as he’s made her out to be in order to survive. 

Just—such good writing, with every interaction between them building on the one before it, to rise to the quiet crescendo of that incredible embrace. Honestly…it’s one of the best K-drama hugs in recent memory. 

I have a feeling that things are about to change drastically. At least I hope so, and writer Park Ji-eun hasn’t disappointed me yet. I’m totally rooting for these two to beat those 51/49 odds, move out of the Hong family mausoleum, and live happily ever after all.