7.2 - Podcast Review of Episodes 3 and 4 of Queen of Tears

03/22/24 • 78 min

2 Listeners

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 3 and 4 of Queen of Tears, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring starring Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in, Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo, Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-Seong, Kwak Dong-Yeon as Hong Soo-cheol, Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye. We discuss:

The three versions of the song Tell Me It’s Not a Dream by 10cm.
Why the show is called Queen of Tears.
How our leads seem not to care about each other much BUT they defend the other to anyone who criticizes them and Hyun-woo definitely doesn’t like seeing Hae-in with David Yoon.
How we learn that Hyun-woo was a sharpshooter in the military.
How the Netflix website says that Hae-in has never stopped loving her husband and she can’t understand why he’s pulling away. We see lots of things to back this up: she seems happy that Hyun-woo is jealous of David Yoon, she defends him against her family, and she wants to cuddle with him.
David Yoon turns out to be quite the snake. We think he’s out to gain control of the Queens Group. He’s plotting with two associates; the three of them have bought shares; they’ve convinced Queens Group directors to purchase shares in a fund and use their Queens Group shares as collateral; they plan to have the Queens Group Chairman investigated for embezzlement. David Yoon may also be setting up Hae-in to fail.
Hyun-woo seems to be the only person who is suspicious of David Yoon. Even if he says he doesn’t love Hae-in, he won’t lose her to David Yoon.
Joanna thinks there is some nefarious connection between David Yoon and Moh Sul-hee, the Chairman’s mistress and she explains why.
Hae-in’s seems to be looking at Hyun-woo differently since the reception with the Hercyna Chairman. She is definitely hot and bothered when she sees Hyun-woo in just a towel after his shower.
Hae-in and Hyun-woo have a sweet scene in bed and we see a sweet flashback from when Hae-in visited Yongdu-ri.
We also learn about a tragedy in their marriage: that they were expecting a baby on October 31. The baby clearly never came and now Hyun-woo sleeps in a separate bedroom, the former nursery.
Hae-in’s crazy family, including the estranged son, the crazy aunt, the mother who doesn’t seem to love her, the inept brother, the caring by ineffectual dad.
Hyun-woo’s crazy family, including the siblings who go to Seoul to try to convince Hae-in not to divorce Hyun-woo but end up creating a lot of trouble for Hyun-woo.
How Hyun-woo’s sister messaged Hae-in to come to Yongdu-ri to support her father-in-law; as a result, Hae-in came with gifts, food, drink, and even a chef!
Hae-in finds her old MP3 player and we see that she and Hyun-woo had crossed paths briefly in high school; that’s when she had dropped her MP3 player, and Hyun-woo had kept it all these years.
Hae-in had another cloud cytoma incident that causes her to wander around Yongdu-ri, get lost and not remember what happened.
When Hyun-woo finally finds her, he is really mad until he realizes she’s really sick.

References

The three versions of the song Tell Me It’s Not a Dream by 10cm.
Why the show is called Queen of Tears.
How our leads seem not to care about each other much BUT they defend the other to anyone who criticizes them and Hyun-woo definitely doesn’t like seeing Hae-in with David Yoon.
How we learn that Hyun-woo was a sharpshooter in the military.
How the Netflix website says that Hae-in has never stopped loving her husband and she can’t understand why he’s pulling away. We see lots of things to back this up: she seems happy that Hyun-woo is jealous of David Yoon, she defends him against her family, and she wants to cuddle with him.
David Yoon turns out to be quite the snake. We think he’s out to gain control of the Queens Group. He’s plotting with two associates; the three of them have bought shares; they’ve convinced Queens Group directors to purchase shares in a fund and use their Queens Group shares as collateral; they plan to have the Queens Group Chairman investigated for embezzlement. David Yoon may also be setting up Hae-in to fail.
Hyun-woo seems to be the only person who is suspicious of David Yoon. Even if he says he doesn’t love Hae-in, he won’t lose her to David Yoon.
Joanna thinks there is some nefarious connection between David Yoon and Moh Sul-hee, the Chairman’s mistress and she explains why.
Hae-in’s seems to be looking at Hyun-woo differently since the reception with the Hercyna Chairman. She is definitely hot and bothered when she sees Hyun-woo in just a towel after his shower.
Hae-in and Hyun-woo have a sweet scene in bed and we see a sweet flashback from when Hae-in visited Yongdu-ri.
We also learn about a tragedy in their marriage: that they were expecting a baby on October 31. The baby clearly never came and now Hyun-woo sleeps in a separate bedroom, the former nursery.
Hae-in’s crazy family, including the estranged son, the crazy aunt, the mother who doesn’t seem to love her, the inept brother, the caring by ineffectual dad.
Hyun-woo’s crazy family, including the siblings who go to Seoul to try to convince Hae-in not to divorce Hyun-woo but end up creating a lot of trouble for Hyun-woo.
How Hyun-woo’s sister messaged Hae-in to come to Yongdu-ri to support her father-in-law; as a result, Hae-in came with gifts, food, drink, and even a chef!
Hae-in finds her old MP3 player and we see that she and Hyun-woo had crossed paths briefly in high school; that’s when she had dropped her MP3 player, and Hyun-woo had kept it all these years.
Hae-in had another cloud cytoma incident that causes her to wander around Yongdu-ri, get lost and not remember what happened.
When Hyun-woo finally finds her, he is really mad until he realizes she’s really sick.

References

Previous Episode

7.1 - Podcast Review of Episodes 1 and 2 of Queen of Tears

1 Recommendations

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 1 and 2 of Queen of Tears, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in, Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo, Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-Seong, Kwak Dong-Yeon as Hong Soo-cheol, Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye. We discuss:

The song we featured during the recap, The Reason of my Smiles by BSS.
We introduce the characters of this show and stumble over their Korean names.
How there appear to be five main leads, which seems to be common in K Dramas.
The show is set in the modern day, in Seoul and the village of Yongdu-ri.
The central premise of the show, which is that Baek Hyun-woo and Hong Hae-in are locked in a loveless marriage. Hyun-woo wants a divorce but nobody is on his side on this matter. Then Hae-in announces that she has a rare brain tumor and she has three months to live. Hyun-woo sees a way out of this marriage and maybe a chance to inherit some wealth, if he can convince his wife of his love.
Whether the couple was actually in love at the time of their marriage, and their motivations for marrying.
How Hae-in was initially suspicious of Hyun-woo, but between his actions, his Internet searches and his shooting of the wild boar, she is looking at him differently.
How cloud cytoma doesn’t appear to be a real disease.
The origins, structure and power of the chaebol conglomerates in South Korea.
How this show is a real study on marriage because there are so many different perspectives on marriage, many of them not very positive.
How village life is so often romanticized in these K Dramas.
Arranged marriages and whether the practice still exists today.
How the royal tradition of having sons-in-law prepare the food during jesa appears to be made up by the Hong family in this show.
Kim Soo-hyun’s amazing acting and comedic timing in this show.
How these first two elements showcase so many K Drama elements, most notably crying, drinking, food, flowers, protesting someone you love at personal cost to yourself, a funeral, and a confession.
How Sung Hee had so many favorite lines but Joanna made her pick just two.
The many questions we are looking forward to exploring, like: What is the chairman’s girlfriend’s real motivations? What happened to Hae-in’s brother? What happened between Hae-in and David Yoon?

We are recapping and analyzing Queen of Tears in real time. Each episode will drop on a Friday and cover the two episodes from the previous weekend, hopefully giving our listeners the insights they need before going into the weekend, when the next two episodes drop.

References

Next Episode

7.3 - Podcast Review of Episode 5 and 6

Today, we’ll be discussing episodes 5 and 6 of Queen of Tears, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in, Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo, Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-Seong, Kwak Dong-Yeon as Hong Soo-cheol, Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye. We recap the episodes and then we discuss:

How some Korean families have a pattern where the children share one syllable of their name. An example would be: Baek Hyun-woo and Baek Hyun-tae. This helps us keep the characters straight and know who is related to whom.
How Hyun-woo is increasingly ambivalent about his wife. Despite his anger and hate toward his wife, he can’t help it, he begins to fall in love with her all over again.
What is probably the root of the couple’s problems: Hyun-woo came home one day to find staff clearing out the nursery. When he got a cold response from Hae-in, he ordered his things moved to the bedroom and the couple started to sleep separately.
Hyun-woo and Hae-in keep missing opportunities to patch up their marriage.
Hyun-woo’s sister says Hyun-woo likes soft women, women who need to be taken care of. Is this why he was attracted to Hae-in in the first place and why he’s falling for her again?
Hyun-woo’s confession about his tears when he found Hae-in Germany was his last ditch attempt to figure out his feelings toward his wife and to see if they could patch things up in their marriage.
Hae-in doesn’t understand why he’s pulling away. She keeps saying, “I never said that.”
Hae-in’s tough armor is starting to crack. She is being nice to others and noticing happy, loving families around her.
Hyun-woo keeps abandoning Hae-in and Hae-in, for her part, has been abandoned by her husband and family.
The crazy plot by David Yoon, Grace, Cheo Da-hye and the former employee. We think David Yoon has a ponzi scheme that he’s running, that he doesn’t really have a fund that is returning 90% to investors.
The evil things that David Yoon is doing to the Hong family, especially Hyu-woo, including installing hidden cameras, searching Hyun-woo’s room, planting the microwave receiver in Hyun-woo’s room, and getting Hyun-woo’s safe opened.
We learn that David Yoon and Cheon Da-hye grew up in the same orphanage and even met the Hong family when the Chairman gave a speech at the orphanage. So when did David Yoon and Cheon Da-hye start plotting against the Hong family?
We learn that Moh Sul-hee had a different identity thirty years ago, that she was in prison at some point and gave birth to a baby boy while in jail. Could this boy be David Yoon?
Hong Beom-ja is turning into a really likable character because she’s the one who seems to care about other family members, including Hae-in.
We learn how Hae-in’s brother, Soo-won, died in a boating accident, while saving Hae-in. Hae-in’s mother never forgave Hae-in for the death of her son.
Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s sweet time in Germany is coming to an end because once Hae-in turns on her phone, she sees the photo of the divorce agreement sent by her mom.
The numerous K Drama elements in these episodes, including lots of crying, crying while kissing, the umbrella scene, Hyun-woo’s confession about his tears, the product placements for Mercedes-Benz and other products, Hyun-woo tending to cuts on Hae-in’s hand and knee.
All the references to Crash Landing On You in this show, which makes sense the shows share the same writers.
Kim Ji-won’s background and acting career! We love her!
The shows we’re watching now: Doctor Slump and Captivating the King.