7.4 - Podcast Review of Episodes 7 and 8 of Queen of Tears

04/05/24 • 82 min

2 Listeners

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 7 and 8 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 feature during the recap: Love You With All My Heart by Crush.
Soo Cheol calls Hyun-Woo “maehyeong” 매형, which means older sister’s husband.
How Hae-in loses her will to live when Hyun-woo admits that he wanted a divorce.
How Hyun-woo decides to make Hae-in hate him so that she has a reason to live.
How Hyun-woo wants to stay by Hae-in’s side even if it means being the subject of her rage, humiliation and hatred; he has powerful reasons for wanting to be by her side.
Both Hae-in and Hyun-woo are left wondering if everything the other person said and promised was a lie.
Through the flashback of the marriage proposal, we can piece together how our couple got engaged, broke up, got back together, and finally married.
How we held our breaths when Hyun-woo discovers that Hae-in has lost her memory of Germany and Hyun-woo wanting a divorce, which means Hae-in has to relive this trauma TWICE.
The crazy divorce settlement scene with Song Joong-ki as Vincenzo Cassano.
How Hae-in realizes that Hyun-woo was suffering during their marriage; she learns this when she overhears Hyun-woo at Grandma’s Home Cooking restaurant.
The Chairman wants Hyun-woo fired by Hae-in defends him from the Security Team.
How Hyun-woo followed David Yoon when he was following Hae-in. We see a very different Hyun-woo in that scene. We think we will see a very different Hyun-woo from now on.
How David Yoon pressured Soo-cheol to sign the resort deal with David Yoon, and then the deal went south, giving Pione Investment the chance to swoop in and pretend to save the deal.
But when the investors pull out and the Chairman’s embezzlement investigation comes out, David Yoon ends up with control over Queens Group.
Meanwhile, Hae-in turns down the Hercyna deal and rejects David Yoon’s offer (again) to replace Hyun-woo.
We feel sorry for Soo-cheol, whose wife double-crossed him, left him, and took their son to New York.
Hyun-woo and Aunt Beom-ja have definitive proof, through a DNA test, that David Yoon is Moh Sul-hee’s son!
Moh Sul-hee and David Yoon have been playing the long game. Moh Sul-hee endeared herself to the Chairman, whom she tricked into giving her power of attorney, and then poisoned.
How the Hong family has been kicked out of their own company and have fled to Yongdu-ri.
The hilarious scenes involving Hyun-woo, Hae-in and their secretaries.
More Crash Landing On You references and tie-ins!
The Koreans’ seeming obsession with the Myers Briggs Personality Types.
The K Drama elements in this show, including all the crying, the epic umbrella scene involving Hyun-woo and Hae-in, more connections from the past between Hae-in and David Yoon, all the product placements, and Hyun-woo saving Hae-in from an oncoming truck.
Our new, #39 product placement - cameos!
Our predictions for the end of the show!
We learn more about the amazing Park Sung-hoon!

References

The song we feature during the recap: Love You With All My Heart by Crush.
Soo Cheol calls Hyun-Woo “maehyeong” 매형, which means older sister’s husband.
How Hae-in loses her will to live when Hyun-woo admits that he wanted a divorce.
How Hyun-woo decides to make Hae-in hate him so that she has a reason to live.
How Hyun-woo wants to stay by Hae-in’s side even if it means being the subject of her rage, humiliation and hatred; he has powerful reasons for wanting to be by her side.
Both Hae-in and Hyun-woo are left wondering if everything the other person said and promised was a lie.
Through the flashback of the marriage proposal, we can piece together how our couple got engaged, broke up, got back together, and finally married.
How we held our breaths when Hyun-woo discovers that Hae-in has lost her memory of Germany and Hyun-woo wanting a divorce, which means Hae-in has to relive this trauma TWICE.
The crazy divorce settlement scene with Song Joong-ki as Vincenzo Cassano.
How Hae-in realizes that Hyun-woo was suffering during their marriage; she learns this when she overhears Hyun-woo at Grandma’s Home Cooking restaurant.
The Chairman wants Hyun-woo fired by Hae-in defends him from the Security Team.
How Hyun-woo followed David Yoon when he was following Hae-in. We see a very different Hyun-woo in that scene. We think we will see a very different Hyun-woo from now on.
How David Yoon pressured Soo-cheol to sign the resort deal with David Yoon, and then the deal went south, giving Pione Investment the chance to swoop in and pretend to save the deal.
But when the investors pull out and the Chairman’s embezzlement investigation comes out, David Yoon ends up with control over Queens Group.
Meanwhile, Hae-in turns down the Hercyna deal and rejects David Yoon’s offer (again) to replace Hyun-woo.
We feel sorry for Soo-cheol, whose wife double-crossed him, left him, and took their son to New York.
Hyun-woo and Aunt Beom-ja have definitive proof, through a DNA test, that David Yoon is Moh Sul-hee’s son!
Moh Sul-hee and David Yoon have been playing the long game. Moh Sul-hee endeared herself to the Chairman, whom she tricked into giving her power of attorney, and then poisoned.
How the Hong family has been kicked out of their own company and have fled to Yongdu-ri.
The hilarious scenes involving Hyun-woo, Hae-in and their secretaries.
More Crash Landing On You references and tie-ins!
The Koreans’ seeming obsession with the Myers Briggs Personality Types.
The K Drama elements in this show, including all the crying, the epic umbrella scene involving Hyun-woo and Hae-in, more connections from the past between Hae-in and David Yoon, all the product placements, and Hyun-woo saving Hae-in from an oncoming truck.
Our new, #39 product placement - cameos!
Our predictions for the end of the show!
We learn more about the amazing Park Sung-hoon!

References

Previous 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.

References

Next Episode

7.5 - Podcast Review of Episodes 9 and 10 of Queen of Tears

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 9 and 10 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, and Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye. We are joined by Ernabel Demillo, a frequent guest on K Drama Chat and Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Peter's University and host of the Emmy-award winning "Asian American Life" show on CUNY-TV. We discuss:

The song we feature during the recap: Fallin’ by Isaac Hong.
Queen of Tears is now the second most popular K Drama of all time on tvN, after Crash Landing on You; both shows are written by Park Ji-eun.
tvN has announced two extra episodes at the end of Queen of Tears; what will the episodes be about?
Kim Soo-hyun has been nominated for Best Actor in the Baeksang Awards; we feel that Kim Ji-won, Han So-hee, Park Seo-joon, and Kim Tae-ri were snubbed.
The Hong family is in a terrible situation. They’ve been locked out of their house, they don’t have cars, their credit cards have been canceled, they’ve lost control of their company, and they’re lost their jobs.
Both dads are having an identity crisis: they have lost their jobs and purpose.
Hyun-woo and Hae-in are driving us crazy because they won’t communicate with each other!
We think their lack of communication stems from the time Hae-in emptied the nursery and Hyun-woo left the marital bedroom. When this happened, they stopped talking to each other and then their pride wouldn’t let them ask the other back into the bedroom.
Hyun-woo and Hae-in kept missing opportunities to patch up their relationship, including when Hae-in overheard Hyun-woo talking about wanting to be by her side, when Hyun-woo came home all beat up, and when Hae-in realized the pink MP3 player was hers.
There are many in Korea who think the story of Hae-in and Hyun-woo is based on the true story of the granddaughter of the Samsung chaebol who married an ordinary staffer.

In 1999, Samsung heiress Lee Boo Jin married Lim Woo Jae.

Hyun-woo does a great job of convincing David Yoon that he doesn’t know where Hae-in is, even though he did pick them up in a van.
The reference to Prince Sado, who was the father of the prince Yi San in Red Sleeve, and who later became King Jeongjo.
Instead, Hyun-woo is investigating the land broker, the owner of the data restoration company, the failed investment fund, and the location of the Chairman.
Hyun-woo convinced the deceived farmers to sue the land broker, which meant the land broker couldn’t leave the country for his honeymoon. Later, the land broker and his thugs try to beat up Hyun-woo, who manages to defend himself ably because he was a champion boxer in his youth.
Our crazy predictions for this show.
Moh Sul-hee and David Yoon are now at odds with each other because David Yoon didn’t want the Hong family banished. David Yoon wants to be with Hae-in.
We speculate about why David Yoon is so obsessed with Hae-in.
Until the very end, Hyun-woo is in the dark about Hae-in’s feelings towards him. He thinks she hates him because he abandoned and deceived her.
It looks like Beom-ja will have a romance with the village marriage counselor, who looks like Leslie Cheung. Leslie Cheung is a debonair Hong Kong singer and actor. This prediction came from Laurel, one of our listeners!
The theme of regret in this show. Hyun-woo, Hae-in and Beom-ja all express regrets over their actions.
Hae-in is so brave when she reveals during the press conference that David Yoon threatened her. In this instance, Hyun-woo finally learns that Hae-in still cares for him.
The amazing acting with their eyes by Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won.
The K Drama elements we see in this episode, including: all the crying, all the food, all the drinking, the Trip and Catch, the Bulgari Serpenti necklace that Moh Sul-hee wore, and the Subway scene!
Ernabel’s recent trip to South Korea.

References