Mr. Queen

I loved this drama! I may be in the minority in that I think that Mr. Queen ended well, better than I'd expected.

I always thought that Bong Hwan would eventually return to the modern world. He took great pride in being a talented chef at the Blue House and he would not have been able to pursue that calling had he remained as a queen in the Joseon period. He also mentions his parents, including his Zumba dancing mother, several times and I think that it would have upset him had he died in the modern world and broken their hearts. Further, the fact that he went after Han's ancestors seemed to indicate that he hoped to return eventually. I'm not convinced that that ever truly changed. Much of Bong Hwan's boldness and frankness (and cheekiness) was a result of him always seeming to have one foot out the door despite falling in love with Cheoljong. Yes, I think that Bong Hwan fell in love with Cheoljong and Cheoljong fell in love with Bong Hwan, not so much So-Yong. But I also assumed that Cheoljong would remain in Joseon as King because he was the type of person who would not give up his throne and his responsibilities to his people to follow Bong Hwan to the modern world, even if Cheoljong had had the choice. Thus if Bong Hwan must return to his world and Cheoljong must remain in his, then their separation is sad but inevitable. As for So-Yong, she clearly loves Cheoljjong. Cheoljong may or may not eventually love So-Yong as much as he loved Bong Hwan but is that really the only thing that matters in life? They work together to institute reforms in Joseon and are remembered as wise, compassionate rulers. Seems like a good resolution to me.

Some people seem to fault Cheoljong for not realizing that So-Yong is not Bong Hwan but it seemed to me that Cheoljong realized something was different. He couldn't figured out what really happened (for obvious reasons). If I could change anything about the ending, it would have been to add a scene where So-Yong comes clean with Cheoljong. I do feel sorry for Cheoljong, being left in the dark.

Finally, I think that Mr. Queen would not have been as good as it was without stellar acting by Shin Hye Sun, Kim Jung Hyung, and Kim Tae Woo.

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Entertaining drama with disappointing ending

I just finished this series today and came to MDL to see who else felt as betrayed by the ending like me. This is a rant rather than review.

*****SPOILERS******* DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SERIES*******

From the beginning we know that there is a male inside the queen's body and so I was wondering how the romance aspect wàs going to play out. Kdramas are known to deliver beautifully constructed plotlines to slowly transition the viewer through the journey of romance and ensure a sweet and fair ending. This is where this drama felt like a let down.

Many parts were never addressed till the end - The king never gets to know he fell in love with a male from the future, he just sees the queen as 'a unique personality different from anyone from the Joseon era' whereas the transmigrated one knows very well he is infact slowly falling in love with a male king. He in fact progresses from absolute disregard for the king to grudging admiration and then friendship and love and finally even fine with the idea of continuing with the life in the queen's body and carrying the king's baby! And it was so sweet to see the transition and the chemistry between the leads that i was rooting for them till the end.

But then in the very last episode, when BH risks even his life to save the king, he suddenly wakes back up in his own body in modern Korea and doesn't even get to know what happened to the king. And he has to run to a bookstore to find out. Heartbreaking.

The king saying 'it feels like something is missing' - because he is yet to figure out the person he fell in love with is no more in the queen's body. He fell in love with this unique, quirky, brash and unconventional person for whom he created a whole new dictionary, but has to live the rest of the days with some other person who just looks like his lover. It's like marrying the wrong twin! Again heartbreaking.

It is sad for the queen as well. As sooner or later the king is bound to realise that the unique personality is totally gone and now this is just a conventional queen carrying his baby, who may slightly use swear words more often but can't be a match for the crazy and creative guy who lived in that body! The king is not in love with her and it feel weird to see them smiling at each other in the last episode. One doesn't realize that his lover is gone and one is hiding the fact that she is not the one the king fell in love with.

It feels like betrayal to make the viewer root for a unique ML -ML love story all thru the series only for it to be snatched away at the last minute. We don't even know the original queen, her character was not given any screen time except that she wanted to commit suicide, and was rude to her staff and had random people whipped just coz she couldn't find her identity in the palace(!) And still she gets to live with the king for the rest of the life?! While BH who risked his life to find the king (also helped him through many struggles, boosted his confidence and gave him military and political ideas, saved his banquet, saved his throne..) is just ejected from that time with no recognition, and even the king doesn't even know he was there, did all that and was gone. So unfair to both of them.

In my head SB WAS the queen in a past life and in trasmigrating to that life their personalities got intermixed and that's the reason CJ could still love the queen at the end. I would have been happy to see CJ reincarnated in modern Korea and meeting SB again..sigh! What a horribly rushed and unsatisfactory ending to this entertaining series.

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Bong Hwan A! Bong Hwan A! Bong Hwan A!

What an incredible title track to a truly memorable drama. Kudos to the band Norazo for creating such a masterful song that perfectly matches the theme of the show. At once whacky with a thumping beat, it never fails to lift the spirits and bring a smile to your face.

I will remember this drama for introducing me to the incredible Shin Hye-Sun. Her potrayal of both the "Queen So Yong" and Jang Bong-hwan was spot-on and made for a hugely entertaining watch. The viewer was left in no doubt as to which character she was playing. In her Bong-hwan mode, she nailed all the manly mannerisms of Choi Jin-hyuk which made for many laugh out moments. Among these were all the cooking scenes with the Royal Chef, when she "lost" her dragon balls, when she stuck her face in the dirty pail, when she visited the kisaeng house and paid for all the women, when she beat the flowers that the King "picked" on the way to see her, to getting smoked on, etc. In fact, her brilliant acting and portrayal of a man somehow overshone the rest of the cast which made scenes without her feel a bit flat on the first watch. Also commendable is Kim Jung-hyun who played the role of the King admirably. He had less to do but held his own when acting with the brilliant Hye-Sun.

The story itself is a bit complex and requires the viewer to pay close attention to the dialogue or it would be easy to get turned off in the later episodes. It is perhaps for this reason that the drama gets better and better each time you rewatch it as you become more familiar with the plot and the key characters' story arcs.

A big shout out to the production team who each contributed their magic to this piece of art. The opening credit animation, editing, clever placement of music and sound effects, lighting, wardrobe and tight editing made for a drama that is more than the sum of its parts.

As for the ending, it didn't bother me as much as some of the other reviewers. Perhaps because of the complex plots and individual character nuances, it was easy to miss out on the finer details of how the Queen was always still in her body and how her personality and feelings were intertwined with Bong-hwan's. To get a better understanding of what the writer intended, read kprinz's excellent review which hopefully will soothe some of the viewers who felt sore at the ending.

Overall, this is a highly recommended watch if you want a good laugh but remember to put your cynical and analytical part of you at the door before watching. You will enjoy it so much more. And remember that Laughter is always the best medicine, especially during these trying times of lockdowns. And if you have watched it, try watching it again. It is a drama that is like fine wine.

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Magnificently satisfying show! Please watch it!

Just finished Mr. Queen. Without giving anything away, this is a truly brilliant show - it's based on a Chinese drama.

Everything from the story, through to the acting, the comedy - oh the comedy - the dramatics, the cooking (yes I said cooking) and mystery is nigh on perfect. Even waiting for the subtitles to come up on Viki only increased the anticipation of what was to come - I can't think of another drama - both western and Korean - that had me this hooked.

The characters are beautifully cast and deliver their performance beautifully. If you are a CLOY fan then the King and Court Lady Choi will be all to familiar. I didn't know about Shin Hye Sun before this show but will be sure to check out her other work after this. She owned the role of the Queen (with the male Jang Bong Hwan's mind in her).

The soundtrack is equally unique and works so well with its mix of old and new.

I truly loved this show and hope you do too - please stop what you're doing and watch Mr. Queen now :). It's a wonderful show!

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One of the best dramas I've ever watched.

Mr. Queen quickly became one of my favorite dramas before I even finished it. The cast, acting, plot, music, writing, and everything about the show was amazing. The entire cast did an amazing job playing their characters. The plot was paced well and was one of the most uniquely produced dramas I've watched in a long time. While the story itself is not unique, since it's a remake of another Chinese drama, the way this one was written and executed was done so well that you'll be hooked within the first episode. It has a little bit of everything: comedy, drama, action, good food, etc. Every character in the show was so well written and the actors playing them did an amazing job. Even the villains were so well done and characters you would normally expect to hate, you still felt attached to.
There isn't much I can add to my review that other reviewer's haven't covered. This is such a fun and outstanding drama that's definitely worth the watch.

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Boring over halfway through, Shin Hye Sun carried this drama on her back

I was at first really frustrated at this drama, because it's 20 episodes long, and it took over half of that time before the plot got even slightly interesting. I almost dropped it at episode 2 because I was so bored and confused by it right from the start. However I persisted and watched the whole thing. I was bored out of my mind for like literally 12/20 episodes. The complicated royal relationships, schemes and all the corruption were really confusing and hard to keep up with.

I have to give a huge shout out to Shin Hye Sun, because she was 100% the carrying force of this drama. She did such an amazing job in this, I was really impressed. If it wasn't for her, I probably would have dropped this drama at the half point at the latest. It was only her who got me through my boredom and all the way through the end of this drama. The other people in the cast were honestly just okay, they got the job done. Some of the people they cast in this were very similar-looking, and because most of the people in this wore the same clothes, same hats, and same fake beards, it made some of them look almost identical. To the very end I had a hard time telling the palace maids apart, and it literally took me at least like 6 episodes before I learned to tell the king and the queen's cousin apart from each other. I have to admit, that I often have a hard time remembering faces overall, but it didn't really help that the people whom I already had a hard time recognizing, all wore the same clothes that made them look alike even more. One example of my struggle was that in episode 3 or so, I didn't realize that the king was the king because he wore a different coloured robe than before xD So this drama was a bit of a struggle for me and my two face-blind braincells lol.

This drama was seriously so boring and confusing over halfway through, things only started to get interesting towards the very end. I feel like this drama could have been only 10-16 episodes long and it wouldn't have lost anything of importance. The first half of it was soooo slow paced, that I feel like they could have done better with this drama as a whole. Also, there were some choices made in the plot/with some of the characters that made like 0 sense whatsoever, but I'm not going to specify to keep this review spoiler-free. Overall I scored this drama a solid 5, mostly because of Shin Hye Sun and the last 5-7 episodes. I have to say I would not recommend this especially if you're not very familiar with historical dramas. Some people seem to have enjoyed this a lot, but this just wasn't for me.

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Great acting

When I saw the first two episodes, I thought "is this some sort of comedy"? Yes, I did like the funny parts, but was not expecting to see a comical historical drama. But as the acting was really good, especially the female lead, I continued watching and loved everything about it. Besides the usual romantic moments, it also had a flavour of many things in it: jealousy, court politics, greed, social justice, and cooking. Yes, I loved all the cooking scenes.

I read other reviews mentioning how much they disliked the last episode. To a certain degree, I agree with that. I don't particularly like the last episode in most dramas which seemed to be a bit lame. For this one, I kind of like the ending, because they did not make a forced happy ending just to make the viewers happy.

However, I do feel the same way as others, knowing that the king actually fell in love with the queen's "other personality" instead of her true self. I just wondered how the king's life continued, having a queen who was probably a boring, submissive woman compared to the other strange yet fascinating personality he actually fell in love with.

Overall, I loved the acting of all characters, including the antagonists. They all did very well.

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Hilariously good!

I had my doubts when I read the premise - a man in a woman's body sounded odd. However, I'm so glad I watched this!
Most dramas let go of their comic sequences once they get to the more serious plot points - this drama kept cracking me up throughout. I didn't want it to end!
The acting is brilliant - Mr Queen & King Cheol Jong, alongwith the supporting cast - fit so aptly in their role. I loved seeing how they embodied all the different emotions of their character, alongside a healthy dose of humour. The ML surprised me the most - I didn't expect to like him as much. His reactions to the queen's antics are phenomenally done!

I can see myself coming back to this drama, time and again, whenever I need to lift my spirits.

--spoiler ahead--
I have to say: I severely missed bong hwan in the ending - I wished that he would return to the king but he didn't. "The thought of both Bong-hwan and Cheol-jong going through life with a gaping whole in their hearts longing for something they will never have again just kills me." - this feels extremely unfair to cheol jong & bong hwan. Even though they're played by the same actress, I wanted bong hwan to continue in joseon rather than so yong.

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