Kim Yoonmi 김윤미 金潤美

I said that what I sensed from Under the Queen's Umbrella set out to do at the top felt like the episode count got cut and they were expecting 20 episodes, but didn't get it. And it was likely Netflix influence.

This is about to get dry, messy and technical:

Basically before Netflix or anything, back in the 1990's to 2010-ish or so, the productions were live filmed almost back to back to the production. The writer would write the script, and then the first set of episode would air around 2. The average episode run was about 16 to start, and then they'd beef up if it was popular. This formula worked when it was set to air only in Korea, but was wrought with issues left and right as one can imagine. The distributor and the producer were the same entity—this is not true of US cinema, where in around the 1940's-1950's the studio that produced it wouldn't always be the one to distribute it internationally, etc. (Hays laws sucked, BTW). Occasionally the story would be cut down suddenly if unpopular during the run, but this was rare and often a death sentence to the writer.

This caused multiple headache issues, including writer nervous breakdowns, hospitalizations for the actors, crew and writers and generally caused a lot of havoc and suicide. International fans criticized this severely for obvious reasons. You don't want your favorite actor almost dying in a car accident coming home from filming. They started padding it more in the late 2010's, but this also caused a rise in cost and production values. Famously, one production instead of adding more episodes (because that would be a headache to all) used the money to buy better lights and production equipment. (Iljimae, IIRC). But yeah, the studios were caught in this loop: If they disappoint the fans and the fans can't influence the production, they were afraid that the popularity of the dramas would go down with it.

The writers were getting drunk, having nervous breakdowns, productions would stall and pretty much consumers didn't seem to really get invested that much in safer regulations. There was a fire at one of the studios (the network ones) because of poor safety regulations due to the breakneck pace of productions and basically this kicked off a lot of strikes.

BTW, I reached out to the writer of Introverted Boss on soompi to help her out because she's one of my favorite writers, and production had stalled for "bad writing" though I disagreed and thought it was more that watchers couldn't parse the PoVs well. I also know there are K-drama industry buffs on there that visit from time to time. She took most of my suggestions, dumped her outline, like I said, and did a slight nod to me to say thank you in the drama (though you won't know it). So yes, they had paused after 4 episodes aired for that drama because people complained about the writing. TT They had cut down her assistant team too. BTW, I still hold she is one of the best for portraying mental health. Though I think some fans were also mad because she was acknowledging mental health and that trans people exist. So petty. I told her to ignore those fools and feature it more to stick a middle finger to them, as she should. As she should.

Dramabeans and other websites started showing the unfair production values and like Koreans in real life, not US dramas (me being Korean). Koreans really care about losing face. So when they got exposed (mid-2000's) suddenly the working conditions started going up. The studios started to crack down on bullying too.. and Korean dramas did a self-audit along the way of unfair practices and showing it to others. As the rise of K-dramas came up stations like KBS and MBC started to also trade productions. We'll air your show on our station.

Then came the rise of cable stations as Korean economy came up (selling children to the adoption trade amongst the time that fertility rates were low, recovering from IMF, trying to promote Korea as a tourist location... I don't sugar coat the terrible things South Korea/Korea does. If you're the type to cry about that, meh I don't care. Go off and read about South Korea's relations with Vietnam. I don't save Korea's face or any country's. Take the good with the bad.) This is your TvN, JTBC, etc, prior to the rise of online ventures. TvN, hearing about the plight of writers and actors, etc promoted carefully through various channels (mainly variety TV shows) that they would have fairer working conditions. They would map out with the writer/s (choosing writers carefully first, mostly the popular international ones, rather than the ones popular domestically.) Contrary to belief, TvN would film about 60% of the drama at first, and then air it, and adjust it later. Then they pushed that towards 90% later on. The grueling system among network stations continued though and actors would openly talk about the worker differences on mostly variety TV shows (AKA, people don't really want to know how the magic happens)

Eventually cue about mid-late 2010's, the network stations started shifting to more of a TvN sort of system, especially with the rise of JTBC copy-pasting the system, though somewhat targeting an older audience than TvN. With TvN's dramas a hit, Koreans being Koreans (again, me being one) and with a lot of protests (some of them political, but also worker's rights, with the majority of watchers putting pressure to honor the strikes and not complain), the system uniformly became the TvN System... but then K-dramas being so popular entered the international market. You get ViKI, and there was increased interest from US companies to do distribution. Japan kinda messed this part up, which is why K-dramas took over, (but explaining this part would place us back in the 1950's with car manufacturing... so I'm skipping it) but as much as I don't love Korea for some of the things it did to actors and some attitudes towards gay people (like majority of Koreans think that all gay people have AIDS ==;;)... South Korea did strategically hit the market.

This cues in part III: Streaming services.

You might not know this, but I do because I know more about productions than I have actually watched movies, but Streaming services as I gave with an actual citation (Adam Conover, etc. It's easy to find.), like it so that the drama can be theoretically watched with one sitting. 8-12 episodes max. So when Netflix entered the chat,the first influence they had was to cut down on the number of episodes. This has severely messed up the writing of Korean dramas, which tend to rely more on thematic realization, than tonal shifts like the Japanese market. The 16 episode set has gone on forever. (Not including family dramas, which are also live written, somewhat still...) So when the episode cut happened, it cused a lot of issues writing-wise, but this is writing theory, one of which was Under the Queen's Umbrella, which due to the sudden shift at the end of the series, *felt* writing-wise they wanted the full 20 episode run and were cut short anyway since *thematically* some of the things promised to be played out were not met and were part of the main themes of the drama (as I said, writing-wise this gets very technical and dry.)

The pressure specifically from Netflix to shorten the length of the dramas for pick up, has then affected the rest of the industry and writing-wise, a lot of the writers haven't caught up to the shift. It's a whole other ballgame to write 12 episodes versus 16. But 16 is too expensive for Netflix to be willing to pick up. Distributors absolutely have domino influence on productions, because, for those outside of the industry: the majority of the money you make is not domestically, but internationally, so you will do anything that the distributors want in order to make it possible to air in their country. So as I said, Disney with China, has refused to make a gay main couple in any of their TV shows for that reason. (Owlhouse is rumored to originally be more Queer).

Non-writers won't understand that type of pressure. It's like writing a novel and then being told you need to make a novella. It's a different medium and you need different tools in order to execute it well. The reason Japan gets away with it is because historically, Japan has worked mostly on tonal storytelling and excels at it. But Korea, liking political intrigue, less episodic, social justice topics (going way back before Korean dramas, BTW) tends to like to look at thematic pulling and that needs more episodes for the run. Command of tone is so hard, so for the Japanese readers out there this isn't advocacy of one being better than the other.

If any of the streaming services say they will not distribute internationally because of production costs, etc, this hurts the production because it used to be that places like VIKI would do the subbing, etc (of which I did a little) and pay for the license, but now Netflix with whole more money pays for the license and they can influence production. VIKI, BTW, was originally owned by Koreans who went to US schools and did it as a college project. I also tried to boost their UX at one point...

Netflix did other things too, like pressure the studios to air simultaneously with them, which didn't happen before. Cut down on the writer's rooms which has a domino effect. And generally make it cheaper for them to pick it up. Netflix cut into worker's rights generally across the board as did other streaming services. (See most recent writer's strike, US side). Often the distributor pays for the cost of the filming, (see Coyote v. ACME) or tries to cut the losses that the studio thinks it will incur. Any profits will then belong to the distributor in any regions that the distributor airs it in. In Netflix case, they pay a flat fee for it without royalties. Urrggghhh but have enough carrot to swing that people don't notice the stick.

Imagine it this way: Someone is holding a gun vaguely in your direction. You will likely do anything you can to put that gun down. In this case, Netflix and other streaming services are holding guns and so K-drama productions are doing a lot to make it more attractive to this looming threat.

Cutting the weekly guest from the plan is likely a side effect. More famous actors==more money. I'm 60% sure at this point that was the original plan, and then there was a budget slash somewhere and they couldn't pull it off. The writer, being alone, couldn't recover and think about an alternate plan. Then it went into the toilet around there which is why I feel like at points the trope piling is them not caring about the drama as the drama they wanted to make went to the dogs (BTW, the grave scene I think was always planned). Writers absolutely are on set as it is filming. If there are production cuts on cash, a sponsor pulls out, they need to write in a sponsor, they can't land guests, the writer needs to be there with an alternate plan. But it is extremely difficult to pivot when you have a dream structure for your drama. I smell that out of this production. (You should watch more musical theater kids who do not mince words around productions—this pussyfoots it more than they do).

The international attention has had trade offs... sometimes good and sometimes bad. But I kinda think that responsible fans pay attention to at least the workers rights aspect and don't try to explain it away. No one needs to die for art and we should be supporting the workers that create our art by engaging responsibly and putting pressure in the right places to make it better for our artists, rather than making it favorable for the distributors.

I used to watch dramas with my kumo mostly the historical and romance ones. I never, ever liked the daily dramas. And I'm still scarred from one of the Japanese occupation era dramas of the time. I've finished only one since then. So I've also been paying attention to industry changes too.

It's OK to enjoy a drama, but I also kinda think we should advocate for worker's rights with it instead of hoping that ostriches really do bury their head in the sand and then when someone says they don't, and you shouldn't either to try to justify why ostriches do bury their heads in the sand. Unless you haven't been paying attention to any of the social justice messaging in K-dramas at all. In which case, C-dramas and J-dramas probably are better for you (though C-dramas are very DL about it due to restrictions). lol at the people who are upset that I am pointing how "woke" Kdramas are. I think you crossed the woke lines when you watched a bunch of Koreans run around on screen, it's even more bizarre when they do this to historical dramas and 95% of the time it's always a US person.

End of Episode 9, I'm still for their divorce. Neither of them have the repair skills necessary to continue on with their marriage. They should stay single for the rest of their lives at this point.

Kyung Tae and Mi Yeong's Bestie, I thought they were setting up for a cute B level romance and then out of nowhere it undercut and went off the rails. ngl, most of the side characters don't belong at this point.

I added Alone in Love as a better alternative to this drama. It's about a couple that love each other still and it's clear, but painful memories haunt them and it's a lot more believable than this drama.

tbh, I hate all of the characters at this point. Calvin went psychopath or at least anti-social and the ML reads as incompetent at communication and the FL reads as dumb. Taking pills blindly without checking with your doctor? MIL was a nonstarter and I was hoping for some dimensionality I never got. BIL is just there. niece has no function to the story and could have been cut from the production. And I can't stand the stalker. The minor investment was the B romance plot, but then the writer forgot to do anything about it like they got caught in the headlights of a diminishing budget.

I'm left with nothing to like... except maybe that it'll be over with soon.

Don't worry, anything you liked about this drama will get destroyed by the end.

You haven't watched the second half of the drama, I see. ==;; It's better that you imagine the end of the drama, because that will be better than the drama.

ngl, I think it was a way to get distance from his wife, and he didn't think of her as his girlfriend.

Netflix has large influence over the production budget these days of the drama they pick up. It takes a lot of explanation on how this works, though I think the most fun way to learn how dramas are made is probably The King of Dramas which is pre-TvN era. Garlic kiss is the best, BTW.

Btw, the distribution company can also have hands in the production and how much money they promise to give up front if the company knows they won't distribute internationally. These days, particularly for international productions, they are having heavier and heavier influence on the production. Most notably, in reverse, China has been said to not be willing to distribute Disney productions if it has gay things in it, so Disney has buckled under that marketing.

Likewise, Netflix has put pressure on how K-dramas are produced in order to make it cheaper for them to distribute and pick up. Because more expensive the production, the more expensive the price it is to distribute to make back the money. (You need Coyote v. ACME controversy to understand this piece). It's a lot of understanding of paper pushing that's dry to outsiders.

Under the streaming system , specifically Netflix, the episode count went from the standard 16 to 12 and under. The writer's rooms have shrunk and the worker's rights have become vastly more unfair than the TvN system. So if Netflix says something like, We won't distribute it if you make it 20 episodes, per the standard historical drama Run pre-streaming, the production companies, looking for cash, are more than likely to buckle.

The cracks in this particular show was that the set up looked like they wanted to do the standard one character guest a week (per two episodes) to really dive into the characters, but then that plan was suddenly abandoned, and per all of the K-dramas that go over the K-drama industry, it looks like a change in financing, and the biggest influence on K-drama financing these days is Netflix. (You need Adam Conover during the US writer strike to see how this works).

BTW, I do have a source for the whole Squid Game writer got screwed over, but I'm not sure how in the weeds people want to get into how productions work.

AKA, K-drama writers and productions should do a strike and hit Netflix by going elsewhere.

The "twist" at the end of episode 8 felt like a Hail Mary. ==;; I mean I've watched Korean dramas since I was a little kid, and used to watch them with my Aunties, and I admit I hate makjang dramas a whole lot, but it doesn't make internal logical sense at all.

It's not the type of bad where you go and mock it in a B-movie way. What you are promised at the top is nothing like what you get later. At the top, you're hoping for a slice of life, maybe with a weekly client (i.e. a client for the week of the drama run, rather than real time). and then a slow back and forth on whether they get divorced and some heartstrings pulled. What you get is a bunch of trope plots without any new insights or twists to it. Evil Second leads. Injected evil mother in law. Heavy music inserts out of nowhere.

I heard through the grapevine, BTW, that Netflix was screwing over the K-drama writers through various sources like screwing over the Squid Game writer, but I'm seeing them also screw with the productions of K-dramas where it seems like the set up is solid, but then the financing changes in the middle suddenly without warning and what seems like the set mode for the drama suddenly everything goes to the toilet. This reads as a victim of one of those types of changes. I smelled it all the way back on Under the Queen's Umbrella, where the set up and the pay off didn't match the direction of the drama and that was also Netflix, but it's gotten so much worse than that since then.

I'm not happy as a K-drama watcher. I liked the TvN system the best, but streaming services have made everything so much worse for everyone internationally.

Hwang Ji-Eon is the writer. https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-entertainment/2026/08/17/EVUJHZGGFJD4ZHPGFJQNDADQLM/

It is her second full length drama as far as I can find and it kinda shows since the dialogue (at least in Korean) doesn't snap that well and they don't seem to understand how relationships works. Ji-Eon, BTW is usually a woman's name.

https://www.hancinema.net/korean_Hwang_Ji-eon.php

She could benefit from reading the Gottmans (Julie Gottman and John Gottman) work for this drama instead of filling it with tropes. And this isn't a sharp criticism, but giving a tip.

Tropes are fine, but you need to be able to comment on them and do something new with them, twist them to your experience... but in this case they feel like filler for being lost about the theming. The overbearing mother/MIL, for example, gets explained over the course of the drama and you feel sudden empathy for her, would be a twist.

My instinct is that the writer had the premise, put it into a drawer, but still got stuck on how to flesh out the premise and didn't do the required research and then padded it out with tropes rather than thinking really hard about who the FML was, who was the MML was, and then slowly mapping out how they got together, what little daily agreements they made and then mapping out their communication gaps and break downs and how they lacked the ability to do repair. I'd like to have had the drama that looked into more smaller problems that lead into bigger ones rather than SFL and SML type of characters and stock, but dug into the character's souls so deep you are both rooting for them to come together and their demise, but the writer didn't know how to do that. I'd suggest reading the Gottman's work... I wanted a deeper introspective dive into their relationship.

Did he *used* to freshly squeeze orange juice for her when she was sick? What would she do in an everyday gesture return? How id they build a rapport and decide that it was time for a baby? What pressures did they have? Show the smaller everyday things. That's what I felt was promised at the top, but then the drama got overloaded with something completely different.

Not that the SFL is better... the writing goes off the rails around the time Calvin shows up.

She literally broke into the Won Ho's house while no one was there. That is stalker creepy and she needs to go to jail.

Meanwhile neither of our main characters are doing a good job at communicating or connecting with each other. They need more therapy than divorce lawyers at this point. Their communication has broken down so badly they just need someone to get the to connect again and do some basics to build it back up or quit.

I think this drama would have done better as a slice of life drama instead of inserting second leads.

Hee Ju is the most weakly written character of the bunch...

Yeah and this tells me you didn't read the review.

What did I say?

"The only saving grace of this drama is Xiao Zhan and maybe the production values, but that's about it. And pretty production values when you don't have the story isn't enough for me. I've never particularly cared about pretty faces. I care about in order: Story first, acting next, production values (which include costuming, CGI, props, etc) last. If I wanted to gawk at pretty faces, I'd look at runway photos. The problem with this drama is squarely on the story."

Squarely on the story. That means the writing sucks. And the writing does suck. And I went over why specifically, but you can't tell me why those were good decisions while everyone else I watched the drama with ended up agreeing it sucked.

This doesn't mean that the writer, actors, director, etc can't improve for other projects, but squarely, this one sucks on the writing. If you bother to read the other comments, you cn see I actually know about the background of what the writer was trying to accomplish and ad nauseum I tell you exactly why that failed and also how they could have possibly fixed it in a better way.

I'm open to criticism, but saying I wish the director, etc and I want it to fail forever is dishonest and is a way to dodge engaging in the criticism in the review that's very specific. So I expect people to show up ad be able to do the same. This particular drama sucked, but I've liked other things the director, actor, and so on have done. It just goes that way. Pretty production values don't make up for crappy writing.

The last episode made me want to choke on my own vomit. ==;; "I was upset in the beginning, but now I think it's fate." What the— The writing was so bad that I understood 80% of the script, and regretted my choice to learn Japanese.

Look, I've watched some really terrible Asian dramas in my day. Thousand Years of Love, and some really insipid female leads who made me want to yell at my screen, (What happened in Bali makes me curse, "Learn how to shoot a fkg beach.") A J-drama with two terrible male leads for a female lead made me shout, "Become a nun. That's also an option." But this drama is a solid no. It's not even back burner fair. This will make you feel like your brain cells ran from your body and your brain wrinkles are ironing out. It's not even smexy redeemable.

If you do not do one face wipe while watching this drama, Iunno what you consider romance or even what you consider love. This is not it.

You would watch this if you want to forget something while watching it and want to play drinking games with it, but it might not even be good for that. At least with What Happened in Bali it was funny when she bit her lip all the time. THIS though... ==;; I dare you to watch it without your finger itching for the fast forward. Because I swear, I did that and I thought I had missed things.

The chemistry between Deng Kai and Sun Yi Ran is very good. The problem is the later half of the writing ruins it with a melting female lead.

She passes the three feminism tests: Bechdel (talks about business and their mother), Sexy Lamp (she does make contributions to the plot, though she skirts close to being replaceable in spots), and the Mako Mori test (she does want other things than a man.). But her agency falls without reason in the latter half of the drama where she suddenly gets dumber in service of the drama. This is what I term melting female lead. Mostly, I think the female lead was too smart for the writer, so in order to get the events to unfold like they needed they made her dumber.

I was kinda hoping they'd pull one of those double take things, but they didn't. The writing logic forced forward the events and had to sacrifice character to do so.

I'd like to see Deng Kai and Sun Yi Ran in another drama with better writing.

Cheesy would have more logic than this drama. It's literally one line that makes her go all heart-eyed.

Up to then, she' goes on about how she's not sure she could marry him. And then he recognizes her writing in someone else's report and then she's all weak-kneed and says she'll marry him. Is there a build up before then to make them feel for each other? No. Are they getting to know each other? No.

What's worse is that the writing is self-aware of that fact which is why they add in SFL to harass her over the fact the cdrama over the 8 episodes gave neither of the main characters a real personality. LOL SFL: Do you even know his favorite color?

It's the kind of bad romance you watch to openly mock it. The writing is terrible. The acting is only passable in places, and the directing makes me raise my eyebrow. But the mockability is high.

If this was a dish, it's more like, you went all the way to a county fair to get cotton candy and only got 3 airplane peanuts. Lactose-free. There is no cheese. If it had cheese it would probably be more enjoyable.

She's not a stranger, because he met her ONCE and fell in love with her, but she had a boyfriend, but he couldn't give her up... has stalkerish feels.