Oh my god that was the perfect drama. Easily the best in 2024 for me. Also what a great comeback for Choi Ji Hyuk. And Apink’s Eunji, I was already a fan but now I’m a super fan. And Lee Mi Jin’s mom, oh what a fantastic actor—I absolutely loved her.
Oh my god that was the perfect drama. Easily the best in 2024 for me. Also what a great comeback for Choi Ji Hyuk. And Apink’s Eunji, I was already a fan but now I’m a super fan. And Lee Mi Jin’s mom, oh what a fantastic actor—I absolutely loved her.
I think one of the things that’s done well here is the contrast between Eunsong and Hyunwoo. From the beginning, Eunsong has been shown to have typical abusive traits—
- - choosing Haein’s wine for her, unnecessarily touching her, - - using her goals to get closer to her (in a way that seems that only he can help her), - - snooping through her purse plus switching off her phone and taking her meds to know what she has without her consent, - - trying to strong hand ger into being with him by screwing over her family, - - trying to separate her from her husband initially and now - - wanting hyunwoo to hide that she’ll lose her memory, thereby taking away her chance to give a fully informed consent (props to hyunwoo for coming clean) - - and feeding haein information after she wakes up rather than letting her figure it out on her own, thereby controlling what she knows - - and again, keeping her away from her loved ones.
This is why hyunwoo’s actions stand out. He never makes haein’s decisions for her. He never presumes that she needs him to be happy (but she makes it clear and vice versa) and — this is very important— not getting her friends or family to tell everything but letting her figure out her true feelings herself, rather than telling her this is how she feels. All this would have such a big impact on a strong independent woman like Haein and Hyunwoo knows it, respects it and honors it. I think this aspect (though there is a lot left to be desired) is very well done in Queen of Tears.
- - choosing Haein’s wine for her, unnecessarily touching her,
- - using her goals to get closer to her (in a way that seems that only he can help her),
- - snooping through her purse plus switching off her phone and taking her meds to know what she has without her consent,
- - trying to strong hand ger into being with him by screwing over her family,
- - trying to separate her from her husband initially and now
- - wanting hyunwoo to hide that she’ll lose her memory, thereby taking away her chance to give a fully informed consent (props to hyunwoo for coming clean)
- - and feeding haein information after she wakes up rather than letting her figure it out on her own, thereby controlling what she knows
- - and again, keeping her away from her loved ones.
This is why hyunwoo’s actions stand out. He never makes haein’s decisions for her. He never presumes that she needs him to be happy (but she makes it clear and vice versa) and — this is very important— not getting her friends or family to tell everything but letting her figure out her true feelings herself, rather than telling her this is how she feels. All this would have such a big impact on a strong independent woman like Haein and Hyunwoo knows it, respects it and honors it. I think this aspect (though there is a lot left to be desired) is very well done in Queen of Tears.