In K-drama Mr. Queen, body-swap comedy meets period drama, and scores laughs amid the royal palace scheming
- Shin Hye-sun stars as a queen from Korea’s Joseon Ero whose body is taken over by a male chef from the present day
- Comedic moments ensue as the character tries to adjust to rigid court decorum while asserting her/his masculinity, and seeking a way back to the 21st century
Mr. Queen, the latest Korean television drama to captivate viewers at home and around the world, brings together two of the medium’s most well-worn tropes: the treacherous and twisty royal palace period drama and the frothy body-swap comedy.
The tvN drama starring Shin Hye-sun and Kim Jung-hyun, which took over the slot in domestic TV schedules vacated by Start-Up, begins in the present with Choi Jin-hyuk, fresh from his leading roles in Rugal and Zombie Detective, playing Jang Bong-hwan, the cocky head chef for the president in the Blue House. One day, his arrogance gets the better of him and he finds himself without a job.
Questioned by detectives at his apartment, he slips from his balcony and falls into a pool below. In the water a mysterious woman swims towards him and he suddenly wakes up in a strange place. His hands look different, his muscles have disappeared and his voice has changed. He has become a completely different person.
Jang has in fact slipped all the way back to the Joseon Era and turned into Kim So-yong (Shin Hye-sun), who is just days away from marrying King Cheol-jong (Kim Jung-hyun) and becoming Queen Cheorin – the Korean title of the show. Jang, as Kim So-yong, has just woken up from a brief coma after having fallen – or was she pushed? – into a lake on the palace grounds.
Days away from marrying the king, “Mr. Queen” begins his uncomfortable adjustment to the rigid social decorum of the court, all while trying to find a way to refill the lakes – which have been drained by the Queen Dowager (Bae Jong-ok) – jump back in and return to his body in the present.