As a rule, Korean dramas are eager to please, which means relying on a broad range of these tried-and-true elements to satisfy the tastes of a wide audience, but the secret is in the sauce and any successful recipe is always about balance.

Queen of Tears features all the pratfalls and guffawing side characters you expect from a major Korean romantic comedy, but writer Park Ji-eun – known for Crash Landing on You and the previous Kim Soo-hyun dramas My Love from the Star and The Producers – never allows them to overwhelm the narrative.

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She has confidence that the romance at the heart of her story will drive everything else.

The show began with a cute set-up. A boy from the countryside has fallen in love with a corporate heiress and the story begins after what should be their happily-ever-after: their marriage.

In reality, their union is far from a happy one and Baek Hyun-woo (Kim Soo-hyun) wants out.

He decides to ask for a divorce and the only thing that stops him is his wife Hong Hae-in’s (Kim Ji-won) even bigger news – she has a brain tumour and has been given three months to live.

At first, Hyun-woo hides his feelings to have a clean break-up – no need for divorce lawyers if his wife dies.

But Hae-in’s illness has the unintended effect of bringing them closer together and he soon loses his desire to separate.

While keeping her illness a secret from everyone else, and his divorce papers a secret from her, Hyun-woo becomes Hae-in’s knight in shining armour.

He does everything he can to take care of her, anticipating her needs and appearing before her whenever she is in trouble, be it with an umbrella on a rainy day or a shotgun in the path of a raging wild boar.

Although well rendered on the screen, thanks to the appealing cast and the handsome production values, none of this behaviour stands out from the K-drama norm of caring and heroic male leads. However, the heartstrings get a firmer tug once Hyun-woo is pushed into self-sacrifice.

While in Germany to seek special cancer treatment, Hyun-woo and Hae-in become more affectionate. However, her treatment isn’t going well and she is growing increasingly despondent as she loses hope.

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Their relationship then takes a very sharp turn when Hae-in’s family discovers Hyun-woo’s divorce papers and informs her. The betrayal she feels is painful beyond words, but while Hyun-woo could try to mend things by expressing his true feelings, he recalls Hae-in’s doctor’s advice about having a will to live.

He thus turns himself into the villain to deliberately stoke her anger and give her something to live for.

While the romance, shrouded in secrets and buried feelings, plays out between the leads, a plot for the corporate takeover of the Queen Group, Hae-in’s family’s company, steadily bubbles up in the background.

They include Moh Seul-hee (Lee Mi-sook), the long-suffering girlfriend of the chairman, Hong Man-dae (Kim Kap-soo). Seul-hee is Eun-sung’s mother and, after getting Man-dae to give her power of attorney, she poisons him and they take over the company.

The Queen family are tossed out of their company and homes, and have their assets frozen. The only place they can go, tails between their legs, is to stay with Hyun-woo’s family in the countryside, while Hyun-woo and Hae-in figure out how to wrest the Queen Group from Seul-hee’s grasp.

While fighting to get back what’s theirs, will the now-divorced leads also find a way back into each other’s hearts?

Queen of Tears is streaming on Netflix.