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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
3/5 stars
Lead cast: Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Ji-won
Latest Nielsen rating: 24.85 per cent


Through 16 episodes threaded between tales of family woes, illness and corporate intrigue, Baek Hyun-woo (Kim Soo-hyun) and Hong Hae-in (Kim Ji-won) have fallen in love, again and again, each time capturing each other’s hearts, as well as those of the audience at home.
And what an audience it was, as Queen of Tears closed out its epic tale of romance with a 24.85 per cent rating, the third highest score recorded for a cable drama in South Korea; The World of the Married remains in top spot.
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The series began where most romantic dramas end, in the happily-ever-after zone after the marriage of the two beautiful series leads. Only things were not quite so happy for the pair, as resentment and animosity between them built and spilled over into their professional lives.
Heiress to the Queens Group, Hae-in runs the Queens Department store, while Hyun-woo works as head counsel for the corporation.
Back in episode one, Hyun-woo felt he had had all he could take and was preparing to ask for a divorce. But just before he had the chance to do so, Hae-in hit him with an even bigger bombshell – she was dying.

Hyun-woo’s protective instincts took over and, as the pair secretly navigated her complicated malady – a rare brain tumour that would sometimes cause her to black out and hallucinate – they began to fall in love all over again.
Following the standard romcom format, Hae-in and Hyun-woo fall out a few times throughout their romantic rapprochement, including when Hae-in learns that Hyun-woo had been planning to serve with her divorce papers.
There was also the obstacle posed by Hae-in’s smug childhood friend Yoon Eun-sung (Park Sung-hoon), who attempts to insert himself back into her life.

But the series did not stop at that, instead doubling down on formula by employing classic melodramatic devices to reset the on-screen couple’s romantic journey.
This began with Hae-in’s illness, but the grandest gestures were reserved for later on, when a treatment was found that could cure Hae-in but which would probably cost her her long-term memory.
Hae-in eventually goes through with the procedure and she does lose her memory, prompting Hyun-woo to get her to fall in love with him once more.
Although it is not clear to what degree Hae-in retrieves her memories, love does blossom between them again – thanks in part to his taking a bullet for her – but the show did not stop there.
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This was the point where viewers expected the story to end on its true happily-ever-after note, but once again the show skips right past that, jumping at least 50 years into the future, as an elderly Hyun-woo visits Hae-in’s grave in Potsdam, Germany, which tells us that she died in 2074.
After that, finally we reach the show’s endgame, as it delivers the purest expression of a happily-ever-after it could conjure up. Hyun-woo and Hae-in, both once again their youthful and beautiful selves, meet one final time in their beloved lavender fields in Germany, joining hands in the afterlife to be together forever more.
The series also gave us a classic tale of chaebol (a Korean family-run corporation) infighting.

Stalling Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s love story is Eun-sung and his mother, who is revealed to be Moh Seul-hee (Lee Mi-sook), the girlfriend of the Queens Group chairman who poisons him after he grants her power of attorney and orchestrates a takeover of the company.
She goes so far as to kick all of Hae-in’s family out of their sweeping compound, and they wind up staying with Hyun-woo’s family in the countryside.
Seul-hee gets her comeuppance when Hyun-woo triumphs over her in the courtroom, in an abrupt sequence that loses some of its power thanks to its slapdash structure.
Hyun-woo’s side appears to be losing the case to Seul-hee’s counsel until Hyun-woo conjures up a smoking gun in the form of a recording of her he had all along.
More exciting was the grand end reserved for her son Eun-sung. He kidnaps Hae-in and, after Hyun-woo frees her, chases them through the snowy woods at night in a helicopter, armed with a shotgun. This is when Hyun-woo takes a bullet for Hae-in, following which Eun-sung is gunned down by the police.

The corporate shenanigans were familiar but for the most part entertainingly staged, giving the story somewhere to go in the show’s long episodes.
Still, Queen of Tears was all about the romance. Whether you agree with the endpoint it chose for the lovestruck leads, there is no denying it is the most purely romantic K-drama to hit our screens in quite some time.
Queen of Tears is streaming on Netflix.


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Queen of Tears, which may be the most romantic K-drama to air in quite some time, delivers the purest expression of a happily-ever-after in its finale
While there were exciting plot twists and moments with others, ultimately the show was all about Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won’s characters


Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won finally find their happily-ever-after by the end of Queen of Tears – which may be the most purely romantic K-drama to air in quite some time.


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