Overview of Queen of Tears

‘Queen of Tears’ is a South Korean drama featuring Kim Ji-won and Kim Soo-hyun in lead roles. It was penned by Park Ji-eun and co-directed by Jang Young-woo and Kim Hee-won. The show was aired on tvN from 9 March to 28 April 2024 at KST 21:20 on Saturday and Sunday. It was a great success and reached millions of audiences from 12 countries. It received prestigious awards at various award ceremonies.

The drama revolves around the story of the married couple Hong Hae-in and Baek Hyun-woo, who rekindle their love after three years of marriage due to unexpected twists and turns.

Profile

Cast

Main Cast

• Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in
• Hwang Ji-ah as teen Hong Hae-in
• Min Seo-hyung as child Hong Hae-in
• Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo
• Moon Seong-hyun as teenage Baek Hyun-woo
• Choi Yi-an as Child Baek Hyun-woo
• Kwak Dong-yeon as Hong Soo-cheol
• Kim Joo-eui as child Hong Soo-cheol
• Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-sung / David Yoon
• Lee Joo-won as child Yoon Eun-sung
• Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-hye
• Choi Na-rin as a child Cheon Da-hye

Supporting

Synopsis

Hong Hae-in and Baek Hyun-woo lead an aloof married life, although they chose each other out of love. Hong Hae-in belongs to a prestigious family that runs a successful business in South Korea. She joins her company as a trainee after hiding her true identity. At the company, Baek Hyun-woo always sees her struggling with her tasks. He helps her to take printouts and makes himself available for all the help that she needs.

It is he who first confesses his feelings to her. He proposes to her and tells her that he comes from quite a good family of farmers that owns several cows. Therefore, even if she loses her job, he could take care of her. Later, Baek Hyun-woo takes a break after knowing the truth that she is the CEO of that company. Later, they decide to get married.

Baek Hyun-woo feels his life with Hong Hae-in and her rich family is like the life of a bird in a golden cage. On the day he decides to file for divorce, Hong Hae-in asks him to accompany her somewhere. However, Hyun-woo turns her down, and in the evening he goes to see Hae-in in her room with the divorce papers. Hae-in unexpectedly reveals that her health has been deteriorating. She has been experiencing frequent dizziness and hallucinations but hasn’t sought medical treatment. Now, her condition has worsened, and her doctor has given her only three months to live.

Baek Hyun-woo feels happy for a fraction of a second, but instantly feels guilty and laments about her ill fate. He starts to give her more care and attention.

Hae-in feels uneasy to share about her health condition with her family. Though they live under the same roof, they mainly talk about business.

Hyun-woo’s newfound attention to her rejuvenates her love for him. Also, she regrets the things that she has not tried in her life yet.

During the course of time, a lot of family dramas emerge, causing more troubles in their lives.

Hae-in’s unexpected meeting with Yoon Eun-sung (Hae-in’s childhood acquaintance and the one who wished to marry her) diverts the lives of Hae-in and Hyun-woo in a new direction. Yoon Eun-sung still has the strong desire to marry her. He offers his help to her to achieve her goal of expanding her company.

At the end of a vigorous search, Hae-in and Hyun-woo discover that a special surgery can cure her illness. Nonetheless, Hae-in loses her memory as a side effect of the surgery. Initially, Hae-in disagrees to undergo the treatment to keep the memories of happy days spent with Hyun-woo. However, Hyun-woo convinces her to make her fall again for him.

After learning about Hae-in’s illness, Eun-sung starts making plans to remove Hyun-woo from her life. He follows Hae-in and Hyun-woo to Germany where they go for the treatment. In Germany, police capture Hyun-woo under the influence of Eun-sung. Later, Eun-sung takes the guardianship of Hae-in, who has lost the memories before the surgery. Eun-sung turns her against Hyun-woo and her family by telling her cooked-up stories.

However, her doubts about Eun-sung’s stories and her gut feeling about Hyun-woo’s innocence compel her to investigate her past in secret. After many thrilling and eventful days, Hae-in discovers the truth.

The drama ends by showing an old Hyun-woo offering flowers on the grave of Hae-in, who died after living a wonderful life with Hyun-woo.

Theme

‘Queen of Tears’ is known for the emotional depth that it contains in its storyline. By showing the lives of the married couple Hong Hae-in and Baek Hyun-woo, the series discusses themes like love, loyalty, class disparities, and the pressure and challenges that a person undergoes to meet the expectations of society.

Coming from an elite family, Hong Hae-in follows the decisions made by her family to maintain their status. However, it suffocates Baek Hyun-woo, who comes from an ordinary family. The class disparities are clearly evident through Baek Hyun-woo’s interaction with Hong Hae-in’s family. He is always under surveillance and is forced to obey every decision of her family.

Though the relationship between Hong Hae-in and Baek Hyun-woo seems distant initially, they harbor sincere love and loyalty towards each other. Their love is disclosed through Baek Hyun-woo’s decision to stand by her side after learning about Hong Hae-in’s terminal disease.

Awards

• Brand of the Year Awards 2024
  Best Actor – Kim Soo-hyun
  Best Actress – Kim Ji-won
  Best Actor – Vietnam – Kim Soo-hyun
  Best Actress – Vietnam – Kim Ji-won
  Best K-drama – Vietnam – ‘Queen of Tears’
• Daejeon Special Film Festival 2024
  Best Supporting Actress – Yoon Bo-mi
• Korea Drama Awards 2024
  Best Drama – ‘Queen of Tears’
  Global Star Award – Kim Soo-hyun
  Hot Star Award (Female) – Kim Ji-won
  Best Couple Award – Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won
  Best OST Award – ‘More Than Enough’
• K-World Dream Awards 2024
  Best OST – ‘Love You With All My Heart’
• Newsis Hallyu Expo 2024
  Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award – Kim Soo-hyun (for Queen of Tears)
• Seoul International Drama Awards 2024
  Best Drama
  Outstanding Korean Drama OST – ‘The Reasons of My Smile’

Interesting Facts about Queen of Tears

1. The show is a big-budget drama produced spending ₩56 billion by the production companies Studio Dragon, Showrunners, and Culture Depot.
2. There exists a real-life story that is similar to the plot of ‘Queen of Tears’; Lee Boo-jin, who is one of the Samsung heiresses, weds Im Woo-jae, an employee at her company. However, the couple got divorced.
3. Initially, IU was offered the role of Hong Hae-in, but due to some unfavourable circumstances, she turned down the offer from ‘Queen of Tears’ with due respect.
4. During the filming of ‘Queen of Tears,’ actor Jung Hae-in sent a coffee truck to express his support to Kim Soo-hyun and the other crew members.
5. Jang Yoo-ju, the actress who played the role of Baek Mi-seon (the older sister of Baek Hyun-woo), is a successful model in South Korea.
6. To meet the physical characteristics of the character Hong Hae-in, Kim Ji-woon went on a diet for one year and reduced a considerable amount of weight. In an interview, she said she had avoided eating her favourite dish, sichuan black bean noodles, during her diet period.
7. Song Joong-ki reprised his role as the lawyer Vincenzo Cassano and appeared in a cameo in ‘Queen of Tears’.
8. On 30 March 2023, the first script reading of the show occurred in Seoul.
9. ‘Queen of Tears’ is the third K-drama by Kim Soo-hyun and the playwright Park Ji-eun together after the successful K-dramas ‘Love from the Stars’ (2013-2014) and ‘The Producers’ (2015).
10. The official announcement of Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-woon as the lead cast of ‘Queen of Tears’ came in December 2022.
11. The filming of the show began in April and ended in December. It was filmed in some of the South Korean cities and in Germany.
12. The soundtrack of the drama includes the participation of artists like Crush, Dori, So Su-bin, Choi Yu-ree, Kim Na-young, 10cm, Bss, Isaac Hong, and Heize.
13. On 30 April 2024, the soundtrack album containing every single and background tracks of the show was released.
14. Kim Soo-hyun sang the single ‘Way Home’ for the show, and it was released on 29 April 2024.
15. Initially, the series was decided to stream in December 2023, but due to the clashes in time slots, the drama has been rescheduled to air in 2024.
16. After the second day of the show’s release, it ranked second in the non-English category of Netflix’s Global Top 10 TV.
17. In September 2024, Netflix released its biannual engagement report, stating ‘Queen of Tears’ as one of the most-watched K-dramas on Netflix of all time.

FAQs

1. Who is the director of the drama ‘Queen of Tears’?
   The show is directed by Jang Young-woo and Kim Hee-won.
2. Which actors play the lead roles in the drama ‘Queen of Tears’?
   ‘Queen of Tears’ features Kim Ji-won and Kim Soo-hyun in lead roles.
3. What is the Instagram ID of Kim Ji-won?
   @geewonii.
4. What is the Instagram ID of Kim Soo-hyun?
   @soohyun_k216.
5. How many episodes are there in ‘Queen of Tears’?
   The drama has 18 episodes in total including the 16 core episodes and 2 special episodes.
6. Who wrote the screenplay of ‘Queen of Tears’?
   Park Ji-eun wrote the screenplay for ‘Queen of Tears’.
   
7. When was the K-drama ‘Queen of Tears’ released?
   The show was released on 29 March 2024.
8. Does ‘Queen of Tears’ has a happy ending?
   The drama has a bitter-sweet ending.