Umbrella (2022)

get under the umbrella

WOW. What a breathtaking roller coaster of fun and intrigue. I'm partial to Sageuk dramas so I have watched my fair share and I have to say this is definitely one of the most unique ones I've ever watched.

A lot of times my frustrations lie with the cheesy left state minister and all the politics, but this was done fantastically written and woven with plot twists that you couldn't help but be captivated from the beginning to the end.

You won't be bored the whole 16 episodes.

Sure do I have unanswered questions like why are there no daughters out of this many wives etc but at the same time that would be nitpicky of such a masterpiece.

What I also loved is that it showed us a layer of the palace that we rarely see- the competition between wives and their children, as well as the real intense mothering that must be happening when you have nothing else to live for, but your prince.

The brotherhood was also the ultimate bromance!

The queen really stole the show. She was dimensional- loving, kind, shrewd, brilliant, defensive- every single thing you would ever want in female lead.

That being said- the rest of the cast was incredible from the princes to even the king. This show had heart, emotion and a lot of love.

DON'T miss this one!

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The Strength of a Woman and the Love of a Mother

Under the Queen's Umbrella deserves to win an award for the bold exploration of often overlooked themes. There are so many thoughts and emotions running through my mind while writing this that I will try to distil them as clearly as possible!

1) Firstly, this was undoubtedly a women-driven show. The women were the stars of this show. The men played their complementary roles with charm, but this was a show about women. While it can be said that the handsome young princes were easy on the eyes, the main focus of the entire show was on the Queen, a mother of 5 boys, wife to the King, adversary to the Dowager.

The Queen Im Hwa Ryung was impeccably cast. I cannot imagine a better actress to play the Queen. She was graceful, fierce, protective, benevolent, sassy and vulnerable. She wore every single emotion as elegantly as I imagine a real Queen would. I love how it put an "older" woman as the star. I feel that with the huge number of strong female-lead shows coming out of China and South Korea - we are definitely moving in a more progressive era of entertainment.

The men played fantastic supporting roles. They held up the women so well and let the women actresses really shine like diamonds in this series. The King needed the Queen to help him make right decisions. The princes needed their mother to guide and protect them. The Crown Princess found the love of her life and pursued him. Unlike some older dramas which typecast opinionated Queens as power-hungry (cue almost every other palace drama), crown princesses as wishy-washy and weak and waiting for their prince, this drama portrayed them as women who knew what they wanted in life and went out to get them. It was absolutely refreshing. I really hope more such shows follow this.

2) Secondly, the special unbreakable bond between a mother and her son
This was undoubtedly a show that focused on the mother-son relationship. While some may question why the daughters were not featured in this show, I think for the limited episodes, they made a choice to just focus on the sons.

For such a long time, the mother-son bond has always been ridiculed. Men are called "Mama's boys" if they are too close to their mothers or mothers-in-laws are always stereotyped as "wicked" or "evil" or "selfish". I just loved the relationship between the Queen and the (new) Crown Princess - which was one of mutual respect and even admiration. Although she also had a deep relationship with the (old) Crown Princess. While some of the relationships between a mother and son in the show have brought about tragic endings, the relationships themselves have never been ridiculed or questioned - just the eventual actions and ambitions these women (and sons) have. In fact, for many mother-son relationships, the purity and beauty of their bond was the only redeeming quality for some of the pairs. The director and scriptwriters were very respectful of the bond between mother and son and even at the very end, the King struggled with coming to terms with what his mother did because of the great love and respect he had for her. Every conversation between mother and son was lovingly crafted, every scene and interaction almost sacred.

3) LGBTQ+ issues
I was very surprised to see that even the LGBTQ+ theme was brought up in a way that was extremely respectful and so tenderly. The bond between mother and child made it even more emotional because a mother would do anything to keep her child safe and yet the Queen went beyond keeping him safe, and made him feel seen. In the real world, not to mention that era, most parents would try to keep their own children to the "straight" lane because they think that's the way to keep them "safe" from external harm, but I love how she knew the way to keeping him safe from himself, is to also make him feel seen by himself or his own mother. It was so emotional.

Under the Queen's Umbrella was really one of the best Korean period dramas I have watched to date. The cinematography, script, acting, soundtrack. There is really nothing I can fault. I am also so delighted that these women character driven shows are now no longer the exception, but now, dare I say, becoming the norm! *my inner feminist is doing a happy dance*

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definitely overrated

This story really is so unsatisfactory
I'll make this review super short.
firstly it didn't feel like any genre at all,it felt like a thing of it's own
secondly the storyline was going haywire and not properly executed, take the prince that likes to dress as a girl for example... what exactly were they trying to illustrate
thirdly as per the title I thought the queen would do more as a character but it's really not like that... another thing, I don't get people's mentality, I support what physician kwon did for revenge, I might have killed both the current king and his mother if I was in his shoes, assuming that the physician was the main lead, like the story revolves around him, he would have been appluaded for his revenge even if he killed the entire family, he would have been seen as a cold and unfeeling person who of course would eventually find love
To sum it up, the story wasn't really clear and it's not something I would ever think of rewatching

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Under the Queen's Stares

The drama really needed a better introduction to establish itself properly, it took me a while before it captured my interest. Others may not have the patience. By the time the drama finished, I had no idea how many princes were there. Most of them barely got any screen time, yet had some small side stories. While the prominent ones didn't develop enough. Quality over quantity would've been the right approach. I found the ending to be too subdued, soft, and tame after spending 16 very long episodes of building tension through countless slow-mo shots, mean stares, and passive-aggressive empty threats. This was another area that was lacking, the drama needed more ways to build tension. The drama had some unjustifiable, unwarranted, and under-delivered preachy moments that yanked the viewers out and ruined the atmosphere. This seems to be a common trend with modern titles. Anyway, I see that "Comedy" is one of its listed genres, although it had relatively lighter moments every now and then but these didn't adhere to the comedy genre in any shape or form. I would remove the tag as it's misleading. Speaking of misleading, the synopsis's description of the queen's character was mostly wrong and didn't translate as such into the screen.

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A Mothers' Love knows no boundaries

How to move on from this wonderfully written sageuk drama of 2022? I just cannot believe that it ended, I want more of them.

Great casting, spectacular performances, crispy and well written dialogues, OST is used perfectly on each scenes, face off/slap scenes (figuratively) and you'll feel a whole lot of emotions from the drama. There's character growth and development, and I loved it!

This drama shows different types of motherly love: there's a kind, warm, supporting, forgiving, accepting and protective love; a love that is ruled by greed and obsession that is poisonous to one's child.

I love how they tackle issues, especially related with the 4 grand prince, the other children as well as the King, I'm surprised, I enjoyed his character. As most of the dramas, the father (King) usually is a jerk who's obsessed with power and greed.

Kim Hye Soo is one of my favourite SoKor actress, she knows how to deliver emotions and lines. Her face says it all, even when she's just lifting her eyebrows, you know it wants to express something. She's such a powerful actress, you'll feel all the emotions/character she wanted to portray. I love her!!!

If you haven't watched it, you should start watching it now and surely you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Though, the Queen Dowager had it easy which was kinda lacking as she is a nasty
character. What happened to her doesn't give justice to everything she did from the past.

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Best Historical Drama of 2022

The first Korean historical drama I watched was Scarlett Heart Ryo, which I still consider the best. Next to that comes Mr Queen. I really loved the main lead's acting. From these two I get to understand all the politics, relationships, jealousies, hyprocricies, and issues of trust/mistrust within the palace. I didn't watch Under the Queen's Umbrella until December 2022, when the series had already completed, and as I finished watching all the episodes I could only say: Wow, what a great story line.

Of course the acting was all good: the queen, queen dowager, the king, princes, court ladies were all superb. But the story itself was very strong. You get so many surprised in each episode, not knowing what the queen did before hand. Sometimes as a viewer, I felt "deceived" by her actions by not knowing she did many thing for good purposes, such as accusing her daughter-in-law for murdering the crown prince (when in fact she was saving the crown princesses life). Her relationship with the other wives, the princes, the court doctor, the deposed queen was so beautiful protrayed with many twists and suprises.

I think this is one of the best historical drama I saw in 2020. It was also a visual treat for me to see the costumes, country scenery, and court ceremonies.

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LOVE IT!

As a person who cannot finish a drama unless it really intrigues me in every possible way, I can say I totally binge-watched this series to the very last episode in 2 days, it was just that good! The main actress for the queen did such an amazing job portraying an exasperated, loving, protective mother and a stunning, confident queen so perfectly, you can't help but fall in love with her. I love how the character she plays grows into this strong and badass mother as the story develops, and not from the very beginning as it really adds depth to her character. The story has everything you could ask for, intriguing plotlines and since it's a periodic piece about royalty, oh you can definitely expect some political and family drama. What makes me love this more is the familial bond and interaction between the royal family! the grand princes are such an adorable, troublemaking bunch (poor queen lol) and how the drama isn't too messy and is cleanly resolved. I absolutely couldn't predict the plotline at all, which makes it even better to watch. There really weren't many filler moments that you could skip in this drama either. Overall, an amazing job by the cast and the producing team, and totally one of the must watch k-dramas for 2022!

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the Queen was really a QUEEN

Loved the relationship between the grand princes, Queen really raised them well. And the Queen was really a QUEEN. Loved how king and queen were like friends and king always knew in his heart that queen is never wrong. Our Queen selected a crown princess just like her, i mean they are so similar, they both are free spirited i love them❤️
The ending was satisfying although i was hoping the antagonists to get more cruel punishment but it's okay🤷‍♀️.
Loved how they solved the drama early and gave us a proper happy ending.
I cried at the ending scene it was emotional. The umbrella scene🤧

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Absolutely breathtaking!

I started watching this as soon as it was released and actually stopped in the middle of episode 1 as I felt there were a whole host of characters and they were introduced all at once. It was a bit hard to keep up with it. So I DROPPED IT!!! But there was that one weekend, I had some time and nothing good to watch..so I decided to give it a go. The series had finished airing by then and OMG am I glad I gave it a second chance. I binge watched the whole thing in 2days and 1 night. Here are some of my reasons:
Cinematography - So many beautiful scenes in this show. This is some quality program. You can really see that powers beyond the actors took time to stitch the story well. Simply amazing.
Costume - I watch a lot of Sageuks. But this one takes the cake for costumes. It might be because there are a lot of female characters in it, but the hanboks in this drama deserve their own series I think.
Acting - Top notch acting all around Period!
Story - Going into it I was not convinced that story of palace "back office" would be that interesting. This was proven wrong by episode 2. You really do not need heavy romance, always conspiring Left/Right state ministers for a really good Saguek.
Restraint - We often do not value restraint that much. Most stories do not exercise it and while they all make decent watch, they do not make for memorable, impactful pieces. I loved how the storyline had so much restraint. It was classy all around.
Romance - There was very little of it. However it felt really relevant to the story. They did not overdo it which made the romance itself very enjoyable
Characters - The story had such strong characters. If you have young adults in your family, I highly recommend watching it with them. There are a lot of life lessons here that they would enjoy.

I could go on. All in all, this is one of the most memorable dramas I have watched in a long while. We need more of this!

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Best saeguk this year

So I finally got to watch the last two episodes and man what a ride. It's been so long since I enjoyed a historical so much, needless to say the acting was top notch and the directing was great as well. This is one of the rare extremely good drama that come once in a while, its only flaw is chungha and the unwanted romance for the cp and cps. I just wish it was a little bit longer I diffenetly think this is more of a 20 episode drama at least. 9 out of 10. Could have been 10 if not for that minor annoyance. Ps queen dwager is such a slap worthy annoying character, however I really admire how intelligent/cunning she is.

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POWERFUL!!!

It's been a good minute since I ventured to watch a K-Historical drama. However, where do I start with this Incredible drama?
This was unique in so many ways. The many dramas I've watched whether Chinese or Korean historical dramas .. it was always expected for the queen to be vindictive and the dowager on the same path.
This was pretty expected when it came to certain plots between the dowager and queen .. HOWEVER, the maturity on how these two Bulls came at each other head on ... was nothing to trifle at.
The actress who played the Queen Kim Hye Soo, definitely showed us her worth as a gold star actress among the Veteran cast such as; Kim Hae Sook; Kim Eui Sung; Jang Hyun Sung and of course Choi Won Young.
Let's not forget the younger cast members ... who by all means deserved their gold star with their performances.
This drama was not only refreshing, but definitely left an impression of admiration for what the queen accomplished throughout.
I think what touched my heart most, was .. this was a Queen who not just embraced her own children, but also the other princes and their mothers (aka concubines). She taught and punished with a firm hand, but not allowing these concubines or their sons lose face.
Incredible and out of the box, a character that we don't expect for a Queen to do.
I know that this will be a drama I'll go back to watch. I can't remember the last K-historical drama that entertained me enough to keep my full attention (other than Empress Ki).

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