La Regina delle Lacrime (2024)

Should be called King of Tears and Ice Maiden

This is a single layer story about a greedy woman who abandoned her son and coiled herself around a rich ceo to inherit all hus wealth by destroying his family. And she is truly wicked - doesn't shy from murder, sending her own child away to America etc etc.

In this straight layer you then have multiple players who are entangled. Then there are subsets to these people.
Simple, boring, clichéd, seen that before, yawn.

What then races these dramas to the top are the players and their nuances - both of which are absent here.

Let's start with the players.
Stand out performances by Grace (the spy), the FL wimpy brother, the FL secretary, the ML attorney friend and the bad villain (abandoned son)..

And now the leads:
One would think that if the premise is love/marriage /divorce/remarriage to same person, then there has to be an iota of chemistry.. Should they not test this in the audition? Maybe the stars are so big they discarded the auditions.
So Alas Alas - here we have to use our wildest imagination and fantasy to assume the two are madly in love.- because frankly they behave like they are allergic to each other.

There is not one heart fluttering moment between them, no sizzle, no intimacy, no intensity.
We have miss ice maiden who is mean to the ML through ep.15 and then agrees to hold his hand in16.
We have the king of tears who spends 80% of his screen time with wet eyes.

What a pitiful drama.

I think k dramas need to stop focusing on these so called big regional stars and get back to making their old classic story line with real actors.

Think about it - we've had 3 dumps already in 2024 with hot shot actors :
Doctor Slump, Welcome to Samdalri, and now this Queen of tears........all dramas that totally missed the point.

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What. A. Letdown

QOT had the potential to be a heart-wrenching exploration of fading love in marriages but instead it gives you bland nothing but a frustrating mess.
Sure, the initial premise was intriguing. A couple from opposite worlds, Haein with her messy family dynamic burdened by family issues and Hyunwoo a seemingly picture-perfect handsome guy from a humble family falling in love despite their differences? This is what I signed up for. From the promos, the show even promised to delve into the complexities of their unraveling marriage.

But here's where things go south. Haein who was surprisingly honest about her family baggage from the get-go during the proposal, gets painted as the villain in her own marriage. We see her blaming herself for the miscarriage, a wound the show never bothers to properly explore. Its there solely for the shock value, just another trope for the writer to add to the list. How can you leave something as important as this, which apparently caused Hyunwoo to be withdraw from the marriage open to interpretation? If this was the main reason, why wasn’t it discussed between the couple? Major Ick.
The initial portrayal of Haein as a cold, workaholic CEO immediately positions viewers on Hyun-woo's side in their contentious divorce. Yet, the series never fully shows us the nuances of a complex character like Haein. After bombarding us with many reasons why Hyunwoo wants to end the marriage, these motivations are inexplicably dropped. The narrative then shifts gears, showing Hyunwoo seemingly forgetting his initial animosity and falling back in love just like that. This was so frustrating. Why establish these compelling reasons for the divorce only to completely abandon them later? This emotional whiplash left me dizzy.

The show never bothers to address the root of their problems. We never get that crucial conversation, that heart-to-heart where they dissect what went wrong. We never get them discussing their insecurity or even the miscarriage.
The only saving grace is the phenomenal acting by Kim Soohyun and Kim Jiwon. Their performances are the sole reason this drama doesn't completely sink. But even their talent can't salvage a story that abandons its own premise.

I believe unconventional love stories can be powerful. But without proper exploration of the conflict, it feels like a missed opportunity. QOT had the potential for greatness, something people remember by for years to come, hailed as one of the top kdramas ever made, but the execution left me wanting more. It's a show that relies solely on its cast's charm, ultimately failing to deliver on the promise of a unique and thought-provoking drama.
While I don’t regret watching it, there are far better K-dramas out there exploring love and relationships with more depth. This one, sadly, remains stuck in a melodramatic telenovela past.

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Worst Korean Drama script of all time

I cannot even imagine how the same scriptwriter who gave us Crash Landing on You somehow managed to come up with this steaming pile of excrement. Colleges and universities should use this as a case study in bad writing. It constantly insults the viewers intelligence to the point that one is left completely exasperated and confused at how it could even exist. This viewer only managed to reach the end it all through a combination of hate watching and intrigue at how such a high end, expensive major studio production with top class actors and soundtrack could come to this. One completely idiotic, unrealistic, completely unbelievable plot twist after another with every conceivable k-drama trope after another used and then reused until the viewer feels brutalized by the stupidity of it all. This show is dog ____.

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Dear lord…

I started watching this show because I liked the casting and everything else, but this is it. I watched the first two episodes and decided that I wouldn’t watch anymore, but my mom started watching, so I just went with it.

Why in the great heavens a couple that has been married for 3 years and almost had a child together so against skinship? Don’t get me wrong, I know they aren’t close anymore because of their fights and lack of communication, but this is beyond that.

Hae In got pregnant with Baek Hyun Woo’s baby but was surprised just by seeing him shirtless, like, let’s be real, PLEASE. I’m saying this because they didn’t seem like a real couple that married each other because they were in love and attracted to each other. It was so robotic and weird. And the damn plot of Hae In being sick was so dragged through the episodes and solved in like ONE episode.

The only thing that I really liked about this drama was Kim Ji Won’s acting and her character clothes.

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Plotholes, tropes and bad writing.

Let me start off by saying that I was hooked for the first 11 episodes. Yes, the story is soap opera-y but the actors and actresses acted the heck out of what was given to them. Kim Soo-hyun can do no wrong and I’ve always enjoyed Kim ji-won so the problem is not because of them (or the production, cinematography, styling, etc). It’s the writing.

The last few episodes were just so painful to watch. Common sense were non existent, villains just did whatever the heck they please, the story just dragged and more and more tropes are being added.

I’m serious - nothing made sense.

Like, how did the SML think that he can just “erase” the FL’s past by throwing away some pictures and mementos. She exposed him on national tv and have recordings of him threatening her! It’s so dumb.

Why is our smart ML not more careful? The SML and his mom literally stole, threatened and put a hit on him. Like maybe get some bodyguards or let the hospital know, “hey there’s this guy that’s dangerous to the patient, beware!”

Why weren’t FL’s family with her in Germany?

Why did it take so long to convince her to do the surgery!? I thought the choice was a no brainer.

Anyway - if I didn’t have only two episodes left I would’ve just dropped this drama. I will finish it.

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Perfect example of how great actors can’t make up for a weak story

I don’t care how popular a drama is and how much attention it is getting because of popular cast but if the story is shit nothing much popular actors can do to. Well the drama did got popular but won’t be remembered for that long as it offer nothing new and refreshing.

Honestly I couldn’t understand whether the story’s main focus was on issues of a married couple, illness of the female lead or the villains revenge schemes . Because there was just too much going on and it made a mess.
I WISH OH HOW I WISH the focus was on the marital issues of the lead couple instead of all the other drama then this show could’ve been soo good. But what a waste!! Don’t even get me started on the amnesia!

I tried really hard to relate to the characters but couldn’t. Characters like cold CEO Female lead and jack of all trade yet caring Male lead are the ones we have seen before multiple times. And then the dumb and incompetent brother who is going crazy after her scammer wife! He was annoying ugh

What intrigued my interest in the drama was how the ML wanted to end the marriage at the beginning of the show but that plot was thrown out pretty quickly without proper explanation. And that plot was the very reason giving some comedic side to the show otherwise it was just crying crying and crying. Honestly it got really annoying at the end.

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OVERLY HYPE

I was excited for this drama for long time because I am a fan of the Main Leads.
And the first Trailers also seem intriguing.

Cinematography is just okay imo - it's beautiful but I do not think it fits well for this kind of drama.

Plot is just so-so it started interesting but honestly speaking, I was disappointed. It was really tough for me to finish each episode without getting bored. And then it became overly convoluted! Too many things happening, too many unnecessary and additional stories.
It would've been better if they focused on the relationship between the main characters because honestly speaking it just doesn't make sense.
They fell in love and then eventually their marriage didn't work, ML started hating FL. He was even happy to hear that she is dying but then suddenly he cannot live without her anymore?
I wish the writers focused more on their relationship instead of mini backslash. Give us a proper explanation on HOW their relationship turned sour.

And honestly speaking, FL isn't likable as well. Almost every character is unlikable in this series. And just like most kdrama - the emotional negligence of parents are just brushed off in the end. They said sorry and it's forgiven and forgotten

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Horrible show unless you love to be angry all the time.

Before i give my two cents i want to say that i watched up to episode six and then skipped big chunks up to the last episode since it was just horrible to watch all those evil people.

This is one of those shows where i loose hope in Humanity.

i find the characters very unlikable even the male lead. While i think the acting wasn't to bad but ultimately it wasn't believable for me. I am very aware that there many people who love these kind of shows and i can tolerate it to a degree but not in this Drama.

I think the drama has a high production value and capable cast but the story and characters are just so bad that i would never recommend it to somebody unless you're into shows with horrible people and want your blood to be boiled.

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A mess

It felt like first 10 episodes were written by one writer and last 6 episodes were written by a completely different writer because there was little to no coherence in the plot. Last episodes were filled with all old k-drama tropes and lacked any originality. The writer run out of ideas as how to proceed the story as the main couple had already cleared their differences. So there was nothing left aside from bringing the amnesia plot.

The writer filled the story with every possible cliche and trope possible. I was on verge of breakdown as to what they did with the story and ruined it. They had the perfect cast and a reasonable story to began with but it all went down the drain. The constant lead’s constant crying made me exhausted.

It would have been fun if comedy was retained till the end of the drama and lead couple's martial issues were focused on rather we were given unnecessary drama. And to top it all ,Hong hae in's amnesia after surgery made me completely lose it. Don't have it in me to watch it again or recommend it to anyone .

Actors were the only good part about the show. They saved the show.

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Just my opinion...

Apparently, I watched a different show than everyone else. I'll put the sadly necessary disclaimer - this is my own personal opinion, so don't come after me.

For me, the show had a lot of style, and not much substance. Beautifully filmed and beautifully dressed beautiful people, so much of the time I felt like I was a spectator watching a fashion show runway catwalk. Lots of walking from here to there, "look at what I'm wearing now", models with no expression.

I just didn't like anyone in this show. For me, there has to be something likeable about someone to make me care about what happens to them. Both the ML and the FL had personality issues. FL in particular was unlikeable, she was such a cold person. Kim Ji Won tends to play the same type of character, and her lack of facial expressions just doesn't endear her to me. The ML's reaction when he found out she was sick was just wrong. And the sequence, with the overabundance of flashbacks, was out of synch and made it hard for me to like them. I didn't believe in their story and was never able to feel their love for one another, even at the end.

And can we talk about tropes? In this drama, the tropes were piled high, one after another. When they got to the amnesia part, I laughed out loud - my trope bingo card was complete!

Should you watch it? Don't go by me, because apparently, I'm an outlier. Give it a try and come to your own conclusion.

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Mix of Genres With Stellar Cast

I rarely write reviews, but maybe this is the TV series that might get me back to writing them on a regular basis! Hooray, I guess.
 
The premise of the story is very straightforward: we have an established married couple who goes through a crisis, which is very realistic, as nowadays, the percentage of divorced couples is skyrocketing in multiple countries, and with South Korea being one of them, I guessed that they tried to create a series that would give the South Korean audience hope in marriage once again. Did they succeed? We’re going to see that a few years later! Some statistics take some time, folks.
 
Let’s talk about my enjoyment of this series as a big fan of the cast.
 
The acting is marvelous and stunning, and no one can take this opinion away from me—not even the storyline. Going into this series, I knew beforehand that I was in for an acting treat and basically a masterclass, which I was not wrong about. I cannot name all the cast names, but imagine the list being very long. While some are praising mostly male and female leads, I am praising everyone—even the side characters—because even those side characters were played by well-known and talented actors. This is why I just have to give them all 10 out of 10!
 
Now, let’s move onto the music department, which... didn't overwhelm me, but this once again wasn’t shocking to me, as I am very picky with music. I like a lot of genres, but I cherry pick from each, so to have an OST  impress me, it takes a lot! I can literally name the OSTs that truly hypnotized me and are webbed in my memory. Sadly, this TV series simply didn’t have a single OST or BGM that made me shiver, cry, or just directly search for it on music platforms to listen to the full version. This is the reason why I am giving the music department 4.5 points, which isn’t terrible, but quite...below average, let’s say. It’s not that I hated it, but did it make me interested? Far from it.
 
Production value and visual FX—what can I say? Perfect! Yeah, it was an expensive series, and they showed this with various things, not just a stellar cast. I really don’t have a single complaint about the production value, because it was truly breathtaking. The shots were amazing, the locations were wonderful, and they made me feel calm and cozy. The costumes were also amazingly fitted and complimented the figures of all the cast members. A special thanks to the costume designer of our favorite auntie.
 
Now, let’s get to the backbone of the whole series—the plot! Yeah, we have reached the weakest link of this whole series, and it is truly sad because I have been waiting for years for another amazing TV series, not only from Su Hyeon’s side but from Ji Won’s side as well. Both their previous projects didn’t interest me much, so I had high hopes. Me being into more mature romances and overall melodrama vibes kind of made my expectations skyrocket even more. In the end, I was not satisfied.
 
Let me emphasize that the premise served me well and truly fed the melodramatic me, but the execution was the part where the series failed. The long format of the episodes was truly painful, as everything looked like filler, and I swear if you skipped some of the episodes and started in later, you wouldn’t miss a lot. I do think the plot was underdeveloped and lacking in many aspects. Some characters—the main couple—weren't written thoroughly, and for my taste, they were bland, and I honestly found myself not rooting for them at all. I get it; the premise is a marriage crisis and getting back together, but the writer has written mostly about the female lead as a very dislikable person, and I get it—she was born into a rich family, so she didn’t know that her manners were sometimes very... wrong. Still, I felt that the differences between the couple were way too big to overcome in real life, and since the series tried to portray a realistic relationship, I do think they failed. They were way too different, and even though couples can overcome differences and be happy, I felt that what they have isn’t anything too deep, and the love from both came out of nowhere. Other than that, the male lead truly tried to work the marriage out, but the female lead was very rejective of his attempts, and seeing the cycle repeat was very tiring.
 
In terms of the dramatic plot, I have to disagree with others who say that it reminded them of older TV series. I was there, and they were far more dramatic, I would say, and more tropey, while this had only like two prominent tropes: the second male lead being intrusive and loco, and the upgraded version of White Truck of Doom. I do not consider female lead being rich as a trope, sorry. I can vividly say and name the tropes in order with older series, and this series didn’t follow them at all, so I personally didn’t feel as if I was watching an older series.
 
Overall, I think the series would stand out more to me if it had shorter episodes and maybe even fewer episodes, and most importantly, a set genre. As I said, going into this, I expected melodrama, but in the end, it was a mix of melodrama and comedy, which ruined it even more for me. They dealt with serious topics (which I praise them for), but they set them in very bad times, I think? Like, writer, please decide if it’s going to be a comedy or a melodrama. Some say that because of the heavy topics, it was a melodrama, but I have to disagree. For me, it had very little melodrama vibes, even with the serious topics, and I hated that. I think if they strictly kept it as a melodrama and shot it with the same vibes as well, I would have enjoyed it far more.

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