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May 29Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

I've been waiting to know how you felt about this drama!!!! And concur! Just to add to favorite twist/scene is the apology Hae-In's mother gives in the stairwell of the hospital. The whole chaebol family being human, vulnerable all the while holding true to Kdrama tropes, was wonderful. Which still begs the demand for better and more nuanced integration of the adoption trope! The ending was gorgeous!

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Yes! And for whatever reason, Na Young-hee's acting for the first half of the series was stilted and out of place in this series. I know she's a better actress than that when given the chance. So it was really rewarding to watch her apologize to Hae-in. We finally saw the person, rather than the caricature.

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May 29Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

I thought of you when I watched Queen of Tears because of our past exchange about portrayal of adoption. This was the first show I watched with a lead adopted character and as his storyline unfolded I thought oh my gosh, just like Jae-Ha wrote! It was entertaining the worse he got, only because I thought of your articles every time. It’s like they have a checklist 😄😭 He was so awful! So well acted—I’m not that shocked he’d get hate mail! Juxtaposed against the storyline of the brother accepting his baby as his own, well, that made that part all the sweeter.

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Wow, thanks for sharing that with, Bee! Park Sung-hoon was soooo good in his role, but I really wish the screenwriter didn't make him an adoptee. There are so many ways that Eun-sung could've been the same, awful character that he was, without having that background.

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very true! he clearly still had a crazy mother so it would’ve made plenty of sense to us either way.

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May 30Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

Queen of Tears definitely went to my top K-drama list of all-time - I feel like all of KSH's is on that list, he is an extremely talented actor, every emotion palpable! I loved this drama so much. I agree, Soocheol had a lot of faults but he was most certainly a great husband and a great father, which is more than can be said about his own father and the grandfather.

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I want to rewatch it, knowing what I know how, to see if I missed anything!

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