I’ve been excited about Queen of Tears since it was announced last year that Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won will be leading the cast. As some of you may know, I’ve watched Fight for My Way and It’s Okay Not to Be Okay multiple times. Seeing these two favorites of mine in one drama was enough to get me on board. Having Crash Landing on You writer Park Ji-eun tell the story also immediately brought my expectations way up. Honestly, I was actually quite nervous about whether it would live up to the hype but I should not have worried. Just like their previous works, Queen of Tears managed to deliver on all of its promises.

Synopsis: Department store chaebol Hong Hae In (Kim Ji Won) falls in love with small town big shot and SNU law graduate Baek Hyun Woo (Kim Soo Hyun) and marries him against all odds. However, three years into their union, Hyun Woo finds himself wanting to break free from his wife and her oppressive family. Just as he was about to breach the issue of divorce, Hae In tells him she has a terminal illness, forcing him to stay on until their marriage ends naturally.

Straight from its first episode, Queen of Tears already manages to set the stage for all these complex plots — Baek Hyun feeling like a slave to the rich family, Hae In seeming cold and calculating on the outside but struggling with her own issues internally. This way, both perspectives are shown to the audience. Hyun Woo is overwhelmed and his pride trampled by the Hong family, while on the other side of the spectrum, Hae In silently protects her husband in her own way without him knowing.

Through frequent flashbacks, the series establishes what went wrong with Hyun Woo and Hae In’s marriage — their opposite personalities, lack of communication, their family background. While Hyun Woo grew up to be the hometown hero, beloved by everyone, Hae In struggles even to be treated kindly by her own mother. While audiences empathize with Hyun Woo, they also understand Hae In’s struggles too, although at this point, people would probably be Team Hyun Woo or Team Hae In, rather then Team BaekHong.

Kim Soo Hyun is an amazing actor and portraying the complex character of Baek Hyun Woo, his innocence, his kindness, and his genuine love for his wife, as well as his competent side as a lawyer looking out for his in laws’ interests, this is all chump change to him. He effortlessly delivers on Hyun Woo’s earnestness, his guilt at deceiving his wife, and his selflessness with charm and charisma. I love how he patiently speaks to Hae In when she’s having one of her fits before or post surgery. His tone is a giveaway of how much he loves her. Those Italian suits and his sports car also make him look even more sexy.

On the flipside, Kim Ji Won also deserves praise for giving justice to the role of Hong Hae In, her constant need to appear strong and unfazed, her need to assert her authority, having her guard up all the time. She had to portray the emotional scenes with these in mind, and you could tell that she was actively trying to temper her portrayal. This made her dramatic scenes even more compelling because you can sense her pain at the betrayal she suffered from everyone, even the person she trusted the most.

The chemistry between Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won was pure perfection. They were a visual match and had amazing rapport that really made people root for their love story, no matter how many conflicts arose in the 16 episode series.

The casting for Queen of Tears was impeccable. Whether its a family member or villain, everyone came to deliver, and deliver they did. Every character had amazing character development, from the Hong family and their fall from grace, and their eventual relationship with the Baek family. The fact that these families who had nothing in common would find themselves working together to protect their Hyun Woo and Hae In was such a wonderful and powerful part of the story.

I loved how Soocheol (Kwak Dong Yeon), despite being a simpleton, was perfect at one thing — being a family man. His loyalty to his wife and child was extraordinary. I loved that Hyun Woo’s mom treated Hae In as her own daughter from the beginning and gave her unconditional love that her own mother was not able to provide. It was so touching. I was crying buckets when she found out about Hae In’s tumor and scolded her son for betraying her. I loved how everyone seemed to mature in the face of conflict in their own ways. And the small town folk were just the right amount of good vibes that the series needed to breathe from the evil ways of Eun Sung and his mother. Park Sunghoon may be a great guy IRL but it seems he may be stuck on villain mode for a while just because he plays them so well. I was so scared of his eyes when he was in delusional mode.

Queen of Tears had a lot going on for the most part. Some criticized it for being a makjang or a mix of various plots and in a sense, it was true. However, the flawless acting of the cast more than made up for any plot points that the story may have had. Audiences will find themselves invested in the ending.

The ending was great in a way that it tied up every plot point and even gave Aunt Beomja a romcom angle, albeit a slow moving one. I liked that the surgery was not a perfect solution to Hae In’s illness and that Hyun Woo and Hae In had to fall in love again slowly and work through the issues they had before from the lessons they learned from failure. I loved that every plot point opened in the beginning made sense with the ending, especially when the filmmakers expounded on what Hyun Woo and Hae In promised to each other in the proposal scene when they got married. It was great to see everyone receive the karma they deserved, whether it be good or bad.

Queen of Tears made me cry buckets of tears and made my heart flutter more times than I can count (My favorites were Hae In’s jealous scenes). While I feel that Crash Landing on You was the better and more balanced drama overall, I felt that Queen of Tears had its own appeal, because solid direction from PD Jang Young Woo and Kim Hee Won. It also had lots of lessons for married couples, families, and friends that were relatable in real life.

My only complaint would have to be the very few romantic scenes between BaekHong in the final portion of the drama. I felt we deserved more because of all the stress we went through. All in all, Queen of Tears was an extraordinary drama, fit for those who would want to take a full journey to come full circle. It was filled with more tears than laughter but still it managed to tell the story of how even those who love each other so much manage to forget once in a while, whether literally or figuratively. Personally, I hope Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won manage to work on another project again. Something lighter please.