7.5 - Podcast Review of Episodes 9 and 10 of Queen of Tears K Drama Chat

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 9 and 10 of Queen of Tears, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in, Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo, Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-Seong, Kwak Dong-Yeon as Hong Soo-cheol, and Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye. We are joined by Ernabel Demillo, a frequent guest on K Drama Chat and Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Peter's University and host of the Emmy-award winning "Asian American Life" show on CUNY-TV. We discuss:

* The song we feature during the recap: Fallin’ by Isaac Hong.
* Queen of Tears is now the second most popular K Drama of all time on tvN, after Crash Landing on You; both shows are written by Park Ji-eun.
* tvN has announced two extra episodes at the end of Queen of Tears; what will the episodes be about?
* Kim Soo-hyun has been nominated for Best Actor in the Baeksang Awards; we feel that Kim Ji-won, Han So-hee, Park Seo-joon, and Kim Tae-ri were snubbed.
* The Hong family is in a terrible situation. They’ve been locked out of their house, they don’t have cars, their credit cards have been canceled, they’ve lost control of their company, and they’re lost their jobs.
* The only people who take them in are Hyun-woo and his family.
* The Hong family is so unaccustomed to hardship and they’re miserable in Yongdu-ri.
* There is such a contrast between the two families in the way they treat each other.
* There is a huge contrast between the two mothers in the way they treat Hae-in.
* Both dads are having an identity crisis: they have lost their jobs and purpose.
* Hyun-woo and Hae-in are driving us crazy because they won’t communicate with each other!
* We think their lack of communication stems from the time Hae-in emptied the nursery and Hyun-woo left the marital bedroom. When this happened, they stopped talking to each other and then their pride wouldn’t let them ask the other back into the bedroom.
* Hyun-woo and Hae-in kept missing opportunities to patch up their relationship, including when Hae-in overheard Hyun-woo talking about wanting to be by her side, when Hyun-woo came home all beat up, and when Hae-in realized the pink MP3 player was hers.
* There are many in Korea who think the story of Hae-in and Hyun-woo is based on the true story of the granddaughter of the Samsung chaebol who married an ordinary staffer. In 1999, Samsung heiress Lee Boo Jin married Lim Woo Jae.
* Hyun-woo does a great job of convincing David Yoon that he doesn’t know where Hae-in is, even though he did pick them up in a van.
* The reference to Prince Sado, who was the father of the prince Yi San in Red Sleeve, and who later became King Jeongjo.
* Instead, Hyun-woo is investigating the land broker, the owner of the data restoration company, the failed investment fund, and the location of the Chairman.
* Hyun-woo convinced the deceived farmers to sue the land broker, which meant the land broker couldn’t leave the country for his honeymoon. Later, the land broker and his thugs try to beat up Hyun-woo, who manages to defend himself ably because he was a champion boxer in his youth.
* Our crazy predictions for this show:
-- Hyun-woo is going to try and prove that the power of attorney that Moh Sul-hee signed is invalid because it’s a forgery, she’s not really Moh Sul-hee!
-- Hyun-woo’s brother, Baek Hyun-tae, is going to be important because he knows a lot about stocks and previously owned Queen Group stock.
-- Beom-seuk, the Chairman’s estranged son, will have some insight into the embezzlement that could save the Chairman, or the person who knows where the secret fund is.
-- Cheon Da-hye, Soo-cheol’s wife, will come back and turn on David Yoon.
* Moh Sul-hee and David Yoon are now at odds with each other because David Yoon didn’t want the Hong family banished. David Yoon wants to be with Hae-in.
* We speculate about why David Yoon is so obsessed with Hae-in.
Until the very end, Hyun-woo is in the dark about