jayakris

Oh, I had not noticed that! We had that conversation earlier after Ep 11, and I see that "words I didn't mean" was exactly what I had suggested for the translation. But, like I said then, the subbers are under instruction to be brief and they sometimes mess things up, overdoing it.

More than a good ending. They nicely improved Kwakkie's role in the last few episodes and made him one of the characters of strength in the end. He stood his ground and protected his woman and child, showing what sincere love is all about. He made everybody respect him for that too.

No, it was not a bad ending at all, story-wise. I liked it. Quite nicely done. No huge surprises or anything, so if anybody looked for something totally unexpected or some big revelation, this might feel underwhelming, maybe. But to me, it was entirely satisfying. They even had the drama end with "Happy Ending" shown on screen! How can we not be happy about it? All said and done, this was a romance story through and through. Beautiful romance, on which the two leads performed magnificently. The rest of the drama had holes, and they did not do anywhere near a perfect (or even a very good) job of it. But when it came to romance, the drama aced it. I think there was not even one scene in all 16 episodes with the two leads that was not done perfectly - in writing, direction and most importantly, acting. I am quite picky normally, but I loved this drama. But then, I am a sucker for good romance in dramas, which has been rare lately. The Korean audience certainly liked the drama, as it broke all records for viewership at TVN and will go down as one of the most watched dramas in recent history.

Sensible warning, and now you have made everybody watch Ep 15 urgently Actually the beginning portion is also quite frustrating in E.15. Then it gets better, as things start turning around... Stuff seems to be looking really good for our favorite two leads by the end, and then we have the ending scene. They really want Ep.16 to break all viewership records, for sure. LOL.

I wasn't paying close attention, but I think it is only because they need some time to do the paperwork to change authority, and her power of attorney probably holds till then. Need to go back and check the portions of the last two episodes that I fast forwarded ...

Keen observation, and very well put. The male lead role was fairly straight forward, as he is a normal person and not a complicated character - yet he created so much of emotions in all his scenes by acting exactly like real people would react to the sad situations. The female lead had to act as an unusual character, so if she got things wrong in her acting, the emotional content could be lost, and the audience would not have liked the character much. She too aced the role, as though the actress is of a similar nature in her real life. She had such a clear sense of what kind of a person Hae-In is, right form the start. All in all, it has been a real pleasure to see these two leads' acting, and how they have carried a drama that was actually quite poorly made when it comes to everything else.

I agree. I think the two leads are not getting enough compliments for their acting. Their scenes together are amazingly realistic. Both do a lot of acting with their eyes, but KSH is exemplary at showing emotions just in his eyes. KJW does a lot of small things with her mouth, which I have rarely seen anybody else do in drama acting, and it is all at appropriate times to convey something or other in what she feels. I think she is just making expressions she makes in real life. The times when each of them break down and cry is something to see. These two are essentially living their roles. This is not acting; it is just living as the character. Incredible, really. Though I said above that the episode was dragging from the story-line standpoint, it did not bore me at all because I was so engrossed in what emotional turmoil the leads were in. Really, nothing much new had happened at that point when she changed her mind and decided to get the surgery, but their acting made us feel that it was natural for her to take so long to change her mind (even when opposing the surgery did not make that much logical sense) and it felt natural that she decided to do it at that point. Basically she was going through a kind of deep confusion that was to be expected, and their realistic acting and the time the drama devoted to it all, made us feel that it was all very realistic - because we were also forced to feel their emotions. I know, I am probably not making my point all that clear... Tough to explain, but we can't deny that the two leads captivate us and drag us deep into the life they are living, at an emotional level.

Another sloooooowwww episode. And then everything went wrong for a few minutes at the end (but there is a hint of a positive turn-around at the end of it too), and I did not watch it, as I cannot stand that fellow EunSung. i did not enjoy this episode at all.

Oh boy, you pointed to a really troublesome possibility there, of her losing her memory and being kidnapped by YES who tries to brainwash her. I would hate to see that. Yeah, too few episodes left to really do all that, thank God.

Maybe not boring, but I also found the episode dragging. Lots of cuteness from Hae-In though. Really sad to see her do all that, knowing all the uncertainties of whether she would die or live. Her acting after asking him, "how did you even get into Seoul National Univ?" was really cute. I thought one of the 3 secrets would be about the drowning accident, but I guess Hae-In doesn't know who saved her. Nothing much happened in this episode though.

A nice article listing the best scenes from the drama so far... https://screenrant.com/queen-of-tears-15-best-scenes-so-far-ranked/ Kwakkie fans will love the 7th best scene.

That must be Moonlight Drawn by Clouds where Kwakkie was the bodyguard and close friend of the male lead Crown Prince. Kwakkie was very good in a serious role there. I think we saw him with long hair a few times there.

I like his versatility too. I have seen him in at least 5 or 6 dramas; and he always does his job. I hope he gets a good lead role soon. Hopefully in a serious role as a surgeon in a medical drama or a police detective in a crime drama. I understand the feeling. It must be frustrating for his fans to keep seeing him typecast. Hopefully he will be the "transformed guy who became serious enough to save his family" in the last 4 episodes.

But didn't you find it odd that she was being nasty to the chairman? What was the need for her to do that, when she still needed to get something from him? Why would she bring out her true self already? I didn't get it... Another plot hole, probably. I love the way the drama has orchestrated the romance between the leads, and their scenes are so carefully written and shot, but I need to let go off the shoddy job here and there in everything else. (As for why she did not tell HyunWoo that she thought ES was him, I guess I can grudgingly buy the reason EunSung gave her that it might shock HW that she has advanced to the next level of cancer, and so she wanted to tell HW a bit later in the day and not on the road right there. Having just had the shock herself, she might have been a bit confused and still doubting herself on whom she was talking to, also)

I think the problem is that there aren't that many bad words used in common speaking in Korean as there are in English... In Engish we have punk, lowlife, jerk, bas**d, a*s, jackass, worm, blockhead, fool, idiot, dolt, dunce, dork, twit, nitwit, numskull, punk, SOB, f**ker, m-f'er, sucker, bi*ch, hag, wench, sl*t, tramp, broad, who*e) so on... Most words are used in various contexts in common speaking too. But what happens in English is that we do not have that many flexible words that fit all contexts. In such cases, English speakers would add something else... like "godforsaken women", or "f'ing punk" or "damned brat" "bloody SOB" etc. People who translate never go for those options as they make the subtitles longer. Korean drama conversations, on the other hand, use only a few words for all the above cases ("sekki", "gaesekki", "gaejibe", "paboo", "meongcheongi" "ee-neom" etc)... Well, there are some other potent words out there, but they are not used by "decent" people in Korea and are considered unacceptable (censored too) in dramas, while most of the bad words in English are used by decent people too, and nothing much gets censored in English dramas/serials. So, when the Korean hears a "gaejibe" in a drama, they feel how strong a curse it was, based on the context. But the translator struggles to pick an appropriate word from English and they just go for "brat" even for a woman murderer. There is no such catch-all word the subbers can rely on. I understand their predicament, but I too sometime wish they would stop using "jerk" "brat" and "punk" for everything, and went for some of the many other bad words and phrases that exist in English. Yeah. I don't know if the mistress madam caused the downing accident, but it is possible that Eun Sung had tried to prevent Hae-in's brother from saving her, so that he could go save her... But by the time his fight with the brother finished it was too late and Hyun-woo had saved her already. Who knows!

You are right. I think it is not the fault of the actors, but rather of the Producer-Directors who ask them to do it. Like they think that comical relief needs over-acting. The PDs probably feel that if they do not over-act they will be taken as doing serious roles and so there will be no humor felt by the viewers. That may even be true, as the Korean audience are so used to not expecting them to act normal. I don't know, but I also don't like it when they do it that way. Kwakkie, acting as SuCheol, is often type-cast and asked to over-act, as he is good at producing some humor with that. You can see that he can do quite fine in regular acting too, like in Ep.12 today ( @partyon, since you asked about Kwakkie...

Good catch! I hadn't noticed that the subs were different, as I was listening only to the Korean there. Yes, the adjective, 마음과는다른 ("differently from what was in the mind") in front of "blurted out words" (내뱉다 is literally "to spit out," but closer to "blurt out" in meaning), was very important. It clearly showed that she was not "saying harsh words" knowingly, but saying things she did not mean in a careless and cavalier manner. I would have translated it as "carelessly blurted out words I didn't mean" But the problem is that (I think) the Netflix subbers, as also I believe viki and other sites' subbers, have been asked to be brief in everything, as Korean is often quite compact and would need a little more lengthy English lines to properly translate. So they go overboard in skipping details. The idea of finding the most brief word is fine and necessary, but in most cases, Netflix' problem is something else. The time segmentation of the subs. They set up the subs to stay on screen only to the exact time point when the spoken sound finishes, so they flash by and we cannot even look at the acting in our hurry to read the lines. This is totally unnecessary in most cases, and I don't know why they are stubborn about it. Like in the above instant, when there were many seconds of gaps between parts of the sentences spoken, and proper subs could be given that lingered a half second longer for readability. Plus, they changed the order to fit the English order, and made you almost forget what was said earlier before finishing "despite all the harsh words" when what was said in the second segment was entirely different. This is all too much clashing for many of us who know at least some Korean and are left confused. Just give a proper translation and use gaps in speaking within a sentence to let the subs linger on screen. It is like we are in a war with the subs, to read it before they go away. What is he hurry? It would be much better if Netflix would just let the subs linger a little longer on screen (0.5 second is more than enough in most cases), which would allow for cleaner and closer translations that do not drop details. (By the way, I know these things from doing subtitles for the old crowdsourced darksmurf substitles site several years ago before Netflix, Viki etc got enough subbers to do things fast. We used to rarely drop anything in what was said, and never Americanized the lines or context much, though the subs often looked "unprofessional" because many subbers were newbies. We would just extend the time segments wherever we could and let the lines stay on screen a bit longer, so nobody needed to rewind to see something that flashed by too fast)

Interesting that this brief exchange stayed in my mind too, though maybe for a different reason. Somehow the Netflix translation didn't feel quite right to me. I generally listen to the Korean, but some subs catch my eye sometimes like this did. "The same goes for me" was the Netflix translation of what she said. That was okay, but it perhaps lost a little nuance in what she said. What she actually said meant "I as well, for the same reason" (나도 그래서 그래). Had she said the usual 나도 그래, that would be a straight "me too". Maybe this was why it did not came across as too cold to me. Rather it felt like she was deliberately acting cold. Even hinting that she knew he was also deliberately saying something (in Ep 9) that he didn't exactly mean. The extra 그래서 ("for that reason", "the same way") in what she said was probably why I felt that way. By the way, welcome to Soompi and this thread. Please post more comments. This drama is great and deserves more comments and discussions! Vincenzo was at first part of Italian mafia in that earlier drama, so they were mixing it in. That scene was quite funny though people who had not watched the other drama might find it all odd and wonder what the big deal with the lawyer was... You are right, I also have not seen any drama where the male lead cries so much. Maybe the "queen of tears" is actually the male lead. They should have called it "King of tears" !

A cute short clip from Kim Jiwon

Thanks for that. I was wondering about it too. They both keep saying they are divorced, but I couldn't remember if they had both signed it and submitted it at the Government office. Actually, even if they do that, there is still something like a 2 or 3 month waiting period mandated by the law (to make sure that it was not a hasty decision)...

I am with you. I had said earlier that this drama "teeters on the edge of silliness". A lot of what they show are not realistic at all. Yeah, maybe we can say that anything is kinda sorta possible in dramas, but it is a bit too much. But through all that silliness, they have managed to create the crazy circumstances that leads to the unique and original romantic dynamics between the two leads. We seem to be able to somehow become understanding of the two leads who also looked unrealistic at first but are not so any longer. They are not silly or crazy in anything they do, and are not like people from another planet. To that extent, the drama has been successful. That is, in creating a context through unrealistic story lines and characters, and then placing the two realistic leads in it to go through a rather unique personal strife that leads to even a divorce, all the while when their feelings for each other were only getting strengthened. So we are left to overlook the unrealistic behavior in everybody else and the lack of realism in the circumstances. To enjoy the romance in this drama, we have no choice but to overlook it. But it is all worth it, thanks to the two leads, who have aced their roles. The amazing ratings also show that the viewers are able to withstand the silliness, just for enjoying the romance between HyunWoo and HaeIn. Phenomenal chemistry and incredibly well-shot scenes between them.

How dare you speak for me? I *need* to get huffy today. but... I think they will simply say that the experimental German treatment worked in the case of 1 in 50 people and that the one was Hae-in. It is a drama after all, and we cannot file a lawsuit that they duped us!

I started watching and saw about 40 minutes of the first episode earlier... Kinda liked it, but was going to wait a little till the older leads appeared... Also because another drama has been holding me captive (Queen of Tears, which is fantastic; You should watch it!). I also need to re-calibrate my compass to the 50-episode genre which I have not watched since Gentleman and YoungLady. But I am planning to watch this and get into it soon, as the "gentleman" is back with a "beauty" now. I have always liked Im Soo Hyang too, since the daily drama Rose of Sharon... Good to see that you like this one! I will join soon.

Just saw that they are planning two one-hour special episodes on May 4th and 5th, after the drama's final episode on Apr 28th. So, no extension, but something to watch for one extra week. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2024/04/hit-drama-queen-of-tears-starring-kim-soo-hyun-and-kim-ji-won-to-air-special-episode

I checked closely to make sure that they all were at the same hospital (we can see the same door with the plants on both sides that they walk through). It looks like the aunt and matchmaker got there first, as she was calling the Mistress Madam from there. But who knows if the Madame was already in the room when she called. If not, I am hoping that they got there just after the woman in the room called somebody (maybe the Madam?) to say that his condition was unchanged and left the room, and he opened his eyes. In that case, perhaps the aunt/matchmaker found the chairman to be conscious and moved him out of there by the time the Madam got there.