[Drama 2023] Queenmaker, 퀸 메이커

[larus]

Press conference pictures

 

 

 

PD

 

 

 

 

Stills

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

https://www.sedaily.com/NewsView/29OATOTXT4

 

 

[larus]

(Netflix 'Queen Maker' production presentation)

 

 

 

 

 

A political version of Kim Hee-ae, the master of image making, and Moon So-ri, the rhinoceros of justice. The Queenmaker is now on Netflix.

 

 

 

 

In my country is not available yet.

 

Edit: I was wrong. I found the drama on Netflix.

[lila21]

Finally, it is here. Just finished the first episode. So, KHA's role is almost the same in this drama as the "family fixer" although she has more power here than she did in "Secret Love Affair" but she has become as ruthless as the family she serves to keep her job. When one of Jaemin's cuff links was missing, I had a feeling that something was going on or something went on between him and his "secretary". Someone in the group working for Jaemin must know something was going on. I am not sure if he forced himself on the woman or if it was a mutual one night stand and the woman expected more than that. Does working in a bar automatically make the woman a "hooker"? She said she worked there for a summer to pay for expenses in school and she did finish her course and that is how she got hired in that company in the first place. She is also the main support of her mother. I have to go to the next episode to see if she jumped or she was pushed. Maybe this will be the turning point for Hwang Do Hee. She will be formidable foe of that family if she ends up turning against them since she knows too much.

Ok, marathoned the whole drama, a well fought political wrangling actually fought by tacticians Do Hee vs Carl Yoon.

Spoiler

I like that Do Hee was very different from Hye Won in Secret Love Affair although they played a similar role. There was a love story in that drama but here it was pure political grappling and Do Hee was in the midst of it all. I also like that the evil Company Boss is a woman who played her role better than an evil Chairman. She is both greedy, ferocious and immoral and colder than the North Pole's iceberg. Jae Min the son in law was used by the family and at first I sympathized with him until his real character as a someone who used his position to force himself on his women employees. It was the turning point for Hwang Do Hee to finally turn her back on the despicable family. Jaemin in the end became the victim of the family he married into and tried to use their influence and money to get into politics to avenge his father's death. He ended the same way as his father who was killed. Ironic that in the end, he learned from Do Hee that the person hired by his mother in law to run his campaign was the one who killed his father.

 

Do Hee like Hye Won ended in prison, however, her reputation as the queen maker got around so even when she was serving her sentence in prison, someone visited her to hire her as their campaign manager/tactician. All in all a good well fought political drama with intrigues that was of course churned by the "chaebols". I enjoyed it.

 

[agenth]

1 hour ago, lila21 said:

Does working in a bar automatically make the woman a "hooker"?

i'm assuming FL alluded the secretary was getting paid for being a hostess or something like that. those bars have pretty crummy reputations. 

 

i did suspect she would suicide though, so your comment that the secretary might have been killed was intriguing. i was wondering whether there might be some romance between FL and Jaemin, but as he turned out to be a Fake Prince Charming, I'm guessing not

 

I liked the scene where she lost her shoe and showed her feet with bloody toe. Not all work looks hard, but all work IS hard. Maybe she will switch to sneakers when she switches sides...

 

Her poor feet

[mskololia1]

Ahhhh.  Just finished ep1 and thought 

Spoiler

the missing cuff link would make an appearance.

Is he intentionally driving his wife to be committed?

[joccu]

binge watched this whole drama today. 

 

It was interesting drama even though we have this kind of plot many times.  I really like that we had really strong women characters and the villains were also women.  

 

 

[mskololia1]

Finished this one and there is material for more, but i loved the team built from scratch; it felt organic.  

[TheQueenReturns]

Does being a female leader or mayor indicate that the woman has to be butch? I hate the trope that female leaders must look masculine! I HATE the lead females haircut, makeup, and wardrobe!  

 

Her victory acceptance party got cut short! Her Hugo Chavez socialist policies suck. Seoul will be broke and looking like Chicago under here. She has bought into her own hype. If this was reality she would be just as corrupt as the people she's fighting. Governments should NEVER have stocks in private companies.

[larus]

I watched just the one and a half episodes so far. I think Do Hee`s secretary might have spoken with Yi Seul before she died or she was the one who came up with the idea to make a false conversation.

 

The Eun sisters will have another fight in this drama , I can sense it already. Chae- Ryoung has mental problems and still she runs some family business.

[Sleepy Owl]

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[larus]

The Netflix Original Series "Queenmaker" Tops Ranking Charts

by Lily Alice, April 17, 2023

0

 

According to the streaming data company FlixPatrol, the K-dram  Queenmaker ranks sixth on the list of TOP TV Shows on Netflix as of April 17. The Netflix original series was released on April 14 and is among the most-watched show on the OTT platform in countries including Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and the United States.

 

 

Queenmaker tells the story of two women working towards a common goal. 

Hwang Do Hee (Kim Hee Ae) is an ace employee of Eunsung Group where she works as a general manager of the strategic planning team. Despite how far she has come and everything she has done for the company, Do Hee decides to put all her efforts into making Oh Seung Sook (Moon So Ri) the next mayor of Seoul. 

Given the nickname of "crazy rhinoceros", Oh Seung Sook is a woman who tolerates no injustice on the part of common people and is often seen butting heads with the Eunsung Group. Apart from being a labour rights lawyer, Seung Sook is also president of the Women’s Worker Association, Korean Women’s Human Rights Wave, and leader of the Worker’s Solidarity Rights Foundation. 

She would have led her life as a just lawyer, had it not been for the "Queen Maker" Hwang Do Hee who decides to help her rise to the mayor's throne. 

Apart from Kim Hee Ae and Moon So Ri, the K-drama's extensive cast includes Ryu Soo Young, Seo Yi Sook, Jin Kyung, Yoon Ji Hye, and Ok Ja Yeon, among others. The K-drama is directed by Oh Jin Suk, and its screenplay is penned by Moon Ji Young. 

Where to watch the K-drama Queenmaker?

All the episodes of Queenmaker are available to watch on Netflix. 

https://mydramalist.com/article/the-netflix-original-series-queenmaker-tops-ranking-charts

 

[larus]

Queenmaker: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by missvictrix

And we’re off to a running start with Netflix’s new series Queenmaker! We meet our heroine straight away in the trenches, and she is a force to be reckoned with. But when a crack starts to form, will it be enough to undermine her pitch perfect loyalties?

Editor’s note: This is an Episode 1 review only. For a place to chat about the entire drama with rampant spoilers, visit the Drama Hangout!
 
EPISODE 1

 

I hate to start off a review this way, but I’ll say it anyway: this drama is way better than I was expecting! Cold political thriller it is not. Or at least not yet. Instead, it’s the compelling story of a woman who’s worked as a “fixer” for an insanely powerful chaebol group for most of her life. That woman is HWANG DO-HEE (Kim Hee-ae), and that insanely powerful chaebol group is Eunsung Group.

At this point you’re probably thinking what I was: isn’t this a story about Seoul mayoral candidates, not chaebol families and their loyal servants? Well, it will reach that point, but the backstory for it is so much more interesting and intertwined than I thought (or than we were led to believe). It’s one thing to go up against the powers that be as an underdog; it’s another thing entirely to go up against the chairwoman that you served faithfully for decades. And when we say “served faithfully” what we mean is “did all the family’s dirty work.”

 

When we first meet Do-hee she’s years into her role, and has worked her way up the ladder by being in the good graces of CHAIRWOMAN SOHN YOUNG-SHIM (Seo Yi-sook). She’s basically the family’s right-hand woman, and she’s done it by: a) being willing to humiliate herself again and again as the “loyal dog” and b) to be ruthlessly effective.

We see that effectiveness at play straight away, when Do-hee is “fixing” the latest disaster of Eunsung’s heiress EUN CHAE-RYUNG (Kim Sae-byuk). About ten lightyears beyond the typical chaebol heiress hissy fit, this woman is violent, explosive, and certifiably disturbed. However, Do-hee works some sleight of hand, and we watch her take a catastrophe and turn public opinion like a true puppet master. In the space of an afternoon, the public has gone from hating on Chae-ryung to sympathizing with the plight of this poor woman whose mental health and maternal rights have been abused. It’s amazing to watch unfold, not only tactically — because it’s ruthless and graceful — but also because Do-hee knows through it all that she’s just spinning lies.

 

We don’t learn much about Do-hee yet beyond her servitude to Eunsung Group, but since Kim Hee-ae can do anything, we are immediately attracted to this character, even if we don’t necessarily like what she’s about, or how she operates.

In a company and family full of harshness and lust for power, one ray of humanity seems to be Chae-ryung’s long-suffering husband BAEK JAE-MIN (Ryu Soo-young). Though his rank is apparent in their interactions, it’s clear the two have an understanding of sorts. In one scene, Do-hee provides him his necktie and notices when he’s missing a cufflink. In another, Do-hee bandages the gash he’s gotten from his abusive wife while he muses that he and Do-hee and the only two “outsiders” to have made it this far up in Eunsung in one piece. He seems to confide in Do-hee — as does Chairwoman Sohn. In the midst of tasking Do-hee with seemingly impossible assignments, she tells her that the Seoul mayor is making Eunsung’s life too difficult and she’s going to replace him… with her son-in-law Jae-min. That’s the level of power we are seeing flexed here. Don’t like the mayor? Nepotism can help!

 

To the backdrop of Do-hee’s role as powerful-attaché-but-also-loyal-servant is an ongoing union strike against Eunsung. They’ve laid off a bunch of female contract workers, and they’ve been striking and making a fuss. Do-hee, of course, is tasked with dealing with this pesky gnat of a problem for the chairwoman — and that’s when she meets her match.

The ringleader of the movement is a human rights attorney named OH KYUNG-SOOK (Moon Sori). She’s in the middle of a solo guerrilla protest camped out on the roof of Eunsung Group’s skyscraper. And she’s completely the breath of fresh air — and bit of lightheartedness — that this drama needs. She makes a mix coffee for herself from rainwater that’s gathered on the tarp over her tiny tent. She gets ramyeon delivered by drone and eats it on a livestream. And she’s ready to target our heroine.

Sure enough, Kyung-sook’s live feed from her rooftop protest winds up on a major broadcast network who’s fighting with Eunsung in a pissing match of sorts. Kyung-sook holds back not at all, exposing Do-hee and her role in Eunsung, deciding that she’ll be referring to her as “Hwang Toilet” from now on, because that’s what she does — flushes away Eunsung’s waste, shall we say.

 

more

https://www.dramabeans.com/2023/04/queenmaker-episode-1-first-impressions/

 

 

[Jellybelly]

I’m finishing this drama up and it’s so good. There were some scenes I cried because of the friendship between the two female main leads. It was moving and touching in the midst of hardship. Such a great drama! 

[larus]

I finished watching this drama today. Yes, the plot was something I saw before but I still liked it. We have suspence.

I even predicted that Do hee will sacrificed in the end to give a final blow.

I knew it will have an happy ending but I would have wanted something more realistic and not this utopic socialist ideas to see on screen like it is something so positive that will happen in real life. I am with @TheQueenReturns with this. City hall has stocks in private companies (for the people of course) and the profits are raising!!! Everyone is happy.  Oh yeah... It was not enough that the writer made the corporatists the evil and the social activists the good guys!

There were no journalists who have integrity in this drama. The public was handled like sheep. The campaign managers on both sides were writing articles for the other party to be crushed.

 

I have wished to see Kim Tae Hoon a litle more but he was a secondary character so that`s OK.

I liked the camaradery between the female leads. I liked that this drama was centered around so many women. The fight between both parties was entertaining/suspenseful which I liked. 

 

[Shimmery-summer]

On ep 2 and watching ep 1 really don't get why kim hee ae is talking in whispers throughout. Like I know she did whole whisper dialogue delivery in Midas and saw viewers criticizing it and she is doing it here as well. And it seems watching her whisper some other actors also started doing whispers but thankfully those actors did it in few scenes not for most part of show like she is going on. She is standing with ms son on top of duty free building and you notice ms son talking in normal voice and kin hee ae's whispers are going on.

 

Show premise is nothing new and secretary suicide is straight out of why her. Not impressed with daughter actresses.

 

 

All in all show is great but kim hee ae's whispering is making it hard. Really liked her in world of married and had high expectations.

[Shimmery-summer]

The show gets better but I was so disappointed and kind of thrown out of the show the moment that sex offender actor lee kyong young appeared on screen, like god drama was intense and about sexual assault and a convicted sex offender walks in with fake a.rse styling, driving sports car and trying to do everything to look cool but only looking stupid and idiotic. Gosh so can't handle this guy's casting, and in a drama that pretends to be on women's rights, even the main actresses didn't have any problem with him.

[confusedheart]

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[larus]

Kdrama fashion

 

Kim Hee Ae wore BAUBYBRIDEANDYOU coats at drama Queenmaker.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[larus]

[2023 Year in Review] The real husbands of dramaland

by Unit

They are charismatic, they are dramatic. They are possessed with a glib tongue and the ability to lie without blinking. They know how to work a suit and can charm your pants off. They are: The Real Husbands of Dramaland.

When I think about male characters in a K-drama romantic setting, my mind primarily goes to the swoony — and very much single — love interest who’s coming to charm the pants off the female lead. Or the pitiful second lead who’s always one step behind. Husbands are definitely not at the top of my mind. But this year, somehow, I kept noticing them. Maybe because a number of them had similar characteristics — which we’ll get into soon enough — but yeah, 2023 was indeed the year of the husbands. We had the good, the bad, and the ugly. And without further ado, let’s dive into some of the featured husbands in dramaland this year.

 

4. The Queenmaker men

Baek Jae-min

Politics is a dirty game; don’t blame me if I don’t play fair.

I started out feeling sorry for Jae-min because his wife was a loose cannon, and his mother-in-law was an overbearing matriarch. Jae-min appeared to be an ordinary guy stuck in a bad situation and it’s easy to empathize with a sentiment like that. But then he entered the mayoral race, and as I said, politicians are… well, political schemes aside, Jae-min lost all my goodwill when he was unmasked as a sexual harasser and a serial cheater. I cannot believe I went from disliking his wife to sympathizing with her in the end — even though I celebrated Jae-min’s downfall. He totally deserved what he got.

 

Kang Moon-bok

The spotlight on my wife does not make me less of a man.

While Moon-bok wasn’t as prominent in the drama, he was the perfect foil to Jae-min. He was everything that Jae-min was not: a loving and supportive husband, and a good father. His wife would probably not have become the mayor if she didn’t have him to hold down the fort at home while she pursued her activism — and eventually politics.

 

https://www.dramabeans.com/2023/12/2023-year-in-review-the-real-husbands-of-dramaland/