Untitled Park Ji Eun Project (2024)

SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE !

***DISCLAIMER: THIS IS JUST MY OPINION. YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE AND I'M NOT HERE TO ARGUE WITH ANYONE.***

LONG STORY SHORT:

IF THEY WRAPPED THIS DRAMA UP IN 10-12 EPISODES IT COULD'VE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER.
1ST HALF – GOOD / WATCHABLE, 2ND HALF – A HOT MESS.

OVERVIEW:

The drama opens with a married couple putting on a show for the cameras then the scenes pan to reality as the husband is actually miserable in the marriage and desperately wants a divorce. He convinces himself he hates his wife and can no longer live with her / remain by her side. That is until she is diagnosed with a rare condition called cloud cytoma which affects her brains cognitive functions. She loses track of time, hallucinates and begins to lose her memory. Eventually Haein tells Hyunwoo about her medical condition and he is overjoyed because now he can just wait until she dies instead of filing for divorce. Hyunwoo’s friend (Yang-Gi) convinces him that he may be able to inherit Queen’s group if Haein leaves it in her will. Consequently, he decides to be a ”perfect” dutiful husband until then so nobody will suspect him. From there we follow this couple and their family through the ups and down of their marriage on a backdrop of another family scheming for their very downfall.

COMMENTARY:

The drama gets a bit silly from episode 8 onward. It would have been so much better without the parasite plot. Don’t get me wrong at first it seemed interesting but the evil guy turning out to be the mothers son who she abandoned and put into foster care then he was adopted then she orchestrated his adopted parents death was just WILD. Too much was going on and not in a good way.

I have to say this drama quite literally pulls out every cliche from the book. I would've preferred if the writers focused more on the main couple's marital issues, the process of healing each others wounds and dealing with grief / loss of a loved one etc. It could’ve been so much more developed and I feel like even the actors could've utilized their skills more in showing how they confront those emotions by dealing with them as a whole.

QoT was just not executed as well as it could have been. It could’ve been amazing had they leaned into the "slice of life aspect" of it more. Yes the disease was fictitious but that doesn’t mean they couldn't have tried to make the plot more feasible. Even after her surgery… she had no hair loss, no chemotherapy, no check ups. After she came out of surgery she was just magically cured with the exception of her losing her memories? Once again, that was so unrealistic.

I didn't connect to the side characters at all and a lot of the storylines with them were so irrelevant. Honestly I didn't care for Soocheol and Dahye's story especially because he just accepted her back so easily, no questions asked. They did not communicate or have an honest conversation about her abusive ex, who was the reason why she kept on running away without a second thought. Which brings me to Haein and her mom’s relationship. They had an opportunity to show the complexity of it but Haein forgave her so easily just like that and there was no period of the talking things out and healing their own individual trauma and then finally coming together to work through everything? Some people would argue seeing that would be boring but no… with a drama like this it needed more depth and more layers.

The leads have visually stunning scenes but I didn't feel any sparks or fireworks between them. I'm not gonna lie, at times it felt forced. They had me rooting for them in the beginning but lost me towards the middle especially when there was no real breaking point or indication of them working through their issues. I felt like they behaved more like teens falling in love for the first time than a married couple who had been through so much. There was also too much back and forth one minute they were ready to fix everything and reconcile the next they were pushing each other away and then back to square one, AGAIN.

Honestly this drama was sad and exhausting more than anything. The way everyone talks about this drama you’d think they had so many romantic scenes when in reality it was just heartbreak and grief because they anticipated Haein's death. But they didn't work through these emotions they just kind of accepted the inevitable.

LIKES:

First of all, the OST is amazing!

The epilogue scenes were really well done and I liked the fact that they gave us some insight into the couples past through Haein's memories. I really loved that scene where Hyunwoo got drunk and then told Haein he loved her.

I thought the cinematography was beautiful and everything looked picturesque especially in the flashback scenes.

I think both actors did a good job, particularly in the tear-jerking scenes. I believe Soo Hyun always nails his emotions. I wished we could've seen more expressions from Ji Won but I guess her character was more stony and cold so she represented that as best as she could. Again, the scenes where she broke down crying were notable.

Although I hated the villains they nailed their roles. I loved the acting from the aunt, I thought she brought some humor to the drama.

I also like all the fan edits of the lead couple as I feel those edits tend to capture their moments / emotions better while tuning out the background noise. Lol when I say edits are better than the drama itself, Queen of Tears would be the perfect example.


DISLIKES:

I have a problem with how no one is allowed to criticize this drama. I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion even the persons leaving bad reviews or who were let down after watching.

Initially I really was happy to see a drama dealing with marital issues but the problem is they didn’t really show them dealing with or working through their issues together.

In the earlier episodes, Hyunwoo wishing Haein's death was brutal and I would literally not wish cancer upon my worst enemy. Haein had her own flaws as she is a bit of a narcissist and a control freak. She also came off very condescending and cold towards others. I guess that’s her characterization but her realizing she only had 3 months to live made her drastically turn into a whole different person.

It truly felt like Haein and Hyunwoo didn’t even try in their marriage. After they lost the baby it’s like everything just fell apart, and they both allowed it. They didn’t even try couples therapy or delve deeper into their grief. I assume Haein poured herself into her work while Hyunwoo distanced himself from her, moved into the baby’s room and also got consumed by work. But I genuinely needed more than that.

The writers were unable to strike the perfect balance between showing and telling because they wanted to do flashbacks and also present day, but they didn't really delve into the loss of their child and why their marriage essentially fell apart.

I believe the writers wanted to create multidimensional characters but failed in their execution. It is clear the writers adored Eunseong and expected people to sympathize with him but they were sorely mistaken. Anyone who defends Eunseong is nuts. No matter how bad someone's life is or how terrible they feel about others, that doesn't give them the right to become a deranged vengeance-seeking murderer. Furthermore, the mother-son duo with their tumultuous relationship took up far too much screen time. It took so much out of me to not just skip over their scenes especially when a lot of it was just showing them scheming to take down Queens group.

The “happy ending” was bittersweet and left a sour taste in my mouth. We didn’t get a lot of happy moments between Haein and Hyunwoo for the majority of the drama, so I was hoping for at least some good moments between them in the finale. But no once again the writers had other plans. They wanted to end the story on a tragic / somber note, with Hyunwoo carrying flowers to Haein's grave. However, she did not die as early as expected. It was implied got to enjoy her life, they had a child etc. but Hyunwoo still had to mourn her before eventually following her to "heaven". The scene when they saw each other again did nothing for me, just made me have conflicting emotions to be honest.

OVERALL:

QoT had too many storylines. Most of the arcs were unnecessary rendering the storylines improbable. The side characters were poorly developed, annoying and didn’t add anything. It’s only watchable because of Kim Ji Won and Kim Soo Hyun. I felt like something was missing since the beginning because there was just so much to unpack that they never did.

The plot is very early 2010s formulaic and I believe this drama's weakness was its production in 2024, as well as the overdone cliches. Everything was completely anticipated and not shocking at all imo. The showrunners tried to hold people's attention by throwing in the most bizarre plot lines but this got tiresome / old quickly. It was as if whenever there was anything good, something awful had to happen to balance it out, which just didn't seem realistic or practical.

THE WRITERS NEEDED SOMEONE TO TELL THEM TO PUT THEIR PENS DOWN! They truly needed someone to slap some sense into them and tell them to stop the overdramatic makjang plots. Imo, most of the characters were just used as plot devices to further the storyline and create illogical chaos.

Would I rewatch this? No. I would only watch scenes I liked and an edit would suffice instead of the entire drama as a whole.

With all of that said, I would rate it a 7/10 (my objective rating)

However, I decided to round it up to a 7.5/10 and only for the leads.

At the end of the day if you don’t believe some of the reviews you just have to watch the drama for yourself and see if you like it or not.

Happy Watching!

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

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