The post Queen of Tears popularity surge is here and I’m waiting to see how all the leads in the cast take advantage of it. Kim Ji Won has a fan meeting lined up but first this week she jetted to Singapore for a Bulgari event. She wore the brand at the airport looking fresh and comfy but still radiating the softer side of her Hong Hae In character in QoT. In Singapore she donned a pink pleated dress that looked very lovely on her and plenty of Bulgari jewelry from the Diva’s Dream line, and in the drama I recall she wore quite a few items from the Serpenti collection including the wedding ring. I’m not a fan of either collection but I love the brand’s B.Zero1 collection personally.
Even though qot was a mess, prob her worst show imo, I’m glad she’s getting all this love, hope it gives her the momentum to choose a better project.
Don’t kid yourself.
girl did you get amnesia about the existence of arthdal chronicles or something?
QoT ending was barely adequate and didn’t live up to the greatness of episodes 1-10 or even how good the show was up to pe 13 but at least it had an actual ending, not like AC ending her and SJK’s season literally in the middle of a scene.
Didn’t I say it was my opinion. I didnt like qot in the first half either, didnt care for the main couple or the useless villians. Liked Jiwon’s performance though but she never disappoints even if she isn’t given much to work with.
Arthdal chronicles has its flaws, still it’s one of my favourites, id take that over a makjang mess anyday.
Different people have different taste. Many love QOT doesnt mean everyone has to. I personally didnt enjoy it for the most parts and found the love story btw the otp (which for many was legendary) very contrived and not convincing at all. The cast and acting were the only saving grace. Just my opinion of course.
@Royal We – Arthdal Chronicles is very polarizing and has a cult following. Some people hate it, while others think it’s among SJK and KJW’s best works.
I don’t disagree with the OP. KJW’s best project, acting-wise, is My Liberation Notes.
@peanut gallery – I actually liked AC and found the story interesting and unpredictable and the actors really good so despite some draggy politics parts it kept my interest….until the ending lol.
If they actually completed that story in 18 or 30 or however many episodes with the same cast it could have been among SJK and KJW’s best works but Netflix was the one that messed it up and made the story incomplete by trying to force kdramas into a seasonal format like American tv shows (in 2019-21 they were doing this with almost every single kdrama they produced but trying to pull this with a drama that they just licenced and without actually filming the rest of the story, was actually heinous).
Lol, it’s not her worst show. Qot was a good show, except some lasts episodes.
If you think this is her worst show bcs of a little mess in the last two eps… Arthdal Chronicles was so badly done and received that it almost ruined careers; that’s why neither she nor SJK returned for season two
@Kailey b, gal you’re not the only one disliking QoT. I’m more a KSH fan than KJW fan. For me, QoT is the worst drama of KSH. High ratings of QoT don’t matter to me cos that’s my personal preference and opinion. QoT fans seem to have trouble getting the point and always trying so desperately to argue against it. This isn’t something right or wrong like healthy food vs. junk food that is worth fighting for. LOL.
they did really great with her image change. she looks so good!
she looks so gorgeous and classy. luxury brands need to get her asap because she looks expensive giving me old money vibe
Kim Ji Won naturally has that kind of refined aristocratic look, honestly her whole face and vibe embodies Hong Haein there’s just no way to even picture anyone else in the role.
I hope she keeps this luxurious styling for a while, ‘girl next door’ styles feel a bit of a waste of her looks after QoT. Can Bulgari officially make her an ambassador already!!
This is what u call an effect of a very popular drama..not an overrated type of a drama that dog keep barking these days anyways…QoT popularity is on another level when even the bodyguard couldn’t handle the fans around her…whether her departure or arrival fans of QoT wait for her in huhe numbers..and she definitely looked so stunning and lovely…
I think, one popular drama currently also has a lot of fans waiting for them, especially the male lead. Unfortunately the FL didnt get the same opportunity thanks to her new agency. QoT was freaking popular but there’s another drama too. Even the drama’s band puts their song on top 10 melon when the real band can not.
Good for her bcuz QoT totally brought her the popularity she deserves.
Ahh…you mean lovely runner
Queen of Tears was a real popular drama; Lovely Runner was a medium-sized hit, judged by the ratings, but it created a huge buzz for its ML. I am not throwing shade to the FL, who I think is lovely and a better actress than him, it is just that in my opinion the audience was looking for the next “it” boy, if I may say so.
Kim Ji Won was lucky that her co-star has been the “it” boy for 15 years almost, and although he remains highly popular, the buzz generates from the show is shared. This is the fate of actresses in dramas, at least the ones involving romance: given the main target audience, male actors always steal the heart of the audience and benefit more from the show’s popularity, even when they are not as good actors, as long as they are “dreamy” enough.
lovely runner is popular but mostly among teenagers. In korea, QOT is much more popular, they have audiences in different ages from 20s to 50s while lr aundiences are those 10s and 20s. this explain the huge difference in ratings. qot impact is much more bigger I must say.
@Nena – QoT had massive buzz which was deserved and is now reflected in the actors’ post-drama work, honestly I hope Kim Jiwon keeps this luxurious styling for a while because her face and image are a perfect match for rich-girl looks rather than the girl next door style most Korean female celebs go for. And she got quite a bit of buzz in her own right, as you said male actors are usually the ones to get more interest from female viewers and have higher buzz but in KJW case, she actually topped the most buzzworthy actors’ list even ahead of KSH for 3 out of 8 weeks when QoT was airing which is highly unusual for a female actor.
But LR being popular among younger viewers is actually a good sign for its leads too because it means interest in the actors will stay high. The ratings aren’t even bad tbh? like 4 percent is decent on cable especially since this is obviously not a high budget one like QoT. On a side note, I can’t believe Byun Wooseok (b. 1991) is older than Kim Jiwon (b. 1992) lol the effect of roles on the image!
@Yui – just started LR, it’s cute and charming and I’m enjoying it but wow I’m not surprised KHY’s fans got frustrated because she’s basically carrying that show, if her agency was being lazy about communicating with fans or not publicising her being a lead on such a buzzy drama then no surprise fans took matters into their own hands (and while the chemistry between her and the ML is insane, I agree with the critic who said that it’s Kim Hyeyoon who makes BWS’s character more appealing because her perspective is shown so clearly through her acting), like yes he’s charming and handsome and does a lot to make the character of Sunjae work but his appeal is much greater when he’s in scenes with KHY.
@Nena
I don’t think that the male leads in romcom have more chances for success than female leads. It depends on character they’re playing, how bright and attractive he/she are. In some dramas more popular female leads (Hotel Del Luna, It’s okay not to be okay, My love from the star, My girl is Gumiho etc), in some dramas more popular male leads, in some dramas male and female leads equally popular. It’s depends on non-ordinary and attractiveness their characters, not on gender.
She looks great! I hope she gets lots of good scripts to continue to showcase her talent 🙂
I hope she gets casted in a romcon with lee je hoon.
I hope not. Lee Je Hoon is a good actor but he doesn’t make a good romantic lead in kdramas, he managed to have 0 chemistry with even Shin Min Ah, if he and KJW are ever costars in a kdrama I’d hope it doesn’t have a love line because if it flops she’ll be the one blamed.
There is no stopping her now. She is a talented actress, looks great and is scandal free. She is now Korea’s IT girl & will remain so for next few months at the very least
@sissy, I have that in mind too. I want to see her paired up with Lee Je Hoon
As a normal person, how dl you even maintain that glorious expensive looking hair 😭
Seeing their hands with their couple rings was my favorite part. I was sad when they divorced and they didn’t wear them anymore. Her new ring was beautiful but it wasn’t the same anymore. Bulgari did well in this drama.
Funny enough, she’s wearing a ring on her ring finger to this event. Maybe that’s the only finger that fits but I think I read it’s a big thing for Koreans to wear a ring on their ring finger unless they’re in a relationship.
It’s not a big thing. Bulgari could ask you to do this, because all her accessories was from Bulgari, and this ring also was from their collection
Who knows. It might simply be that Bulgari wants to sell wedding rings.
Gosh that would be such an amazing pairing, i would prefer if she ventures out to other genres like a thriller which she recently said she wanted to do. But if there a chance for her to do romance with lee jehoon then hell yes.
I hope not, from what I see LJH does not make a good kdrama romantic lead and I think he’s recognised that, seeing his filmography after that one drama with Shin Min Ah (usually a chemistry goddess and even then they had no chemistry).
I’d rather see KJW in a female-focused project like Little Women, which was also directed by QoT PD Kim Hee Won. Now that was a good thriller.
@kailey b, good for her to be interested in other genres like a thriller. She doesn’t need to romance any guy in a thriller cos that’s oftentimes not the focus of a thriller. And most fans of thrillers including me don’t really care much about love lines in the plots. What contributes most to the success of a thriller is (in terms of the order of importance IMO):
1. Directing
2. Writing
3. Acting
Flower of Evil is one good example. Iconic Alfred Hitchcock films are other examples. In a thriller, director is the soul designer to make the kind of story intriguing. Romance matters very little and chemistry is just bonus.
Although I’m happy for her success, I was frustrated watching shoots from airport. Yesterday and today, these so-called “fans” was very disrespectful to her: pushed her and her guards, almost shoved phones in her face, didn’t give her space at all. Like you could film her from distance of 1-2 metres, why come so close, breathing in her back, and made it so uncomfortable to her?
Someone said that KJW was even scared.
I hope people stop thinking that this is normal behaviour towards their favs.
@Royal We
I’m not sure why you keep saying it is unusual for a female lead to be ranked higher on good data vs male. I’ve seen you mention it in other articles too. I just wanna say that that is in fact not exactly right.
Son Ye Jin consistently ranked higher than HB (more than KJW most definitely). KSJ ranked higher than AHS multiple times when Business Proposal aired. Yoona did it for King the Land, SSH for Welcome to Samdalri, AEJ for My Dearest. And many many more examples. This is not a special case and has nothing to do with gender. It’s about popularity at the moment and the numbers are very close for all the leads of the dramas I mentioned. It’s good that KJW ranked higher 3/8 times but it’s most definitely not unusual. She was wearing the sponsored items and the fashion is search element. If anything, it’s AEJ who is a rare case as it was a sageuk and she had the less flashier character.
Emm, AEJ definitely had flash character, and sageuk popular genre in Korea. Why do you feel need comparing actresses with each other.
Emm, why do you feel the need to be so defensive? Lol no one is attacking your unnie. AEJ did not have a “flash” character or a flashy character. It was NGM who did. Also, yes sageuks are popular in Korea, but you dont see Goryeo Khitan War actors topping the charts. So it aint solely the saguek factor thats driving the search charts. Whats your point? That I should not compare an actress to an actress when it is in fact being made a big deal that KJW did something other actresses have done numerous times in the past? Why shouldn’t I do that? Because you are so sensitive? Lmao puhlease.
My point is simple – topping the charts as an actress is not some rare feat that no one has achieved before. Good for KJW who did it, and good for everyone else I mentioned who also did it. However, it is not an actor vs actress thing. It is a popularity and hype thing. Not everything is male vs female.
Lol, if I’m sensitive you are agressive. Calm down, I wrote 2 sentences and you answered the whole essay. And it’s me here “so defensive”, okay, as you say.
Of course I know, that not every sageuk is popular, but My dearest is a popular one, and do you remember that it’s not the point you wrote abt sageuks? You wrote that it’s a rare thing for sageuk’s character to be popular, and I’m telling you again – no, it’s not rare case, sageuk is popular genre in Korea. Popular genre doesnt mean, that every sageuk drama will be popular, but popular sageuk dramas no less popular than modern dramas. Just re-read your 1st comment and next mine, it seems you missed something.
I wrote this to you, because comparing KJW’s rank with SYJ’s rank or AEJ’s rank has no sense. And no, I wasn’t offended by your comment.
That about male vs female thing, I’m completely agree with you in this. Romcom genre doesnt mean that male character automatically will be more popular. If character is more remarkable and attractive, they will be more popular, regardless of gender.
LOL I didnt know there was a word count limit when responding to comments. If you think my comment is aggressive, you’ve been living a sheltered life. You chose to respond and when i respond back you feel offended (despite you claiming you arent?) IJBOL.
Firstly, Sageuk as a genre is most definitely less popular than modern dramas when we talk of Good Data which is tropicality. We are not talking about ratings here. Knight Flower which was a very popular and high rated drama was beaten by Marry My Husband in the Good Data reports every single week and Lee Honey was not even in the top 5 for several weeks. That is what a normal tropicality of a HIT sageuk drama. My Dearest and ARJ is an exception to that and it’s a problem to point that out? Yea nope.
I was initially just trying to bring light to the fact that many actresses have achieved this and it’s a great thing. But it’s funny how KJW fans would somehow take offence to that statement (despite you claiming otherwise). Never did I say AEJ is a better actress. Only that her topping charts was rare but damn it’s a touchy topic lol. KJW is not some special unique case and there are many actresses who have been #1 on good data beating their costars. That makes no sense to you? Lol dunno what to tell ya then… it’s a pretty straight forward comment
Lol, agressive again. Where did you read that I discuss their acting skills? Did I say that KJW better than AEJ? Did I say that she’s more popular than AEJ? Or that she’s more unique? Or that her character is more unique? The only thing I said to you TWICE, no, third time already, that there’s no point comparing RANK of these three actresses on GoodData. That’s all.
You can’t stand to think, that I wasn’t offended as KJW fan, and it’s just my point of view – actresses with completely different dramas, characters, broadcasting channels, ott, male leads, different dramas airing at the same time as their, and a lot of other things above, don’t need to be compared on their rank? If judjing by your opinion I wrote this because I was offended as KJW fan, how and why exactly I was offended, lol? I’m not comparing their acting skills, their popularity or something like that, the only thing I said to you “Why do you feel need comparing actresses with each other”. And after this you started to be aggressive, telling couple of times that I was offended as KJW fan.
If you want to think that way, then okay. There’s nothing to discuss anymore, at the end of this pointless conversation I reccomend you to go outside and touch some grass.
lol offended again. Where did you read that I said you said KJW was more unique. I wasn’t even responding to you until you jumped in all offended and crying foul. The only thing I said to you TWICE, no, third time now is that what you think is “no point” has a point to me. I don’t give any fucks that you find it pointless. That’s your opinion. State it as you wish and I will as I wish. And my opinion is that it is COMPLETELY ON POINT to point out that stating it is “rare for a female to rank over their male costar in good data” is in fact bull. It is not something rare and KJW is not doing something special. You don’t need to say this. I’m saying it 😉
And lmfao, coming into a blog and feeling offended, then insisting you weren’t and giving justification on why someone else can’t compare because it doesn’t fit your standard of comparison. There really is nothing to discuss since you weren’t discussing more than being offended on behalf of unnie. To appease you, I’ll touch some grass sure, but for your own sake, do that too. Even if you don’t realize it, you desperately need it 😉
@Mills; ditto about not making this an actor vs actress debate. That narrative is frankly very tiring. I am a feminist, and one of the things I dislike most is when people try to exaggerate a female’s accomplishments in an effort to booster them. We don’t need that at all.
Actresses have topped this chart we talk of for years now despite having had A-list male costars on non female centric dramas. On the other hand, I distinctly remember NJH having ranked higher than KTR for 2521 when she is the KSH on the actress side and A-lister of all A-listers in her age group quite some distance. We should celebrate an actresses’ accomplishment without trying to make it sound like it is something unusual or extraordinary. Is it not for which I am so glad.
Exactly right. Exaggerating the achievements of an actress who just came off the biggest drama of her career is so unnecessary. She doesn’t need that. Glorifying her popularity and calling one of her achievements as something rare, then getting pissy when someone provides proof otherwise is ridiculous. She is popular right now and everyone knows it. Let’s not exaggerate.
@Mills – calm down and get off your phone, getting this aggro in online comments over someone’s two line comment (talking about @Olesya1’s first comment up there not mine) doesn’t indicate a healthy mind.
lol oh lookie, yet another KJW fangirl who cannot respond to the topic at hand and is hell bent on accusing others of “aggro” because they have nothing else to say. How predictable 😂
I’ll stick to my phone, tyvm. So, expect me to be calling out your bull statements every single time and I’ll expect you to keep calling my “aggro” without actual arguments to support your exaggerations then 😘
@somebody and @kaileyb, despite qot plot toward the end have gone downhill, the show still got high ratings and from the tv station point of view, that is all it matters. Money still talks at the end. Reminds me how penthouse drama went downhill in the later seasons but people still tune in lol.
Welp, how are the ratings relevant to our personal opinions about QoT? I wasn’t talking about popularity and ratings or whatnot in my comments. I only chimed in to echo @Kailey b that she isn’t alone disliking QoT. Problem with our personal preference??? Ratings have no real bearing to us as drama viewers when we just don’t enjoy the show. LOL.
I’ve been refraining myself calling you guys r@bid that you’re allergic to. LOL. But going extra miles to defend QoT like this is overbearing. Orange fans don’t need to force others to enjoy orange too cos some people’s stomachs just can’t tolerate extra acidity. LOL. Same goes for drama preference.