When Korea gets on a thematic rampage, it usually takes a good year to get it out of their system. Who can forget the year with the sports drama theme, or when time-traveling heroes and heroines for de rigueur? I noticed that 2013 already has one super-woman-in-control drama Queen of the Office on, but in three weeks another queen will be bringing the fire power. MBC’s The Queen’s Classroom (following When a Man Loves) starring Go Hyun Jung looks and feels like a J-dorama, which makes sense since it’s a remake of the J-dorama Joo no Kyoshitsu (The Queen’s Classroom). This feels like a female version of God of Study, or perhaps a button-up version of Gokusen. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing powerful and competent actresses headlining dramas, and other than these queen ones there will also be Moon Geun Young in Goddess of Fire Jeongi and Ha Ji Won in Hwatu, all stories written around the dynamic life of a woman. I’m also reaching a point of sageuk fatigue, and there isn’t a single rom-com around the corner which leaves me grasping at anything to change up the mood, and perhaps TQC will be it. I’m indifferent to Go Hyun Jung, but she is surrounded by the most incredible sprawling child actor cast I’ve ever seen in any K-drama and that’s the reason I’m tuning in. Led by Kim Sae Ron (The Man From Nowhere), Seo Shin Ae (Thank You), Kim Hyang Gi (Hero), Lee Young Yoo (Bad Family), and Chun Bo Geun (Pa Rang from Wish Upon a Star) among an entire cast of child actors making up the San Deul Elementary sixth-grade Class Three. This is different than having child actors play the counterparts to famous adult leads, this drama is really banking on the collective fire power of Go Hyun Jung plus a sea of precocious talented kids. I smell a hit in the making and might just be a welcome respite in the deluge of sageuks and more sageuks. Continue reading →