Kdrama 2020

Mr. Queen (Kdrama Review & Summary)

---

Global Granary Drama Recommendation

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

---

• Genre: Romance, Historical Costume Drama Fiction, Body-Swap
• Release Date: 12 December 2020
• Origin: South Korea; Based from Chinese drama, Go Princess Go
• Kdrama: 20 Episodes

 

Cast

• Shin Hye-sun as Kim So-yong(Queen Cheorin)/ Jang Bong Hwan
• Choi Jin-hyuk as Jang Bong-hwan (Special Appearance)
• Kim Jung-hyun as Lee Won-bum (King Cheoljong)
• Seol In-ah as Jo Hwa-Jin
• Na In-woo as Kim Byeong-in (Queen’s cousin/Childhood sweetheart)
• Bae Jong-ok as Queen Sunwon
• Kim Tae-woo as Kim Jwa-Geun
• Chae Seo-eun as Hong Yeon (Queen Cheorin’s loyal maid)
• Cha Chung Hwa as Court Lady Choi (Queen Cheorin’s Lady in waiting)
• Yoo Min-kyu as Prince Yeongpyeong-gun
• Kim Ju-young as Oh-Wol ( maid to queen)
• Kim In-kwon as Cuisine specialist (Royal Chief Chef)
• Yoon Bong Kil as Royal Kitchen Inspector
• Yoo Young-jae as Kim Hwan
• Son So-mang as Kang Na-in
• Lee Tae-geom as Eunuch Kim
• Kim Kwang-shik as Lee Jo-seon
• Kang Chae Won as Dam Hyang

---

Episode 1

It has an awesome first episode.

It started in the present day where Jang Bong Hwan was an excellent chef.  He was so excellent and he believed it so himself.  He thought he could only be a chef to the top man.

That top man was of course the main resident of the Blue House, the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister was throwing a dinner party where the main guest was the Chinese Ambassador, who had the nerve to go into Jang Bong Hwan’s kitchen with an interpreter to tell him that he loves fish but absolutely cannot abide fishbones.  He instructed that Jang Bong Hwan should pay extra attention to how he debone the fish.

This was too much to an already perfectionist.

When the Chinese Ambassador started eating his fish, he did not find a fishbone but he found a fishhook instead.

Jang Bong Hwan was in trouble.

He did readily admit it but still, the NIS kept hounding him as they believed that there were some people behind that scene who wanted to hurt the Prime Minister and they believed Jang Bong Hwan can help.

Jang Bong Hwan tried to escape another one of this interrogation by climbing down in his balcony which happened to be on the top floor.

He fell to the pool below and would have drowned if a woman in a hanfu did not snog his face off.

When he awoke, he was in a strange bed and stranger room.

He quickly realised that something was weird.  He was feeling weird.  Then a gaggle of ladies maid came to tend to her.

Yes, Jang Bong Hwan had become a she and he could not fathom it.  He was going mental and tried to look between his legs and realised that he had lost his dongle. :). He accused the ladies that they were perverted to have castrated him.

If this was not enough, he then found out that she is going to become queen in the next few days.  It was delayed because she was in a coma.

They told him that she was to marry the king.

Jang Bong Hwan was desperate to get home to reality and thought that perhaps the ticket back home was the pond.  She jumped into the pond without realising that it had been completely drained to prevent another accident.

Still, Jang Bong Hwan reckoned that water is the answer.  So she took numerous baths, she would submerge her head in a pail of water which shocked the ladies maid as often the pail of water had been used to clean the floors.

Then she met her future husband who seemed reasonable, in fact too reasonable that she thought he was dumb.

Jang Bong Hwan tried to remember the history of kings and realised that the current king was a puppet of the Empress Queen Mother.

King Cheoljeong is just a figurehead.

Anyway, Jang Bong Hwan was further perturbed because the king is a bit of a maniac.  And the wedding had to go on whether she liked it or not.

Episode 2

They had the wedding.  Their wedding night was all a blur to Jang Bong Hwan who got drunk.

King Cheoljeong maintained that they had consummated their marriage but for the life of her Jang Bong Hwan can’t remember and not really sure about it.

But he did say that they had the sheet to prove that she was a virgin.

The royal bed had not been made up when Jang Bong Hwan had to perform the ceremony of accepting and installing the royal concubine into the harem.

The girl is Jo Hwa Jin, who was the suspect of pushing her into the pond.

The king is very protective of his concubine, who would have been queen if not for Jang Bong Hwan/Queen Choerin who was a granddaughter of the powerful Queen Dowager, Queen Sunwon of the Andong Kim clan.

Anyway, the king is far from dumb.  He was part of a group who which to overthrow the controlling Andong Kim Clan.

Jang Bong Hwan dressed up as a man and went to town to a brothel where she/he had fun.

She inadvertently gatecrashed a secret meeting between the king and his cohorts.  They knew she was the queen and they said they had no choice but to kill her.

The king said he will do it.

And went after Jang Bong Hwan as she drunkenly staggered back to the palace trying to beat curfew of 11:00pm.

Episode 3

4

Episode 5

Jang Bong Hwan was a tad upset that the king chose to tend to the royal concubine rather than her so she mighty pissed when he came to see her.

Anyway, the operation Fill-the Pond is progressing very well.

Then it rained so heavily, Jang Bong Hwan was excited.  To give thanks to the crying sky, she danced and twerked to the tune of Blackpink’s Ddu Du Ddu du.

The king saw this and can’t help but be attracted to his incorrigible Queen Cheorin.

Then it was time for Jang Bong Hwan to try to go back to his own timeline.

With a last fond farewell to the sleeping Hong Yeon and Lady Choi, Jang Bong Hwan proceeded to the pond.

She then dived into the deep waiting for the change-over but what happened next was the king coming to her rescue.  She fought him off at first but the king was insistent in her rescue until she seemed to have run out of steam and the king managed to carry them both to the surface.

I am loving this drama.  I just watched it without the sub.

Episode 6

It has been a while since I wished the week could go on faster so another two installments of a drama are released.  I love this drama so much I am even watching it first unsubbed upon its release.

The one thing I would like though is that the leads are given more airtime together.  The chemistry is really sizzling. The cutest ever.  LOL

This episode is particularly hilarious because of their different interpretation of words.

Choerin meant with ‘No Touchie (Touching) was keep your hand to yourself.

While Cheoljong, the King, thought ‘No Touching” meant that they should live in peace and harmony which he was beginning to feel like it.  He finds the Queen excitingly strange, like she was not from this world.  His friend said the word to describe her was ‘alien’.

People are beginning to gossip about the Queen because of her penchant of talking loudly to herself as well as trying to kill herself.

The gossips gave mileage to the ministers to propose deposing the Queen.

The Queen Mother Dowager and the ministers were surprised by the King opposed the proposal.  He told them that he was closest to the Queen and he can assure them that she is not ill, mentally.

Cheoljong then asked the Royal Concubine to contact her father who was the Royal Secretariat to bury the issue and as a reward to the concubine, he promised to spend the night with her.

Jo Hwa Jin could not wait to brag to Choerin her scheduled night of passion with the King.

Choerin was rather upset because she fancied Hwa Jin.

Anyway the Queen Dowager from the Jo Clan called a shaman to call the spirit of Cheorin’s mother.

The shaman became hysterical because she found out that their is a wicked entity inside the Queen.  She added that they had to get rid of that presence otherwise the world will be turned upside down.

Meanwhile, Cheorin got excited because she had a capital idea. She will invent air-conditioning to leave her mark to the world before Willis Carrier.

While she was wondering, Jang Bong Hwan was being woken up from the other side.

Cheorin lost consciousness and stop breathing.

Exciting.

Episode 7

Love this drama.  I watched it as soon as it is released even if unsubbed, then watched it subbed later and then watch particular favourite scenes again and again.  I am obsessed with this drama.

I must say this episode is rather slow because our Mr Queen is in a coma most of the time while the charismatic king and Kim Byeong In are posturing against each other.

As soon as the king heard that his queen was… he ran to her despite being on his way for a conjugal consummation with his ‘true love’.

He did not even give Jo Hwa Jin a second thought after he saw his queen lying on the floor not breathing.

Episode 8

Episode 9

Episode 10

This drama is just too good.  Very riveting.  No dull moment and all that.

The Queen rescued the King herself from the bottom of the well because he begged her not to tell anyone.

When she was ministering to him, he at first called her Hwa Jin which was ok with the Queen.

But the delirious King finally realised that the Queen was the one in front of him and looking after him.

He would not let her go and she was sprawled on top of him and he asked her to stay that way for a few moments.

Still, the Queen did not know that the King knew it was her.  The few moments lasted the whole night and when she woke up she was still in his arms.

She was so shocked when he woke up looking at her.

Meanwhile, Hwa Jin found the Confidential Ledger from inside the well and wanted to give it to the King but every time she tried, he was otherwise engaged.

Then when she finally saw him, she asked him if he had fallen in love with the Queen.

The King prevaricated and said that he can’t fall in love with the Queen, he must not.

This broke Hwa Jin’s heart not because she loves the king but she was always been in competition with the Queen.  Because of this, she did not give the ledger to him.

The King kept thinking of the person that makes him happy and sad and it was not Hwa Jin.

After having another nightmare of being a puppet king, the thing that calmed and comforted him was compiling the Queen’s Dictionary which includes the No Touching.

The budding romance between Lady Choi and the Royal chef was just hilarious.

Episode 11

Jo Hwa Jin was so upset that the king had fallen in love with the Queen that she can’t help herself from turning rather vindictive.

Jo Hwa Jin gave the confidential ledger to the Queen Dowager who she made her promised to use the ledger to make the Queen’s life as low and as miserable as Jo Hwa Jin now.

The ledger gave the Queen Dowager so much confidence that she started bullying the Queen.

The Queen Dowager also started creating controversy between the Queen, the Grand Queen Dowager and the rest of her clan, the Kims.

However, the Queen really was much too busy selecting the ladies for the Royal Concubines.  She wanted to keep the concubines for herself but deep down she is beginning to desire the King.

The poor King was feeling confused because the Queen had been messaging him at night with sweet missives and then she turned into her normal ‘no touching’ self during the day.

Episode 12

The King was throwing a grand dinner Banquet during Sing-ai (or whatever) but it became a major problem because the Kims were determined to sabotage the celebration by ruining the food stock, stopping the delivery of the food, and causing the chefs to become ill with diarrhea and vomiting.

In the end, it was left to the Queen to save the day.  With limited ingredients at hand, she made a spiral potato firecrackers starter which was a total hit with everyone, followed by Mcdonaldu, a veggie burger with tomato relish.

For dessert, she made some sort of jelly-lollies complete with fortune sticks that have a little message on them.

The Kims though can’t be stopped.  They rounded up the King’s personal guard and have them arrested for being illegal recruits.

The King with a breaking heart was forced to agree to have his specially trained royal guards be beheaded.

The end of this episode is a total cliffhanger.  The king was blown up when the incense sticks he lit created a massive explosion.

The Queen ran to him but was stopped by Kim Byeong In.

Love this drama and can’t wait for next week.

Episode 13

It turned out that the king plotted being blown up and then put the blame on the Kims.

The Queen had to make way for Jo Hwa-Jin when they both visited the unconscious king.  The Queen thought that the king would appreciate being with Hwa Jin more.

But Hwa Jin got the confirmation that the king was now liking the Queen in a big way.  She saw the Queen’s dictionary painstakingly compiled by the King.

Meanwhile, the Queen needed to find out the truth, get back her memories so she jumped into the pond and saw the real Soyong.  She got into her memory and remembered everything.

When the Queen surfaced, she was pretty pissed. She realised that Soyong was killed by everyone in the palace.

She went to the unconscious king and told him that she wanted him to live so she could stab him on the back because she was just a tool of the Kims.

It was the morning court and everyone was talking about the absent king. They wanted to know who will be the new king if the present one does not regain consciousness.

But had regained consciousness as he strode into his throne to the amazement of everyone including the Grand Queen Dowager.

The king used his being blown up to blame Kim Jwa Geum.  He blamed the minister for plotting and dismissed him from his post as well as exiling him.

The Grand Queen Dowager who was a sister of Kim Jwa Geum was impotent with rage but cannot do anything as the king finally stood against her.  He told her that he was removing her power as he was now able to rule the kingdom,

The Queen Dowager told the Grand Queen Dowager that the King plotted the whole thing and was helped by the Queen.  She said that the Queen and King habitually exchanged letters at night.

The Grand Queen Dowager had the Queen’s room searched and found the letters which were nothing but love letters but then they also found the confidential ledgers which the Queen Dowager hid in the room’s rafter.

The Grand Queen Dowager gave the ledgers to Kim Jwa Geum who told her that according to a reliable source, the Queen helped prepare the feast that Jwa Geum tried to sabotage.

The Queen has so happy to learn that the king had recovered.  She was so tearfully happy but somehow she cannot make herself go see the King because of the guilt that she was feeling; her family tried to kill him.

She tried to get courage by drinking alcohol.  Lady Choi tried to stop her by drinking the rest but the queen just ordered more.

She was so drunk that Hong Yeon had to help her to her room.

Their scene later made me a bit tearful when the Queen confessed that the person she will miss most was Hong Yeon. It looks like they had a lesbian kiss or something 😜

When she woke up she was so happy and went to hug Hong Yeon but she immediately felt a more substantial chest.  It was the king, who asked, ” Are you awake?”

The king found out that the Queen had helped him with the feast.  He was looking at her menu and her letters to him and found the similarities in the writing.

Whoa, if this is like the Chinese version, the Queen will be pregnant from her drunken night of passion.

But will she be able to carry out a pregnancy or whatever when her clan had decided that she had to go, die!

Episode 14

Nope, there was no lesbian kiss because the person who had been watching her while she sleeps was the King.

He was looking at her rather lovingly because he realised how much she had helped him with the banquet.

The was a lot of passion.

Come next morning with her sanity fully intact, she saw that she was in bed with the king and obviously been indulging in each other.

This was too much of a development for her and she was shocked.  She still thinks of her as a man and sleeping with another man was too much to bear.

She ran out of her room and into her ladies’ in waiting.  They are more or less used to her hysterics but this was another level.

She started hiding from the King. Their hide and seek was so cute.

Episode 15

This episode is about the Queen coming to right all the wrongs done to her. No more Mr Nice Guy.  She started with the Grand Queen Dowager who tried to poison her with an iced drink.

She served the Grand Queen Dowager with the same kind of beverage which rather scared the Old Queen.

The Queen though drank the iced drink herself to show the old queen that she knew what she had tried to kill her.

She then went to the Queen Dowager.  The Queen took a handful of incense and lit them.  She then haphazardly threw the lot in front of the painting of the Queen Dowager’s dead son.  She told the Queen Dowager if she touchs even a strand of the queen’s hair, she will pluck her eyes and she will never see her son again.

Then, she went to see Hwa Jin by the pond. She told Hwa Jin that she was a nasty piece of work that is why the King prefers the Queen to her.

Hwa JIn almost fell into the pond but the Queen helped her to safety.  The Queen then said that she was much nicer than Hwa Jin because Hwa Jin did not help her at all when she fell on the pond.

Episode 16

The king and the queen had made a deal to work together.  They were often in his study talking all night long.

He found out something that made him even more grateful towards her so he loved her even more and told her so.

He was going for a snog but she started feeling nauseous.  The King was so worried, he summoned the palace’s physician.

After listening to the Queen’s pulse, he declared that the Queen is pregnant.

Everyone was besides themselves with excitement including the King who was thanking her for giving him an heir.

But the Queen was in shock.  She is pregnant!  LOL

Episode 17

I am so happy that there is another episode to be had and yet I am also feeling that trepidation that next week will be the end of this excellent drama.

The Queen was finding it hard to accept that she was pregnant.  The King was ecstatic with joy but the Queen rebuffed his appreciation of her fecundity.

The King had the pregnancy announced by the bell ringing bringing joyful news.

But this did not last as the Queen Dowager created a rumour that the baby was not the king’s as he does not sleep with the Queen.

To disprove the rumours, the King and the Queen made out in public.  LOL. So hilarious.

Jo Hwa Jin had finally accepted that though she was still cherished by the King, he no longer loved her.

She was really in love with the King and thought that while she inside the palace, she will be used to create problems between the King and the Queen as well as King and country.  She made a sacrifice.

So she went to see the King and begged him to release her from being a Noble concubine.

The King was very upset with the development because away from the protection of the palace, Hwa Jin will be treated roughly by anyone.  But as she insisted, he let her go.

His brother, Prince Yeongpyeong-gun was heartbroken and blamed the king with his obsession with the Queen he had ignored Hwa Jin.

Hwa Jin made up with the Queen and told her that she will leave the KIng to the Queen.

Unfortunately the rumours carried on, this time the supposed baby father was named as Kim Byeong-In.

The Grand Queen Dowager ordered Byeong in to bring her the head of the Queen as she was bringing embarrassment to the Kim-Andong Clan.

Byeong-in was not given much choice so he secretly met up with the King and told him that he had to sacrifice himself for the Queen and the Baby.

The King had to lead soldiers to stop an uprising by the dissidents.

Byeong-in said that only then would the Queen and the baby be safe as no one would touch a wife whose husband went to battle.

Episode 18

The king left without saying a proper goodbye to the Queen.  The king’s mission was to quell the uprising of displaced citizens.

He knew he was going to be ambushed.

Byeong-in was there to finish him off.  They had a sword fight where they injured one another but in the end, the King was cornered next to a ravine.  Instead of being taken by the soldiers, he opted to jump into the sea below.

The searchers later found his garment but not his body but this was enough for the Grand Queen Dowager to announce that the King had left this world.

The Queen was heartbroken but she could not just take the news without looking for evidence that the King was really gone.

She smuggled herself to a closely guarded room where the body of the King was being prepared.  His face was too degraded to be recognisable.

But this did not put the Queen off.  She felt him from head to toe and was cheered that she was feeling an unknown man. 🙂

She was happy and told Lady Choi and Hong Yeon of her findings.  At first, they tried to humour her that the King was of course always be alive in their hearts.

After a while, she was able to convince them when she told them that she felt the man from head to toe.

The Queen was told that there is a five-day of mourning before a new king is installed.  She then said that it should be 6 days including the coronation day.

She told them that she was tired and was ready to sleep.  But she changed into servant clothing and was ready to go but she was stopped by Byeong-in.

She told him that she was no longer So Yong and she would shoot him if he tries to stop her.

He did try so she shot him on the leg.

She quickly left but was surprised by both Hong Yeon and Lady Choi who were both suitably attired to go with her.

She tried to dissuade them but they reminded her that they are as good as dead because they let her leave the palace.

They had a lovely bonding, very heartwarming.

But it turned tragic because their pursuers finally found them.

Lady Choi sacrificed herself so the Queen and Hong Yeon could get away.

I hope Lady Choi does not die.

Hong Heon, took the Queen among a crop of rocks to hide.  Hong Yeon then used the Queen’s drape to pretend as the Queen so she can waylay the soldiers.

The Queen though was found by Byeong-in who took her where the King jumped.

He held the Queen by the neck and asked her who she really was.

This episode had everything.  Humour, action, suspense and yes heartbreaks that can bring you to tears.

Can’t wait and yet dreading this coming weekend when everything will be wrapped up.

Episode 19

This episode started really dramatic.  It got me crying in the first ten minutes. But it got rather so-so in from the middle to the end.  It is really a filler episode that sets up all the initiating forces that would lead to a climactic final episode.

I fervently hope that it is not anti-climactic because it would be a shame from this consistently excellent drama.

Anyway from the last episode, Byeong-in was holding the Queen by the throat at the mouth of a cliff.

He asked her what she had done to So Yong.

The Queen said that she does not know if So Yong is dead or alive.  All she knows was that she woke up in So Yong’s body when she came to from almost drowning in the pond.

She told Byeong-in that she had since gotten So Yong’s memory as well.

This was good enough for Byeong-in to save her.

Byeong-in had always been devoted to SoYong.  In fact he was the most devoted and protective of her.  He turned rather a megalomaniac trying to accumulate all the powers he could get because he wanted to ensure that he had absolute influence to be able to protect the Queen at all cost.  He did it all for So Yong.

The Queen finally realised this herself.

He fought off the soldiers who found them.  And then they met the ace assassin.

He fought the scarred face assassin with one hand while holding on to the Queen with the other.  I thought this was rather stupid and it got more stupid when the scarred man stabbed at Byeong-in but the sword went to the Queen chest instead.  Seriously she could have moved but she actually sort of waited to be stabbed.

Byeong-in knew his time is nigh so he told the Queen to save So Yong.  Don’t die for him and Soyong and to go. He gave her a parchment of the Ministers of the round table of treason, which Byeong-in forced them to stamped with their blood.  Byeong-in told her to use it for her safety.  He then commanded her to run and don’t look back.

This was a cryfest for me. Byeong-in was left dying kneeling down looking up at the sky remembering better days with young So Yong.

The Queen did look back at the heartbreaking sacrificing death of Byeong in.

The other soldiers arrived and were ordered to look for her so she did not have much time to stay and mourn Byeong-in.

It got dark, tired and confused and lost, she looked at the parchment and just cried.  She did not know where she was but noticed that someone was coming.  She thought she was ready to die and resigned to it and offered no resistance when the masked man came nearer.

They both got a surprise because it was the King who was happy to see his queen.

He took her to the makeshift barracks and found that Hong Yeon was alive and surprisingly Lady Choi.

They had a wonderful reunion.

It turned out the man who rescued the King was Dam Hyang’s father.  Dam Hyang was the little girl who became close to the Queen.

Anyway, in the barracks, the Queen noticed that the exercises she helped to devise for the king’s soldiers had been adopted.  They are ready to fight.

The Royal Chef was pining for Lady Choi and went looking for her.

In the palace, the security had been doubled up because posters had appeared that the King is alive and the Kims are trying to kill the king.  These posters were courtesy of Jo Hwa Jin

Now they need to return to the palace for the coronation.

They passed by where Byeong-in died and he was still there in rigor mortis, kneeling in death.  The Queen was overcome with sadness and told Byeong-in that he was important as well to So Yong.  She buried him and the king put Byeong’s broken sword on the grave.

The King and Queen then managed to hijack a food delivery guys to use to hide and carry them to the palace.

This episode ended with Kim Jwa Geun feeling suspicious of the delivery cart.  He instructed that it was opened.  When it was deemed ok, he was not satisfied and took his sword to inspect the cart himself.

The last scene was that the king and queen…

Episode 20

It is a happy ending.  Waiting for the sub for a proper review and summary.

26 March 2021: Update.  Apparently, the controversy and subsequent cancellation of Joseon Exorcist has a reverberation effect on other Korean historical dramas.  First one to be affected is Mr Queen which is allegedly been removed from Naver, a South Korean online platform and search engine.