Kdrama 2022
Under The Queen’s Umbrella (Kdrama Review & Summary)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Under The Queen’s Umbrella poster
- Genre: Historical Costume Drama Fiction, Royal Life, Mother’s Love
- Release Date: 15 October 2022
- Origin: South Korea
- Kdrama: 16 Episodes
Cast
- Kim Hye Soo as Queen Im Hwa Ryeong
- Kim Hae Sook as Queen Dowager Cho
- Choi Won Young as King Lee Ho
- Moon Sang-min as Grand Prince Seong-nam
- Bae In-hyuk as Crown Prince
- Yoon Sang-hyun as Grand Prince Mu-an
- Yoo Seon-ho as Grand Prince Gye-seong
- Park Ha-jun as Grand Prince Il-young
- Kim Eui Sung as Hwang Won Hyeong
- Chani as Prince Ui Seong
- Ok Ja Yeon as Royal Consort Hwang
- Yoon Seul as Mak Ryeo
- Oh Ye Ju as Chung Ha
- Kim Ga Eun as Tae So Yong
- Kim Min Ki as Prince Bo Geom
- Jang Hyun Sung as Yoo Soo Gwang
- Kim Young Jae as Min Seung Yoon
- Woo Jeong Won as Lady Go
- Han Dong Hee as Crown Princess Min
- Lee So Hee as Court Lady Park
- Moon Sung Hyun as Prince Shim So
- Shin Ian as Prince Young Min
- Park Joon Myun as Court Lady Shin
- Seo Woo Jin as Prince Won Son
- Jeon Hye Won as Cho Wol
- Lee Hwa Kyum as Ok Sook Won
- Jung Ae Yun as Haeng Soo
- Lee Jung Eun as Court Lady Nam
- Song Young Ah as Sook Yong
- Yoo Yeon as Court Lady Oh
- Seo Yi Sook as Deposed Queen Yoon
- Kim Seung Soo as Park Kyung Woo
- Shin Soo Jung as Lady So Ui
Episode 1
This first episode came on strong. Very interesting.
It is about the power struggle between the Queen and the Queen Dowager.
The Queen would do anything for her five boys. Her pride and joy was the Crown Prince because he is so perfect, everyone agrees that he is so good.
Even the Queen Dowager recognised this fact but also said that the other Grand Princes were the opposite of the Crown Prince. Without the Crown Prince, the Queen is nothing.
The Queen could not understand truly why the Queen Dowager was so dismissive of the Grand Princes considering that they are her grandchildren too.
The root of the matter was that the Queen Dowager was never made a queen because she was not the main wife but just one of the concubines
The present Emperor himself has about 10 concubines that sometimes, it would be inconvenient for the Queen to have a word with him as he is otherwise occupied with one of his minor wives.
As bad luck would have it, the Crown Prince was stricken by a blood disease, some sort of anemia, which already killed a previous crown prince.
The Queen tried to keep the Crown Prince’s condition a secret but the Queen Dowager was so wily, she found out about it in no time.
She used the situation to start the depose of the Queen. She secretly distributed her manual of the Making of a King to each of the concubines so they can mold their young prince/princes to vie for the crown prince position if it becomes vacant.
The Queen went to see the previous queen, Queen Yoon who was unceremoniously ousted by the Queen Dowager. She begged Queen Yoon what she could do to protect her children.
Episode 2
The Queen’s conversation with Queen Yoon was very enlightening. She would have the same fate as Queen Yoon if the present Queen is not careful.
Queen Yoon said that the late Crown Prince did not die of a blood disease. In fact, she was told by the Imperial doctor that the CP was cured. This was mysterious.
The Queen wanted to know why Queen Yoon who has other four sons did not just promote one of them as the new Crown Prince.
Queen Yoon looked at the Queen knowingly. As a protocol of the palace, her four Grand Princes were not encouraged to learn, instead, they are given an easy life, just loafing about until they get married and leave the palace. This is to prevent them from getting lofty ideas of usurping the throne.
This was unfortunate for Queen Yoon because when the time came to select the new crown prince, no one was good enough of her four Grand Princes. She was deposed. She left with her four sons and tried to live a quiet life in the country but one by one her sons were killed until she had only one left which was the reason she still lives.
The Queen realised that her own four Grand Princes are in the same predicament.
She was at least relieved to find that the Crown Prince was on the mend.
She was secretly investigating the medical records of the late Crown Prince so she could find out how the late crown prince was cured of the blood disease. She was told that all the records were lost in the fire at the medical archive room. This in itself is intriguing.
Anyway, she called a family meeting with her Grand Princes. She told them the regime had to change. No more idling and being lackadaisical with their studies. They had to put their head down and learn. This was hard for her Grand Princes as they are very far behind.
All they had done was play around and create mischief. They are just looking forward to getting married and leaving the palace soon
The Queen said that she had never asked them to study before but now she means business.
She became more attentive towards the four princes. She followed one of them going to a derelict villa in the out-of-the-way area of the palace. What she saw gave her such a shock. She run to her safe place where she cried her heart out. Her lady’s maid who saw it too sympathised with her.
The Crown Prince invited Prince Seong Nam to see him. The told Seong Nam that in case something happens, he wanted Seong Nam to look after everyone and his young son as if he was his own son.
Seong Nam was bewildered but did not interrupt the Crown Prince. However, this seemed to have enlightened him because he made a dash to reach the palace schoolhouse to sign up for the cohort test before the deadline. There is a spoken rule that the Crown Prince cohort will replace the Crown Prince if he dies.
The Queen was later told that all the Grand Princes entered the Cohort contest which surprised her a lot.
The concubine children entered as well. The concubines secretly hired tutors for their princes.
But not the Queen. With the aid of herbal medicine candies she was addicted to, she studied all the textbooks and manuals herself and made notes of the things the Grand Princes should be concentrating on. She intends on homeschooling the princes.
One of the concubines did not believe that the Queen did not hire a tutor so she followed the prince who was going back to the derelict villa. She was too shocked to see what the prince was doing.
The prince was in full make-up and had a long wig, looking very feminine. Is he gay, transvestite, or something?!!!
Kim Hye Soo is always expected to give a good performance and she did not disappoint in this drama.
Can’t wait for next week.
Episode 3
Grand Prince Gye Sung almost got found out that he was gay/transvestite, a member of the LGBT community if the Queen did not have the presence of mind to set the derelict villa on fire to destroy any incriminating evidence.
She was seen by Grand Prince Sungnam who developed renewed adoration of his mother for protecting her sons. He also knew that his brother Gye Sung was the reason for his mother’s sudden pyromania.🤣
But the Queen Dowager knew what was going on because the concubine who saw Gye Sung reported it immediately to her.
The Queen Dowager told her to shut it and threatened her in not so many words. She told the concubine that was mistaken and it was just her figment of her imagination which was best forgotten, otherwise…
The concubine agreed with alacrity that she made a mistake. She did not see anything.
The Queen Dowager who was partial towards Royal Consort Hwang suddenly gone off her. She finds the Consort Hwang to be too ambitious just like her. The Queen Dowager would protect the King, her son, at all costs.
Episode 4
The Crown Prince collapsed once again but the Queen kept it from the king. She does not want to give up on the Crown Prince because she knows that if it got found out that the Crown Prince is seriously ill, he will be deposed.
Grand Prince Sungnam managed to find a doctor who had treated anemia before. The doctor was working with people who were suffering from the plague so Sungnam had to sneak into the quarantine area.
After he described what was happening to the patient (the Crown Prince), the doctor told him to stop the acupuncture at once.
He then wrote a prescription for anemia. The doctor took all of Sungnam’s money for the advice and consultation.
Sungnam went to the apothecary but the pharmacist refused to give the herbal medicine to him for free. A rather frisky girl paid with her hairpin for the medicine. She told Sungnam to meet up in ten days to pay the drugstore in order to retrieve the hairpin for her.
It was not allowed to use medicinal herbs procured from outside the palace but the Queen secretly instructed the doctor to give the herbs to the crown prince and also to stop the acupuncture.
Within days, the Crown Prince seemed to have gotten better and was able to resume his duties including inducting his new cohort, Prince Bogum, but then he suddenly threw up blood and collapsed.
Episode 5
The King learned that the Crown Prince had anemia rather than the skin allergy he was led to believe the Crown Prince was suffering from.
He had the doctor arrested and the Queen confined in her palace and banned from seeing any of her sons.
The ministers started plotting of deposing the sick Crown Prince but the King would not listen at first.
The Queen Dowager advised the King strongly to take some action.
She somehow gave a clue about who would be the next Crown Prince. It would be one of the Grand Princes or even the son of the Crown Prince.
She told the King that he had to make a decision because the Ministers put him on the throne and they were likely to bring him down because he was just a son of a concubine.
But in the end, this did not matter anymore because the Crown Prince passed away. He did tell the Queen to protect his children and his brothers.
I love this historical drama. Everyone is acting their heart out so you care to find out what would happen.
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Cuckoo Pint
Episode 9
Episode 10
There were only three left to compete for the Crown Prince position. They were Grand Prince Sungnam, Prince Ui Sung and Prince Bo Gum.
Episode 11
The Queen Dowager called Consort Tae and Prince Bo Gum. She reminded Consort Tae of her promise to do whatever the Queen Dowager would ask her to do. And this is collection time. The Queen Dowager asked Prince Bo Gum to withdraw from the contest.
Consort Tae was more shocked than Prince Bo Gum. Consort Tae refused to comply at first but The Queen Dowager told her that Prince Bo Gum can never be the Crown Prince because of her lowly status. She was originally the Queen’s maid.
Consort Tae can’t really refute it so Prince Bo Gum withdrew.
Consort Hwang and her father, Minister Hwang Won Hyun tried everything to make Prince UiSung win the contest including bribing and threatening the scholars in Prince UiSung’s favour.
The Queen learned of their tactics so she went to see the scholars and made them feel guilty for putting their personal interests above the nation’s stability.
Prince Sungnam was impressive with his nationalistic answers and was about to be proclaimed the winner but the ministers headed by Hwang Won Hyun started begging the King to disqualify the Grand Prince because he does not have royal blood.
The Grand Prince had to undergo a blood test with the king but the water used was contaminated. It showed that there was no connection between the Grand Prince and the King.
With quick thinking, the Queen said that Consort Hwang should also do the blood test with Minister Hwang. Sure enough, the result showed they were not related.
The Queen said that there was a surer way to tell the paternity of a child. There is a lump behind the ear that was inherited from their father.
The Queen said that the Queen Dowager can check the Princes. The Queen Dowager had to admit that the princes were fathered by the King including Sungnam. Then she got to Prince Uisung, he was different but she still said that he was the king’s son while she looked at the trembling Consort Hwang.
Finally, Prince Sungnam was proclaimed the Crown Prince. The Queen asked Prince Bo Gum to work closely with the new Crown Prince.
Episode 12
I feel that this drama lost its way a bit. The excitement seemed to have fizzled away and turned into an idol drama.
Even the newly elected Crown Prince Sungnam was rather flummoxed about why his mother allowed him to marry a girl affiliated to the Queen Dowager.
This is really the highlight of this episode. The gorgeous Crown Prince walked out on his bride when they were about to consummate the marriage.
Then, the Queen was woken up with the news that a baby had arrived in the palace gate looking for its father.
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