This drama has a good pedigree. The scriptwriter, as well as the director, have worked together before in a couple of masterpieces: Goblin and Descendants of the Sun.
This drama has a very sumptuous feel about it even from episode one. In fact, this drama is comparable to BBC’s dramas. The cinematography is fantastic. It is like watching a film; a film like the Titanic 🙂 I supposed, the lead is an A-lister, Lee Byung Hun, popular in Korean films and dramas who had made a mark in a few Hollywood blockbuster movies.
Anyway, the story started in June 1871, during the 8th year of Gojong’s Reign.
An ambitious minister visited another minister’s house. The ambitious minister (AM) has an eye for the ladies and he fancied the girl serving them their drinks.
The host minister tried to discourage the AM by tempting him with a promise of a virginal girl, he mentioned that the girl who just served them was already married. But the AM said that he wanted the married servant.
It so happened that the husband of the girl heard what was going on. So they tried to run away but failed. Their master did not have an ounce of pity for them. He ordered that the husband is rolled in a mat and then beaten to his death, while the wife will be taken and be given to the ambitious minister. At that same time, the six years old son of the couple arrived at the scene. In front of the child his parents are being beaten, the minister ordered that the boy is beaten to death as well. The wife jumped next to the pregnant daughter of the minister and quickly took the woman’s lethal-looking hair ornament and pointed it to the woman’s neck.
She told her young son to run, to go. In desperation, the pregnant woman who was being threatened that her big belly will be stabbed as well if they don’t let the boy go, threw her jade token to the boy and told the boy to go and ordered that no one should run after him.
When the boy was out of sight, his mother let go of the pregnant woman and she jumped into her death in a well.
At that time, Joseon (Korea) had few American ships on its shore. The American visit quickly resulted in a bloody skirmish killing around 300 Koreans.
Even at a young age, the six years old boy knew that he had no future in Joseon, the way things were.
He managed to stow away in a ship sailing back to America.
His life in America did not improve immediately. He became a victim of feral young white thugs loitering the street.
When he was about 10, miraculously surviving on his own, he saw soldiers of all colours, marching and looking dignified. The seed was sown, he wanted to be one.
These are the initiating forces that would affect his return to his old homeland as a high-ranking military of the American arm forces.
Episode 2
It looks like Ae Shin has inherited her mother’s strong woman’s genes. Ae Shin was not satisfied with just being a well to do submissive wife. She wanted adventure. When she told her grandad that she would rather die than be an inconspicuous little mouse, her grandad told her to die.
And she did try by holding a hunger strike which lasted a few days until her grandad had someone take her into the mountains. She thought she was going to be killed but it turned out her grandad had instructed someone to teach her how to fight, how to fire a gun.
She met Eugene Choi while she was on a mission to assassinate an American, who was working for the Japanese army.
The American was duly assassinated but she was not a lone gunman. There was another. It was Eugene Choi.
These episodes now introduce the main characters.
Kim Min Jung looks so lovely in a Japanese kimono ( far from that horrid severe fringe girl from Man to Man drama)
This is a story about Do Jin and Nak Won who are bound by a murder when they were in their teens.
Woah, Jang Ki Yong as a the lead actor. About time too. He was fresh from the drama, My Mister, where he gave a sensitive performance right after wowing the viewers as Nam Gil in Go Back Couple.
The lead girl, Jin Ki Joo, is of course Hye Jin in the year excellent drama, Misty.
Come and Hug Me (KDrama) 2018, Review
Episode 1-2
The drama started at the present time. Do Jin is applying to become a police officer. During the interview, we learned that he has some familiarity with police work as he had a direct experience of it when he had to testify that his own father is a psychopath, a serial killer.
At the same time, Nak Won is auditioning for a part in a drama. She was told by the director that she won’t be getting the part but he would recommend her for a another drama with a more suitable role for her ability. He then said that she looked like her mother, who was also an actress. He said he was saddened that she became a victim of a psycho-serial-killer.
The drama then take us back a few years back when Nak Won’s family, dog and all, moved to a village where Do Jin lives.
On that same day, they met and there was already an attraction in their young teen-age hearts.
There was a menacing atmosphere within Do Jin’s house, where the father, an all round tradesman, ruled the roost.
One day Nak Won’s dog got away and she had to look for him. She ended up in a basement, where Do Jin was holding a hammer over her dog inside a cage. Their surprised looks at one another was disturbed by the appearance Yoon Hee Jae, the father.
I like the pacing of this drama. It is a good thriller.
Episode 3 & 4
The story is so dark. You can almost feel the menace. You know something really terrible is about to happen.
I have to say Heo Joon Ho, playing the father, is really having fun with his role as a psycho dad.
Nak Won and her dog was saved from the wrath of Do Jin’s psycho dad.
Nak Won’s family life is a direct contrast to his own. For a starter, Nak Won has an affluent family, with her mother being a well known actress. The actress is a caring, sharing mother.
Do Jin has lost his own biological mother when he was eight, he now lives with a delinquent older brother, younger sister, stepmother and the psycho dad. The children live in fear of the father, who told them that men and animals are just the same. You should not show any fear.
Do Jin’s stepmother found out what her husband had been up to, kidnapping and killing women.
Episode 5-6
The stepmother was so scared, she run away with Do Jin’s little sister.
Do Jin’s confessed to Nak Won that he likes her too, very much at the same time he apologised for liking her.
I have to say that the story is too dark and I was so glad that it jumps from different timelines, as a child and then to early adulthood.
Do Jin’s father had been jailed for serial killing of 12 women and Nak Joon’s mom was the last victim as Do Joon himself decided to shop him to the police. The father had decided to write his memoir, which has become a best seller. The effect of this was that the press are hounding the family to get their reaction.
Do Jin’s about to graduate as a Summa Cum Laude in the police academy.
Nak Won, on the other hand is a struggling actress, often working as a body double.
Her soap drama was shooting at the police academy when the press started on her. They wanted to know her reaction to the book. The grim reality of her past was too much to bear. Thank goodness Do Jin was there to support her before she fainted. So cute.
I have to say Jang Ki Yong looks so good in uniform.
Episode 7- 8
Do Jin helped Nak Won evade the press.
The 7th is a sweet episode with a tinge of sadness. As much as they want to be together to have a heart to heart, the press is relentless in their pursuit of every bitter rumour.
Awww Do Jin still likes Nak Won but realised they can’t be together because of all the guilt and baggage that they have got.
Episode 9-10
The recurring theme of the drama is that,
Wickedness is not developed. It is in your blood.
This is more or less what the wicked psycho father think about his youngest son. Of the two sons, his quiet, studious youngest son is most like him, according to him. And he would protect him at all cost.
(I reckon the journalist will get it in the end.)
But what he doesn’t want to accept is that his older son is the deranged one just like him. He had continued his father’s serial killing using the mallet to batter and kill his victim. All to impress his father.
Nak Won is now his target.
It is also Do Jin’s graduation day, where it turned into a chaos while he was receiving a presidential award for exemplary. The relatives of the victims of his father sabotaged an otherwise proud moment for Do JIn.
I am really loving this drama. The cast are amazing. Good acting.
Episode 11-12
The police is now hunting for a serial killer, who is armed with a deadly mallet.
Nak Won has become very popular, she just won the newcomer of the year. But amidst all the congratulatory flowers, there was a box of a bloodied mallet sent to her.
Because of the shock, Nak Won ended up in hospital at the same time as Do Jin, who got stabbed protecting a colleague policeman.
Do Jin found out that he was Nak Won’s ideal man. Because she started welling up when looking at him. She did say that her ideal man was someone who makes her tear up everytime she looks at him.
Episode 13-16
Hyun Moo is picking up where his psycho father left off. He had been torturing Nak Won and he almost had her hammered to death, thank goodness Do Jin got to her before it was too late.
There is a very ambitious reporter that has been pulling the strings behind the scene. She was so obsessed with the serial killing of the psycho father that she is encouraging the older brother to continue with the massacre.
This drama is really very good but I have to mention the actor playing young Do Jin/Na Moo was exceptional. At just 16, he’s got such a maturity of a veteran.
Episode 17
Hyun Moo went to Nak Won’s house to finish her off. But Do Jin was also there. He ended up having a confrontation with Hyun Moo, who ended up stabbing him.
Hyun Moo blamed, Do JIn for breaking their family by reporting their father’s serial killing history.
Episode 18
The mother visited the father in prison. But he ended up playing with her mind. He made her fell guilty for not having reported him immediately 12 years ago when she found out that he had killed a woman. He told her that because of her failure, he ended up killing NakWon’s mother and father.
Yehey, it is back. Season 2 is here. I hope it is as good and thrilling as Queen of Mystery 2017.
It was only right that it comes back because there was no closure as far as the sizzling chemistry between the leads during season 1 of 2017.
Now the first episode shows that Seol-ok is no longer a housewife. She divorced her cheating prosecutor husband but seemed to have kept her ex-mother-in-law.
She is now training to become a police officer with the help of her best friend, Kyung-mi.
This episode also deals with fraud crimes, where the handsome son of a fraudster would marry a rich unsuspecting woman, take her money and then kill her. And repeating this several times over.
Seol-ok helped the police by working as an undercover, pretending to be a naive but rich woman, who was prepared to marry the handsome son. She was actually very pretty in her wedding outfit.
Detective Ha arrived just in time during the ring ceremony. All hell broke loose, lots of fighting and kicking.
As always they got the baddies.
During this time Seol-ok and Detective Ha have started to cautiously date.
He bought her a ring but drunkenly gave it to another girl, thinking it was Seol-ok. As Seol-ok did not say anything about the ring, he thought that she was a bit of a con. 🙂
The episode ended with a mysterious woman, who was supposed to be Detective Ha’s first love, walking away from the police station after leaving her business card.
Episode 2
Seol-ok is so good with forensic work but for some reason she can’t pass the police exam.
However due to a television coverage of the marriage fraud investigation, which Detective Ha let it be known was a case solved almost entirely by the civilian Seol-ok, the police had to make Seol Ok an honorary policewoman, a civilian /auxiliary policewoman same as UK’s PCSO (Police Community Support Officer), who is not fully warranted!
Anyway, this episode is about serial arsonists. The arsonist is some sort of vigilante against misbehaviour of neighbours and the community.
But there was a bigger menace, who has not been caught yet. An arsonist who wears a mask and seemed to target a bakery and its franchise, which sell expensive top of the range of cakes.
The episode ended with Detective Ha being woken by smoke. His new apartment has been set on fire by the vengeful man behind the mask.
Can’t wait for next week.
Episodes 3-4
These episodes are about a child, who turned pyromaniac, due to parental neglect and lack of discipline. It also makes one think what sort of sites children visit online that might influence them badly.
Episode 5-6
I have to say these two episodes are more real to my taste. The first four episodes are more on saying goodbye to some of the much loved original casts and introducing the new ones.
I have to admit I do miss Lee Won-Geun who played that really sweet adorable young cop during the first series. I think this drama could have done with him around.
Anyway, five and six are more true to the first season, where Seol Ok was busy investigating on her own terms.
There are also more sweet moments between her and Detective Ha. It was hilarious when she made him a meal of vegetables. Serving him a whole head of broccoli was so funny. She has always been the worst cook! 🙂
Anyway, it is usually a different case for every two episodes but not this time.
They are still looking for the killer of a shop/building owner near a university, where Seol Ok is doing her cramming to pass her police exam, which she has repeatedly failed.
Episode 7-8
I have to admit that the first few episodes were rather banal compared to the first season of this excellent drama.
But from episodes 5 to this current 7-8, there is a great improvement that captures the charm and eccentricity of the original drama.
I am loving these latest episodes because Kyung-mi is featured more. I love her laughing scenes with her professor. She is just so charming.
I also love that there is more subtle romantic interaction between Seol Ok and Detective Ha. I do love cute flirting. I love Seol Ok because her character is not defined by Detective Ha. Though they are in a subtle relationship, she still does what she wants without asking for his permission or approval first.
But most important of all, Seol Ok is back being a Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher investigating murder and mayhem which seems to happen everywhere and anywhere she goes. She attracts death just like Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher do.
Anyway, Seol Ok is now really getting desperate to pass the police exam and she heard that a rather remote boarding school, high up in the mountains, with a high rate of the pass, is just starting a new semester. She packed her bag and went without Detective Ha knowing.
What do you know? Before she can start opening a book at the boarding school, the students were dropping like flies.
Fortunately, Detective Ha was able to get into the school after it was cut off from the outside world due to an earthquake.
Episodes 9-10
Detective Ha and Seol Ok finally talked about the ring and they are now investigating its whereabouts. They tried to trace their footsteps during that drunken night of the ring. 🙂
They eventually ended up in the posh cake shop Genoise, owned by the cake lady.
Detective Ha began to remember that he gave the ring to the waitress to hide it as a surprise within the slice of cake to be given to Seol Ok.
In the background, the cake lady is shown to have kept the ring.
Is Secretary Kim, Jung Hee-Yeon?
Seol Ok has given up for now becoming a policewoman as she has been convinced by Detective Ha that being Admin Assistant is way better. 🙂 She gets to see the crime reports first. He just wanted her where he can see her all the time.
Loving it, can’t wait for new week’s instalments.
Episodes 13 & 14
There is plenty of revelations in these two episodes. We now know who Secretary Kim is. He was the retired policeman who had been helping Detective Ha to locate Secretary Kim. Very cunning.
Poor Ming Joo, the student revising for her police exam; her body had been found. She was a victim of the pervert who has graduated to abduction and murder.
Jung Hee-Yeon, the cake lady, is Detective Ha’s first love in a different face and guise after a series of plastic surgery.
No wonder she was very attracted to the Detective Ha and took it upon herself to take the ring meant for Seol Ok from Detective Ha during a drunken proposal to Seol Ok. 🙂
Can’t wait for the final episodes next week.
The drama has a lot more mileage. It has a lot of charming and not so charming characters, who are equally watchable. I would like to know how the romance book being written by the office manager pans out.
Episodes 15 & 16
Talking about mileage, there are lots and lots of it still. This riveting crime drama ended up in so many unanswered questions that surely a season three is planned by this drama’s creator.
In Mystery Queen 1, it was really about the growing attraction between a married woman and a rather frisky detective.
I am sure most of the fans of this drama had looked forward to the culmination of this line of the story. Will they – won’t they kinda thing. 🙂
Sadly in Mystery Queen 2, the latter episodes barely touched on this.
But there was a hint that the romance was more of a friendship rather than passionate love was when Jung Hee-Yeon (the cake lady) quizzed Seol Ok about her relationship with Detective Ha. Suddenly you think, yeah cake lady was right. There was really no frisson between Seol ok and Detective Ha in later episodes.
It turned out that Detective Ha was really more in love with the cake lady rather than Seol Ok.
Seol Ok is his muse. She inspires him to do his investigations because she is so good at it.
Too many questions still to be answered:
Who is Secretary Kim, what is his character motivation? What led him to be so monstrous after being an exemplary policeman?
Why was the girl, Seo Hyun-Soo (aka as Jung Hee yeon) got kidnapped by Secretary Kim?
Why did Professor Ha become a bitch of Secretary Kim? What would happen to this brother of Detective Ha?
Who was the masked arsonist in the first few episodes?
What would happen to Seol ok fan club now that there is only one member?
Would Seol Ok ever going to become a policewoman?
The ending is very rushed. Nice camaraderie between the team. It was lovely to see in the end as if promising another series to come.
I have to be honest. I did not watch this as soon as it came out because I thought I did not like the lead actress. It was not her fault. I heard, she is multi-awarded already when she is still in her teens.,
The reason I would pass on her dramas was because I am rather loyal to Kim Yoo-jung, which I believed was her main competitor in dramas. I do love Kim Yoo-jung so much. 🙂
Anyway after just watching one episode of this drama, I had a complete turn around. I think I like Kim So-hyun as much as Yoo-jung now.
The story in a nutshell is about a romance that developed in a radio station. 🙂 Geu-Rim is a writer for radio but so far not good at it as she does not get the experience. Despite being the assistant writer, she was tasked to get talents and guests for shows as well as fetch and carry food for the team.
Ji Soo is a popular actor, who is not 100 per cent into his job. His popularity is supported by his rich and powerful mother.
Episode 1
Geu Rim had been made redundant from her radio show as the DJ had up and left not only the program but the country.
As luck would have it, Lee Gang, the genius radio producer has just come back from his sabbatical to India.
Lee Gang is producing a new radio show and he wants Geu Rim to be the writer . But it was not that easy, she had to convince Ji Soo to be the DJ in this new show.
Some back story: It seemed Ji Soo is attracted to Geu Rim because of vitality and being carefree.
Episode 2:
Geu Rim continues to work hard in convincing Ji Soo to do radio.
Ji Soo on the otherhand has a back story. His rich powerful mother is not actually his real mother. She told him on his 8(?) birthday that he was not her real son. She looks after him and in return he had to work doubly hard to please her by always smiling and do what he was told.
He grew up without real love or fun.
One day he saw a girl surrounded by happy laughing children. He was fascinated with how carefree she looked and how joyous. In her school jacket her name was written as Song Geu-Rim.
He might have kept an eye on her over the years because about four years ago, during a party he purposely tripped her over. She was so annoyed but he smiled at her.
Geu -Rim loved of radio is legendary. Even at a young age, she continued sending over a hundred post-cards to the radio station. She often listen to the radio with her mother, who is blind.
Geu-Rim is a people’s person and quite popular as Lady Kamikaze, well known for her Soju and beer mix. On the last day of JI Soo’s historical drama. The cast and crew invited Geu Rim for a wrap-up drink up.
She showed up in the party, thinking that Ji Soo would also be attending. But as the night progressed he was not there but she got drunk.
She later woke up in a strange bed, which was Ji Soo’s.
Ji Soo said he would agree to being a DJ but she must help him out. This was in the form of misleading his mother that there was more between Ji Soo and Geu Rim.
Geu Rim got very upset. She felt degraded.
Back at the radio station, Geu Rim was called by the station manager for a meeting. The she was told that she was to inexperience to be the main writer. The former writer of the now defunct Minu’s show that she was not good and that Ji Soo would not agree to be in the program.
But suddenly a very handsome Ji Soo was there confirming that he will do the show and pulled Geu Rim to go with him. 🙂
So far the classic formula of a good sweet Kdrama romance is all here.
Episode 3
This episode is all about the contract signing. This is also about Ji Soo finally trying to untangle himself from all his pseudo mother/stepmother’s web of mental cruelty.
The pseudo mother was nasty to Ji Soo because he is the son of her erring husband with another woman.
Episode 4:
Lee Gang team with Ji Soo and Jason went on a 2 days 1 night out of town bonding. It did not go well as Ji Soo and Geu Rim had to go back to the ferry dock to retrieve Geu Rim’s laptop. They spent the night together but all innocent.
The next morning Ji Soo was gone.
During their first radio recording, Geu Rim was all excited to have Ji Soo read her script. Only to find that he had his own script.
She was so upset that when Lee Gang invited her for some soju, she agreed. But before she can get into Lee Gang’s car, Ji Soon was there preventing her to go in.
This drama has so many eye candy on offer. Ji Soo, Jason, Joon Woo and Lee Gang. Nice.
Episode 5
It was the pilot of Ji Soo radio show. It did not really go as expected because he was misled. Instead of pre-recorded show, it went on live.
But nothing catastrophic happened.
His pseudo mother is working behind the scene to ensure that the radio show does not last for more than a month.
There is a growing love triangle between Ji Soo, Geu Rim and Lee Gang. But although Lee Gang is so cute, Ji Soo is just so adorable.
Towards the end of the episode, Geu Rim is giving Ji Soo a crash course to radio broadcasting, telling him the 7 seconds rule, which is a DJ must not pause that long in between talking, otherwise it creates ‘dead air’
Episode 7
Ji Soo kissed Geu Rim to remind her that she had known him from a long time ago.
Episode 8
JI Soo has told Geu Rim that he likes her.
Geu Rim was not expecting it as she was told by Tae Ri that she was dating Ji Soo/
Geu Rim’s mother ended up in the hospital. Geu Rim finally asked Ji Soo if he was the boy Woo ji Woo she used to know in the hospital 12 years ago.
Geu Rim found out that Ji Soo had like her since then.
This is a sweet episode. Lee Gang told Ji Soo that he likes Geu Rim.
Episode 9-12
This drama has some mystery to its story.
Someone is sending postcards branding Ji Soo as a murderer. The mystery deepens as Ji Soo has a box of letters addressed to Geu Rim, being the sender’s muse. Was Ji Soo the real sender? Or someone, the boy, who died twelve years ago?!!!
The romance between Geu Rim and Ji Soo is full on, but Lee Gang seemed had something to say about it!
Episode 13-16
Nice enough drama but in the end you are left feeling like ‘what did I just watch?’ I mean it was immediately forgettable
Geu Rim found out that Ji Soo is not the Woo Ji Woo, who sent her love notes a long time ago.
They all live happily ever after.
Kim So Hyun is a very good actress but this drama is way over her head. They should have gotten a more mature actress.
