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[Ishani's Picks] "Under The Queen's Umbrella" Is A Wonderful Blend Of Genres That Hits The Sweet Spot

One of the most highly anticipated historical K-Dramas of 2022, "Under the Queen's Umbrella", has officially entered its 4th week of broadcast with amazingly high ratings. Here's why the drama is so successful.

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"Under the Queen's Umbrella" tells the story of Queen Hwa-ryeong and her struggle against palace politics to protect her sons. Queen Hwa-ryeong is played by veteran actress Kim Hye-soo, who brings the character to life with dignity, grace, and strength. She is constantly under the Queen Dowager's vigilance, especially with her personal dislike towards the Queen, which puts her sons in danger too.

The King, in turn, has been reduced to a figurehead controlled by his ministers. He has 8 royal concubines with sons of their own, each competing for the position of the Crown Prince after he mysteriously falls ill. History repeats itself as we later find out that the Queen Dowager murdered the former Crown Prince, the son of Queen Yoon, to put her son, the current King Yi Ho, on the throne. This time around, the Queen Dowager is vouching for the distinguished Consort Hwang and her son Prince Uiseong, praying on the downfall of Queen Hwa-ryeong.

This concludes the political thriller arc of the drama. Concurrently, we have a splash of comedy as Queen Hwa-ryeong grapples with raising her sons into proper Princes so as to make one of them fit to be a King. This becomes increasingly difficult with Grand Prince Seong-nam (Moon Sang-min) being a rebel, Grand Prince Muan (Yoon Sang-hyeon) being a romantic, Grand Prince Gye-seong (Yoo Seon-ho) struggling with his gender expression, and Grand Prince Ilyeong (Park Ha-jun) being a curious little one. Neither of them have any interest whatsoever in education, especially when their oldest brother is the dependable and sturdy Crown Prince. However, when the position of the Crown Prince is left vacant, the Queen must prepare her sons for the worst.

This brings forth the third key element of the drama, the love and sacrifice of a mother. Queen Hwa-ryeong must live up to her duties as a Queen, but she is also the mother of 4 troublesome sons (besides the Crown Prince) who would do anything but listen to her. However, reining them in does not mean depriving them of their youth, their dreams, hopes, and desires. Queen Hwa-ryeong thus treads a thin line between being an unyielding monarch and a gentle mother, and the balance she strikes is incredible, to say the least. No one, if not Kim Hye-soo, would have been able to bring out the essence of this character with such nuance.

A final, albeit minor angle so far, is that of romance. There are hints of a budding relationship between Grand Prince Seong-nam and the daughter of the Minister of War, who is determined to marry him after she encounters him on a secret mission to secure medicine for the Crown Prince. It will certainly be interesting to see where this equation goes.

With how gripping, entertaining, and riveting "Under the Queen's Umbrella" is, I cannot wait to see what happens next.

By Ishani Sarkar.

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"Under the Queen's Umbrella" is directed by Kim Hyeong-sik, written by Park Ba-ra, and features Kim Hye-soo, Kim Hae-sook, Choi Won-young, Moon Sang-min, Bae In-hyuk, Yoon Sang-hyeon. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/10/15~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:10 on tvN.

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