The tvN weekend drama Queen of Tears, penned by Park Ji Eun and directed by Jang Young Woo and Kim Hee Won, is causing a stir on the global stage, showing signs of becoming the next big K-drama phenomenon. The series, which airs on tvN, TVING, and Netflix, tells the riveting story of Hong Hae In (Kim Ji Won), an heiress to the conglomerate, and Baek Hyun Woo (Kim Soo Hyun), the son of a village chief, as they navigate the perilous waters of a marriage crisis and the miraculous restart of their love.
As of March 20th, Queen of Tears secured the third spot in Netflix’s Global TOP10 Series (non-English) rankings for the week of March 11th to March 17th, climbing four places from the previous week. The series has amassed a total of 22.4 million viewing hours thus far. Particularly noteworthy is its performance in Japan, where Queen of Tears took the top spot across all series on Netflix Japan, indicating another K-drama success story in the making.
According to FlixPatrol, Queen of Tears skyrocketed to the number one position on Japan’s Netflix TV shows just three days after its release, maintaining its top rank every day except for one since entering the top 10.
On Japan’s largest content review site, Filmarks, the series boasts a high rating of 4.3 out of 5, closely rivaling the 4.5 score of Crash Landing on You. Japanese viewers have left glowing reviews, with comments like, “It’s been a while since I’ve been this captivated by a Korean series. Kim Ji Won is so beautiful!” and “The two actors are perfect together. Plus, the screenplay is by Park Ji Eun, who wrote ‘Crash Landing on You’ and ‘My Love from the Star’.”
A survey published by the Korea Creative Content Agency in January 2023 found Park Ji Eun’s previous work, Crash Landing on You, alongside Winter Sonata, to be among the most frequently watched K-dramas by Japanese audiences. With Queen of Tears being Park Ji Eun’s latest project, the series had already garnered considerable attention from Japanese viewers even before its airing.
As of March 17th, the fourth episode of Queen of Tears aired on tvN recorded an average viewership of 13.9% in the metropolitan area, peaking at 15%, continuing to break its own record for highest viewership each week.
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