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Pierce Conran

0/5 stars
Lead cast: Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Mu-yeol, Ji Chang-wook
Who thought that this was a good idea?
That is the question likely to torment viewers as they watch the head-scratching and head-spinning big-budget period drama Queen Woo, starring Jeon Jong-seo (The Call), Kim Mu-yeol (No Way Out: The Roulette) and Ji Chang-wook (The Worst of Evil).


Granted, for a litany of reasons viewers may bail on the series before even completing the four turgid episodes that comprise its “Part I”. For those brave enough to carry on, “Part II” is scheduled to complete Queen Woo’s tale when it drops on September 12.
Before jumping into what’s wrong with the show (spoiler – everything), what is it? The series takes place during the Goguryeo era (37 BC-668 AD) of imperial rule in Korea and chronicles the treacherous power vacuum left by the death of the dynasty’s 9th monarch, King Gogukcheon (Ji).
Five tribes are vying for power and the newly widowed Queen Woo (Jeon) has the dangerous role of kingmaker. She can do so by quickly remarrying, but to whom? Thus begins a breathless 24-hour journey to find the right suitor to prevent the Goguryeo Kingdom collapsing.
The series also follows Woo and the King when they first met, and before he, instead of his fuming older brother, was unexpectedly installed on the throne by his ailing father.
Meanwhile, Kim Mu-yeol plays Prime Minister Eul Pa-so, who holds his cards close to his chest.

Dull as dishwater and dry as a biscuit, this supposedly grand story of a palatial power vacuum and all the nefarious figures who seek to fill it is all too familiar, but worse than that it lacks character and intrigue.
Jumping back and forth between characters and timelines before having properly established the lay of the land, the sloppily edited story manages to both confuse viewers and spoil them as to where the story is headed.
A whopping 30 billion won (US$22 million) was spent to produce this series, giving it one of the highest per-episode costs of any Korean drama. Good luck trying to see all that money on the screen.
The sets and costumes meant to bring the Goguryeo era to life are probably of high quality, but dark photography, or perhaps an overeager grading process set on stripping the costumes of their vitality, has put paid to any chance of us getting a proper look at them.

The result is a visually drab affair that fails to stimulate the senses and, what’s more, forces us to spend more time attempting to glean what’s going on amid the darkness when we should be keeping our ears peeled for the exposition in the plodding dialogue, which is mucky enough to sit through as it is.
Even more than the dreary storytelling, limp set pieces and glowering performances – save for Park Ji-hwan’s (The Outlaws) as a stolid general, the cast’s lone bright spot, the actor proving he’s not just a funnyman – Queen Woo has a very big problem and its name is sex.
Korean dramas may not be known for racy content, but films are a little different. Erotically charged period dramas have been a mainstay for decades, from classics of yesteryear like Village of Haze, Does Cuckoo Cry at Night and Mulberry all the way through to 21st-century movies such as Untold Scandal, The Servant and The Treacherous.
In those films, sex is employed both to titillate viewers and make observations about systems of social control. The erotically charged scenes are both memorable and meaningful.

Queen Woo also uses sex as a tool of power and control, yet manages to strip out the eroticism and emotion. The women who engage in sexual acts in the show – the whole female cast minus Queen Woo – are largely archetypes being degraded by these acts.
There’s Jolbon (Park Bo-kyung, Moving), the cackling leader of a tribe who holds counsel with her advisers while being satisfied by a male servant.
Then there’s the king’s younger brother Go Bal-ki (Lee Soo-hyuk, Doom at Your Service), who bends his wife over a table and, while having intercourse, impales her in the back with his sword.
He then randomly stabs a wall in frustration with the same sword, accidentally killing another woman on the other side, and proceeds to tell his guards to chop off the heads of all the remaining maids in the palace.
These instances take place only a few minutes apart. Imagine what the whole show is like.

Queen Woo has also drawn criticism for costuming decisions that have been described as both anachronistic and borrowing from Chinese history, an echo of the controversy that saw the period horror series Joseon Exorcist pulled after only two episodes had aired in 2021.
Given how hard those costumes are to see here, kudos to the eagle-eyed viewers who spotted that.
While we await Part II with trepidation, all that remains to say is that the producers of Sweet Home season 3 can rest easy, for their show has swiftly been replaced at the bottom of the barrel of 2024 K-dramas by a production of such mind-boggling miscalculation that its kindest fate would be to sink without a trace.
Queen Woo is streaming on Viu.


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Big-budget show about a battle for the throne is dull, dry, confusing, and lacks intrigue. It can’t even get the sex right. Part II next …


One-note performances, anachronistic costumes, a lack of intrigue – big-budget drama about a king’s death and the power vacuum it creates is dull, confusing, and doesn’t even get the sex scenes right.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | K-drama Queen Woo Part I review: Jeon Jong-seo, Ji Chang-wook in turgid period drama

Big-budget show about a battle for the throne is dull, dry, confusing, and lacks intrigue. It can’t even get the sex right. Part II next …