*Editor's note: This is the ninth instalment in our Behind the Scenes series, compiled from existing reports and statements by the production team and cast.*
On the night of Saturday, 9th March 2024, the first episode of tvN's weekend drama "Queen of Tears" drew a national average viewership rating of 5.853%. Seven weeks later, on 28th April, the finale recorded 24.850% — surpassing "Crash Landing on You"'s 21.683% by 3.167 percentage points and setting a new all-time record for a tvN drama. At the press conference ahead of the show's launch, screenwriter Park Ji-eun had expressed a simple ambition: to do "just a little better than Crash Landing on You." Achieving that modest-sounding goal required 331 days of filming.
Shooting "Yongduri" in Yongyeon-ri, Mungyeong
The village of Yongduri, as depicted in the drama, was filmed from May 2023 in and around Yongyeon-ri, Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province. The rail bike track at Gurang-ri station, where the lead characters go on a date in episodes 13 and 14, and the Ecoworld amusement park also featured locations in Mungyeong. The Mungyeong Coal Museum inside Ecoworld completed a five-billion-won (roughly $3.7m) renovation and reopened in April 2024. As of 30th May 2024, the city was considering relocating the Yongduri village set to the Ecoworld site to improve visitor access, and was in talks with the production company about reconstructing the popular set. Mayor Shin Hyeon-guk stated that he hoped production companies would continue to visit and take an interest in the area, and that the city would spare no effort in supporting future film and drama productions. Whether the relocation was ultimately carried out has not been confirmed.
Two Directors, 17 Years of Friendship, Three Episodes of Collaboration
Direction was shared by Jang Young-woo and Kim Hee-won. Jang noted that the two had known each other for around 17 years, describing their rapport as so close that "a glance is enough." Lead actor Kim Soo-hyun reunited with screenwriter Park Ji-eun for the third time, following "My Love from the Star" (2013) and "The Producers" (2015) — a gap of roughly nine years. He recalled his reaction to reading the script as one of pure joy and gratitude. Director Jang explained that the writer had spent a long time conceiving and developing the project, describing it as a drama that prompts reflection on things money cannot buy — memory, time, happiness. Kim Ji-won, returning to television two years after "My Liberation Notes" (2022), said she briefly studied the etiquette of the wealthy to prepare for her role as a third-generation chaebol heiress and invested considerable effort in her styling.
Playing the Spark in a Three-Year Marriage
The drama centres on the entanglement of a humble village headman's family with the wealthy "Queens Family" conglomerate, brought together by the marriage of Baek Hyeon-woo (Kim Soo-hyun) and Hong Hae-in (Kim Ji-won). Unlike a conventional romantic comedy, the protagonists begin as an already-struggling couple, three years into a strained marriage. Kim Soo-hyun said the challenge lay in conveying the sense that "somewhere in here — in the chest — there's still a spark, that the excitement hasn't entirely gone." Kim Ji-won described having to confront her co-star "with three years' worth of accumulated emotion from the very first moment." The atmosphere on set was warm. Kim Soo-hyun called Kim Ji-won the "Queen of Consideration" and the "Queen of Concentration," while she described him as a "total Energizer bunny." Kwak Dong-yeon dubbed co-star Lee Joo-bin the "Queen of Leadership." Kim Soo-hyun also recounted a touching moment when Na Young-hee, who plays his mother-in-law in the drama, told him at a cast dinner: "Soo-hyun, you've become so much brighter."
The Writer's Wish, the Director's Vow
The subject of target ratings came up at the press conference held on 7th March at the Ramada Seoul Sindorim Hotel in Guro, Seoul. Director Kim Hee-won said the target was simply "a humble state of mind," before adding that the writer hoped the show would perform "just a little higher" than "Crash Landing on You," the most-watched drama in tvN's history. Park Ji-eun was not present at the event; her ambitions were conveyed through the director. Kim Hee-won pledged that if the finale surpassed "Crash Landing on You," he would join the cast in performing a deep ceremonial bow — a traditional Korean gesture of respect — as part of a public challenge. Ratings, he added, were ultimately in the hands of fate.
The Numbers Behind 331 Days
Figures released by CJ ENM shortly after the finale paint a vivid picture of the production's scale. Filming spanned 331 days; including pre-production, the project ran from December 2022 to April 2024 — approximately 17 months — and captured all four seasons. A total of 793 actors appeared on screen. Kim Ji-won wore 166 outfits, averaging more than ten per episode. Kim Soo-hyun's character wept in 40 scenes, an average of 2.5 times per episode. Viewership rose from 5.9% in episode one to above 10% by episode four, and set a new series-high record with every single broadcast over eight weeks — not once dipping. The finale averaged 24.9% nationally, with a peak of 27.3% and a metropolitan Seoul average of 28.4%. On Netflix, cumulative viewing hours reached 460.7 million between the show's launch on 9th March and the end of April — closing in on the 500 million mark — while digital clips accumulated 1.76 billion views.
In Brief
"Queen of Tears" exceeded its writer's understated ambition by more than three percentage points. The margin was built by 331 days of filming and 793 people in front of the camera — a story that unfolded entirely off screen.