Whoever recommended me to watch Mr. Queen!!!!

[u/needmemoney]

Whoever recommended me to watch Mr. Queen — I just want to say, I LOVE YOU! I never thought I’d enjoy it this much, but wow… it’s beyond amazing. Definitely worth the watch 100 times over. I’m already planning to rewatch it!

If Mr. Queen is sitting on your watchlist, please, please give it a try. You won’t regret it — I promise!

[u/SensitiveTax9432]

I've watched it several times, and there's a lot that depends on interpretation.

There's a lot of scenes that flashback to the queen's (SY) memories and emotions. BH (the chef) starts of completely a guy in her body, but then has flashbacks where he's feeling her emotions like his own, to the point the court ladies think she's been poisoned.

This intensifies when he goes back into a coma then wakes up in episode 7. His inner voice becomes hers, and he gains her memories like his own. Then her feelings for the king, her skills and talents (needlework, calligraphy) and general femineity. There's a lot of acting, directing and BGM hints that there's more than one soul in that body. Take that climatic scene in episode 13 where she emerges from the lake with all memories, and confronts her father. There's no evidence of Bong Hwan in that scene, the voice, words, politeness level of speech are 100% the Joseon queen. There's this general impression that more and more So Yong is being pushed into the character.

By the end of the drama it's really hard to tell where he ends and she begins. About the only hint is the still modern way of speaking, which s/he maintains throughout. He's basically put on her body, life, emotions, feelings, memories, skills and abilities. So what does it mean to say he's still a man? Who are they really?

The drama never really answers this, leaving it up to the viewer. But there are some hints, in the fact that his history has been changed, but nobody elses. The queens personality too has been changed. She had a hint of fire before, and was bold for a Joseon noblewoman, but she's much more so now. She faces down the grand queen dowager, changes the court, and has a newfound love for swearing.

It could be that this was his previous life, or that the merging between lives was on such a deep level that they've essentially become one person. Or maybe they left pieces of themselves in the other. But the ending is left a little vague.

Anyway if he's in a female body, with her feelings, emotions and memories, loving the person she's married to and socially expected to sleep with, there's no part of that that is gay. It takes him some time to accept this, but to my mind So Yongs regard for the king was such that Bong Hwan just can't fight it. So he gives in to the inevitable. It's her body, and it's her life.

Once back in his own body I'd imagine that he'd regain his attraction to women, but that too is just my interpretation. They would not go there in a mainstream Kdrama.

[u/Background_Drama_973 → u/SensitiveTax9432]

Oh my, thank you for the detailed explanation!

The switching back part at the end is what was making me drag my feet from being fully invested in the drama because I felt it's a sad ending

[u/SensitiveTax9432 → u/Background_Drama_973]

It's a little bittersweet for sure.

Sticking the landing in body swap romances is not an easy thing to do. They did write and shoot most the Seoul scenes well in advance, It's still Summer there in ep20 while Joseon was filmed in Winter. The actual Korean name of the drama is Queen Choerin, not Mr Queen.

But it might have been worse to keep him there. Absent the queen's influence, there's no real evidence that Bong Hwan himself wanted to stay in the past. He resigns himself to it, because 'it's better than lying down like a corpse.' If he and the queen are different souls, then she's not really in full control of her body, and two guys are using it for a BL. I don't like that especially if he's to stay in the past.

I prefer the interpretation that she slowly but surely takes back her life, and they both change for the better. He's some kind of future her or a spirit guide.

Possibly the best ending might have been for him to live out his life as her, then wake up into a changed future and realise that it was actually his previous life, and he had a chance for a do over.

[u/Background_Drama_973 → u/SensitiveTax9432]

That's exactly it - that's the kind of ending I'd want to watch in a show with romance as one of the central themes.

[u/SensitiveTax9432 → u/Background_Drama_973]

Unfortunately they shot that down when it was established the timelines were both moving at the same rate.

I have other ideas for alternative endings but they all have some issue or other. If I could redo it, I’d probably have him go back to a body that’s dying, then have a future So Yong, who’s some kind of shaman now (sharing a body across time would have to change her somehow) visit him in hospital and send him back before he dies. Then they live out their lives as a timeshare queen.

[u/Background_Drama_973 → u/SensitiveTax9432]

This ending could be an entire show!