# Mr. Queen (2020) Review: A Chef Takes the Joseon Throne > Mr. Queen puts a brash modern chef inside the body of a Joseon queen, a 20-episode Korean farce with sharp palace politics and a star turn from Shin Hye-sun. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/mr-queen-review/ Published: 2026-07-25 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4.5/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is one of the funniest historical K-dramas around, best for viewers who enjoy broad comedy and court intrigue and can forgive some crude, dated jokes. ## Is Mr. Queen worth watching? **Yes. Mr. Queen is a riotous body-swap comedy with a surprisingly clever palace thriller hiding inside it, and Shin Hye-sun's lead performance is reason enough to watch.** The show gets huge laughs from a modern man's mind colliding with Joseon court etiquette, then slowly builds real stakes and a romance you do not see coming. The reservation is its humour, which leans on crude gags and gender jokes that will not suit everyone and sometimes feel stuck in an older era of comedy. ## What is Mr. Queen about? Jang Bong-hwan is a cocky, womanising chef who works in the kitchens of the South Korean presidential residence. After an accident in a swimming pool, he wakes up in the body of Kim So-yong, a young queen in the Joseon dynasty. Trapped in a palace full of poisoned tea, rival dowagers and powerful in-laws, he keeps his modern instincts and his very modern mouth, and uses his cooking to win allies. Along the way he begins to suspect that the king he has married, whom he never wanted, is not the puppet everyone takes him for. [Mr. Queen](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/mr-queen/) is a South Korean series in Korean, written by Choi Ah-il and Park Kye-ok and loosely remade from the Chinese hit Go Princess Go. Shin Hye-sun plays the queen, with Kim Jung-hyun as King Cheoljong and Bae Jong-ok, Kim Tae-woo, Seol In-ah and Na In-woo in the court around them. This review covers the whole series: one season of 20 episodes, which aired from late 2020 into 2021. ## Shin Hye-sun's comic masterclass Everything depends on the central performance, and Shin Hye-sun delivers one of the great comic turns in recent Korean television. She plays a man trapped in a queen's body without leaning on cheap impersonation. Her posture, her impatience with court ritual and her swaggering internal monologue feel like one consistent character, and she is equally sharp in physical comedy and in quieter scenes where the queen's confusion becomes something closer to grief for a lost life. Kim Jung-hyun makes a smart foil as the king. He plays Cheoljong as watchful and guarded, a man whose every public move is a performance, and the growing respect between him and the queen gives the romance a slow, unconventional build. ## Palace politics with real teeth Beneath the farce, Mr. Queen takes its court intrigue seriously. The queen's family and the powerful clan around the throne are locked in a struggle for control, and the dowagers played by Bae Jong-ok and others are formidable schemers rather than cartoon villains. Kim Tae-woo brings real menace as the minister who dominates the court, and Seol In-ah's royal consort is a rival who becomes more interesting as the series goes on. The show is clever about how its hero's modern knowledge becomes a political asset. Cooking is used as diplomacy, and the chef's irreverence cuts through ceremonies that others cannot question. By the back half, the stakes have grown genuinely tense, and the comedy and drama begin to feed each other. ## The jokes that do not all age well Some of the humour, particularly early on, relies on crass sexual gags and on the lead's leering reaction to the women around him. It is meant to show how much growth the character needs, but it can be grating. In South Korea the series also drew criticism for its irreverent treatment of real Joseon history and historical records, and viewers sensitive to that will find its liberties with the past hard to ignore. The political plot also becomes convoluted in its later episodes, with several factions and alliances to track. ## Who should watch Mr. Queen? It suits viewers who enjoy [comedy](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/comedy/) with a period setting, fans of body-swap and fish-out-of-water stories, and anyone looking for a romance that takes its time. Twenty episodes is a big commitment, but the comic pace keeps the early stretch moving. Content includes crude humour, some violence and palace poisonings, which make it more appropriate for teens and adults. If you enjoy it, try these next: - [Crash Landing on You](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/crash-landing-on-you-review/), another hugely popular romance built on a stranger in a strange land. - [Because This Is My First Life](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/because-this-is-my-first-life-review/), for a marriage that starts as an arrangement and slowly turns into love. - [Queen of Tears](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/queen-of-tears-review/), a big modern K-drama that swings between farce and heartbreak. ## The verdict Mr. Queen is a gleefully silly historical farce that is smarter than it first appears, with a palace thriller and a slow-burn romance tucked beneath the jokes. Some of the humour is crude and the plot grows tangled late on, but Shin Hye-sun's extraordinary comic performance makes it one of the most entertaining K-dramas of its season. **Rating: 4.5/5** ## Related title - [Mr. Queen (2020)](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/mr-queen/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)