Summary

• Kim Ji-won's role in Queen of Tears marks a full-circle moment in her career, reminiscent of her breakout performance in The Heirs.
• The similarities between Yoo Rachel in The Heirs and Hong Hae-in in Queen of Tears showcase Kim Ji-won's versatility as an actress.
• Hong Hae-in is a mature version of Yoo Rachel, allowing Kim Ji-won to showcase her growth as an actress over the past decade.

Kim Ji-won has taken on many different roles throughout her career, but her most recent role in most exciting K-dramas of 2024 so far.

Besides Queen of Tears, Kim Ji-won has a number of standout performances that showcase her range as an actor. Romantic comedy Fight For My Way saw her star alongside Park Seo-joon as the energetic and tenacious Choi Aera, while her role as First Lt. Yoon Myeong-ju is one of the reasons Descendants of the Sun is considered one of the Kim Ji-won's career, as both characters share a striking resemblance to each other.

Kim Ji-won Played Teenage Heiress Yoo Rachel in The Heirs

Kim Ji-won's Performance in The Heirs is One of its Highlights

The Heirs (also known as The Inheritors) is a 2013 high school K-drama that follows the lives of teenage heirs as they navigate relationships alongside the burdens that come with a privileged lifestyle. Here, Kim Ji-won plays the second female lead, Yoo Rachel, an heiress to a clothing company. Rachel is entitled, but desires love, with her actions often doing more harm than good in an excellent performance from the then-rookie actress Kim Ji-won.

Despite sharing the screen with many big names in the Korean entertainment industry, Kim Ji-won’s portrayal of the teenage heiress remains one of the most memorable parts of The Heirs. Just watching how Yoo Rachel flips her pink phone makes it obvious that Kim Ji-won was the right choice for the role. Though The Heirs’ storyline is far from groundbreaking, Kim Ji-won’s performance as Yoo Rachel was so good that many eager fans anticipated her return to a similar role for over a decade. Luckily, Kim Ji-won's addition to the Queen of Tears cast would end this wait ten years later.

The Heirs marks Kim Ji-won's first collaboration with writer Kim Eun-sook, who she would later go on to work with on Descendants of the Sun. This would coincidentally be the next significant turning point in Kim Ji-won's career, as Descendants of the Sun's success would lead her to land her first leading role in Fight For My Way the following year.

How The Heirs Compares to Queen of Tears

Hong Hae-in and Yoo Rachel are Very Similar Characters

At first glance, Queen of Tears and The Heirs have many similarities. Both K-dramas deal with the lives of the extraordinarily rich, and the main romantic plot of each K-drama follows an uber-rich person falling in love with someone from a working-class background. There is always the undercurrent of business politics with Queen of Tears and The Heirs, alongside with K-drama love triangles that keep the romantic storylines on edge. However, the biggest similarity between the two K-dramas comes from Kim Ji-won’s characters of Hong Hae-in and Yoo Rachel.

Both characters are heiresses to their own companies and have cold, stubborn personalities that command a sense of power.

When considering the personalities and backgrounds of Hong Hae-in and Yoo Rachel, it’s hard not to see their similarities. Both characters are heiresses to their own companies and have cold, stubborn personalities that command a sense of power. Rachel is described as “The Paris Hilton of Jeguk High School,” while Hae-in’s similarly chic dress sense and sharp command is befitting of a royal. Rachel and Hae-in also both crave love from those around them, which is the driving force behind their actions. However, Hae-in and Rachel’s experiences are completely different in their respective dramas.

In The Heirs, Yoo Rachel is a ing character that acts as The Heirs’ misunderstood K-drama antagonist. Rachel's quest for chaos is childish yet entertaining, but lacks dimension thanks to the clichéd genre. In comparison, Hong Hae-in is the focus of the romantic comedy Queen of Tears and, thanks to her more significant screen time, Kim Ji-won can flex more of her acting skills to flesh out Hong Hae-in’s character in Queen of Tears’ emotionally turbulent storyline.

Why Queen Of Tears' Hong Hae-in Is A Natural Follow Up To Kim Ji-won's Breakout Role

Hong Hae-in is a Mature Version of Yoo Rachel

What makes Queen of Tears’ Hong Hae-in such a natural follow-up to The Heirs’ Yoo Rachel is their ages, and how that affects their actions. In The Heirs, Yoo Rachel is 17 years old, with Kim Ji-won herself being only 21 years old during the show’s original broadcast. Rachel deals with her issues by childishly lashing out and bullying others, particularly the female lead Cha Eun-sang (Park Shin-hye). She fiercely clings to her fiancée Kim Tan (Lee Min-ho), hoping that someday he will change his mind and give her the affection she has always longed for from her family.

Kim Ji-won’s return to a rich and emotionally immature character feels like a return to the beginning of her career.

On the other hand, Hong Hae-in is a woman in her thirties, much like Kim Ji-won when filming Queen of Tears. Though Hae-in is just as stubborn and emotionally immature as Rachel, life experience has evolved Hae-in, and in turn, Kim Ji-won’s acting abilities. In The Heirs, Rachel bordered the line of caricature, while Hae-in felt like a fully realized character whose innermost thoughts could easily be interpreted with just a glance. Though Hae-in’s actions can be petty, she deals with her darkest moments with fierce loyalty and maturing, which is evident through the development of Kim Ji-won’s acting skills since her breakout role ten years prior.

Kim Ji-won’s return to a rich and emotionally immature character feels like a return to the beginning of her career. Though this could be seen as a negative, it is anything but. Queen of Tears allows Kim Ji-won to show how far her acting has come, as Hong Hae-in’s character is given a much deeper portrayal. This in turn makes Kim Ji-won’s character in The Heirs seem even better, as fans can fondly look back at the role that acted as the foundation for Hong Hae-in, and the rest of Kim Ji-won’s incredible career.