Kim Hee-ae plays the fixer of a powerful chaebol family in ‘Queenmaker.’
Hwang Do-hee is a fixer and she’s a good one. The character, played by Kim Hee-ae, spends her days running around on red-soled Jimmy Choos, manipulating the media and public opinion for the benefit of her wealthy conglomerate clients. As she points out in the opening segment of the k-drama Queenmaker, what you wear says a lot about you. It may not be able to exonerate you from a crime, but the right clothes and designer accessories can shape opinion.
For Do-hee the designer shoes symbolize the Cinderella life she lives while serving the needs of cruel and careless chaebols. As the general manager of corporate strategy for Eunsung Group, she’s a genius at making bad news go away, even if it means destroying the lives of those with less money. The chaebols reward her with a glamorous, if subservient, lifestyle. The keys to a new car. An apartment. A chance to hobnob with the rich and powerful. The people Do-hee works for lack a conscience, but she’s not paid to care.
She could not be more different than Oh Kyung-seok, played by Moon So-ri. Kyung-seok is a human rights lawyer protesting unfair dismissals at Eunsung by camping on the rooftop of a corporation building. Wearing the same grungy clothes for days, she’s less concerned about what she wears than what she stands for. The cost of one pair of Do-hee’s shoes represent a life-changing fortune for one of the unfairly dismissed workers she represents. While Do-hee refers to Kyung-seok as a “she-devil,” Kyung-seok is not easily intimidated. She calls Do-hee a “toilet” as her job is dealing with the excrement created by her chaebol overlords.
The Eun family wields enormous power and they recruit Do-hee to expand that power by moving one of their own into politics. Kyung-seok’s protest at their store is an embarrassment that could jeopardize their plans, so Do-hee is charged with removing her. After an interaction with Eunsung Group son-in-law Baek Jae-min, played by Ryu Soo-young, Do-hee realizes that any deal made with the devil is not worth the expensive shoes she walks in.
Kim Hee-ae appeared in dozens of films and dramas, including Secret Affair and the World of the Married. During her 40 year career she’s won six Baeksang Arts Awards. Moon So-ri appeared in the 2021 film Three Sisters, for which she earned Best Actress awards at both the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Korean Association of Film Critics Awards, as well as a nomination at the Baeksang Arts Awards. She appeared in the MBC drama On the Verge of Insanity and the Netflix
NFLX
The Netflix drama was directed by Oh Jin-seok, who directed the drama My Sassy Girl, My First First Love and Love With Flaws.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2023/04/15/two-strong-women-face-a-showdown-in-the-k-drama-queenmaker/