King the Land (2023)

this drama makes u feel happy,joyful with a beautiful love stry like we dream about our love life

some people really acted like silly and giving bad comment ...when this dramas plot r made for love and fun...all things are their is fictional...so we don't have to be serious bt enjoy it and get entertainment...tbh...I loved it very much...lee jun hui and I'm Yoon ah companionship is very beautiful...they were so natural that's make me feel it's real...all comedy scenes specially Arab prince scene was horrible..I laughed so much...and other scene were amazing ?...and this drama s ost also good to listen...over all it's the best romcom drama of 2k23 that gave us the vibe of 2016..

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Perfect classic romantic drama

9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2023 South Korean romantic comedy series with 16, 60-77 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique Synopsis then reviiew.

Synopsis

Cheon Sa-rang (Im Yoon-ah) has finally landed her dream job as a concierge at the King Hotel. She has a smile that was made for the role and her beauty and above average capability has her climbing the ranks at the hotel rapidly. Although her aspirations and goals are on path, Sa-rang often finds herself squarely in the cross hairs of Goo Won (Lee Jun-ho) the handsome chaebol who is set to inherit the conglomerate.

At first the two only find the other annoying. But they soon realize there is way more common ground in common as they each pursue their dreams in the hotel world.

Review

This was very good and perfect for anyone that likes a slow build, well developed, heartwarming and enduring romance. The lead couple had perfect chemistry to the point if you discovered they were dating in real life it would not be a surprise. It has a happy ending and all major plot points are resolved.

Spoilers*
Lee Jun ho plays a chaebol that is sensitive and caring and very sweet. He has a gruff exterior but it is a very thin veil for a vulnerable but very kind person. Once he fell for her he did not change his feelings or interest from that point despite family and social pressure.

Even those who tried not to like Sa-rang were unsuccessful. Her amazing competence and unflappable concern for the customers and all those her around her won over virtually everyone.

I loved that she reached the dream team level and realized that it was not all about providing an experience and making people happy. From the classic maid uniform to the tone of that highest privileged experience of serving the Chairman and his guests, it was clear that it was about the elites flashing their elevated status by having the best wait staff at their beck and call. It paid extremely well but she did not think it was worth prostrating your pride on the alter of social narcissism. It was disillusioning for her. So when she decided to quit the King Hotel and create her own experience it made sense. But I was not a fan of the cliff hangar where it made the viewer think she was going to break up with him for his or her own good. I hate that trope and it just so happened that was the episode I was ending on for that night. It was a good and surprising twist but not one I was fond of.

I loved Sa-rang’s grandmother, Cha Soon-hee (Kim Young-ok) is a character that is always in lead girl’s camp, strongly supporting her in all she does. Soon-hee plays the elder in many dramas but thus very cantankerous exterior was a new twist on her usual much more amiable roles. Social status did not intimidate her or overly impress her and she felt her granddaughter was invaluable and not someone to be won with mere money and social status. Her relationship with Won was endearing. Although she made it hard to win her favor, once she decided he was the one she was proud and happy to have him as her grandson in law. It was cute he tried so hard but also that he seemed to genuinely care for her and felt like her trials were reasonable as he understood it reflected the deep caring and love she had for her grandchild.

I did not feel like the story between Won’s parents made a lot of sense. She was supposedly his great love where he was willing to buck social traditions, and be with her, but the minute she did something his father seriously disapproved of not only did he abandon their relationship, but he stole her son and cast her out. They never showed who the wife of his daughter was (his other wife and someone that was socially acceptable) and that might’ve helped explain how that whole situation went down. It just did not make sense that somebody who loved another enough to go against society would so easily give up on them. Later when she comes back, he doesn’t seem to have any remorse over what happened in the past, and instead sort of doubles down on the way he is with his son until the very end when he does have a slight reversal. On has a brief touching encounter with his mom but, other than her attendance at the wedding, we do not get to see the mother and son grow closer. Overall the way that played out did not do justice to the build up to that point. .

The other minor plot flaw was how much it showed her roommate and friends unfair treatment at work without significant satisfaction is seeing them flip the script. I mean the airline stewardess revealed who the ex was and kicked him in his sensitive parts (which he well deserved) but you never saw her make that next level. There was significant screen time devoted to jer desire to become purser and how she was continually passed over unfairly. The romance with her friend and fellow flight attendant was bonus level but it would have been good to see some positive resolve to her unfair work situation. Her other friend had a dead beat husband who she got back at but it never seemed like she had the relationship with him she deserved.

When Won’s sister gets in a verbal altercation with her soon to be ex husband and he slaps her, I was shocked and not okay with that scene. It played through like she had it coming but I personally do not think partners should be physically violent with each other, She slaps him back and that was slightly satisfying but still, men should not hit women in general. Now if it is some psycho woman who started things, and he has no choice, then defending himself is acceptable. But that was not the case, he was angry she bought his girlfriend off and slapped her. Men are built more robustly than women and have greater muscle mass so they should protect not harm.

#KingtheLand
#ImYoonAh
#LeeJunHo

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So Basic ( Romance KDrama 101)

If you love rom-coms with cute couples with cute chemistry and need a filler drama to watch I recommend "King the Land". This drama is every KDrama cliché ever in cute repackaging. Do you like reluctant Cinderellas and brooding Chaebols? Check. Do you like families fighting for succession, meddling parents, childhood trauma, ridiculous misunderstandings, damsels in distress, and plenty of product placement? Check! Do you swoon over a "trip and dip", or the umbrella savior swooping in, do you cheer for mild stalking, makeovers, being forced to stay overnight in a remote town/island, men cooking enthusiastically, and other assorted food porn, bonding while drunk, or lots of lingering stares? Big checks for all of the above. Don't worry about these being spoilers either, the story is so standard it can't really be spoiled.

Whatever you think is going to happen is going to happen.

I admit I was on board for all of the above and then some. I would definitely classify this as a fan service drama for that reason. I was entertained consistently until things started turning more and more into a Tourism Ad and the obvious product placement became too overwhelming. It all leads to a decent ending, with some satisfying character conclusions, but if you told me this entire script was written by ChatGPT compiling successful romantic KDramas of the past I would believe you!

"King the Land" is not original. It's as basic as basic gets, but not bland. That may be the appeal for a lot of viewers. It felt kind of relaxing guessing exactly what was going to happen next. I thought the main couple was cute without being too cheesy. Im Yoon Ah is great as the confidently quirky and optimistic Cheon Sa Rang. She balances out the moody charm of Lee Jun Ho as Gu Won. I've definitely liked Jun Ho in other dramas and he owns the leading man role swag in this. The rest of the supporting cast of BBFs , Co-Workers, and Ahn Se Ha as No Sang Sik are great too. My only character complaint is that the sister role was so one-note it made her character less interesting in spite of her performance.

Would I watch this again? Maybe, once it slips my mind, and it will slip my mind. I do feel like this drama loses its momentum about halfway through, which makes committing to rewatching this harder, but the cuteness and well-executed tropes may be enough to convince me to rewatch. Sometimes junk food dramas are exactly what I crave. It's escapism that you can rely on. This drama is very self-aware of its cuteness and tropes and attractive leads and milks it.

This is a Cozy drama for sure! It's also a love letter to the service industry. What it's not is plot twists and clever dialogue. It's also lighter on the drama that I'm used to for a hotel-centered drama, so It doesn't even stand out in that genre, but once I watched episode 1 I knew what to expect and knew I was committed because it was exactly what I was in the mood for. This is the kind of drama you can leave playing in the background and just catch all the smile-worthy moments whether that is couples flirting or friendship and comradery. I loved watching the characters rely on each other and have each other's back even if the actual situations weren't always funny or interesting, and If you skipped from ep 10 to ep 16 you probably wouldn't miss much.

Overall, "King the Land" gives me an old-school KDrama rom-com feel without feeling dated. I wish it were shorter because their cuteness couldn't always carry the boring and repetitive plot. Maybe enjoying this drama is an exercise in appreciating the simple things once in a while. A drama doesn't have to be a 5-star masterpiece to be enjoyable. Sometimes a few Squid Game references are enough to amuse you. The one real mystery in the plot is resolved in the most anticlimactic way, however, even this simple plot generated a genuine smile from me many times, a major theme in this drama (that I liked a lot). So "Hermès" to that!

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Cliche, but romantic

This drama was a great rom-com to pass time and give you a little bit of happiness and fun while escaping from your daily lives. There were cliches and cheesy moments sprinkled throughout the drama, but at its core I believe this drama is meant to be light-hearted so you can easily disregard all those cliches and just enjoy the beautiful couple GuWon and Sarang and their romantic love.

If you're here for romance, you'll 100% have a great time. Although I say the drama is cliché, this is more about the main character's roles (chaebol ML and kind "lower class" FL), side characters and their story lines, and to an extent, the overarching plot line of this drama - chaebol family dynamic (within a hotel management setting). For the romance enthusiasts out there, GW and SR's love story was cheesy but quite refreshing, despite the overused chaebol-regular kind girl dynamic we've seen MULTIPLE times before. What was refreshing to me was the fact that the couple actually stood by each other despite their "class difference" (as their society would put it); and even more importantly, I loved that SR had a lot of self-respect for not just her position in her relationship with GW, but also in her life in general. However, I did feel like JunHo and YoonA were acting like they were in love a lot of times, so the chemistry didn't 100% click for me, but you'll get lost in their visuals and JH's intense gazes so most people will probably not notice the unnatural acting.

So, for people looking for romance specifically, you will have a great time (9-10 stars). I care a little bit more about the plot line so some aspects of this drama - mainly the unreasonable obsession GW's sister had against him, the unprofessional nature in which coworkers treated each other, and GW's questionable management style made this drama difficult to watch. Latter one is not as serious, I just didn't necessarily believe GW to be a really competent hotel manager. His whole methods to managing the hotel were nice to see but really only seemed feasible in an "in-a-perfect-world" situation, and it felt more like he was just solving whatever issues his girlfriend had mentioned about the hotel rather than actually working on his own to look into the hotel and finding what needs to be improved. Anyway this was more of a nit-picky observation.

Overall, I don't think this drama is meant to be deep or realistic, so as long as you can watch it light-heartedly and want to be swept into the world of a visually appealing couple being sweet and in-love together, then you'll have a good time.

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... anyway

Finally finished this one. Had it on pause because it was just so boring and draggy that I got annoyed. The leads and their chemistry truly carried this drama since it didn’t offer anything interesting plot-wise. Which is why I find it crazy to make each episode 70+ minutes long. A reason why I liked “Business Proposal” so much is that the episodes were all 60 minutes long, there weren’t any unnecessary plots/storylines, and it was interesting. KTL was too long for what it offered, which is why I didn’t enjoy it as much. Sometimes, the secondary characters were annoying, the “antagonist” childish to be honest… like she was beefing at her big age over the hotel… anyway.

Also, what was the point of the Arab prince? They used his character as a plot devise to move forward our couple by making him ridiculous. I don’t know why they had to be culturally offensive, the writer could have just made the character some important business man or a politician. Why use stereotypes and mocking an entire ethnicity? That part was just super insensitive and dumb because him being an “Arab prince” didn’t add anything to the plot, it wasn’t important where he came from – he just served as comic relief.

If it wasn’t for Yoon Ah’s and Jun Ho’ chemistry, double speed and the fast-forwarding button, I would have never finished this. It entertained me, made me giggle, and even made me lose a tear or two, but overall, this was disappointing.

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Ep 1-8 was really good but the rest was mehh ?

I really like this drama, it's really fun and simple, but after episodes 9-10 for some reason I felt bored and when I watched it I got sleepy because I was bored, even though I forced myself to watch it. , but the exciting sensation is in episodes 1-8, I think the drama becomes boring. I feel that some of the characters are too forced to act and I don't know why it feels like something is missing after episodes 9-10, it's a bit disappointing even though I expected more because episodes 1-8 I think this drama is very good and I watched it with enjoyment but after episode 9 it feels empty and I feel bored.

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Yes, I know many people think this show is over-hyped with all the rom-com cliches that it could find. Sometimes, I listen to the keyboard critics (like when I passed on “The Heirs”), and sometimes I don’t (like I did in this instance). But I am glad I did not listen, not only did I find “King the Land” enjoyable, I found a newfound appreciation for Yoon Ah, whom I wasn’t really too keen on when I saw her last in “Love Rain.”

Are there other pairings with better chemistry than Jun Ho and Yoon Ah? Sure. But I will recognize Gu Won’s and Yoon Ah’s effort in portraying two people who couldn’t be more opposite of each other. One who constantly smiles as she sees the silver lining in every situation, and has the tenacity to tackle challenges despite setbacks. While the other has a persistent cloud over his mood, because of his mother’s mysterious disappearance that he sees as abandonment.

Despite his lack of emotional intelligence, Gu Won tries his best with what he can, and after meeting Sa Rang, he learns to become more attuned to the needs of others. I also loved how the rest of the cast contribute to Gu Won’s character development, from “The Six Siblings” to Sa Rang’s Grandmother, they all shape his world view that allowed him to develop programs that are considered progressive for his hotel business, treating his employees and regular customers as “kings” in their own right despite their status.

To say that this drama is without its flaws is a lie. Could the product placement be less ubiquitous? Yes. Could the drama use fewer tropes? Maybe. But in the end, when Sa Rang realizes that the genuine pleasure of serving people isn’t necessarily being in the most prestigious lounge serving top-tier customers but in the every-day common folk, do we see the fundamental principle of this drama.

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Watch it!

After my big dissapointment on her Big Mouth series, Im Yoon Ah came back alive, Lol!

King the Land, I would say, is a great piece. Though the storyline was ordinary, predictable, the creators were able to blend some interesting plots to keep me wanting for more. They were able make it interesting even without friction or the "misunderstanding" trick on the storyline. ML's sister did a great job on her role, she is one of the reasons why I irritatingly hoped that the next day after Sunday is Saturday, Lol! At one point, I hoped that this woman would fall down so hard and become a street beggar by the end of the series, Lol! That was how effective she was in portraying her role. My blood pressure even goes up just by staring at her. Sesang-e! Lol!

I personally like Jun Wo, I have seen him in some of his series like Just Between Lovers, Wok With Love, Good Manager among others. He is a great actor. What I like about his role in KTL is his being so understanding and considerate to his girlfriend to the point he even cancelled his proposal just to give way for her dreams. Cool!

So far, I have not seen that many KDramas ended in a wedding. But the wedding part was was just right for the series.

Im Yoon Ah is likewise great with her performance in this series. For me, she is the right pick for the role. Bubbly, independent, has positive attitude towards life and determined to fulfil her dreams. Like I mentioned above, I was so dissapointed that about what happened to her in her Big Mouth series. That was so unacceptable to me to the point that I placed the series on hold half way through after I accidentally read a spoiler. I think I could still continue, I just dont have the heart. Seeing her again in KTL was so "reincarnating" for me, Lol! Im a big fan of her- her beautiful face, mesmerizing smile and enchanted voice. Both leads are "natural" actors and so the result is obvious.

Supports were all good. Great soundtracks.

I enjoyed watching. I can rewatch this without the skips. Lol!

-B-

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Heartwarming, exciting and funny

At first I was a bit skeptical because of some bad reviews, but wow, I really loved this drama! I watched so many dramas with several episodes of heartbreaks, break ups and sad moments that I really enjoyed the mostly positive flow of this drama. Of course there are some problems for the characters to overcome, but no problem lasted too long and it all got cleared up without too much unnecessary drama. I think the story is well written and shows many important points of mistreatment at work and the importance of friendship and family. It kind of motivates to keep on working hard and pursuing your dreams. I really liked to see how the woman main lead always gave her best, despite her colleagues who treated her really bad in the beginning. The story doesn’t feel boring and had a perfect length. For me, the romance was very cute and had many heartwarming moments. I really enjoyed to see them grow closer and become so precious to each other. Same for the hilarious and absolutely cute friendship of the group, which develops very nice through the story. The characters decisions were mostly understandable and they didn’t leave each other for odd reasons. Plus, I haven’t laughed that much while watching a drama in a long time. For me, it was the perfect balance between romance, comedy and tension. I absolutely recommend it!

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Chemistry, Kissing Scene, Comedy Scene

Chemistry yang kuat antara Yoona dan Junho menjadi salah satu faktor yang membuat drama Korea ini sangat menarik untuk ditonton. Selain itu, drama ini juga menyenangkan karena sisi komedinya.

Drama ini dimulai dengan seorang wanita bernama Cheon Sa-rang (Yoona) yang bekerja sebagai pelayan di sebuah hotel mewah. Cheon Sa-rang adalah wanita yang baik hati dan pekerja keras. Suatu hari, Cheon Sarang bertemu dengan seorang pria bernama Goo Won (Junho), yang merupakan putra dari pemilik hotel tersebut. Goo Won adalah pria yang dingin dan tidak ramah, tetapi ia juga sangat tampan dan kaya.

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