King the Land 킹더랜드 [2023]

[abs-oluteM]

I give fast summary :

So mum & him had a heart to heart. Well he was angry at first but her "excuse" was that it was to protect him - something along those lines as it seems she was threatened/ kicked out. If she leaves, his life would be better - hence her decision. At first he was not gonna forgive her but he did later on. Mum spoke to dad to tell him not to meddle with GW's affairs seeing how hard it was for them in the past. Not sure if that will get through to dad.

 

The GM at the Tourist Hotel is horrible and is actually planning to sell the hotel ( this chain is owned by King Distribution - under the sister , not same subsidiary as King The Land) . SR and collegues will lose their jobs.

 

GW finally goes to SR. They reunite and he wanted her to go back with him immediately. But she felt responsible to stay on. Tells him about the hotel's problems. She also shows him first hand of the potential of the location that hotel is in. GW spends the day there - some sweet scenes. At the end, he tells the GM he will buy over the hotel. Yes problem solved!  :D

 

After sorting out her responsibilities, SR returned to KTL. But the father gave her the cold shoulder. SR realises that acceptance from the old man will not be easy.

 

Meanwhile - stewardess friend stands up against the smarmy pilot who likes to hit on her. She kicked him in the shin. Forgot to mention that her deal was that she is a divorcee so that was supposedly shameful. But she decided not to let it bother her. She and her hoobae, who has been supportive of her, start dating. The other friend who is the boutique manager finds evidence that her boss has been misusing company funds for personal use. She now has upper hand, plus GW and his manager came to visit her to give her some clout so that she won't get bullied. 

 

GW plans to propose to SR. Product placement for Piaget ring ( not so nice if you ask me :D), drones to create heart-shape and brings her to the 1st restaurant they both ate together at. As he was about to propose, she said she had something to say. She told him she wanted to call it quits as she didn't think it could work. 

( My mum and I were a little surprised that SR would give up at this point considering how committed GW has been. How to weather the storms in the future if cannot even handle this? Maybe she did make the right decision. ) 

 

So there you go ....the most important kdrama trope of breaking up in the last arc of the story was not forgotten by the writer. And evil sis is still sending these toothless threats to GW while trying to keep her husband from divorcing her. 

[Chocolate]

(shy shy) So I watched ep15. But only because my friend was watching so I had no choice lol. And the last part just further confirms how bad the writer is - she couldn't even provide an understandable reason that SR wanted to breakup.

 

From the time SR returned to the hotel with GW until she mentioned breakup, there was only 1 scene - she was serving in KTL and GW's father walked in and said "long time no see". That's it. So he wasn't very warm to her. What did she expect? And for that, she wants to breakup? Frankly, if a woman cannot even withstand that, how can she be expected to stand with GW through thick and thin?

 

To add on to @abs-oluteM's summary, the mother apparently was part of a union for the hotel staff and was leading a complaint against the management. GW's father at that time did not have power yet, so he could not protect her, not that he wanted too anyway because he sided with the hotel. So his father obviously wanted her out, which is understandable - how can owner's family lead the union against itself? 🙄 It was mentioned the father (GW's grandfather) held GW hostage so she had to leave - but I'm not sure if I missed what was the threat or it was not mentioned? Anyway, this part is also badly done and lazy - it was just narrated instead of showing flashbacks.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Chocolate

[peperomia]

"Finally FINALE" are seriously the perfect words to send off this drama!

Okay, I’m glad I ended up watching the last 2 episodes together. Without spoiling, the end of 15 is not what you would think happens. 

 

Personally, I really liked the scene between GW and his mother. Got emotional and teary-eyed when GW broke down in the hallway, but returns to reconcile with her.  I don’t find her reason for leaving GW compelling at all, but it was consistent for good-hearted GW to forgive her. I mean, what is the point of living the rest of one’s life in resentment. At least the show was able to show maturity through GW and the importance to free ourselves from a painful past.

 

I love GW’s nephew – kid is adorable and has a big heart just like GW. It was nice to see the evil sister’s icy heart melt away when her son comforted and hugged her after the fight with the husband. Thank goodness she finally comes around with some advice from GW and doesn’t send her son off to the U.S. anymore. A kid needs his mother. Even though the kid is mature, it is the adult who needs to be mature – not the other way around. 

 

From the start, the writing was mediocre (at best) and the overuse of dated tropes don’t work at all these days. Nevertheless, I do think GW and SR proved to be a very sweet couple who 100% supported each other. That is the highlight that I’ll take away from this drama. Glad it included a lovely wedding scene with everyone present including GW's mom and sister with her son. GW hugging his father was a nice moment.

 

Everything else not worth mentioning here was just meh all the way. LOL.

 

But all in all, I do think Jun Ho did a great job portraying GW. If not for him, I would not have stuck with this to the end. I really hope his next project will be much better than this one (writing-wise). Would love to see him in a detective role! 

[ktcjdrama]

There’s a wedding?!! So I definitely must watch till the end, just because 😄😄😄... We know how rare it is to see weddings in dramas these days. 

[Chocolate]

Well well. I can only say... OOPS!

 

 

[gilaswan]

As simply as it started, as simply it ended. This story remained true to its fairytale form - character development (if any), happened in leaps(fill in any logical gaps yourself), crises were quickly averted (even sis lost her drive despite telling him "this ain't over yet"), Sarang leaves KTL to run a successful Airbnb, Pyeonghwa ends up having no real mother-in-law to contend with, Daeul continues to successfully lord it over her useless husband, Gu Won's dad accepts her, his mom and dad look to be on the road towards reconciliation, even stepdaughter's son calls mom "grandma"... and the couple walk down the aisle eventually, in the hotel that Gu Won can truly call his own. Sorta. 

I do still wonder what happened to Sarang's parents, and I do still wonder how the tourist hotel Gu Won bought got transformed without Sarang. I also want to know if King Air and Alanga eventually come under Gu Won's charge too or does sister still manage those. I'm sure the rest of you also have other things left to your imagination, but well... hahaha... It was fun nevertheless. 

[abs-oluteM]

23 hours ago, ktcjdrama said:

There’s a wedding?!! So I definitely must watch till the end, just because 😄😄😄... We know how rare it is to see weddings in dramas these days. 

The wedding setting was beautiful and I agree that the wedding scenes these days are so rare . (Not a fan of her dress though. )

 

On 8/7/2023 at 3:22 AM, peperomia said:

Without spoiling, the end of 15 is not what you would think happens. 

This was a good twist . It’s like the writer knew we’d be criticising her writing and decided to troll us. 

 

4 hours ago, gilaswan said:

Sarang. I also want to know if King Air and Alanga eventually come under Gu Won's charge too or does sister still manage those.

I think sis still runs those. 

Anyway, I’m done . Thanks to us having fun & dissing this show while still watching it , I actually finished this without skipping episodes. 😂
 

[mademoiselle]

BTS

 

Wrap Up Greeting

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by mademoiselle