King the Land (2023)

Wasted Potential

Before moving to my review, i kindly request people who are a big fan of this drama, to skip this review.
Coming back to my feedback, the drama started off very well containing all factors in equal portions like romance, emotion, sibling rivalry, business war, friendship. so i thought that this drama will have business theme and will picture the war between male lead and his sister. but as episodes pass by the story got deviated and focused fully on lead pair's dating and their love life. at one stage I really got frustrated cause literally 50 mins of the episode was full of love only, not to mention the unwanted k!ss scenes in each episode. TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING IS GOOD FOR NOTHING. This is not a drama actually this is a documentary of what if LJH and YN dated in real life. the story, the actors, everything had a great potential to be a fast-paced beautiful drama, but the director and scriptwriter totally wasted it.

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The Good:
⌲ Yoona is very pretty
⌲ There are no love triangles.
⌲ There is a certain amount of enjoyable fluff.
⌲ The secondary fls and sismance (though it’s not exactly amazing)
⌲ The arab prince thing was amusing enough (I cannot imagine getting butthurt over something like this)
⌲ It’s at least a better drama than ‘Forecasting Love and Weather’.

The Neutral:
⌲ Jun Ho’s acting (I understand why he did not take this very seriously though, I do know he is a talented actor)
⌲ The romance in general (not bad, not great)
⌲ The father (He is bad, but in similar dramas I’ve seen far worse)
⌲ The chemistry between the leads
⌲ Of course it's a clichefest. (though It's not too bad in this regard)

The Bad:
⌲ The plot is just horrible (yes in romcoms it shouldn’t matter, but there are way too many offensive and intelligence insulting things, it’s like a Lakorn)
⌲ The dialog is pretty bad too at times. (and this is a big problem)
⌲ There is a lot of backward crap that is kind of like airing the nation’s dirty laundry, at least in Hollywood as bad as their shows are they are trying to move forward.
⌲ Outside of the leads & their friends almost everyone is a mean bully. (the corporate chain of abuse, see the prev. point)
⌲ The romantic plot itself flows rather strangely & completely falls apart in the final episodes.
⌲ The mother & her reason for leaving her son
⌲ The drama has an incredible amount of bad energy!
⌲ The ML sometimes appears to be mentally challenged, like Dali and the Cocky Prince's ML.
⌲ The fakest smiles you have ever seen
⌲ The older sister (her acts are too juvenile and dumb even for kdrama cheabol-land-u)
⌲ “Double the profits, hit the targets!”
⌲ One long helicopter ride should be something like sub-$10000 in Korea, it’s obviously far cheaper than dealing with the bad press, optics and liability over what happened and they talked about this so forking much.
⌲ .. there are many more things, but I tire of writing this review ..

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interesting drama

delivered by the cast. The main characters portray a myriad of emotions flawlessly, effortlessly drawing me into their struggles, triumphs, and heartaches. Their chemistry is palpable, making their on-screen interactions all the more believable and heartfelt.

Not only does "Unfolding Hearts" excel in its storytelling and performances, but it also shines in its production values. The cinematography is aesthetically pleasing, with beautifully composed shots that further enhance the emotional impact of each scene. The soundtrack, composed with care, adds an additional layer of depth and resonance to the narrative.but the episode 7 about that Arbic prince was annoying.

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How this has more than 7 is beyond me

I am not sure how this drama has over 7.0 and that would be a very generous rating. I had high hopes for this drama as people around me praised how good it was and the production value seemed high, so I decided to give it a chance.

At the start the drama had potential. The relationship between the male lead and his sister, and the mystery around his traceless mother. The female leads friends even had their own conflicts and I found that they were more interesting than the actual leads. The friends carried the entire comedy angle. The romance is mundane and nothing new. There are so many overused scenes like the male catching the falling female lead kind of bs. There's a lot of unnecessary and long awkward kissing scenes that could have been removed. I find that the male lead is often stupid and simply simping over the female, completely disregarding his goals to chase her around. The female lead doesn't seem all that special or unique either and I am unsure of her appeal.

The only interesting bits of the drama were rushed and haphazardly written in. The sibling rivarly was barely touched and basically unresolved. The missing mother was dangled like a carrot on a stick and then the male lead suddenly says he is no longer interested in pursuing her. The heck? Those who watched knows what happens after. There are so many reasons that this drama is mediocre at best.

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King of Cringe and Kisses

This is one of those dramas that is so hard to rate as some parts are so annoying and cringey they made me want to cover my eyes, skip, throw up, yell oh come on this is just stupid... While at the same time offering me some of dreamlands hottest kissing scenes, fun references to dramas passed and well Junho entering in slow mo wearing a suit, by suites I mean a lot of suits and a lot of scenes making me wonder if the makers of this drama where trying to check how many slow mo shots of Junho in a suit are to many... And well they tried their best but nee I am sure they could have fit in more of them and it would have only made this better.

In between the awful and the amazing there was a decent cliche story done mostly good, with mostly predictable twists a slight attempt to talk about some issues without really exploring the issues... All kind of meeh. But then agin we were offered some pretty amazing shots, nice music and mostly lovable leads with friends to die for (even if there stories and characters where annoying and over the top at times all characters had their moments of decency and greatness.

For some reason I find myself comparing this drama to Hometown Cha Cha Cha, and while it does have moments as cringy as the ones in there not a single one of the characters is as annoying as the people in Cha Cha. And while the FL in Cha Cha takes a turn to the annoying this one is mostly good from start to finish. what Cha Cha had that this one did not have was a beautiful bromance. But while Cha Cha truly took a dive from fun to oh my let this embarrassment end , this dramas journey of annoying cringe and greatness was more of a roller coaster type thing.

So if you love watching Junho in slow mo in a suit, steamy wet kissing scenes and can handle some cringe and annoying elements this is a really good watch.

P.S there was also a small referens to pretty women hidden in there....

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my mom only hated 2 dramas, into the ring and this
she said the whole plot and characteristics felt like something made for teens should've been played by teens xD

anyway, they had three good things, 1, no breakup*, 2, no childhood connection and 3 junho's smiles

the bad, well everything... no real plot, no real thought process just a bunch of random cliches after another, no follow through and all cliffhangers/angst/conflicts were resolved and brushed over...
and tbh, woong felt too clingy, too "involved", too rushing it too fast
and sarang felt too uncarying of him, not as in love and I don't mean she put herself first but like she didn't seem as happy and she always found a reason to nag at him and lecture him..
i thought she was a bit of a gold digger but i'm glad she built her own career xD tho speaking of her successful fully booked business. no one besides woong was ever there. even the first night, no one came after booking which made me think she only had one room and he was the one always booking
mom was also sad the friends didn't visit her there, like was it really one room no one could ever book in? xD
the stupid sister building 30 years of anger over him being loved by his parents when she could've just joined in, no one hated her... and the mom leaving over the grandpa, and never coming back as if she was a side character to her son's life when even the dad still loved her... atleast they should've made a sob story of her getting ill or whatever... and ofc the deadbeat husband of 3rd fl was wrong but dang she made him a doormat... yeah fixing the problem isn't done by making another...
and the final ep, one stupid ad after another, that's how cheaply they thought of this drama, just a fan service and piggy bank...

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Simply enjoying a series

Very generic romance comedy, not anything groundbreaking. Is it enjoyable though? Yes. I have laughed more at this drama than I have at any other this year paired with my favorite OST as well. Each week I am sitting at the edge of my seat waiting for a new episode to drop and have enjoyed so many moments in the show.

There were portions of the show I was unhappy with and questioned why it had to happen the way it did in the series. I do have to say that even though I never felt as if the show was dragging, I do think though that this series could have been shorter as there was a lot of filler content.

Favorite character of the series was Kang Daeul portrayed by Kim Gaeun (with Lee Rowoon in a very close second place). She was a great comedy relief of the series. I loved seeing all the scenes she was in, especially the ones with her daughter.

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King the Land

King the Land is how romantic comedies should be done. Of course, it was filled with all the usual K-Drama cliches that you can think of, and of course, there were corny + cheesy parts but it all worked for the most part.

Sarang is one of my favorite FLs. She was not immature or created misunderstandings out of thin air. Yoonah does a great job expressing her emotions. I love her relationship with her grandma & her friends. Her friends and she were always having the times of their lives in this show. I love a good sismance.

Jun Ho as Gu Won will go down as one of the greenest flags in all of K-Dramaland. I mean I cannot resist my toxic king obsessive CEO troupe... hehe, but he might be the healthiest CEO ever. Of course, he had the usual CEO trauma, but the way he allowed himself to heal did not affect his relationship with Sarang or his bestie, Sangsik. His smile was also so healing... I mean I love watching him be happy. This is my first Junho drama & my 2PM guy can ACT. I need to watch his other dramas.

THE RELATIONSHIP WAS SO HEALTHY. No unnecessary misunderstandings that drag on for eternity. Whenever something came up, the leads COMMUNICATED. It was so refreshing. I love how they always support one another & always down for one another no matter what hardships come our way.

Of course, the OST was elevating all the scenes... highly recommended for a light, fluffy healthy romantic comedy. 9/10

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Disappointed. Even JunHo can't make up for the sloppy writing.

I'm sad that I didn't really enjoy King The Land. I've waited for weeks for it to finish airing so I could binge watch it, but after the first 6 or so episodes I was actually forcing my self to carry on.

THE GOOD:
- There is no doubt that Junho and Yoona are very pleasing to the eye, and put together they make the perfect eye candy. They've got good chemistry, and since the Red Sleeve Ive been ready to shout at the top of my lungs that Junho is a very good actor, he doesn't disappoint here either. Yoona was decent too, I have no complaints about the acting.

- The show has very nice aesthetic, it obviously had a very big budget and so it was very well shot.

- There were definitely many funny moments, I'll give the writers that.

THE BAD:
- The OST wasn't bad per day, but to me something was missing. I've seen clips of the show on Instagram with different music which just worked so much better with the show.

- JunHo's voice. There were times, were I could tell Junho was unnecessarily making his voice deeper, and adder this baritone to it. And it hit me so hard I could not ignore it, it was too distracting.

THE UGLY:
- The writing for King The Land was sloppy, it was even embarrassingly over the top at times, to the point where it had me cringing internally.

Now don't come at me, I love RomComs. I don't expect RomComs to have great plot points, but things didn't work out here. I've seen shows like Business Proposal, Romance is a bonus Book, Weightlifting Fairy, and more do these same tropes but do them well. Here it felt the writers threw a dart on a board of tropes and just depended on Junho's good looks to pull things off.

It hurts me to say this, but this just isn't that great of a show.

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Let King the Land take you on holiday prepare to laugh cry and enjoy superb.

I’ve just finished king the Land and I am a total mess. If your life isn’t great at the moment, if everything you do goes wrong. Just sit down relax and be pampered. Set in beautiful locations, it’s absolutely superb sets, the clothes, the tiniest details have not been missed. I’ll probably never ever get the chance to stay at such a grand hotel. However the drama opens the doors, takes you by the hand and says welcome. The drama brings you in to these peoples lives, you are wanting praying everything will work out. It keeps you centre stage with them. Clear story lines, brilliant wonderful chemistry between the whole cast. I would love for this to win awards. That would shut the haters up. Why can’t people be kind. The whole premise is to smile proper smiles. Thank you for letting us join in their lives just for awhile. Totally awesome. 10 out of 10 everyone concerned. I was laughing crying and clapping right at the end. I was not disappointed in anyway. Totally lifted my world. Thank you King the land. Best drama by far this year. Will be hard to top it.

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Cheesy to the point of tacky - unsure if it’s a parody drama of the mid to late 2000s?

I started the drama with my partner as it was hot topic and while his review is ‘not the best, but okay’, I was dying to finish it and get over and done with. We have a thing where we choose a drama and complete it together (bonding time) and this bonding time had me sighing and rolling my eyes too often!

While I understand that the show IS about the couple and it’s purely a romance drama, there are a million other dramas that have done this 3000 times better. Some Chinese dramas like You are my glory, Hidden Love. Korean dramas like Touch Your Heart (cheesy but not tacky).

I have no idea how to truly describe how tacky this drama is. Nothing was truly sorted out or explained. Supporting ‘evidence’ of why some people acted the way they did or did what they did are extremely weak (sister’s back story, mother’s departure and return, friend’s divorce story and more).

If the point was to make it a pure romance drama then there wasn’t really a need to include all that underlying stories and then deliver them so so weakly. Hidden Love did such an amazing job at just being what it was - romance. Touch your heart too.

I am disappointed that this was such a hype but delivered just tacky, slapstick comedy and cheesy lines. I even had a thought that maybe this was meant to be a parody on purpose! Of old Korean dramas. If this was the case, it’s acceptable but still has weak delivery of every other story aside from their romance.

Best trope and character? Chorong. You go girl.

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