King the Land Episode 1 brings another rom-com K-Drama to Netflix, which follows the story of a Hotel heir and a hardworking employee, who often clashes due to their differences. The show is created by Cheon Sung-il, directed by Im Hyun-wook and the screenplay is written by Choi Rom.
Titled 킹더랜드 in Korean, it stars Lee Jun-ho as Gu-won, Im Yoon-a as Cheon Sa-rang, Go Won-hee as Oh Pyung-hwa, Kim Ga-eun as Kang Da-eul, Ahn Se-ha as Noh Sang-sik, Kim Jae-won as Lee Ro-woon, Son Byong-ho as Goo Il-hoon, Kim Seon-young as Gu Hwa-ran, Ahn Woo-yeon as Gong Yu-nam and several others.
King the Land Episode 1 Recap
King Hotel is the big name that everyone wants to work or be associated with. So does Cheon Sa-rang, who has come to the 2015 internship interview, despite not having the required qualification, ie not having a bachelor’s degree. Yet her quick thinking & witty attitude wins the hotel Director’s vote & gets hired for the job. What they didn’t expect was that she is quite skillful and hardworking.
Simultaenously, a man is seen jumping off a plane to land at the hotel’s rooftop but gets off at the wrong one. Being late for his first day of internship at the sales support team, intern Gu-won hears an earful from his senior but also gets noticed for wearing a high-brand outfit. There he meets another intern named Noh Sang-sik, who wants to help him get better at the job when Gu-won has no such ambitions. Their senior gives them useless tasks to show his authority and while trying to make some copies, the printer stops working. Sang-sik shakes the ink box as told by the senior but it ends up creating a mess.
The department head is furious to see this & scolds the intern. But when Gu-won points out that they did as instructed, things become much bigger. In the spur of the moment, the head fires them from the job but gets stunned when he gets to know that he is the company Chairman’s son. However, Gu-won keeps his word to Sang-sik & takes him along with the promise of a full-time job. Back at home, he is scolded by his father for not holding onto the job, as he is trying to integrate him into the business. But his sister supports him and even shows empathy.
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However, it was just a pretence and his sister actually wants him gone from their lives. It is revealed that they might not share the same mother and thus she tells him to live in the hotel instead, as it’s not his home. Also, insists that he goes back to the UK. Without fighting back, he does as told and moves to the King Hotel until his flight back. On the other hand, Sa-rang celebrates getting the internship at the hotel with her friends, who work at a duty-free shop & as an air hostess, respectively. Despite the opportunity, Sa-rang faces a power trip by his managers & the same situation is faced by his friends. Yet they do their best to learn & keep their jobs.
Sa-rang is tasked with taking care of the hotel gym & has to often clean after a sweaty guest, who leaves puddles of sweat on equipment. Comedian Jin-ho makes a cameo here and he once notices her cleaning after him at every machine he uses. His delusional mind takes it as her infatuation towards him & sends an envelope with the room key & a note that says, ‘Let’s spend a steamy night together’. The guest was wearing a tiger t-shirt and after receiving the envelope, she storms out to give him a piece of her mind. But she mistakes Gu-won, who was wearing the same t-shirt, as the perverted guest. She trips him off the treadmill and tells him off badly.
Just then the Director of the hotel and his sister, Gu Hwa-ran comes to the gym but miss the mistaken interaction. After telling off screaming Gu-won again, she runs into Sa-rang and asks what she has learned in her internship so far. After answering every question accurately, she is promoted to lobby staff and even extends her contract from 1 month to 1 year. Meanwhile, Gu-won and Sang-sik take a flight to the UK.
Like that, 7 years pass by where Sa-rang is awarded for her work and even promoted to a higher level. And Gu-won gets busy getting a degree and other things. Until, one day when he gets a packet from an anonymous sender with details about his estranged mother Han Mi-so. It urges him to go back to Korea and start working at the King Hotel, which his step-sister is incharge of.
On his first day at work as Manager at the hotel, he forgets his phone in his room. Thus his secretary Sang-sik asks the staff to get it. Sa-rang is tasked with delivering the phone but her upset stomach had other plans. Not being able to control the pressure, she relieves herself in his hotel room, unknown of the fact that Gu-won has also stepped in. And catches her playing with the washroom booth privacy tech, in a difficult position.
King the Land Episode 1 Review
Looking at the trailer, it had a similar vibe to the show Business Proposal but the jokes put in the latest drama are not hitting off that well. It looks like a typical hate-to-love story with predictable cliche elements. However, it’s too soon to tell how the story will unfold next but the pilot was not able to grab the attention, as one would have expected considering the impeccable cast. If anything, then Comedian Jin-ho’s cameo caught me off-guard and was definitely a funny bit.
King the Land is currently available on Netflix in selective regions. It is broadcasted on JTBC at 10:30 PM KST on Saturday and Sunday.
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