King the Land is a sixteen episode South Korean romantic comedy television series starring Lee Junho and Yoona. It aired every Saturday and Sunday at 22:30 (KST) on JTBC from June 17-August 6, 2023. It is available on Netflix in selected regions.
King the Land (νΉλλλ) tells the story of Goo Won (Lee Junho), the heir of a luxury hotel, fashion, and airline chaebol in South Korea called The King Group. When he officially joins the company, he encounters the highly regarded and friendly concierge named Cheon Sa-rang. Goo Won resents her for her pleasant demeanor and constant smiling.
Tropes present in the series:
- Animated Credits Opening: Episodes open with a little cartoon showing Gu-won as a pampered rich boy, and Sa-rang as a hard-working concierge, before they meet each other.
- Apron Matron: Sa-rang's grandmother, Cha Soon-hee. She is portrayed as the hardworking owner of small gukbap (rice soup) restaurant. While appearing gruff and headstrong on the outside, she has a big heart.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- Goo Won's family is this. They fake a friendly personality in front of the cameras, but when they are alone they show their true colors as people who only care about power and money.
- The owners of the hotel room in Jeju turn out to be this, despite showing a friendly personality, and even acting as Shipper on Deck for the protagonists, it turns out that they wanted to scam them with ridiculously high prices.
- Big Fancy House: Goo Won is shown living in what looks like a massive English country house while attending university in London, complete with live-in staff in traditional uniforms and livery.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Noh Sang-sik, Goo Won's assistant/secretary/loyal friend.
- Cool Car: Goo Won is shown driving an expensive looking Audi.
- Entitled to Have You: Played with the prince. During his stay at the hotel, he abused his position as a VIP client to practically force Sa-rang to go on a date with him, and even tried to get them to have a fake wedding, with the threat of canceling their contract if not. Still unusually for this trope, he respects her turning down his marriage proposal, although it is not a subversion, because he says he plans to return next year with a bigger ring.
- Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: Kang Da-eul, one of Sa-rang's best friends, has a useless husband who pretends to be asleep to get out of taking the trash and lies about being busy meeting clients when he is supposed to pick their daughter up from school. He lazily sits on the couch to laugh at the TV and expects her to cook an entire meal for him without offering to do the dishes or even take out the garbage from the mess his parents made at their apartment. Kang Da-eul is portrayed as growing increasingly aware and distressed about his apathetic and lazy behavior. Kang Da-eul works full time and also takes care of her household and daughter without seemingly any help from him.
- Funny Foreigner: Anupam Tripathi guest stars as an important hotel guest named "Prince Amir" whose actual country of origin is never mentioned, but is said to be an Arab country. The character is portrayed as an eccentric and wealthy womanizer who enjoys drinking alcohol. He is shown almost entirely in traditional Arab dress. He is intentionally misled into dressing like a Joseon era commoner when he thinks he is to dress up as Joseon dynasty era nobility, much to the amusement of Goo Won.
- Gratuitous English: Cheon Sa-rang is shown speaking English several times during her job as a hotel employee. Goo Won attended university in London and has also spoken English in several scenes. Some of Sa-rang's coworkers have conversations in English with hotel guests. English is spoken during the Thailand trip.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Cheon Sa-rang is shown to be able to speak Japanese and Mandarin, at least in the context of helping guests at the hotel. Noh Sang-sik claims to speak Thai in episode 10.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Goo Won usually acts like an asshole a lot of the time, but deep down he is a good person, this is a stark contrast to his Bitch in Sheep's Clothing family.
- The prince, during his stay at the hotel, abused his position as a VIP client, to treat Goo Won like a servant, and practically force Sa-rang to go on a date with him, but in the end he proves to have a heart, when he maturely accepts Sa-rang rejecting his marriage proposal, and has a moment of genuine friendship with Goo Won.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Although Goo Won's father is a jerk who seems to care more about his family legacy than his family itself, many of the criticisms he makes against his son are not so far from reality.
- King Incognito: Goo Won does not represent himself as the heir to the King Group and pretends instead to be a middle manager to Sa-rang's friends and family, leading Sa-rang's friends, also employees of the King Group, to openly talk about their issues working at the company in front of him. Ironically named trope considering the title of the show.
- Loving a Shadow: The prince falls in love with Cheon Sa-rang just by seeing her, to the point of practically forcing her to go on a date with him, but since all their interactions are limited to Sa-Rang doing his duty, it is obvious that the prince never met the girl. real Sa-Rang, and only fell in love with the facade that she has to show to the clients.
- Marriage of Convenience: Goo Hwa-ran's husband asks for a divorce, much to Goo Hwa-ran's annoyance. She insists on staying married for appearances and the fear that news of a divorce will negatively impact the company. Her father is later shown to agree, telling her that he should keep his affair with another woman quiet while pretending to still be in a monogamous marriage. Goo Hwa-ran's father also tells Goo Won that love is essentially a waste of time for people in their station.
- Mean Boss: Played with Goo Won. He acts this way with Noh and Cheon, but it's more of a Vitriolic Best Buds way, to the point that they can afford to be sarcastic or even insult him, without fear of being fired.
- Metaphorically True: Goo Won, not to say that he is the president's son in front of Cheon Sa-rang's friends and family, only limits himself to saying that he is a co-worker, like a manager, and that his unusual amount of money is due because his father has certain properties. It's only when they ask too many questions that he lies outright.
- Missing Mom: Goo Won knows little about what happened to his mother, a woman who disappeared when he was a young boy. He is shown frequently searching her name in company records. His father mentions an annual memorial service to him at one point, to which he retorts that he doesn't really know what happened to her. His family remains tight-lipped on her fate. Similarly, Cheon Sa-rang states she does not have any family except for her grandmother although she tells a story about her mother bringing her on a trip to King Hotel as a child and we see flashbacks of her and her mother. Her mother's fate is unclear.
- Mister Muffykins: Mo Seong-ae, the prima donna actress and "national mom", has an annoying little yappy dog that she insists in taking in to Da-eul's duty-free store. She lets the dog poop there.
- Meet Cute: Goo Won meets Cheon Sa-rang while she is excitedly testing out a new hotel suite bathroom feature that makes the glass around the toilet area transparent, revealing the person who is sitting on the toilet to any passerby.
- Nice Guy: Cheon Sa-rang is a sweet and lovable woman, whose kindness is not just because of her job.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Goo Won at first showed no interest in competing against his sister Goo Hwa-ran, but her acting so unpleasant only motivates him.
- Not an Act: Although Cheon Sa-rang is forced to smile for her job, her kind personality is completely genuine.
- Office Romance: The show focuses on the burgeoning relationship around Cheon Sa-rang and the heir of the company she works for, Goo Won.
- Precision F-Strike: In a K-drama! Gu-won's reaction in episode 8 to finding out that Sa-rang is having dinner with Samir, is to shout "What the fuck?", in English.
- Psychological Projection: Goo Won grew up seeing fake smiles, so at first he assumes that Cheon Sa-rang is just pretending, and although she is forced to smile because of her job, her kindness and most of her smiles are genuine.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Goo Won has never cared about spending money, so he never bothers to analyze whether the price they charge him is fair, this causes him to not realize in the third episode that the people at the hotel were trying to scam him.
- Secret Relationship: Cheon Sa-rang and Goo Won go to great lengths to hide their relationship.
- Sibling Rivalry: Goo Won and his older sister Goo Hwa-ran. Both siblings are vying to be the heir to the King Group, with Goo Hwa-ran having more experience and power to start.
- Sliding Scale of Beauty: Goo Won and Sa-rang are treated as World Class Beauty, with people mentioning how beautiful they are, and in Sa-rang's case, a prince fell in love with her just by seeing her.
- Sleep Cute: Sa-rang finds out the hard way that her hotel room in Jeju is only divided by a curtain when she accidentally rips it off of the wall and falls onto a sleeping Goo Won. Later in the series, Sa-rang's grandmother finds Goo Won admiring a sleeping Sa-rang while sleeping very close to her on the floor, shocking her.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: The first scene of the first episode is a montage of all the losers and idiots applying for an internship at the King hotel. Sa-rang gets the internship mostly by not being a complete moron.
- Time-Passes Montage: In the first episode an eight-year montage takes us from the opening scenes in 2015 to 2023. Sa-rang worked her way up at the hotel due to her diligence, while Gu-won went to school in England.
- Token Good Teammate: Goo Won is the only member of his family who is not obsessed with power or inheritance.
