King the Land (2023) [+]
Feb 11 2026
King the Land is a South Korean romance drama set in modern day Seoul. Cheon Sa-Rang (Im Yoon-ah -- Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, 2025; Big Mouth, 2022; second female lead in The K2, 2016) achieves her dream of working at King Hotel luxury resort and immediately annoys the chairman's idle son Gu Won (Lee Jun-ho) because he hates fake smiles.
Luckily he leaves for the UK to attend college and doesn't return for six years by this point Cheon Sa-rang has just won her second MVP award for best hostess. That gets her promoted to King the Land, the top floor of the hotel which caters to the top 1% of society. There she runs again into Gu Won who is the new head manager of King the Land.
Through several happenstances they are thrown together with other people and by themselves. Gu Won starts to see Cheon Sa-rang as a valuable employee who truly cares about customer experience while she starts to learn that Gu Won cares more about the hotel and its employees than he lets on. Meanwhile Gu Won is low-key battling his older half-sister Gu Hwa-ran (Kim Seon-young) who is president of the King Group conglomerate.
Their romance is fairly uncomplicated in terms of challenges. They need to keep it secret but when it comes out doesn't really hurt them even from Gu Hwa-ran (who once she loses the big battle threatens to make a comeback but that plot kind of dies). Cheon Sa-rang has a loser boyfriend who I forgot about. She breaks up with him but he is still insistent until Gu Won shows up. Gu Won has an arranged marriage introduced late in the season but that's like two or three episodes and the other woman, although daughter of a powerful family, never actually attacks Cheon Sa-rang and or make difficulties for Gu Won.
To compensate there are some subplots. Cheon Sa-rang's best friends Oh Pyung-hwa (Go Won-hee) and Kang Da-eul (Kim Ga-eun) both work for King Group, Oh Pyung-hwa as a flight attendant and Kang Da-eul as a duty-free store top saleswoman. They are both kind of bullied by their managers who are following unwritten company policy and showing that King Group president Gu Hwa-ran doesn't care about her employees which contrasts with Gu Won's attitude. Oh Pyung-hwa has a small romance subplot with a fellow flight attendant whilst Kang Da-eul subplot is her deadbeat husband so that she both works hard at work and at home.
Gu Won has his long-time assistant and friend Noh Sang-sik (Ahn Se-ha) but the character is mostly a bit comedic and has no subplots. Gu Won's other subplots similarly light. A mother he's been searching for who shows up unexpectedly towards the end and they have a talk and that's it. A father, the chairman, who puts one significant obstacle when he banishes Cheon Sa-rang to a distant and failing King Group hotel but she comes back and stands up to him and he respects her for it.
There is so little conflict that the final two episodes are mostly filler of Cheon Sa-rang and Gu Won being together and growing professionally. It does lead to a stress-free pleasant ending though a bit hard to pay attention for me.
Overall a good series. For Im Yoon-ah I preferred Bon Appétit, Your Majesty for the great food porn and higher level of danger and stakes.
Luckily he leaves for the UK to attend college and doesn't return for six years by this point Cheon Sa-rang has just won her second MVP award for best hostess. That gets her promoted to King the Land, the top floor of the hotel which caters to the top 1% of society. There she runs again into Gu Won who is the new head manager of King the Land.
Through several happenstances they are thrown together with other people and by themselves. Gu Won starts to see Cheon Sa-rang as a valuable employee who truly cares about customer experience while she starts to learn that Gu Won cares more about the hotel and its employees than he lets on. Meanwhile Gu Won is low-key battling his older half-sister Gu Hwa-ran (Kim Seon-young) who is president of the King Group conglomerate.
Their romance is fairly uncomplicated in terms of challenges. They need to keep it secret but when it comes out doesn't really hurt them even from Gu Hwa-ran (who once she loses the big battle threatens to make a comeback but that plot kind of dies). Cheon Sa-rang has a loser boyfriend who I forgot about. She breaks up with him but he is still insistent until Gu Won shows up. Gu Won has an arranged marriage introduced late in the season but that's like two or three episodes and the other woman, although daughter of a powerful family, never actually attacks Cheon Sa-rang and or make difficulties for Gu Won.
To compensate there are some subplots. Cheon Sa-rang's best friends Oh Pyung-hwa (Go Won-hee) and Kang Da-eul (Kim Ga-eun) both work for King Group, Oh Pyung-hwa as a flight attendant and Kang Da-eul as a duty-free store top saleswoman. They are both kind of bullied by their managers who are following unwritten company policy and showing that King Group president Gu Hwa-ran doesn't care about her employees which contrasts with Gu Won's attitude. Oh Pyung-hwa has a small romance subplot with a fellow flight attendant whilst Kang Da-eul subplot is her deadbeat husband so that she both works hard at work and at home.
Gu Won has his long-time assistant and friend Noh Sang-sik (Ahn Se-ha) but the character is mostly a bit comedic and has no subplots. Gu Won's other subplots similarly light. A mother he's been searching for who shows up unexpectedly towards the end and they have a talk and that's it. A father, the chairman, who puts one significant obstacle when he banishes Cheon Sa-rang to a distant and failing King Group hotel but she comes back and stands up to him and he respects her for it.
There is so little conflict that the final two episodes are mostly filler of Cheon Sa-rang and Gu Won being together and growing professionally. It does lead to a stress-free pleasant ending though a bit hard to pay attention for me.
Overall a good series. For Im Yoon-ah I preferred Bon Appétit, Your Majesty for the great food porn and higher level of danger and stakes.