11 Comments On “King the Land: Eps 3 & 4 Open Thread”
Fern
Thank you, @packmule3!
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Thanks @pkml3. I await the visuals.
Cleopatra
Kalimera Everyone,
How messed up is Gu Won’s family? The father is worse than the daughter. So, you expect from someone duty without love? If you want someone’s loyalty, at least be honest with him. Since you are not honest, don’t expect anything…Just Saying.
Fern
Absolutely, @Cleopatra. I think underneath, he is trying to make his son experience what he went through himself. It sounds like repeated emotional damage that goes back generations.
Cleopatra
Hey my dear @Fern,
If you think about it, the Father wanted a Son, the Heir who will inherit his business. He had the Daughter but she is / was not enough. Hence their family problems.
The Father wants the Son, regardless of what he says to his daughter to inherit the business. The Daughter wants the business for herself and makes her Brother’s life miserable.
Gu Won never felt loved or welcomed in his house. We cannot say home, since it was not.
Sa Rang thinks he is a snob, when in reality, he is a very hurt person who he feels like he is abandoned and left alone in the world, a world she knows nothing about.
Cleopatra
Kalispera,
Here are my thoughts about Episode 4.
We say that we are envious about the life of a friend, when in reality she is being used by her in laws. Her husband in MIA, I do hope he hasn’t have an affair. He seems to not care about his wife.
Gu Won doesn’t want to help his father with the Hotel, not because of his Noona. He doesn’t want to help, because he doesn’t feel it will change anything in their relationships.
His Noona is awful. The past scene that she bullied her baby brother who had lost his mother shows what kind of person she is. She is ruthless and she doesn’t care about anyone, but herself. She also doesn’t care about her Father. Her dream is the Hotel, but at the same time, she doesn’t value her staff.
Did you see how she ordered them around ? In comparison with Gu Won who went and listened to the suggestions his King The Land Manager was telling him. Also, do they expect from their staff to work their asses off, when they don’t take the incentives they deserve?
Although, Gu Won wanted to help Sa Rang, she felt that she didn’t take into consideration what she truly felt. She misjudges him, although she had a point, about his stance and how he show himself to the world.
The problem is not Gu Won.
The problem is that The King The Land staff believes they are in the high horse just because they studied to A classes Universities. The coworker that gaslighted Sa Rang did so, because the Chairman really likes her.
So the show give us at the same time, troubles about family and career.
For SaRang, although she had studied hard to be where she is now, yet people who have more privileged lives or studied in high profiled universities feel, she went to their level through nepotism, just because the Chairman invited her over.
For Gu Won, although he is born into a Chaebol family, his own family, in our case his Noona sees him as a nobody who shouldn’t dare do anything to inherit the Hotel, while on the other hand, his Father expects him to be the good son who acts dutifully.
Since both their worlds are colliding, hopefully they will realize that they are in the same boat. I hope to see them fighting the “baddies” together in their own ways.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Episode 4 – Our Gu Won really needs to grow up fast and shift from being so self-centred. He’s putting all his time and energy into cluelessly trying to get Sa Rang’s attention instead of working on policies that could help the staff, possibly save them from being so easily fired, and increase revenue.
It seems that his only aim in being in the Hotel is to find out what happened to his mother. While he’s there, he has not put thought to making the best of the job and using his position to help his staff. At this stage, although I dislike and disagree with his half-sister’s meanness and provocation, I agree that he’s not yet up to even starting to make the hotel more competitive.
Good riddance to that annoying bf of Sa Rang’s. He’s the kind who chooses to only understand his own ‘script’ while he ignores what Sa Rang is saying. He incapable of accepting the reality that does not fit his scenario.
Da Eul is envied by her friends but has a different set of challenges with child and busy husband. The grass only appears greener on the other side but we find that it’s generally not, when one gets there.
BethB
I put a hold on this drama after episode 3. It’s just too confusing to watch this on the same weekend as SYIMNL. Plus I found myself FF through this episode. (The couple lost in the countryside and getting drunk with the locals is a trope I’ve seen too often and there was nothing new or fresh about it here.) Nice homage to the motel scene in It Happened One Night, though, with the curtain hung up to divide the room. (I assume the walls of Jericho will also tumble down by this drama’s end!)
grace
Just finished these episodes and while there are the issues that the stories bring out, I find the slow-mo a bit too slow, were they deliberately over-doing it? Like @BethB I was fast forwarding the scenes, esp the slow-mo ones. Maybe I’m too jaded with the overused troupe of tripping and falling into the guy’s (twice! One at the countryside “hotel” and ending scene), and slowing that down.
That said, I like Sa Rang’s view of things, and the life lessons she has given to Gu Won. Will have to go back and see what they are….
Fern
I must have missed something in an earlier episode, because I wasn’t aware that all 3 friends were working for King companies. @Grace, yes, the slo-mo tropes, even the umbrella tilt, were OTT. We could do a trope bingo — does anyone still have the amazing one that @packmule posted a few years ago?
Welmaris
This Kdrama is not, in my opinion, of high caliber in terms of script or direction. The actors are doing their best with the material given them, but the dialogue is cringey and/or repetitive. The director loves to do closeups of eyes…but not to the benefit of the story.
My feeling at present is that I won’t spend more time with this show. There’s too much other good stuff out there!
Thank you, @packmule3!
Thanks @pkml3. I await the visuals.
Kalimera Everyone,
How messed up is Gu Won’s family? The father is worse than the daughter. So, you expect from someone duty without love? If you want someone’s loyalty, at least be honest with him. Since you are not honest, don’t expect anything…Just Saying.
Absolutely, @Cleopatra. I think underneath, he is trying to make his son experience what he went through himself. It sounds like repeated emotional damage that goes back generations.
Hey my dear @Fern,
If you think about it, the Father wanted a Son, the Heir who will inherit his business. He had the Daughter but she is / was not enough. Hence their family problems.
The Father wants the Son, regardless of what he says to his daughter to inherit the business. The Daughter wants the business for herself and makes her Brother’s life miserable.
Gu Won never felt loved or welcomed in his house. We cannot say home, since it was not.
Sa Rang thinks he is a snob, when in reality, he is a very hurt person who he feels like he is abandoned and left alone in the world, a world she knows nothing about.
Kalispera,
Here are my thoughts about Episode 4.
We say that we are envious about the life of a friend, when in reality she is being used by her in laws. Her husband in MIA, I do hope he hasn’t have an affair. He seems to not care about his wife.
Gu Won doesn’t want to help his father with the Hotel, not because of his Noona. He doesn’t want to help, because he doesn’t feel it will change anything in their relationships.
His Noona is awful. The past scene that she bullied her baby brother who had lost his mother shows what kind of person she is. She is ruthless and she doesn’t care about anyone, but herself. She also doesn’t care about her Father. Her dream is the Hotel, but at the same time, she doesn’t value her staff.
Did you see how she ordered them around ? In comparison with Gu Won who went and listened to the suggestions his King The Land Manager was telling him. Also, do they expect from their staff to work their asses off, when they don’t take the incentives they deserve?
Although, Gu Won wanted to help Sa Rang, she felt that she didn’t take into consideration what she truly felt. She misjudges him, although she had a point, about his stance and how he show himself to the world.
The problem is not Gu Won.
The problem is that The King The Land staff believes they are in the high horse just because they studied to A classes Universities. The coworker that gaslighted Sa Rang did so, because the Chairman really likes her.
So the show give us at the same time, troubles about family and career.
For SaRang, although she had studied hard to be where she is now, yet people who have more privileged lives or studied in high profiled universities feel, she went to their level through nepotism, just because the Chairman invited her over.
For Gu Won, although he is born into a Chaebol family, his own family, in our case his Noona sees him as a nobody who shouldn’t dare do anything to inherit the Hotel, while on the other hand, his Father expects him to be the good son who acts dutifully.
Since both their worlds are colliding, hopefully they will realize that they are in the same boat. I hope to see them fighting the “baddies” together in their own ways.
Episode 4 – Our Gu Won really needs to grow up fast and shift from being so self-centred. He’s putting all his time and energy into cluelessly trying to get Sa Rang’s attention instead of working on policies that could help the staff, possibly save them from being so easily fired, and increase revenue.
It seems that his only aim in being in the Hotel is to find out what happened to his mother. While he’s there, he has not put thought to making the best of the job and using his position to help his staff. At this stage, although I dislike and disagree with his half-sister’s meanness and provocation, I agree that he’s not yet up to even starting to make the hotel more competitive.
Good riddance to that annoying bf of Sa Rang’s. He’s the kind who chooses to only understand his own ‘script’ while he ignores what Sa Rang is saying. He incapable of accepting the reality that does not fit his scenario.
Da Eul is envied by her friends but has a different set of challenges with child and busy husband. The grass only appears greener on the other side but we find that it’s generally not, when one gets there.
I put a hold on this drama after episode 3. It’s just too confusing to watch this on the same weekend as SYIMNL. Plus I found myself FF through this episode. (The couple lost in the countryside and getting drunk with the locals is a trope I’ve seen too often and there was nothing new or fresh about it here.) Nice homage to the motel scene in It Happened One Night, though, with the curtain hung up to divide the room. (I assume the walls of Jericho will also tumble down by this drama’s end!)
Just finished these episodes and while there are the issues that the stories bring out, I find the slow-mo a bit too slow, were they deliberately over-doing it? Like @BethB I was fast forwarding the scenes, esp the slow-mo ones. Maybe I’m too jaded with the overused troupe of tripping and falling into the guy’s (twice! One at the countryside “hotel” and ending scene), and slowing that down.
That said, I like Sa Rang’s view of things, and the life lessons she has given to Gu Won. Will have to go back and see what they are….
I must have missed something in an earlier episode, because I wasn’t aware that all 3 friends were working for King companies. @Grace, yes, the slo-mo tropes, even the umbrella tilt, were OTT. We could do a trope bingo — does anyone still have the amazing one that @packmule posted a few years ago?
This Kdrama is not, in my opinion, of high caliber in terms of script or direction. The actors are doing their best with the material given them, but the dialogue is cringey and/or repetitive. The director loves to do closeups of eyes…but not to the benefit of the story.
My feeling at present is that I won’t spend more time with this show. There’s too much other good stuff out there!