My patience wore thin watching this. So at around episode 13 or so I started watching it at 2x the original speed. Hotel King is a crazy drama which doesn’t have an idea what it wants khổng lồ focus on.

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There’s birth secrets, undying villains, undying Mom, fauxcest, frauds, temporary amnesia, you name it, all the ingredients for a makjang are basically here in Show. I mentioned in my first impression that after watching six episodes, I have no idea what to lớn make of Show tonally, & this impression remains till the very over of Show. Is it intentional? Did the writer get too ambitious trying lớn mix too many genres together? Show is no Doctor Stranger, but it definitely left me feeling bewildered.

Apparently I’ve gotten most of what I guessed in the first impression post correct, though I never expected the boy who calls phụ thân Jae Wan (Lee Dong Wook) hyung khổng lồ be alive. Và to be adopted by Baek mi Nyeo (Kim Hae Sook). & Baek ngươi Nyeo is actually Baek ngươi Yeon, who was actually raped (?) by Lee Joong Gu (Lee Deok Hwa), & she eventually gave birth to Jae Wan, whose real name is actually Baek Byun-woo. What sort of WTFery is this you may ask. I don’t know why either, but a good number of the characters here have either multiple names, or hidden identities.

I was expecting Lee Joong Gu khổng lồ be killed off in the middle of the series, but he lasted all the way until Episode 31. I facepalmed at Jae
Wan for not letting the old man just die, but hey, maybe that’s why I don’t write drama scripts? Lee Joong Gu is such an ineffective villain who perpeptually requires help from others and makes only empty threats that he’s more of a clown.

I can never get behind Lee da Hae‘s character either, và I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I find her increasingly difficult khổng lồ look at, and her character is rather unappealing as well. She tries so hard to lớn act xinh đẹp that I can’t even. Mo Ne is a confusing character who obviously isn’t suited khổng lồ run a big hotel (luckily it’s not a conglomerate). In fact, I can’t remember if she ever gets her job done on her own, because it always appears to be her running to find someone in the middle of doing something.

I remember reading somewhere that Roman Lee (Jin Tae Hyun) would make a much better second male lead character, than Sun Woo Hyun (Im Seulong), and I agree. Also, I find song Chae Kyung (Wang Ji Hye) a wasted character, because I simply don’t see how she contributed to lớn the development of the plot in any way. Heck, was there even a plot?! It’s also a shame that veterans such as Park Chul Min gets relegated lớn a role that only provides comic relief (and he doesn’t even get the woman he likes!). The entire ensemble of the front desk staff và cleaning staff are basically fillers to the already sparse plot.

I don’t even know why Show is called hotel King either, when it should actually be called WTF Hotel. Just like the hospital in Doctor Stranger obviously doesn’t put patients’ lives as the đứng đầu priority, the staff at Ciel khách sạn have a million of other unrelated issues on their mind rather than serving the customers. The entire drama is such a joke that it isn’t even funny. Luring viewers lớn watch this in the name of a Lee Dong Wook-Lee da Hae reunion is definitely a trickery. Shame on you, MBC.

Starring: Lee Dong Wook (Cha Jae Wan), Lee domain authority Hae (Ah Mo Ne), Lee Deok Hwa (Lee Joong Goo), Kim Hae Sook (Baek mi Nyeo), Wang Ji Hye (Song Chae Kyung), im Seul Ong (Sunwoo Hyun).

Channel: MBC

Number of episodes: 32

Episode length: 60 Mins

Recommended to: Melodrama fans, tele-novella fans, people who like plot twists, love story fans, fans of humour.

NOT recommended to: People who prefer surprising elements, fans of realism.

Xem thêm: Truyen ngan - đồng dao (không hề biết giận ost)

Plot outline

This plot outline may be a little short because doing a full one without spoilers will be near impossible. In fact, the trailers for the show itself managed to lớn spoil the first plot element by telling us it was a love story between Ah Mo Ne and phụ thân Jae Wan, kinda writing off that they were actually long lost relatives as it were.

The story centres around the daily running of a premier 7 star hotel in Korea. Cha Jae Wan is a street orphan who, after the death of his brother, is taken in by Lee Joong Goo who tells him that the Chairman of the khách sạn (Ah Mo Ne’s father) was his father who abandoned his mother. After a rather abusive upbringing by Lee Joong Goo with Jae Wan’s sole aim being revenge on Chairman Ah, Jae Wan lands the job of General Manager at the hotel.

Chairman Ah dies in mysterious circumstances. Unfortunately a spanner is thrown into Jae Wan and Joong Goo’s plans khổng lồ take over the hotel when Ah Mo Ne decides to step up to lớn the plate & become a good chairwoman of the company.

What follows is a tale of multiple deceits & interlinking stories mostly derailed from a happy ending by the evil ruminations of Lee Joong Goo. I’m loathe khổng lồ go into much more detail that that as some of the story lines rely on the frustrating cliffhanger feeling as you go along. In fact each double episode ends on a cliffhanger!

Mini-review

Hotel King was my first melodrama & I really thought I’d hate it. It has very typical melodrama feels, with eternal feeling of frustration at the over of the episode when the music plays and they HAVEN’T ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS!

It does really go for as many K-drama tropes as possible in one show, so if clichés offend you steer clear of it. My main frustration was that the whole drama seems like it could have been tied up pretty neatly if people just spoke to lớn each other. I used to lớn have quite irate rants at my partner at how ridiculous it was, but I can’t say I was ever really offended by it– it was just one of those funny drama things.

The acting is, overall, really good by melodrama standards. Don’t expect subtle displays of emotion…That wouldn’t be very melodramatic but some of the characters are beautiful; subtly displayed with yên Seul Ong doing an amazing job as the love triangle extra. While I never really wanted him lớn get the girl, I wanted him lớn be happy so much. Wang Ji Hye also turns out a more downplayed character as the bitter ex và she does it perfectly. I rarely feel sympathy for those characters & despite no serious sob back story, my heart bled for her.

The two leads however are in full melodrama flow with Lee Dong Wook’s crazy angry eyes và iconic & recurring feature. Lee da Hae plays a very typical whiny K-drama girl even when she is at her ‘strongest’, normally this would annoy me but, honestly, it suits the melodrama style here so I can overlook it.

*

The best parts were probably the comedy moments, especially those amongst the supporting khách sạn staff the show is worth watching for that & that alone.

On the down side, if melodramas really aren’t your thing then at 32 episodes this is probably a bit on the long side to lớn dip your two in. The show itself is also 2 Episodes too long in my opinion. I was happy with the show where I thought it had ended và at the actual end, but not the episode and a half that feels very wedged in between them.

OH & Lee Doong Wook gets shirtless…

*

Bonus: So does Jin Tae Hyun…

*

Did you watch this drama? Let people know your thoughts in the comments!

This series of posts aims to lớn provide drama recommendations, covering as many different people as possible and hopefully you will find them useful. If anything is missing that you think would help you when deciding what drama to watch, then please let me know in the comments. I will try lớn incorporate any I can into the posts for you!