nfabjoy
Somewhere in Africa
Candy Floss Romcom with a tug of commentary
King the Land is one of those easy watches that will have you smiling like a kid in a candy store.
It makes no pretenses about itself and unapologetically commits to the fluffy rom com tropes with all the trappings of umbrellas, theme park rentals and magical appearances to save the female lead. And with all of that fluff - it still manages to touch on issues like classism, elitism and sexism in the service industry which I found so self-aware of the script.
While the ratio of plot to character is arguably thin ( those who say zero plot also have merit) the charm of the drama is the charisma of chemistry existing amongst all the leads and the drama makes very good use of this charm. The push and full factor runs very strong because of this making it an all round very pleasant watch that emits joy. Seriously - I was smiling throughout so top marks for that.
So why does it score an 8.5 and not a 9 or 10? Simple- though the show is a light hearted comedy at its core , I could not overlook that I felt baited at times into thinking it was going to get deeper into an issue/problem ( which were serious motifs by the way) only for it to fizzle out. Thematic resolution was thus quite weak and having the identity of being fluffy is not an excuse for not resolving pertinent themes presented.
Otherwise - the drama is amazing, Lee Jun Ho is captivating as Gu Won , Im Yoon A is greatly improved in her acting skills and the supporting cast was wonderful! No complaints. The music is great too and has entered my daily rotation too .And the visuals were top notch.
Shoutout to the presentation of Gu Wom and Cheon Sarang too- the most natural dating couple I have seen that was not prudish. Very rare in dramaland.
Overall- would not be surprised if this was a future rom com GOAT in time .
It makes no pretenses about itself and unapologetically commits to the fluffy rom com tropes with all the trappings of umbrellas, theme park rentals and magical appearances to save the female lead. And with all of that fluff - it still manages to touch on issues like classism, elitism and sexism in the service industry which I found so self-aware of the script.
While the ratio of plot to character is arguably thin ( those who say zero plot also have merit) the charm of the drama is the charisma of chemistry existing amongst all the leads and the drama makes very good use of this charm. The push and full factor runs very strong because of this making it an all round very pleasant watch that emits joy. Seriously - I was smiling throughout so top marks for that.
So why does it score an 8.5 and not a 9 or 10? Simple- though the show is a light hearted comedy at its core , I could not overlook that I felt baited at times into thinking it was going to get deeper into an issue/problem ( which were serious motifs by the way) only for it to fizzle out. Thematic resolution was thus quite weak and having the identity of being fluffy is not an excuse for not resolving pertinent themes presented.
Otherwise - the drama is amazing, Lee Jun Ho is captivating as Gu Won , Im Yoon A is greatly improved in her acting skills and the supporting cast was wonderful! No complaints. The music is great too and has entered my daily rotation too .And the visuals were top notch.
Shoutout to the presentation of Gu Wom and Cheon Sarang too- the most natural dating couple I have seen that was not prudish. Very rare in dramaland.
Overall- would not be surprised if this was a future rom com GOAT in time .
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