Hotel King

Makjang drama in a mountain resort hotel complex. For Lee Dong Wook fans this over the top Makjang series provides lots of him giving brooding stares and facing all sorts of challenges. He is cast with the winsome Lee Da Hae again many years after My Girl and their chemistry is still strong. She plays a hotel heiress and he is the manager with lots of birth secrets. The premise of this soapy story is quite good with lots of emotion and some unexpected twists but it is too dragged out. If only it was 20 instead of 32 episodes. For a 2014 show it feels old fashioned. Many scenes of useless back and forth and angst and some frustrating and unnecessary twists. The painful hotel staff comic scenes could have been trimmed. The villain is the vice chairman and he is pretty funny. Should have been more flashbacks. But in the end there are some good parts mixed with the boring moments that make this worth watching. The home stretch even has a totally unexpected development which I found hilarious. Everyone's favorite mother Kim Hae Sook plays director Baek and she has an unexpectedly interesting role. Everyone's favorite secondary lead antagonist Wang Ji Hye is quite good in her role.

Pretty enough bucolic mountain setting in the Pyeongchang Resort complex. A good advertisement for it.

Bottom line is this is an soapy series with some exciting and emotional moments just too many episodes for the story.