South Korea · Drama · 2014
Hotel King
Synopsis
Hotel King follows Cha Jae-wan (Lee Dong-wook), the general manager of the seven-star Hotel Ciel, whose calm, capable exterior hides a childhood spent on the streets and a burning desire to control the hotel his adoptive father built. When chairman Ah Sung-won dies in a fall during the hotel's water park opening event, his estranged daughter Ah Mo-ne (Lee Da-hae) returns from abroad to claim her inheritance, and the two clash before slowly falling for each other.
Around them stands a family built on secrets. Vice chairman Choi Joong-gu (Lee Deok-hwa) has spent years maneuvering for the chairman's seat, while Jae-wan's own parentage, and the true circumstances of the chairman's death, are hidden inside eleven volumes of the old man's private diaries. Chae-kyung (Wang Ji-hye), Joong-gu's daughter and Jae-wan's ex-fiancee, and Mi-nyeo (Kim Hae-sook), a woman with a long-buried claim on the family, both complicate the fight over who ultimately runs Hotel Ciel.
As Mo-ne is voted in and out of the chairwoman's office and Jae-wan uncovers who was really behind her father's death, the drama moves between boardroom power struggles and the two leads' on-and-off romance, played out largely inside the hotel's water park, ballrooms and executive suites.
The 32-episode MBC series aired through the summer of 2014 and reunited Lee Dong-wook and Lee Da-hae for the first time since their 2005 hit My Girl. It also drew a large following in China, where iQiyi carried the show under a licensing deal with the network.
Hotel King cast
Filming locations
- InterContinental Alpensia Resort (Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do) was used for Hotel Ciel's exterior and interior scenes; the neighboring Holiday Inn Resort at the same resort complex was also used for hotel scenes.
Interesting facts
- Reunion with a My Girl co-star. Lee Dong-wook and Lee Da-hae, who play Cha Jae-wan and Ah Mo-ne, previously starred together in the 2005 SBS hit My Girl; Hotel King was their first drama together since then.
- A hit in China. The series was distributed in China via iQiyi and, according to its English Wikipedia entry, drew a large audience there, becoming one of the more widely watched Korean dramas airing in the country at the time.
Episodes
| Ep | Title | Air date | Status | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Episode 1 | 2014-04-05 | Aired | |
| 2 | Episode 2 | 2014-04-06 | Aired | |
| 3 | Episode 3 | 2014-04-12 | Aired | |
| 4 | Episode 4 | 2014-04-13 | Aired | |
| 5 | Episode 5 | 2014-04-26 | Aired | |
| 6 | Episode 6 | 2014-04-27 | Aired | |
| 7 | Episode 7 | 2014-05-03 | Aired | |
| 8 | Episode 8 | 2014-05-04 | Aired | |
| 9 | Episode 9 | 2014-05-10 | Aired | |
| 10 | Episode 10 | 2014-05-11 | Aired | |
| 11 | Episode 11 | 2014-05-17 | Aired | |
| 12 | Episode 12 | 2014-05-18 | Aired | |
| 13 | Episode 13 | 2014-05-24 | Aired | |
| 14 | Episode 14 | 2014-05-25 | Aired | |
| 15 | Episode 15 | 2014-05-31 | Aired | |
| 16 | Episode 16 | 2014-06-01 | Aired | |
| 17 | Episode 17 | 2014-06-07 | Aired | |
| 18 | Episode 18 | 2014-06-08 | Aired | |
| 19 | Episode 19 | 2014-06-14 | Aired | |
| 20 | Episode 20 | 2014-06-15 | Aired | |
| 21 | Episode 21 | 2014-06-21 | Aired | |
| 22 | Episode 22 | 2014-06-22 | Aired | |
| 23 | Episode 23 | 2014-06-28 | Aired | |
| 24 | Episode 24 | 2014-06-29 | Aired | |
| 25 | Episode 25 | 2014-07-05 | Aired | |
| 26 | Episode 26 | 2014-07-06 | Aired | |
| 27 | Episode 27 | 2014-07-12 | Aired | |
| 28 | Episode 28 | 2014-07-13 | Aired | |
| 29 | Episode 29 | 2014-07-19 | Aired | |
| 30 | Episode 30 | 2014-07-20 | Aired | |
| 31 | Episode 31 | 2014-07-26 | Aired | |
| 32 | Episode 32 | 2014-07-27 | Aired |
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