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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Kim Ji-eun, Bae In-hyuk, Jung Gun-joo, Park Jae-chan
Latest Nielsen rating: 2.63 per cent
Two-thirds of the way into the genre mash-up Check-in Hanyang, the show’s balance between hotel drama and period drama is beginning to shift in favour of the latter.
Among the lead characters is Lee Eun-ho (Bae In-hyuk, in his third consecutive period drama after Under The Queen’s Umbrella and The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract), who is one of the trainees at the illustrious Yongcheonru Guesthouse and is actually Prince Muyeong of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1897) in disguise.


This fact is never hidden from us, but his royal identity is largely an afterthought while the show focuses on the tribulations of these trainees.
There are 30 to begin with, but only a few permanent spots for them to fill, fostering competition and deception among the trainees.
Early in the training, the youths are split into groups of four, who have to rely on one another as they rise and fall as a unit.
Only two groups are given any real screen time – the heroes and the villains. While we expect that these two groups will survive to the final stage, the journey there is still an entertaining one.
The “heroes” group consists of Eun-ho, Hong Deok-soo (Kim Ji-eun, One Dollar Lawyer) – a woman disguised as a man – the cocky Cheon Jun-hwa (Jung Gun-joo, Bitter Sweet Hell) and Ko Su-ra (Park Jae-chan, My Sweet Mobster), the descendant of a noble family that has fallen on hard times.

This group is considered to be the lowest ranked among all the groups of trainees, while the “villains” group, led by the high-born weasel Kim Myoung-ho (Lee Ho-won), see themselves as the highest ranked.
This may give our protagonists the air of being underdogs, but that is far from the case: Eun-ho is the king’s son, Jun-hwa is the heir to the guest house, and Deok-soo is the daughter of a murdered man who was another very influential figure in Joseon.
However, the meat of the show’s midsection does not dwell on the special backgrounds of these characters and the dense political intrigue they entail.
Rather than a tortured tale of heirs and vengeful heroes, we watch with bated breath as the four youths work together against the clock, and saboteurs, to wash and dry a batch of bedsheets to the satisfaction of their instructor, an event that proves more exciting than any of the palace scheming involving bearded power brokers.
Other tests include setting an exquisite dinner table. First, they are lulled into a false sense of security by being given a celebratory dinner and free-flowing booze. The surprise test begins suddenly when half the students are passed out on the ground.

Thankfully for the heroes, Eun-ho and Jun-hwa, who both have complicated feelings for Deok-soo, engage in a typical K-drama drink-off as they prevent any booze from reaching the lips of Deok-soo, who handily aces the test for all of them.
The final test involves serving at the beck and call of an extremely demanding guest: Do-kyung (Kwon Eun-bin), the niece of Minister of War Oh Young-rak (Yoon Je-moon). Do-kyung is an impossible-to-please nightmare and she is especially harsh on Deok-soo’s group owing to an earlier altercation.
However, when Do-kyung deliberately releases her pet bird and demands that they retrieve it, the keen-eyed Deok-soo figures out that Do-kyung, trapped and frustrated as a pawn in her scheming uncle’s plans, is just a lonely young woman in need of a friend.
In the end, both teams pass and are promoted. However, during the appointment ceremony, police barge in to arrest Deok-soo for a murder she did not commit.
This is the point where the show swings back to the events with which the story began – the backstory of Deok-soo and Eun-ho, which prompted them both to enter Yongcheonru in disguise.

Effectively, now that everyone has “graduated”, this is where the story has to grow up and move past the childish shenanigans of the trainee trials, but those youthful and frivolous thrills may be sorely missed as the story edges closer and closer to the palace.
Deok-soo is soon released, thanks to some secret help from Eun-ho, but she still needs to prove herself at Yongcheonru. She sets up a gambling den which she wants general manager Seol Mae-hwa (Kim Min-jung, The Devil Judge), the woman who killed her father, to host.
As we enter the final stretch of Check-in Hanyang, Yongcheonru’s many doors will no longer be able to contain the many secrets hidden within.
Check-in Hanyang is streaming on Netflix.


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Netflix period drama about trainees at a prestigious guest house is shifting focus towards political intrigue and a royal backstory


Netflix period drama about trainees at a prestigious guest house is shifting focus towards political intrigue and a royal backstory.


Netflix K-drama Check-in Hanyang midseason recap: period hotel drama set to get political

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Netflix period drama about trainees at a prestigious guest house is shifting focus towards political intrigue and a royal backstory

Netflix period drama about trainees at a prestigious guest house is shifting focus towards political intrigue and a royal backstory