Crash Landing on You (2019/20)
Review of Crash Landing on You / 사랑의 불시착 (2019/20)
I remember when this drama first came out and I didn’t believe in the hype. I thought the premise sounded way out there, about how a very rich chaebol CEO just happened to have a paragliding accident and landed in North Korea. And then she happens to meet the one man that would happen to keep her safe and try to get her back, and then his entire squad is cool with her too. And then they happen to fall in love?
Nah, I didn’t believe in what this drama was trying to sell.
As outlandish as the idea is, now, after having watched it on two different occasions, I can see why this drama is so popular. I think there’s definitely an element of escapism here, because so many viewers wish they were the rich woman CEO literally landing in the forbidden land and finding romance there.
I think there’s an entire psychological or sociological theory I’ve read about there, about how the mysterious things in life (e.g. what it’s like being a rich chaebol) make it so much more appealing to the common man because they’re not used to confronting such ideals in their everyday lives. Fascinating stuff at the end of the day.
Anyways, let’s begin the review!
Content
As mentioned before, our main character in this drama is Yoo Se-ri, a chaebol heiress in line to inherit her family’s business, but has instead founded her own fashion and makeup line called Seri’s Choice. Naturally, her being the one to inherit the position causes some riffs between her half-brothers and stepmother, which causes an entire line of wack family dynamics, especially after the accident happens.
You see, Se-ri is an avid paraglider, and while paragliding in South Korea, she accidentally ends up crossing the border during a strange freak storm and is found by North Korean sergeant Ri Jeong-hyuk.
Who then casually decides to hide her in his nice little home in a North Korean village, masquerades her as his fiancé, and many antics in South Korea, North Korea, and eventually Switzerland occur.
I will say, the choice of having this set largely in North Korea is an interesting one. It appeals to people’s fantasies of the exotic and the unknown, how we fetishize things that seem so far out of our reach. And that’s what makes Se-ri’s romance with Jeong-hyuk so much more appealing to the viewers.
Deep down, we all know she can’t stay in the North. She doesn’t belong in this world as a chaebol and a company-owner.
She belongs back in South Korea and he in North Korea. It’s a doomed romance, one teased out for sixteen episodes, even as he randomly appears in Seoul to protect Se-ri from a rogue guy who also seems to be paid by her siblings. Which plays into the trope and fantasy of the male protector in a woman’s life, although I like how this is subverted at one point when she gets shot in order to protect him. Women can do things too!
I like this drama on a superficial level a lot, which is why I’m forcing myself to analyze the shit out of it. I think there’s also something very interesting in deciding to choose two very privileged people in the societies that they’re in.
It’s too convenient that the son of a high-ranking military official in the North is the one that found her, and that he has the means to smuggle her out.
It’s also convenient that she is an extremely wealthy woman in the South who is capable of hiding an entire squad in her massive Seoul apartment (I didn’t even want to think what the price of that was—) and has the power and money to go to Switzerland on a whim.
That’s what bugged me about this drama, that the romance only worked out because these are very wealthy and privileged individuals in society. No way could he go to Switzerland like that if he was a normal North Korean. In a way, I wonder if Se-ri were a poor girl from the South how would this have played out? Would she have stayed in North Korea?
This is a really good drama, which is why I’m digging so hard at it. You have to suspend reality and not think about socioeconomic status in the way I do to enjoy it the way it is, but it’s good escapism.
There’s some solid funny moments (loved the guy who knew random things about the south through pirated K-dramas, or the girl randomly watching BTS in a North Korean hospital), and I think it brings more interest to what North Korea is like as a whole. Is it realistic? Probably not, unless we’re talking about the lives of the rich in the North.
Maybe they have the freedom to use cellphones and dress in the latest global styles if they’re rich, but I don’t really know the truth about about that.
We also have a badass female lead who owns a company, so plus some feminist points for that. I think the chemistry between the main couple was really good, which shows because they’re dating in real life as I type out these words.
Acting was also solid from almost all characters, even though some people tend to fall into archetypes and never get fleshed out outside of that (looking at Ri’s squad here). The second couple was also solid, but I think the drama could’ve been done without them to be honest.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a good drama, but I find myself really questioning it as a form of escapism. I ended up writing a paper about this once with Bollywood movies for my international politics class, and I really do think K-dramas are a major form of escapism as well.
They’re addicting, they tend to have the ideal male lead for the female audiences, and they can insert themselves as the shy poor girl or the rich chaebol heiress getting their man. We can really see this concept in Crash Landing on You, but I will say it is an enjoyable drama. And that’s why I’ll give it my rating below, since this isn’t a sociology class.
