K-Drama ‘Crash Landing Into You’ Imagines North Korea as a Sweet, Dependable Guy
Crash Landing Into You, a 2020–2021 K-drama written by Park Ji-Eun and directed by Lee Heung-Hyo, re-imagines communist North Korea as a magical Oz. The analogy is intentional. In the very first episode when Yoon Se-ri is caught in a tornado, she sees a red tractor from Dorothy’s farm flying by. The scene marks Yoon Se-ri’s entry into the other world. She’s not in Kansas anymore!
Some viewers didn’t get into the show for 3–4 episodes, but the characters of Yoon Se-ri, an egotistical South Korean heiress (played by Son Ye-jin) and her loveable, glutton-for-punishment assistant (played by Go Gyu-pil) had me at hello. When Se-ri lands in North Korea, she is a fish out of water. All of her hard-won money and fame are for nought, and she must carve a new role for herself in this new world. The details of North Korea, while probably not all true (there’s a lot of food), are rooted in some research and reality. Even North Korean viewers have expressed satisfaction with the detail, including the accents.
The North Korean ajumas (older women) are always seen with their extra long rubber dishwashing gloves, attending to plastic tubs of panchan gori (fermented vegetable side dishes). There are hierarchies amongst them. Some of them almost lost their only child in the swine flu pandemic. Some of them have been waiting for their husband for years and don’t know if they’ll ever return. Some of them are are a skosh narcissistic. Some of them spontaneously yell out English phrases because they can’t help showing off how cosmopolitan they are. The love and depth with which these minor characters are depicted are a breath of fresh air in the midst of the hate against AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) in post-Trump, post-pandemic US.
*SPOILERS*
Because I don’t know the rules governing North Korea, I had no problem believing that Yoon Se-ri had to be stuck in North Korea for nine episodes. Things get a little less believable once the story moves to South Korea. While I was excited to see Captain Ri and his men in Seoul hanging out at the jimjilbang (Korean bath) and PC bang (PC game room), the reasons for the couple’s being separated begin to make less and less sense as the story progresses. Cho Cheol-Gang wants to kill Yoon Se-ri as revenge to get back at Captain Ri for convicting him of his crimes. Therefore, Captain Ri must go to Seoul to protect Yoon. (Why Cho Cheol-Gang is hell bent on seeking revenge when he got away with his crimes remains unclear. But oookay…) Another higher-up North Korean official threatens to bring Captain Ri back, but when Captain Ri’s father kills that military official, certainly the lovers can be together, right? For some reason, no.
While like Romeo and Juliet, Yoon Se-ri and Captain Ri can never be together because their family/country will not let them, in this case, both families, and even the South Korean officials who get involved, can see the true love shining through. Everyone is rolling their eyes at the two lovesick puppies who, appear to just be making excuses to stay apart. Both individuals are high up enough and unattached enough, at several moments, it seems the two might be able to stay together. Captain Ri could stay in South Korea to stock Yoon Se-ri’s fridge, make her scorched rice, and occasionally land on the social media pages as Yoon Se-ri’s hot North Korean lover boy/pianist extraordinaire. Surely, he would only increase her company’s stock valuation.
In the end, the writer and director seem to have made a conscious decision — in keeping with the Romeo and Juliet conceit and the current politics between North and South Korean — to keep the lovers apart, having them meet up only occasionally in neutral Switzerland. This ending, unsatisfying for most modern viewers, is completely preposterous. “I’ll be going on a two-week vacation starting tomorrow,” says Yoon Se-ri, the head of the global conglomerate. “Ma’am, are you going to Switzerland, again?” her assistant asks. After 17 episodes of yearning and unending goodbyes, these occasional, unplanned encounters in Switzerland are the extent of the Yoon Se-ri’s and Captain’s Ri’s continued contact.
But the stalemate in the love is perhaps an apt metaphor for the ongoing separation between North and South Korea which separated families back in 1945. Today, some 75 years later, most of the separated family members have died and yet the separation continues. The two meeting occasionally in neutral territory is a reminder of the love the two sides still have for another despite the years of forced separation.
A note on the sex scenes: there are none, a fact which is deeply unsatisfying to this American viewer. After Captain Ri has crawled through a tunnel for twenty hours to find Se-ri in Kangnam, certainly the two would be excited to see each other again! Unfortunately, there is no closing of the bedroom door. The camera never pulls away. The intensification of their attraction and devotion are never shown through physical contact, aside from the occasional bobo (kiss). As if the series itself were caught in the 1950s, the drama stops short of any romantic action; this absence actually stunts the story.
Crash Landing Into You is ultimately a fun romp through bucolic North Korea and a melodramatic romp through ritzy South Korea.
Stand-out performances include: Son Ye-jin, who plays Yoon Se-ri; Go Gyu-pil as Yoon Se-ri’s loyal sidekick; Kim Jung-hyun, who plays a Euro influenced pretty/bad boy; and Hyang Woo-seul-hye who has been transformed into Yoon Se-ri’s frumpy, clueless sister-in-law.
