In the wildly popular series Crash Landing on You, a wealthy businesswoman from South Korea, Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin), crash lands in North Korea due to a freak storm while hang gliding. There, she falls into the arms of North Korean Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun-Bin). Captain Ri hides Se-ri in his small village while attempting to get her back to South Korea. He is helped along the way by his four trusty soldiers. Captain Ri’s fiancé of ten years, Seo Dan (Seo Ji-hye), complicates matters when she shows up at the village ready to marry Jeong-hyeok. That is until Goo Seung-joon (Kim Jung-hyun of Mr. Queen) a con-artist from South Korea who is hiding out in North Korea, crosses Seo Dan’s path. And surprise – he is also Se-ri’s former fiancé.
Corrupt soldiers, Chinese hired thugs, and members of Se-ri’s own family stand in the way of her return home and ultimate safety. As Jeong-hyeok and Se-ri’s love grows, they learn of all the times in the past that fate brought them together. Will they overcome tragedy and separation to achieve a bright future together?
- Series Title: Crash Landing on You (Korean: 사랑의 불시착)
- Starring: Hyun Bin, Son Ye-jin, Seo Ji-hye and Kim Jung-hyun
- Written by: Park Ji-eun
- Directed by: Lee Jung-hyo
- Network: tvN
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
- Year Released: 2019
- # of episodes: 16
- KafeNook Rating: 5.0 sips
Crash Landing on You Review — !!Spoilers Ahead!!
There is a reason why Crash Landing on You is so popular. It’s that good. I added Crash Landing on You, or CLoY as it is referred to by fans, to the top of my list of Kdramas to watch due to its high rating and strong reviews. But I waited, watching other Kdramas like an athlete in training, equipping myself first. Viewing Descendants of the Sun, for instance, kept my heart racing with intense military action scenes and the pain of leads kept apart. Hometown Cha Cha Cha graced me with quirky, heart-warming characters from a small village. I felt the sadness of a divided country in The King: Eternal Monarch, and the gift of unconditional love in Her Private Life. The groundwork had been laid. I thought I was ready. I thought I was prepared.
And then I watched it. Wow.
Crash Landing on You has everything – a suspense filled plot, explosive action, stellar acting, endearing characters, heartbreaking moments, comic relief, a fated romance, gorgeous cinematography, breathtaking settings, and a beautiful soundtrack. By the time I finished watching the series, I could only think of one other drama that fills me with so many emotions. My all-time favorite movie series, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Every time I watch The Lord of the Rings movies – which happens approximately every other year – I watch the extended editions (11 hours and 22 minutes). I want to spend as much time as I can with the characters I’ve come to love. I want to relive all the action, take in the majestic settings, feel my heart swell to the sounds of the beautiful soundtrack and watch how, through trials and heartache, these intrepid heroes lean on one another to overcome the odds. Crash Landing on You, which clocks in at over 20 hours of run time, will be my new biannual watch.
Crash Landing on You Themes
Themes of love, identity, loyalty and fate permeate Crash Landing on You. Love comes in acts both big – three of the four main leads put themselves in harm’s way for the one that they love – and small: setting up a Christmas tree, stocking an empty kitchen with food, leaving plants to care for. On the surface, the drama may seem like enemies to lovers storyline, but it methodically brakes through that troupe as each little scene adds layers and depth to our lead’s growing relationship.
Watching this show, I felt a sense of sadness for Korea as a divided nation. The Korean war happened before I was born but I’ve watched enough M*A*S*H reruns to have an idea what it was about. To me, Crash Landing on You poses a question. Can people from this divided nation, who share a common language and history, see any resemblance in each other today?
There are difficult moments to watch in Crash Landing on You such as the flashbacks from ten years earlier in Switzerland showing Se-ri’s desire to end her life. She has never felt love from her family – never had someone who truly loves her for her. She comes back from that edge as a result of fate bringing Jeong-hyuk across her path. Then, when Jeong-hyuk holds a gun up to his temple with the South Korean IMS closing in on him, he seems to be thinking how his parents will suffer if he is caught. Only the realization of what his death will mean to Se-ri, or could drive her to do, makes him lower the gun. He will live to save her.
Jeong-hyuk teaches Se-ri to love and take care of herself. He wants this woman, whom he now loves with all his heart, to live a fulfilled life, with or without him. But, he also gives her glimmers of hope – reasons to live. In their final moments before they are to be separated by their countries, he tells her to pray desperately and to meet in the country where their path’s first crossed.
Supporting Storylines
Seo Dan, Jeong-hyuk’s fiancé, does an excellent job of gumming up the works on our main couple’s budding affection. As the foil, she initially comes across as shallow and oddly single-minded in her quest to marry Jeong-hyuk, a man she does not love. Enter Goo Seung-joon, who appears to be nothing more than a con-man trying to escape capture by Se-ri’s middle brother, the person he conned millions out of. Each time he runs into Dan, he is more and more intrigued with her.
As Seung-joon develops feelings for Dan, I began to see and understand her better through him. Dan also realizes there is more to Seung-joon when he opens up to her about the real reason why he conned Se-ri’s brother. To me, Seung-joon showed the most character growth in the series – going from what appeared to be a rich, lazy conn-man to giving up his freedom and his life to protect Dan. This made his fate even harder to bare, especially after seeing Dan realize too late, how much she cares for him.
I loved the storylines of the North Korean villagers and Captain Ri’s soldiers. These characters, played by many fabulous actors, brought heart and levity to the series. Se-ri’s family, on the other hand, is there to inform her tragic backstory and to increase the suspense. Se-ri’s middle brother and his scheming wife are particularly nasty. The scene where they barge into Se-ri’s house, threaten her and show how little they care for her made me just as mad as it did Jeung-hyuk who listening in. Not two minutes earlier, Se-ri told him that her family had welcomed her back with open arms. It’s no wonder he wants to reveal himself and confront them to protect the woman he loves.
The Laughs
The best Kdramas also have moments of levity. Crash Landing on You is no exception. The first time Jeong-hyeok tries to get Se-ri out of the country via a fishing boat, this stoic soldier has a startling realization. He tells Se-ri that a troupe he heard about from dramas might actually keep them from getting picked up by the maritime police. Then, to her surprise, he leans in and kisses her. This scene is funny because it is a troupe, and Jeong-hyeok has such a bemused look on his face as he realizes it could be their only way out of the situation.
The soldiers’ efforts to find their Captain and Se-ri in Seoul are also hilarious as one by one they describe their attempts, only for it to be revealed how they miss an encounter each time. In one of those attempts, the youngest soldier plays a computer game against an opponent, not realizing the opponent is his own Captain Ri. Then Jeong-hyeok, with a little boy look on his face, tries to explain to Se-ri why he spent so much money playing a computer game and why he must go out in real life to meet his foe.
Best Tear-jerker Moments
Where to begin. Jeong-hyeok definitely has some of the best tear-jerker moments but if had to boil it down, I would pick the one when Se-ri finally wakes up after being shot. When she calls him to find out why he isn’t with her, he runs to her hospital room. Through angry tears, he asks her (ok – almost yells at her) why she would risk her life like that. Then he hugs her and tells her he loves her, words he was afraid that he would never get to say to her. Of course, Se-ri is crying and scolding him all at the same time. Not a dry eye in the house after that.
Se-ri has several exceptional tear-jerker moments as well but the one I liked best is when she returns to her home and thinks that Jeong-hyeok and the soldiers have left without telling her goodbye. She breaks down crying only to cry even more when they appear with a surprise birthday celebration. Jeong-hyeok asks her if she is going to cry like that again when he really does leave and she tells him “no”, because she is now vaccinated against it. Enter her next best tear-jerker scene when she runs to Jeong-hyeok at the DMZ border as he is leaving, proving that the vaccination did not take.
My heart broke for Jeong-hyeok in the scene where he and Se-ri are a little drunk at her place and he tells her the wish of his heart: he doesn’t want to go back to North Korea. He wants to stay with her. Sadly, they both know that he can’t stay because his parents and his soldiers would be at risk.
Honorable mention goes to the scene with Seo Dan after Seung-joon’s death, where Dan’s mother tells her grieving daughter that she and Dan’s uncle are there to cry with her. This is the first time in the show that I felt something for Dan and I was surprised that the feeling came through her mother’s words.
Crash Landing on You Ending
A lot has been written about the ending of the show. Did our couple get their happy ever after ending or just a “I’ll see you for two weeks at this time next year” ending? After reading about and looking at the clues, I am firmly in the camp that they received their happily ever after. Here is why.
When Se-ri lands on the Swiss mountain after hang-gliding she provides a clue by saying, “In life, it’s always the ending that matters most”. She and Jeong-hyeok have waited a long time to be together, from their initial, chance meeting in Switzerland some thirteen or so years earlier to the approximately three-year wait since Jeong-hyeok went back to North Korea. She seems to indicate here that the wait they have experienced won’t matter in the long run when they are finally together. Jeong-hyeok has found his way to her on that mountain top. He tells her that after getting on the wrong train, it brought him to the place he has yearned to be every morning and night. It brought him to his destination – her. The final place on his journey.
After this, Se-ri is at a meeting in Seoul with her team where she says she is going on a two-week vacation and her phone will be turned off. They ask if she is going to Switzerland again, and did she hide a treasure there or something – “You’re not Heidi. Why do you keep going there?” In other words, she goes there a lot. They speculate that she is making these trips for a guy (a foreigner) and that this long-distance relationship has gone on much longer than any relationship she has had in the past. So much so that they might have to write-up an English press release.
Later, Se-ri arrives for the concert in Switzerland and while talking with the Swiss man in the concert hall, acknowledges that it is great they have students from North Korea this year. When Jeong-hyeok joins her for the concert, there is no surprise at seeing each other – just a comfortable conversation that two people have when they see and talk with each other regularly. Jeong-hyeok also looks at the pianist proudly like maybe the young man is his pupil. Then he and Se-ri smile and hold hands.
Happily Ever After for Se-ri and Jeong-hyeok?
In the final scene, it starts with a pan of items: the first photo Jeong-hyeok ever took of Seri on the bridge in Switzerland and a model of a fishing boat like the one where they had their first (fake) kiss. The scene changes to one of Se-ri as she prepares flowers in a vase. In front of her is a coffee mug full of pens, pencils and paint brushes, and a pile of sticky notes (which we know that Jeong-hyeok likes to use). Se-ri takes the flowers outside and as she grabs a shawl, we see more items in front of the window: pictures of the two of them together and Jeong-hyeok’s coffee pot from his house in the village in North Korea. Everything about this indicates that Jeong-hyeok lives there and that Se-ri lives with him when she is in Switzerland. Given her wealth, its likely she even bought the house. When they meet on the hill for the picnic, they are happy and smiling. Each radiates a look of peace and joy.
Jeong-hyeok (probably with some help from his father) did everything he could to get to Se-ri. He gave her a clue about finding each other again in Switzerland and then left the army to become the pianist for the North Korean symphony – providing him the perfect excuse and opportunity to leave North Korea regularly. (Not to mention the fact that he is able to live out his earlier dream of being a concert pianist.) Se-ri did everything she could to get back to Jeong-hyeok. Using her and her family’s wealth and influence to establish an international music school in Switzerland, she provided a place where Jeong-hyeok could legitimately live and work while still being a North Korean citizen. It is also the one place they can be together. It’s not hard to imagine her turning over the reins of Seri’s choice at some point in the future so that she can stay in Switzerland most of the time.
And there you have it- their happily ever after.
Should there be a second season of CLoY? Personally, I don’t think so. Our beloved leads have suffered through enough anguish and heartbreak in order to finally be together. I don’t want to watch them going through more of that. What about a “”17th” episode involving a wedding? Maybe. But would it be any more beautiful than the real-life wedding of the Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin?
Random Things I Liked
During the fourth episode, I realized there were new scenes after the “final” frozen scene. Once I found these epilogue scenes, I was thrilled with the added layers of meaning and understanding they brought to the episode. I had to go back and re-watch what I had missed. Hometown Cha Cha Cha had epilogue scenes at the end of each episode that did the same thing so I should have known to look for them. Doh! Bottom Line – do not miss those scenes!
Captian Ri Jeong-hyeok trying on suits. First of all, he looks amazing in every suit. It is Hyun Bin after all. Secondly, isn’t it remarkable that each “off the rack” suit seems to be tailored to him? Watching the reaction of the saleswoman each time he comes out is so funny – but even better is seeing Se-ri’s increasing jealously.
Every time I saw Captain Ri’s soldier’s walking or standing in a line like a group of little chicks, my heart melted. And that music!!
South Korean officers briefing the results of their review of the CCTV footage which shows Captain Ri doing good works around the Seoul. The officers tell their boss that Jeong-hyeok’s body language as he mirrors Se-ri indicates that he loves her. The boss can’t believe that they spent all that time and effort to determine what is plainly obvious.
One small scene that had me laughing is Se-ri in her office doing exercises and dancing in response to Jeong-hyeok’s messages to her to take good care of herself. She looks adorable and awkward at the same time.
Crash Landing on You Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Crash Landing on You is filled with beautiful songs that take you back to many of the most iconic moments of the show. The opening and closing piece encompass the majesty of the Swiss Alps while at the same time celebrating the two lovers. I listened to the soundtrack while reading the lyrics and felt even more intense emotions at the words to the songs (note to self – learn Korean faster). Once I better understand Korean, I plan to watch the show again so that I can relish the meaning of the lyrics during the episodes.
Favorite songs from this soundtrack include But It’s Destiny (10cm), Sunset sung by Davichi, Yerin Baek’s, Here I am Again and Someday (Kim Jae Hwan) – both great songs to sing along with in the car. And of course, the beautiful Sigriswil performed by Kim Kyung Hee. I also love the instrumental Song for My Brother (Park Sang Hee) and the short, but wonderful Time of JungHyuk for Seri by Crash Landing on You’s music director Nam Hye Seung and Park Sang Hee.
