Crash Landing on You - Netflix K-Drama Review

I think all of us remember our first love, we remember what it felt like to have our hearts beat that much faster, the butterflies in our stomach, the obsessing about the words we spoke or didn't speak, and other million details that come along with it. Watching a romantic comedy is supposed to evoke some bit of those memories and just fill you up in this warm, fuzzy feeling that feels like a comforting bear hug (if you like hugs!). A while back I was reading this article about the dearth of good romantic comedies nowadays and it's true, when was the last good romantic comedy you saw? To me the evergreen You've Got Mail, Kate & Leopold, Notting Hill, Sleepless in Seattle are still the classics (yes, I think I crushed on Meg Ryan a lot!). In Hindi movies, I know this divides a lot of people, but I do genuinely think Sonam Kapoor has figured this out. I absolutely loved her Khoobsurat with Fawad Khan. I thought it was funny, contemporary and their chemistry was left me with wishing for more! While Zoya Factory doesn't have the same high, I like that she's doing these movies. Kind of like the romance between Neena Gupta and Gajaraj Rao in Badhai Ho. :)


Anyway, before I digress into a different tangent, let me start by talking about the topic and the reason for today's blog. Crash Landing on You.

I knew Korean Dramas were popular but until now I'd never watched one before. I saw the promo for 'Crash Landing on You' and kept wondering if this would be worth a watch. So last week, we (me and my husband) checked out reviews online and on IMDB and felt like we were living under a rock. Apparently the show and the actors and the characters were a sensation! With a solid 9.1/10 on IMDB and millions of fans we felt like wow, okay, this should be fun. OMG. I seriously underestimated how fun it was going to be.

A week later (exactly!) I have binge-watched the series twice! Yes. I have stayed awake till 3am on average and 10am at max (on Sunday morning) to watch the show. To set some context, I've never done this before with movies/shows. Books yes, but even then not like this. To binge watch something obsessively, to the extent that immediately after finishing the show on Thurs night/Fri morning, I again started re-watching it on Friday night. Partly because I hadn't had enough of the story yet, I wanted to re-live the moments, find the details in the sub-plots, and just spend more time with the characters. It's the most insane thing I've ever done I think and it's incredible, emotional, monumental all at the same time. I'm still processing why and how this happened, so bear with me while I figure it out in the course of the blog.

If you haven't heard about this show before, then allow me to give a brief summary. The show is a 16 episode long series, about a South Korean heiress who happens to land in North Korea as a result of a paragliding accident and ends up being saved by a North Korean captain in the army. It showcases a wide variety of characters, from billionaires in Seoul and Pyongyang, to soldiers and directors in the Army, Intelligence Services, from mothers in a village, to mothers in mansions, from criminals running racketeering rings to employees in corporations, from people who have had exposure to the outside world, to people who have lived in the same town/village for all their life, the breadth of the characters is fascinating to say the least. The fact that the story is about two main leads from South Korea & North Korea brings to the forefront a lot of character and uniqueness (esp. for a person who has never seen a K-drama before!). To me North Korea is defined by the poverty and extreme conditions that its people live in, reminds me of all the photos from articles showcasing the starkness and the rigidity of the capital. What this series does is, it humanizes everyone. It shows depth in their lives. Showcases (with creative liberties) how even in their situation there is laughter, love, companionship, color, flair, warmth and life.

So the setup sounds amazing, obviously it's an impossible love / star crossed lovers kind of storyline (not a spoiler, the trailer kind of makes that obvious) so let me move on to the main leads in the series, Hyun Bin who plays a character called Ri Jeong Hyeok (the North Korean captain) and Son Ye-Jin who plays a character called Yoon Se-Ri (the South Korean heiress). It's so difficult to encompass what I feel about them and their performance in words. They are absolutely fantastic and are the best actors I've ever seen. Why? In one word, effortless. But slight sidetrack, I think the writer and the director deserve a standing ovation. It is their idea, their vision, and their world that is brought to life by these actors and characters, it is such a fabulous foundation. The writing is witty, emotional, endearing and very very memorable (even though I had to rely on English subtitles which were translated so obviously there was a loss of the richness that it must have in Korean).

Coming back to the actors. Hyun Bin is just outstanding. He embodies the character he's portraying, depicts the various layers he has, and the emotions that are running through him with such slight nuances it is insane to imagine that he's not real. And that's the weird thing, the characters are obviously fictional, but they're so deep that they feel real. I was thinking about how a person (who btw has the most gorgeous dimples I've ever seen in a man!) is able to portray such depth in emotions; anger, love, happiness, pain, tenderness, sloppiness, patience, frustration, jealousy, trust, friendship, pity, desperation, panic, fear.. the list seems endless, but trust me I can pinpoint the exact emotions he portrays scene-by-scene. I don't think I've thought about this before, but seeing this series made me realize the few dimensions our characters in movies portray (though, I have to agree that Ranveer Singh in Gully Boy manages to do this).

While I obviously am madly in love with Hyun Bin, I have to do justice to the incredible performance by Son Ye-Jin too. Again as a character, she's extremely well written as well. I absolutely loved how she portrays the emotions so naturally. From her superb comic timing, to the tone of her voice, to how much she expresses with her eyes and posture, she really makes you root for her throughout the series.

Their chemistry together is such fascinating to watch. What strikes you as being very different is how staying true to their characters, there's actually very little physical intimacy between the two. A handful of kisses and hugs throughout the nearly 20 hours of runtime (totally) but the depth of their love is so so deep. I feel like we've totally missed this in recent times. It's so easy to go from being strangers to being in bed with someone, we've edited out the courtship, the butterflies, the fluttering. And that's what this series brings back and how. You feel their emotions, you feel their love, even though you don't understand their words, you hear it in their tone, you see it in their gestures. The two actors literally transport you into a bubble of their emotions and you can't help but just sit and smile blissfully throughout the journey. It's poetic, it's funny and oh so emotional.

Talking of humour more broadly, there's just so much humour. In the strangeness of the situation itself, but more so in the characters. Just when the pressure begins to build in one sphere, there's humour and laughter to ease it right after. I remember crying because of both happy and sad emotions depicted and like genuinely laughing, not the fake laughter because it was a slapstick joke, but because of just how genuinely hilarious it was!

Without going into too much detail, I also want to mention how fantastic the series felt technically. From the architecture / set design / interior decorations across situations (North Korean village, Pyongyang apartments, Seoul mansions and offices) to the soulful background score (available for streaming across platforms!), to the stunning depictions of the locations in which they shot, to the amazing editing that keeps the pace high for the most part (in the last couple of episodes it gets a bit slow while trying to wrap up some side stories), it's a brilliant package.

So to wrap this up, watch it, watch it for the storyline, for the characters, for the actors, but most importantly, watch it to go on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and to fall in love with love. :)