Other Media Review

Guest Squee: Crash Landing on You (Netflix)

This guest review comes from Rhoda Baxter! Rhoda writes contemporary romantic comedies about smart women and nice guy heroes. She also writes multicultural women’s fiction as Jeevani Charika. Her latest book is That Holiday in France ( A ).  Rhoda can be found on her website or on Twitter (@rhodabaxter).

I’m new to K-drama (but not new to Asian teledramas as such: we used to watch Oshin – dubbed into Singhalese – when I was a child in Sri Lanka). I first heard about Crash Landing on You (streaming on Netflix) when Alyssa Cole tweeted about it. I started watching it out of curiosity.

Just one episode, I thought.

Ha! I was hooked.

The main story is of Yoon Se-ri, a rich and apparently arrogant, bratty business woman who is caught up in a freak tornado whilst out paragliding and ends up being blown over the border into North Korea. There she’s found by the extremely uptight (and very handsome) Captain Ri Jeong-Hyeok, who doesn’t turn her in to the authorities because…well, reasons.

The four guys in Capt Ri’s patrol are also implicated in the decision not to turn her in. A few twists and turns later, we end up with Se-ri being hidden by Capt Ri and his patrol in his house and trying to work out how to smuggle her back across the border without getting into trouble for harbouring a spy.

Ah, but wait. There’s more. Capt Ri’s brother used to have the same posting as him and was killed in a car accident. Capt Ri believes his brother was murdered and he’s trying to solve the mystery of who murdered him and why. The bad guy is Capt Ri’s superior officer (who has an amazing range of bad-guy expressions).

The rom com between the uptight but naive captain and the fish-out-of-water princess is a slow burn and it’s adorable. It helps that both actors are amazingly talented and very pretty. So very pretty. Please go look up Hyun Bin, if you don’t know who he is. I’ll wait. [Incidentally, he’s the main lead in The Secret Garden, mentioned on SBTB in 2015 – he’s older and even lovelier now].

He has such a lovely smile. Sigh.

Oh, goodness.

Hyun Bin smiling slowly

Ahem. Where was I?

Oh yes. Storylines.

The story has a combination of romance and intrigue (the baddie keeps trying to destroy Capt Ri’s family and kill Se-ri). There’s quite a lot of violence (fight scenes, guns etc), but not much gory detail. There is no sex whatsoever. The chaste nature of the show was in keeping with the sweetness of the romantic storylines. What it lacks in sexytime, it makes up for in pining.

Oh my word, the pining!

Show Spoiler

A slo mo gif of the hero riding a motorcycle with a very intense look on his face

Se-ri, who turns out to have grown up in a very hostile family and is dreadfully lonely, discovers warmth and human connection. When she returns to Seoul, she’s a much softer woman.

Jeong-Hyeok, who is depressed and angry after his brother’s death, rediscovers hope. We learn that he used to be a professional pianist. He’s one of those heroes who is great at everything (including being handsome). He also does a brilliant line in being bewildered by these feelings he seems to have caught. He’s deep in denial, poor man. Even after they finally admit their love to each other, they know they can’t be together. And people keep trying to kill them.

Apart from the love story between Se-ri and the captain, the show has some delightful sub plots involving the secondary characters. There’s a secondary romantic story too – but I can’t tell you about that without spoilers.

Se-ri gets to know the four guys from Capt Ri’s patrol and they are all clearly very fond of her by the time she has to leave. They become her found family in a way. She also gets to know the women in the village, whom she has to lie to, in order to allay suspicion. When she forms meaningful friendships for the first time, it’s with people she will never see again. It’s heartbreaking. The women’s relationships with Se-ri and with each other as the series progresses are just lovely. One of the things I really appreciated is how all the secondary characters felt fully rounded and had complete story arcs, no matter how small.

And there's adorableness.

The hero ties back the heroine's hair with a scarf while looking very very serious.

As I said at the start, I’m new to K-drama, so I don’t know all the tropes of the medium. But this show was like romance trope bingo. There’s an awful lot of coincidence and fate plays a huge role. If this were a book, I’d have rolled my eyes. You could almost predict the trope that was going to pop up in each episode…and yet, it was still compelling. I can’t believe how deeply invested I was (still am) in those characters. With all the twists and turns, it was an emotional rollercoaster. There were places where I wept buckets. So many feels!

The first half of the show is set in North Korea and the second half in South Korea, so I got a glimpse of two cultures that were new to me. The story also reminded me of the joy of rice crust – the hard bits at the bottom of the rice pan when you’ve cooked it by the absorption method. If you ever make pilau rice in a rice cooker, the rice crust, where all the flavours are extra concentrated, is the best part.

Like most teledramas, it is very long. The episodes themselves tended to be about 90 minutes long, which often meant I had to watch each one in two sittings. If you have the time, though, it’s wonderfully immersive and relaxing watching. Since I finished watching it, I’ve been going around telling everyone I know to watch it because I need to talk to people about it!

You can find Crash Landing on You streaming on Netflix (US).

Add Your Comment →

  1. Blackjack says:

    Great review! This has been on my list of must-see TV. There aren’t enough good romances out there on TV or film.

  2. TaraR says:

    Yesssss! One of the absolute highlights of 2020, for me!

  3. Heather M says:

    I absolutely loved this show! Sweet and swoony, and the fish-out-of-water aspect (on both sides of the border) often led to me laughing like a maniac. One thing I’ll mention since I’m the kind of monster who usually turns off a kdrama as soon as the picture credits start at the end — stay through the credits; there’s an absolutely beautiful background story that gradually unfolds like a little puzzle box. Kind of like Marvel after-credits teasers, but romantic.

  4. LongStrider says:

    You need to try The King Eternal Monarch. Parallel worlds, fated love, K-Drama, also on Netflix. It’s all out now. I made the same mistake you did, earlier this year I saw that it was only two episodes long so watched them and got hooked, only to find out that it had just started airing in Korea and that there was a whole season that I had to wait week to week to watch.

    My big concern when I saw the premise of Crash Landing on You, was how nationalistic/jingoistic is it?

  5. Sue D. says:

    I love it when my two worlds combine, romance and dramas! If you go down the Kdrama black hole There are 2 I’d recommend.

    I’d start with “Descendants of the Sun”. Doctor Lady and Soldier, well rounded Side characters, witty repartee, a storyline that moves easily, fun and romantic. He’s a career soldier who meets the ER doc on a short leave through a misunderstanding, and though their lifestyles keep tearing them apart they also keep putting them together.

    Then I’d go to “What’s wrong with secretary Kim”. It’s a romcom that was once a graphic novel you can find on bato.uk for those that want to read too. The main leads is dreamy, when he’s up set he takes shower (this is a trope I cannot Bring myself to hate). The lady is smart and funny and takes no BS. He’s the head of what would be samsung in the real world and has master of the world complex, and when all of a sudden his secretary quits to find a real life it hakes him up and you find out how they’re connected and fated for one another.

    Both of these are no longer on Netflix, but can be found on Viki Rakuten which can be watched on tablets or your tv if it gets app/channels etc. or on a computer through their website. Viki is all kdramas all the time – so, sorry to all your productivity but there it goes.

    If you’re restricted to Netflix I’d recommend “It’s OK to not be OK”. The female lead is a writer of creepy children’s stories and the male lead is a medical assistant at Psychiatrict hospitals and has a brother with intellectual handicaps who he is the caretaker for. It’s a beautiful look at mental health and love, and also is visually stunning, very theatrical and almost Tim burton sequence and the fashion is INCREDIBLE if thats your thing.

    Other recommendations: Goblin, Itaewan Class, Lawless Lawyer, Coffee Prince, weight lifting fairy Kim book soo, Strong woman Bong Soo, my lovely Sam soon, fight my way

  6. Mandy Aguilar says:

    Oh, I loved this drama so much! I finished it right as the pandemic hit, and it was great escapism… even though it ended up having some dark storylines.

    One more recommendation for lovely escapism – I’ll Come to You When the Weather is Fine. It was my Emotional Support K-Drama all through April. It’s set mostly in a bookshop in rural Korea, the leads are so pretty, and there’s an adorable book club/found family. It takes place in winter, and there’s lots of cozy sweaters and drinking of hot beverages. Just the coziest, cutest drama. The storytelling unfurls slowly, which is what I needed while the world came crashing down outside. It’s not on Netflix, but it’s available on Viki and maybe some other places.

  7. Claudia says:

    @long strider I wouldn’t say there’s a ton of nationalistic/jingoistic stuff. Relatedly, as I understand it the show got props in Korea for showing North Koreans in a different light (ie not always the bad guys.)

    I had some qualms about its light-handed representation of a truly murderous dictatorship, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed it. My teens watched it with me and they were in stitches with some of the antics by supporting characters. It’s highly entertaining and romantic.

  8. Catherine says:

    I started watching kdramas because of Lara’s review of Her Private Life (loved it!) and thanks to the pandemic have made my way through A LOT this year. A few recs: I’m Not A Robot (the premise of a human posing as a robot put me off for a long time, but it is the actual cutest, on Viki); Reply 1988 (slice of life drama about families on a street in Seoul starting in 1988 – so good and builds up to some serious swoon, Netflix and Viki); Go Ho’s Starry Night (light, short web drama about work romance at an ad firm, YouTube or Viki); Master’s Sun (she can see ghosts, except when touching the hero, Viki); and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Star weightlifter at an athlete’s college and her adorable romantic journey, Viki). If you really liked the North/South Korea part of CLOY, The King 2 Hearts is about a bratty South Korean prince and a Special Forces North Korean officer (Viki).

  9. Emily C says:

    I am so happy to see this review, it’s been on my watchlist for Netflix all year but I kept skirting around it for the same concerns as @longstrider.
    I’m completely new to k-dramas too, and absolutely need a new binge.

  10. Katherine McCorry says:

    Finally! I have people to discuss my new obsession. Crash Landing was my first K drama – think I’ve watched it 4 times since July. Ive taking a very deep dive into K drama in the past few months. There is something about the focus it takes to read the subtitles, listen for tone and actually watch the scene that increases the sense of “escape” in a way books aren’t doing for me right now.
    I had so many questions – why are they wearing clothes to bed? Did they sleep together and I missed it? Is there a secret code that says they did & I didn’t get the cultural reference? When did gazing and hand holding become so hot? The style and pace of the story is different from American TV and I’’m Loving all of it!
    I’ve since watched:
    The King – beautiful & mind bending
    Something in the Rain – loved the first 1/2 story, had to mute the repetitive music
    One Spring Night & Memories of Alhambra were good too.
    A Well Intended Love – Chinese Drama. 2 seasons – same couple in slightly different time lines. Haven’t come across that take on a love story before and it was very interesting to see what plot points were the same.
    I just finished Meteor Garden – a Chinese version of Boys Over Flowers – a 2009 take on Japanese anime. Kind of bonkers, but I kept watching.
    Think I’ll try a few historical’s next.

  11. ROSEMARY says:

    this really was one of the most romantic dramas I’ve ever seen

  12. Lisa F says:

    This looks so delightful! I’ll watch it soon.

  13. Claudia says:

    @katherine mccorry: Legend of the Blue Sea has a dual timeline, and it’s the same writer as CLOY. It’s nice too and has sort of the same humorous touch!! I believe still available on Hulu.

  14. Maureen says:

    THANK YOU!! Yes, I’m yelling, because I started watching this yesterday after reading the review-and I am in love! So funny, but poignant-I was just discussing one of the scenes to my husband and started crying. The cast is amazing, and the slow burn romance? It reminds me of classic movies where so much is said in a look.

    My free time is officially booked for the foreseeable future!

  15. Elena says:

    OMG, Oshin. I’m Japanese American and they broadcast it in Hawaii in the 80s when I was a kid. I should rewatch it. It wrapped up in a satisfying way but her life makes mine in 2020 look like a cakewalk!

  16. Cairthe says:

    I was actually pretty disappointed by this drama. After the third tearful goodbye that went nowhere I kind of stopped caring about the main romance. The secondary characters were super great though. Plus the Kim Soo Hyun cameo as his character in Secretly, Greatly was the highlight of the drama for me (check him out in It’s Okay To Not Be Okay – it’s on Netflix and it’s really really good).
    It makes me happy to see more people discovering the magic that is kdramas though. They really are perfect for anyone who loves romance.

  17. HeatherT says:

    I usually don’t like KDrama — the overacting and sappiness are just too much for me, but I LOVED LOVED LOVED this. Let go of disbelief — continuity errors abound, a lot of things don’t make sense (where did she get all of those gorgeous clothes in North Korea?), so many coincidences, but I didn’t care. The slow, sweet burn of the two romances, the comedy of the supporting characters, the intricacy of the intrigue as both high stakes criminal and political plotting is going on. I laughed, I cried, I swooned.

  18. Skye says:

    OMG I’m ridiculously late to this party having just discovered Crash Landing on You like last month, but I am utterly, hopelessly and totally in love! I am OBSESSED with Captain Ri Jeong Hyeok, (and by extension the gorgeous Hyun Bin), the single most perfect fictional male protagonist ever created on this planet, the greenest of all green flags in a forest of green flags, and I will absolutely die on this hill. Not only is he SMOKING hot — those killer cheekbones! The glass skin! The incredible jawline! The glossy hair that’s so jet black it almost looks blue! That velvety deep voice! The gorgeous smile with the incredible double dimples!! Swoon! — he is also impossibly sweet, gallant, endlessly patient, protective, tough as nails (man can throw down with the best of them), the perfect knee-buckling combination of stern yet soft-hearted, gentle and intelligent, omg I could go on forever. I agree with you that Hyun Bin has only gotten lovelier with age — his Secret Garden phase/look circa 2010 with the bedazzled tracksuits (!!!) was a little too out there/eccentric for me — and he might be the only man alive that actually managed to look good with the pseudo-Bieber moptop haircut that the North Korean military apparently allows, ha!

    And yes his ultra slow burn but sizzling chemistry with Son Ye-Jin/Yoon Se-Ri is possibly the stuff of every woman’s dreams — clearly Jeong Hyeok is more into the bubbly chatterbox types as personified by Se-Ri, as opposed to the decidedly UNbubbly Seo Dan. Did anybody else find it a bit strange/unbelievable that he wasn’t even the slightest bit attracted to his actual fiancé though? I mean (SPOILER SLERT) the tragic event that makes him shut out everyone and everything hadn’t even happened yet when his parents decided to arrange his engagement to Dan (when she visited him in Switzerland), yet he can’t bring himself to so much as look at her for longer than 2 seconds? I suppose it was explained that she wasn’t “his type” but still??? Contrast this to the way Jeong Hyeok is constantly looking at/for Se-Ri, like his gaze is always drawn to her even without his realizing it. It’s like she’s the sun to his sunflower that’s constantly tracking the sun’s movement across the heavens, swoon.

    Also, this being a place that analyses/reviews/discusses bodice-rippers aka sultry romances, can someone please explain to me (SPOILER ALERT) why Se-Ri looks so worried/concerned when Jeong Hyeok sneaks a kiss on her hospital bed? I mean, I’m Asian too but maybe I’m not conventionally conservative enough, because I really couldn’t see what the problem was. I was like girl, he almost died for you, you almost died for him, what’s the big deal if that absolutely perfect paragon of a man wants to steal a few kisses??? Lol!

    Ok so maybe him suddenly unbuttoning his shirt (in the service of showing off his various scars to her) was a bit unexpected/out of left field, but it’s not like anything particularly scandalous could have happened in a hospital room where anyone could walk in any second. It’s not like she hadn’t been living alone with him at his place in North Korea for a month! And then again at her place in Seoul for weeks/days, if his intentions were ever in doubt!

    @HeatherT I’m not sure if you’ll ever see this reply but I just had to say that it’s implied that Se-Ri’s clothes in North Korea were all bought by Jeong Hyeok, at least in episodes 2-4 before she pawns her watch to buy her own clothes at the marketplace in episode 5 (before going to get her passport photo taken in Pyongyang). If you look closely in episode 2 when he brings home the unscented candle and the bags of stuff that he tells her she might need — when she unpacks the skincare stuff, shampoo conditioner etc from South Korea that we the audience are shown him buying from that lady vendor in the marketplace, along with the bras and the disinfectant for her skinned knee — there’s one bag filled with clothes that Se-Ri is then shown wearing in episode 3, when she insists on sending him off to work in front of the villagers (the one where she fusses over his uniform in baby talk and then demands he “pat her hair in a sweet manner” or else she might stay forever, lol). You’ll see the sunny yellow top with the collar and deep blue cardigan and dark blue skirt that she’s got on in the bag. Actually I was also impressed because that meant that the outfit that she’s got on in episode 4 — the dark blue and white floral print dress with the cute ribbon tie straps over the white turtleneck that she’s wearing when eating the rice crust with sugar with Captain Ri’s men, and that she ends up going to the Head Yong Ae’s birthday party in — was somehow picked out/bought by Jeong Hyeok, because that outfit was seriously girly cute!

    Also all the 4 soldiers in Captain Ri’s Company Five are seriously adorable and I want to see more of them!! Sequels/spin-offs welcome!! They become like Se-Ri’s own merry band of surrogate brothers and it’s so so sweet to see. That award ceremony sequence was THE CUTEST.

    Also can we talk about Dan’s story arc and whether she got the short end of the stick? Surely the statute of limitations for spoilers has passed by now, right??? I’m dying to know if anyone else feels that she was set up as the antagonistic character at first but then later becomes way more sympathetic, particularly as events involving the secondary romance play out. Does anyone else think the show’s ending was open ended enough that they could do a 2nd season, or should they not try to recapture lightning in a bottle?

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