Crash Landing on You (2019-2020) Korean romance/comedy/drama TV series (16 eps., about 70-75 minutes each)
My wife started raving about this about the same time I saw it recommended in the Washington Post. I've never seen the WP tout a Korean TV show before, but Crash Landing on You made the WP's "top-10 quarantine binge recommendation" list, so it must have caught some sort of international attention.
Basic story is that a young lady chaebol mogul (the unappreciated stepchild of an even larger chaebol family) engages in a paragliding stunt to promote her new sportswear line. However, a sudden tornado carries her across the DMZ and she crash lands in N. Korea territory and into the lives of several soldiers. Over the course of the series she and the lead soldier of course fall for each other. Comedy and drama ensue as the well-meaning squad tries to hide her; tries to smuggle her out of N. Korea; tries to evade suspicious N. Korean Secret Police and, later, when the show shifts to South Korea, they all try to keep things out of the eyes of the authorities, newspapers, and the ever-present Seoul social media and CCTV.
Complications stem from an evil N. Korean officer, an arranged marriage, silly villagers, naive but well-meaning soldiers, S. Korean government officials, a cello-playing ice princess, a regretful stepmother, good for-nothing brothers, Swiss piano competitions, and a rogue con man with a heart of gold. It's mostly very lighthearted. The atrocities of the N. Korean government and the abject poverty of the citizens is hinted at, but never shown in full horror. People seem to come and go more freely than real life would indicate. The S. Korean government is much more lenient and understanding than real life would indicate, and 20/30-something Koreans (either North or South) evidently not only never desire sex from true love dating partners, but seemingly have never even heard of sex.
A good plus for the show is the strength of the two main leads, both as characters and as actors. I really liked them. The two main "sub-leads" are also good. I started off not liking either one of them (which was the point, I think), but they really grew on me.
A couple of fun and funny nuggets:
--one of the young N. Korean soldiers smuggles in S. Korean dramas to watch while on guard duty. We first see him crying over a show--which turns out to be Stairway to Heaven, my all time favorite K-drama, and which jerked more tears out of me than all others put together I think. There were quite a few funny moments with the N. Koreans getting their impression of S. Korean society via K-dramas. For example, one soldier explains, when a parent meets up with their child's suitor in a restaurant, one of two things will happen. Someone will throw a glass of water in the other's face, or the parent will slide an envelope of money over to "never see my child again." Ha! And, 80% of the hospital cases in S. Korea are for amnesia. HAHA!
--on their undercover foray into the South, the friendly N. Korean squad tries to fit in. A lot of funny and cute moment with this, but the best is when they come across the same actor/character from the movie Secretly/Greatly! He immediately sees through them, and thinks that N. Korea has finally sent him a mission. He's still in his goofy green track suit, acting like a dim-witted moron. It's a hilarious call-back to Secretly/Greatly, if you've happened to see it.
I liked this quite a bit. It's easy to nitpick here and there, but overall it's a feel-good type of show where the good guys (and true love) prevail--at least as much as it can between a N/S relationship, and the baddies get what's coming to them. I laughed; I smiled; I got caught up in the drama and the intrigue. It was not heavy enough to jerk any tears out of me (the show did not appear to try hard for that), so I deduct half a point. Overall I'm rating it a 4/5. Fun, and time well spent.
