Crash Landing on You Review
Synopsis. Crash Landing on You is a 16-episode 2019 kdrama about a rich CEO (Yoon Se Ri) who gets caught in a freak storm while paragliding and crash lands in North Korea. The solider that finds her is Captain Ri Jung Hyuk. He decides to help her instead of turning her into the authorities. This choice intertwines their lives, the core soldiers he commands, his parents, and his fiancée. As time passes, the CEO and Captain become involved. The twists and turns to return the CEO back to South Korea are numerous. Can she return safely? Is a long-term relationship possible?
What I liked.
Abundant Romance. Writer Park Ji Eun slowly built to this couple to become two people deeply in love, willing to sacrifice for each other’s happiness and safety. Captain Ri Jung Hyuk was a wildly romantic male lead. He was kind, caring, brave, determined, etc. He had more swoon worthy moments than any other male lead in recent history. CEO Yoon Se Ri evolved to be much more than a demanding out of place woman. Se Ri found a purpose, a tribe and the man she loved. She had strong romantic moments, though Jung Hyuk was the romance gift that never stopped giving.
Captain Ri Jung Hyuk (Hyun Bin). Writer Park created the perfect leading man in Jung Hyuk. This character is the lynchpin of this series. Jung Hyuk is a white knight. He could not let the woman he loved suffer. He risked everything to ensure her safety. Jung Hyuk was played to perfection by Hyun Bin. I’d argue this is his best character since 2010’s Secret Garden.
CEO Yoon Se Ri (Son Ye Jin). Se Ri was a force to be reckoned with in the business world. Her successful company was envied. Her family was a dud, especially one brother who actively undermined her in every conceivable way. In North Korea, Se Ri was required to adjust her focus from herself to others. She did and found a family of friends and the love of her life. Se Ri grew on me episode after episode. Ye Jin’s chemistry with Hyun Bin was warm. This couple was passionate but not overtly sexual, and it worked.
Strong Support Characters.Writer Park Ji Eun created a world where all the characters had a sense of community, drawing a wonderful web around them. Every character had moments that mattered. Writer Park plotted, planned, and wove a coven of characters, both good and evil, that I grew to love or loathe. I was interested in what would happen to the support characters as well as the core couple. That’s a feat in a kdrama.
What I didn’t like.
Latter Episode Choices. Writer Park changed the tone of the last two episodes and made choices at the end of the series that I wasn’t thrilled about. It did not alter my final opinion of the series.
Family No One Would Want. Se Ri lost the family lottery. They were a constant downer. Who would want to return to them? Se Ri didn’t deserve what they dished out.
Would I recommend Crash Landing on You? Definitely! This superb series had charming, funny, tense, and heartfelt moments and characters I cared about. The stellar couple’s love story was wonderful to watch.
OST. This drama’s OST had 11 vocal and 18 instrumental tracks (listen). The full album’s track list can be found at dramawiki (link). The major tracks are below:
How does Crash Landing on You rate? I rate this series as terrific, 9 on a 10-point scale.
Asian drama fan. I watch and blog dramas on https://kjtamusings.wordpress.com/.
amusings 
“Jung Hyuk is a white knight. He could not let the woman he loved suffer. He risked everything to ensure her safety.” kjt
So true. And not only in big life-risking moments but little things like getting her the black market beauty products. (I would’ve told her “Do you see how everybody here is living? Quit being so spoiled and entitled!”)
Haha, but you’re right, kjt. It made for good character growth for Se ri. lol
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And not only in big life-risking moments but little things like getting her the black market beauty products
He could be the potential winner of any best boyfriend contest!
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kjt, I notice the picture of Seri being escorted across the border falls under your “not liked” section. I notice a lot of people say they don’t like that scene. (I liked it but didn’t get what others didn’t like about it.) Can you give details about what it was about that scene that you didn’t care for?
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Can you give details about what it was about that scene that you didn’t care for?
It wasn’t the scene, it was very good. It was the tone shift in the last two episodes that took the show from fun to serious. That picture represented part of that tone shift. I believe Writer Park had to go serious at some point, but it got grim quickly. I felt Writer Park could have done it in a less heavy handed manner.
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I really enjoyed this series and the build up of the romance💞 between Se Ri 🌬👩 and Jung Hyuk 👨✈️🎖eventhough the ending was not quite as sweet 🍭 as I would have liked.
The interaction of the ensemble
of characters, but especially Jung Hyuk’s 👨✈️🎖 cadre: Sgt Pyo Chi Soo 👨✈️🐴 (ever the pessimist), Sgt Park Kwang Bum 👨✈️🌻 (ever the pretty boy), Corporal Kim Joo Muk 👨✈️📺 (ever the Kdrama Fan), Pvt Keum Eun Dong 👨✈️🎮 (Maknae and ever the gamer) and Jung Man Bok 🐁🇰🇵 (ever the eavesdropper) were what made the story SO MUCH RICHER … I haven’t seem such an awesome group of support characters since “Oh My Venus” that added savor to a story like they did. Even ice queen Dan 🕵️♀️🇰🇵 and conman Seung Jun 🏃♂️💰 grew on me. Color me surprised that I adored Dan’s mom Go Myeong Eun 💄🇰🇵, who I thought was going to be overbearing but turned out to be a loving mom and a delightful spitfire of a character.
“Crash Landing on You” is WELL WORTH your precious Kdrama watching time … I see old HIGHLY RECOMMEND watching it.
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an awesome group of support characters….added savor to a story like they did. Even ice queen Dan 🕵️♀️🇰🇵 and conman Seung Jun 🏃♂️💰 grew on me. Color me surprised that I adored Dan’s mom Go Myeong Eun 💄🇰🇵, who I thought was going to be overbearing but turned out to be a loving mom and a delightful spitfire of a character
Agree, agree, agree. I couldn’t pick one or two, the whole lot of support characters added so much to this drama.
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Here’s a cute BTS article. After watching the gifs, be sure to scroll down to the full video.
https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/hyun-bin-son-ye-jin-best-reactions-one-kiss-scenes/
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Thanks for sharing!
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My favorite part is Hyin bin asking “should we act pure?” just before they go in for the wildest kiss in Kdrama history. 😆
It seems like Son Ye jin came up with the idea for the wild abandon, hair pulling kiss.
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Gotta 💗 my typo,, the spaces my keyboard adds and the autocorrect that takes over: “I see old” should be “I would”.
Yep, I forgot to check before I hit “Post Comment”
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There goes my favourite drama! It has such a unique plot!!!! I can agree with everything in this post, kjt! I’m attached so closely to the fact the Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin are dating in real life – if you ask me, they are the perfect couple in the Korean industry – I’m sooo glad they got together!!
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’m attached so closely to the fact the Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin are dating in real life – if you ask me, they are the perfect couple in the Korean industry – I’m sooo glad they got together!!
Good for them. I didn’t realize they were dating. This article had a timeline of their paths crossing.
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