The first week of lecture we discussed Korean-dramas and their popularity. Crash Landing on You was one of the shows that Professor Jung-Kim talked about and recommended. I recently finished watching all 16 episodes and was pleasently surprised by it. However, it is a commitment to watch because the episodes are between 80 mins to 2 hours long! While the show is more of an "outside of school" show, the soundtrack is quite beautiful and I have downloaded some of the instrumental songs to play for my class during our writing time. Additionally, there are some scenes that show the landscape of South Korea, depictions of North Korea, and Switzerland and I can use those clips to make Virtual Field Trips for my students to practice writing what they see with descriptive words.
Crash Landing on You is about a South Korean (Se-ri) heiress who, after doing well founding her own company, her father names her as head of the Queen's group. This upsets her brothers, who already treated her terribly. To promote the company's extreme sports, Se-ri goes paragliding and gets caught in a storm that carries her over the DMZ and lands her North Korean territory. While trying to figure out where she is, Captain Ri finds her. Begging him not to turn her in, he agrees to help her. At first, they do not get along that well, but as he is trying to help her, we see them both warm up to each other. They nearly get killed trying to get her back to South Korea. Se-ri's brother also finds out she is alive (most people assumed she had died) and he tries to keep her in North Korea so he can have power of the company. At the same time Captain Ri has been in an arranged engagment to another woman, Dan, for the past 10 years, but he starts to develop feelings for Se-ri. Dan finds out about Se-ri and tells Captain Ri's father. His father orders his to escort Se-ri back to South Korea on a secret path. Once she is back in South Korea, North Korean's are after her and Captain Ri crawls his way in a tunnel to South Korea to protect her. At this point, many dangerous events take place and both Se-ri and Captain Ri's lives are put in real danger.
I will not give away the ending, but it is definitely worth a watch. There is violence and many tears, but the story line kept me interested even though I had to read the subtitles the whole time. I am glad I gave it a chance, because normally I get frustrated with subtitles since I have to be watching the TV diligently. I enjoyed the show and for my first K-drama-I recommend it!