Crash Landing on You (2019)

Crash Landing on You tells the story of two star crossed lovers, Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin), a South Korean Chaebol heiress, and Ri Jeong-hyuk (Hyun Bin), a member of the North Korean elite (who also happens to be an army officer). One day while Yoon Se-ri goes for a short paragliding ride in Seoul, South Korea, a sudden tornado knocks her out and blows her off course. She awakens to find herself up a tree in a forest in the DMZ in North Korea (a forbidden area for South Koreans). There she meets Ri Jeong-hyuk, a North Korean army officer, literally falling into his arms from the tree. Ri Jeong-hyuk eventually gives Yoon Se-ri shelter, and develops plans to secretly help her return to South Korea. Over time, they fall in love, despite the divide and dispute between their respective countries.

One might have expected Se-ri’s disappearance to be national news in South Korea. However, Se-ri’s family suppresses the news for fear it will depress the stock price of the family-controlled chaebol. In particular, Se-ri’s two brothers, Se-jung and Se-hyung, are rivals to succeed their father, who just before Se-ri’s disappearance had announced he planned to anoint her because his sons are incompetent. In fact, one son finds out Se-ri is in the north and tries to keep her there and then to have her killed.

Se-ri’s and Jeong-hyuk’s story is intertwined with that of Seo Dan and Gu Seung-jung. Dan is the beautiful daughter of a wealthy North Korean department store owner. She has been studying cello in Russia for several years but returns so that she can marry Jeong-hyuk, to whom she is engaged through an arranged marriage and whom she has only met a few times. As she returns to Pyongyang, she crosses paths, not for the first time, with Gu Seung-jung. Gu Sung-jung, who had previously been engaged to Se-ri, has come to North Korea under the protection of corrupt North Korean officers to escape from the pursuit of Se-ri’s brother, under whose incompetent watch he had embezzled large amounts of money. Although their initial encounters are not promising, they too eventually fall in love.

The story follows Jeong-Hyuk and Se-ri as they try to get her home. They are impeded by Cho Cheol-gang Oh Man-seok, an evil and venal State Security officer, who a number of years ago had arranged for the murder of Jeong-hyuk’s older brother, an officer who tried to expose him. The story eventually shifts to Seoul where both comedy and drama ensue for all four main characters, Se-ri’s family, and the arch-villain Cho Cheol-gang.