Crash Landing on You (2020)

-
I am not a big fan of telenovelas because I never had the time to watch them before. But thanks to the shelter-in-place order not being lifted yet and because I am taking care of my son, I ended up watching this series... upon strong recommendation from Ate Grace and Kuya Nat.

Crash Landing on You is basically a story of a man from North Korea and a woman from South Korea who met accidentally in North Korea (she got sucked into a freak tornado while paragliding and she landed in North Korea... the title is all about her crash landing on him when he ordered her to go down from the tree where her paraglider got entangled). He helped her try to return to South Korea without being detected by the higher ranking authorities. The soldiers under his command helped him with this task, befriending the woman in the process. She finally was able to return home and continue with her family struggles (she was in a power struggle against her elder brother for control over their father's company). He, on the other hand, went to South Korea as well; in a typical telenovela, the main purpose is to follow the heroine, the love of his life. But in his case, he was chasing after a corrupt military official who vowed to punish him by hurting the heroine. Both protagonists succeeded in their missions but at the price of only being together two weeks in a year... in Switzerland (yeah, spoiler alert warning came a tad too late). Did they end up getting married? Did they live happily ever after? We will never know.

There are 16 episodes to this series but I wasn't able to watch the last two or three so I had Mommy tell me how it ended. 

My take on this telenovela: it's well-made. I love the cinematography. It's obvious that whoever was in charge really thought about blocking, lighting, and mood because though I have no idea what was being said (if I don't read the subtitles), I could get a clue for each scene. My favourites, even if they tended to be overused, were scenes were the five sidekicks were sitting down looking at the sky, with their backs to the audience. Scenes such as these evoke a sense of peace, catharsis, and hope. On the other hand, the two main protagonists were clearly framed using the rule of thirds whenever they are overlooking sweeping landscapes. Aside from the cinematography, I appreciate the series because of the excellent subtitles provided. Whoever took the time to translate the script to English has done a superb job... I'm sure that the English translation has played a huge role in helping Crash Landing on You become an internationally popular series (aside from the acting chops of the cast, of course). There is probably much curiosity about what life is like in North Korea and the series provides a peek into it... though perhaps the portrayal may be fictionalised and may be a closer portrayal of life in rural South Korea (which I've seen during my trips there... note that I've only been to Seoul once as I spent most of my visits in the mountains). I mean, do high-ranking officials in Pyongyang actually drive Jaguars as their personal vehicles and do their nieces accessorise with Loewe handbags? And do officials universally carry Samsung mobile phones (South Korean brand) as a matter of choice?

Now I understand why my cousins got hooked onto the series. It's really an enjoyable program to binge-watch while ordered to stay at home.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more