Coming Closer: Screengrab from Crash Landing on You (2019) Photo: | Courtesy: IMDB Coming Closer: Screengrab from Crash Landing on You (2019) Photo: | Courtesy: IMDB A rosy dawn breaks on the border, where the flags on both sides flutter high. Four North Korean soldiers are trudging along, patrolling the area. One of them is enthusiastically singing along with the South Korean anthem:“Splendid rivers and mountains/Filled with roses of Sharon.../Great Koreans, to the Great Korean way/Always stay true...”
“Do you remember it all?” his Comrade asks him. “We hear the song when the sun comes up and goes down every day. How can I not?” he retorts. “I guess even people from South Korea wouldn’t know all the lyrics,” he adds, with a hint of pride.
jili slot gameIn an interview, Park Ji Eun—who has co-written the Netflix miniseries Crash Landing on You (2019)—explained that she was inspired to write the story after the incident of a South Korean actress accidentally going over to the North in 2008. This made her wonder about “the place that was close but forbidden.” “That’s when I realised,” she said, “Is North Korea that close? Is it so close that you can get there after letting your mind slip for a second?”
Directed by Lee Jeong-hyo, Crash Landing on You (2019) reflects a deep-seated yearning for the improbable—the reunification of Korea. The series leads a string of successful films that fall under the umbrella of the “buddy trope” films. As the name goes, these films move past the convention of demonising the neighbour. They are marked by a warm curiosity about the other, looking for ways to seek cultural similiarities while exploring the history of differences.
Crash Landing on You is prominent in the pool of South Korean films and series, where efforts to showcase the complexities of the North and South relations have been made, ever since the inception of the film industry. South Korean visual culture has often mirrored the ebbs and flows of the North-South ties across the decades since WW II. The 1950s saw films like Kim Ki-young’s Box of Death (1955), premised on the strained relations between the two countries after the bifurcation. But other directors tried to move beyond the villainy of the North, especially in the aftermath of the Korean war. However, this was a challenge in the complex geo-political situation of the two countries and often invited the government’s ire. Lee Kang-cheon’s Piagol (1955) is the most significant example in this regard. The film’s censorship clearance snowballed into a much-publicised debate on how the relations between the two nascent countries could be depicted in South Korean cinema. Later decades saw this strain deepening, with director Lee Man-hui being arrested for his “humanising” portrayal of a North Korean soldier in Seven Women POWs (1965). Both directors were compelled to edit their films for their public release.
Screengrab from Joint Security Area (2000) Photo: | Courtesy: IMDB Screengrab from Joint Security Area (2000) Photo: | Courtesy: IMDBAfter Kim Dae-jung took over as President in 1998 and implemented the ‘Sunshine Act’, however, the relationship between the two countries began to improve. Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area (2000) became a turning point in South Korean cinema at this historical juncture. The film is a heartrending take on the impossible friendship that blooms between soldiers from the North and South at the Joint Security Area (JSA). Symbolically positioned on either side of the Bridge of No Return, the friends are torn apart by the imminent tragedy written in the fate of their relationship. Formally, the film is framed as a thriller-mystery, where an investigation is launched into the killings that take place at the JSA, leading to an escalation of tensions between the two countries. The fact that Joint Security Area was a huge commercial hit both in domestic as well as overseas markets indicates the pivotal political moment at which it was made. Its popularity shows how the cinematic trope of “individualised victims of an evil system” struck a familiar chord with South Korean audiences.
The genres and form of such cinema also evolved with the betterment of North and South relations. What was earlier typified by the war, spy and thriller genres alone, could now be light-hearted and dramatic. Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005) by Park Kwang-hyun is an excellent example of this shift. Adapted from an eponymous play by Jang Jin, the film was not only a high grosser, but also won international recognition. Welcome to Dongmakgol uses a situational comedy format while throwing together soldiers from the North, South and the US in a village called Dongmakgol. Set against the backdrop of the Korean war, the film seeks a symbolic neutral space in Dongmakgol for reflection and reconciliation. In the innocence and purity of its residents, the film reaches out to a people who no longer want to be defined by the war that tore their countries apart.
Japan also began their campaign with a 5-5 draw against Korea but has since struggled to secure a win. They lost their second game 5-1 to India and followed that with a 2-1 defeat against Pakistan.
Screengrab from Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005) Photo: | Courtesy: IMDB Screengrab from Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005) Photo: | Courtesy: IMDBSecretly, Greatly (2013), by Jang Cheol-soo, also explores the generic conventions of comedy to imagine the North and South relations. Based on a 2010 spy webtoon series called Covertness by Hun, the film rode on the wave of the raging popularity of K-Pop and K-drama stars with its aesthetics. Tasked with the grand mission of re-unifying Korea, three undercover North Korean spies are sent to the South. But somewhere down the line, they start to question their identities and purpose when the diplomatic relations between the two countries begin to change. It is in the disguise that the three spies take—of a village idiot, a wannabe-rockstar and a high school student—that the seriousness with which North Korea is portrayed is turned on its head.
With Crash Landing on You (2019), the “buddy films” trope reaches its zenith. In a K-drama format, the series brings together elements from the spy-thriller, the comedy as well as the melodrama against the backdrop of the larger North-South Korea theme. The longing for reunification of the two countries is communicated through the longing of two lovers—a South Korean fashion tycoon Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) and a North Korean military officer Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin). A storm drives Se-ri across the border, quite literally into the arms of Jeong-hyeok, who then makes it his life’s mission to send her back to her country. While the series broke global viewership records, in India, it reportedly marked a hike of more than 300 per cent in the viewership of K-dramas.
Many factors contributed to its popularity—especially the Covid pandemic, when people were cooped up indoors and uncertain about their futures. The implausible and fantastical setup of the series offered viewers much-needed escapism. What is also intriguing is its self-reflexivity about the global proliferation of Korean culture. Often, Yoon refers to K-dramas when she thinks about her predicament. The plot points of K-dramas are brought up by the protagonists to take their own stories forward. Befittingly, a North Korean soldier, who is a K-drama fan, becomes a cultural translator for Jeong-hyeok and his comrades, who are unfamiliar with South Korean culture and language. This secret fanbase of the South in the North often helps Se-ri to navigate the North. Most importantly, the people of the North are shown to be as human and vulnerable as the people of the South. The series also draws on other popular “buddy trope” films and a spy from Secretly, Greatly helps North Korean soldiers find their footing in South Korea.
Crash Landing on You is unique in the way it references the history of conflict between the North and the South. The communist and the capitalist are able to make fun of each other’s practices and yet, admire the traits of each other’s cultures. And within this admiration, there is a wonderment: What if, someday, they were to come together? Until the day this curiosity becomes a possibility, the desire to be unified remains a suppressed instinct in such visual culture. As Se-ri and Jeong-hyeok say to each other:
“It’s a shame you live here;
It’s a shame you live there.”
(This appeared in the print as 'Beyond Enemy Lines')ph dream
