A Candle In The Wind
Crash Landing On You looks set to end the year on a high note as this Korean drama is quickly becoming a great watch every week, with plenty of humour, suspense and romance at its core. The actors have great chemistry together as we follow their adventure in North Korea. It’s an original setting and one that makes the story even more special because of this. We return where we left off with the guards surprising Jeong-Hyeok and Se-Ri kissing. He tells them to come out and after pretending to be a young couple in love, the guards let them go but order them to go back ashore. Se-Ri protests as they were so close and asks Jeong-Hyeok to try again soon. However, he tells her it’s impossible as the coastguard will now be on alert. After finding a goodbye note from Se-Ri, Jeong-Hyeok rushes to look for her and finds her on a cliff about to jump off with her paraglider. He tells her she will be shot if she tries and will not be able to reach South Korea. Unfortunately, because she tried using her walkie talkie, the North Korean army is alerted and quickly make their way to check the origin of the signal. Realizing they aren’t far from there, Jeong-Hyeok pulls her towards the cliff and they both jump, holding on to each other tightly. At the market, Man Bok buys some pork while Jeong-Hyeok looks for coffee. Suddenly, there’s a small explosion and a thief steals Man-Bok’s wallet. Jeong-Hyeok runs after him and comes face to face with a gang. A fight ensues between them and just as Jeong is about to be stabbed in the back, Man-Bok arrives to save him. In the garden, Se-Ri has an idea and thinks that if Jeong-Hyeok gets promoted, she will stand a better chance at getting out. However, Se-Ri finds out that his wife is Young-Ae so she decides to head to her birthday celebration. Once there, she does her best to impress Young-Ae, using her fashion skills and knowledge to win the women over. Meanwhile, Jeong-Hyeok visits the repair unit facility where he manages to steal a sample of the metal used on the trucks. He returns home to find Se-Ri at Young-Ae’s s house and after a bike ride, they have some fun together with the other four soldiers while eating and drinking. Back in Seoul, Jeung-Pyeong announces that Se-Hyeong will take over the company which angers his brother and results in another argument between the two. Se-Jun tells his dad that Se-Hyeon wanted to go to the tabloids about Se-Ri being his illegitimate daughter. Back in North Korea, after a heavy night Jeong-Hyeok roasts some coffee beans to brew for Se-Ri. As she tastes it, she thanks him and tells him how delicious the coffee is while doing a heart sign with her fingers. Later in the day, Jeong-Hyeonk relays the gesture to Pyo and Ju Myeok. The latter tells him it means that she likes him and wants to give him her heart. In Pyongyang, Seo-Dan, her mother and uncle visit a department store to get a new outfit for Seo-Dan. After discussing her daughter’s time in Russia, Myeong-Eun meets with a friend and after she comments about her daughter (who’s already married and has kids), Myeong replies that Sao-Dan will be married to Jeong-Hyeok within the year. Back in the village, Se-Rin and the women shop for beauty products. One of the sellers shows them products from South Korea and some of them turn out to be from Se-Ri’s range which surprises her. Using her knowledge, she convinces Young-ae to buy some for everyone. Meanwhile, Mr Hong and Park Su-Chan carry on discussing the disappearance of Se-Ri before coming face to face with Se-Hyeong and Sang-A. Both men tell them that she could have flown to the North and wonders if they should start searching there. However Se-Hyeong and his wife quickly dismiss them and warns them not to start spreading rumours.
In North Korea, Seo-Dan makes her way to Jeong-Hyeok’s village in a taxi but unfortunately it breaks down before reaching her destination. As she waits for the driver to come back, Seung-Jung, who is returning from hunting, drives past and decides to stop to help her. Lieutenant Jo finds out that no women from division 11 have returned to North Korea in the last 15 years, while back in the village the women tell Jeong-Hyeon that they have lost Se-Ri in the market. He rushes over and, noticing the darkness, takes a scented candle and lights it up, holding it over his head. A lost Se-Ri sees it and walks towards him, relieved and happy. In the epilogue, we see Se-Ri in Switzerland on a suspension bridge recording a message for her family as she prepares to jump. Jeong-Hyeok is also there taking pictures and as he looks at her, Seo-Dan appears, asking to get a picture of them. Jeong-Hyeok asks Se-Ri to take it, subsequently making her walk off the bridge. We then see that the picture Seo-Dan was looking at earlier was the one she took on that day. Crash Landing has definitely been really enjoyable so far. Thanks to its excellent cast and intriguing story line, this drama is set to be quite the popular one both in Korea and Internationally too. Each episode offers up an epilogue at the end and it always seems to be set in the past which is a nice touch. We see how unhappy Se-Ri was and surprisingly our two main leads had already met. Does Jeong-Hyeok remember her? Some of my favourite scenes are definitely the ones with all four soldiers as each have their own distinct personality and it definitely works well when they interact with Se-Ri or Jeong-Hyeok. Sao-Dan has now arrived in the village and is set to create more complications for Se-Ri who slowly seems to be getting used to village life. There certainly will be a lot of obstacles for her in the weeks to come and I’m intrigued to see how this drama will end and whether our two main protagonists will get their happy ending.
