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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jian" data-source="post: 9845368" data-attributes="member: 78087">On to our next drama:Crash Landing on You (Netflix, 2019)The most popular drama of 2019, mainly due to the chemistry between the lead couple. The two actors got married shortly after filming.(The translation of the title is fine - the Korean means "crash landing of love" so this is a little better. However, I'm pretty certain that Crash Course in Romance is supposed to evoke this title.)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Landing_on_You" target="_blank">CLOY</a> is about Yoon Se-Ri, a chaebol heiress and fashion founder who is blown off course when paragliding and ends up north of the border. There she meets Ri Jeong-Hyeok, a captain in the North Korean army, who ignores all common sense (and the exhortations of his quirky platoon) and helps her escape back to South Korea without telling his superiors.Love is inevitable, not least because Jeong-Hyeok is the most perfect cishet romantic lead of all time. He's brave, kind, patient, thoughtful, handsome, tall, humble, tasteful, conscientious, well-read, and cooks like your favourite grandma. And he's an effing concert pianist. Se-Ri doesn't stand a chance. If the NKs got a clue and cloned this guy they could conquer the South without firing a single shot.Anyway (thank you, Haeng-Seon) now seems a good time to talk about chaebol.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol" target="_blank">Chaebol</a> are the family-owned mega corporations which run Korea - the largest, Samsung, is worth about 20% of the economy and does everything from phones to cars to hotels to restaurants to department stores to clothes. Chaebol heirs are the true 0.0001% - incredibly rich and privileged, almost like royalty. So like royalty, in dramas they're either romantic leads (but emotionally distant and terrible at anything normal) or sociopathic villains (yup, I prefer these).Se-Ri initially presents as a chaebol heiress who's founded a fashion business with daddy's money, a real nepo baby. But it turns out that's not the case, since she's an uncommon archetype in Korean dramas, the adopted illegitimate child, and she founded the business without family help. Yes, Se-Ri's dad had an affair and then adopted her into his family, which led to serious relationship problems with her stepmom (who admittedly is still making an effort) and her brothers (who hate her because her energy and talent make them look like the feckless losers they are).Chaebol and chaebol heirs remain a problematic but perennial element in K-dramas, and I'm heartened to see many modern dramas portray them as complete dicks (Vincenzo, Celebrity, Queenmaker, The Golden Spoon, etc).</blockquote>

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