I am feeling serious withdrawals after episode 8 of Crash Landing On You. Naturally I remembered one of Hyun Bin’s older dramas that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
The first five episodes are pretty typical. Quirky rich department store president in a tacky expensive track suit meets sweet yet badass stuntwoman.
Of course he, Kim Joo Won (Hyun Bin) falls in love with her despite her being closed off to him because he is… you know… a wealthy jerk. They keep getting thrown together for one reason or another, and they fight more and more because he’s a wealthy jerk and she, Gil Ra Im (Ha Ji Won) is a poor stuntwoman with principals and morals, all while the romantic tension between them only grows. He is frustrated with her because she is such a badass but at the same time she is consistently apologizing and bowing her head to others. She also refuses help and nice things because she is honest and hardworking and wants to earn her own way. He has lived his whole life with nice things, his head held high and does not bow his head to anyone so he does not understand why Ra Im would choose to put herself into dangerous situations (stuntwork), getting injured on the job, wearing and using cheap clothes/handbags, and living in a cheap, run down apartment. They fight often while he is more and more attracted to her and grows more concerned over her. It’s like he is moving towards her and she is standing still.
Meanwhile, Joo Won’s cousin is a popular and charming pop singer named Oska (he hates it when people call him Oscar). Ra Im is a huge fangirl of Oska. Everytime they meet she goes from her usual nonchalant badass self to totally girly and shy. Oska loves it of course, but mostly only because he knows it makes Joo Won crazy (jealous).
Sidenote: Oska’s hair is dumb. Even when this drama was made, his hair was dumb. I hate it. The drama is pretty self-aware though. There is even a joke about one of his older female fans having his same hairstyle. Thanks for going with me on that journey. I still love Yoon Sang Hyung (the actor who plays Oska). He is one of my favorite people in Kdramaland. His character, Oska is like the fairy godmother to Ra Im. Even though he has his own storyline with his first love coming back, his rocky singing career and his wanting to take a talented young singer under his wing (and that young man saying “hell to the no!”…) He is ever supportive of Ra Im and becomes one of Ra Im’s and Joo Won’s biggest cheerleaders through the whole series.
Ra Im is supported by her best friend Ah Young (played by Yoo In Na <3) who is an employee at the department store Joo Won is president of. Ra Im also has entire stunt team that she works with, led by her boss, Director Im (Phillip Lee, obviously a model). Director Im is great at his job and is totally pretty. He is always looking out for Ra Im to the point where it becomes borderline controlling. He is clearly in love with her (she doesn’t seem to notice, but Joo Won does) but he sucks, especially in the beginning. But we are treated to a shower scene starring his very wet pretty body so…………………………………………………… (episode 9, thank me later).
Everything changes in Jeju. Jeju is an island off the South Korean coast where people generally go to vacation. Oska is filming his music video there, you know, with his ex-girlfriend directing and his latest ex-girlfriend acting. It’s a little complicated and difficult for Oska. The stunt team is hired to help film because there are some action sequences, including a car scene. Director Im tells Ra Im to stay behind in Seoul because… well, I forget why. Ra Im’s dream is to do a car stunt and she really wants to do the one in the music video but he thinks she isn’t ready, but it seems like he is actually punishing her because it seems like he is angry about her relationship (or hateship) with Joo Won. When she shows up in Jeju anyways (under the pretense that she won the “Win a Romantic Getaway with popstar Oska!”) Director Im is upset because she disobeyed his orders…. she also showed up with Joo Won which really pissed him off.
Director Im tells her, angrily, to wait in his hotel room so they could have a serious talk. She has a mountain bike race with Joo Won and Oska instead (she was going to be back in time to meet with her boss, really). Of course, she goes on the wrong path and ends up lost in the woods. Joo Won eventually finds her and she says “I’m fine, but let’s go eat at that chicken restaurant.” Joo Won scoffs because there is no way there is a chicken restaurant in the middle of the woods.
Of course there is a chicken restaurant in the middle of the woods where the owner is clearly a witch. It’s very Hansel and Gretel, except no children are being eaten. Just adults being fed chicken. There are lots of weird looking homemade wines all over the place and this is definitely where this drama stops being conventional.
When Joo Won and Ra Im get back to the hotel, Joo Won offers Ra Im his room so she doesn’t have to share it with the stunt team (as the only female member and also… she won a contest but they ran out of rooms? Convenient!). Ra Im ends up going to the sauna to spend the night (this is completely normal in Kdramaland) and Joo Won shares a room with Oska. Joo Won and Ra Im drink the homemade wine from the mysterious chicken restaurant and go to bed.
Suddenly at the end of episode 5, Ra Im wakes up in Joo Won’s body (thinking she’s dreaming because Oska is sleeping soundly next to her) and Joo Won wakes up in Ra Im’s body (in the middle of the sauna next to a couple of older ladies). Yep, this just became a magical body switch drama.
Watching the actors trade personalities is a treat by the way. Hyun Bin acting as Ra Im is hilarious. He gets girly around Oska and keeps apologizing for things that are not his fault. He even walks differently, less purposeful and more distracted, arms loose, gaze looking around curiously and in wonderment, getting this sly smirk every so often. Meanwhile Ha Ji Won acting as Joo Won turns her into an arrogant jerk who can’t be bothered to wear a bra correctly. Watching Joo Won (Ra Im in Joo Won’s body) trying to teach Ra Im (Joo Won in Ra Im’s body) how to put on a bra is hilarious.
Their first day in opposite bodies is as brilliant as you’d expect. I don’t even know how to write any further without it getting confusing. Until they switch back, when I say Ra Im, I actually mean Ra Im who is inhabited by Joo Won, and when I say Joo Won, I actually mean Joo Won who is inhabited by Ra Im. Anyway, Ra Im yells at Joo Won to raise his chin and look down on everyone in his path. Joo Won does the exact opposite immediately, looking down and skulking around like a mouse anyway. Ra Im confronts Director Im about his feelings towards her immediately, effectively disappointing all the hopes he had. It’s a dick move, taking advantage of a situation because of insecurity and jealousy, but we already know Joo Won is a dick. The lovable kind, of course. All of Joo Won’s encounters with Oska are hilarious. Oska assumes his cousin is sick or drunk because he is going out of his way to be nice to everyone – buying the stunt team refreshments, saying hi to all his employees when he gets to work, apologizing for Ra Im (because Ra Im is now Joo Won and is being a jerk and refuses to apologize to anyone) when it’s not his place. The sweetest part was Joo Won finally getting his chance to be a pervert and look at Ra Im’s body while he was inhabiting it. Ra Im’s face smirks and she starts to lift up her shirt and Joo Won begins to see all her injuries and scars from stuntwork and instead of being a pervert, it makes Joo Won worry. Instead of continuing to be sweet about it, when they see each other the next morning he mocks her scars because he is too prideful to just say “I am worried about you doing stuntwork and getting hurt all the time.”
Now the fun begins. They have to navigate each other’s lives. Ra Im doesn’t interact with the stunt team much because Joo Won is no stunt person and even in Ra Im’s body he knows he will suck at it, but still runs into Director Im because the long-awaited script of a movie came out and it’s the one Ra Im’s been waiting for to jumpstart her acting career. Joo Won has to navigate being a president of a department store, while also navigating the messy chaebol family drama, including Joo Won’s mother who is already doing that awful rich mom thing of throwing money at unsuitable potential suitors to drive them away. And of course, there is hilarity. Other than everyone being confused as to why these two people are acting so out of the ordinary… Ra Im is now wearing tacky expensive tracksuits and barking orders at people and acting like a total arrogant jerk, not to mention that money Joo Won’s mother gave her to make her disappear? Ra Im spent it ALL on new stuff for the cheap apartment. Meanwhile, Joo Won happened upon a wealthy VVIP customer in an altercation with a couple of female employees because the customer sexually harassed one of them. Joo Won got involved and ended up beating up the wealthy pervert. Then ended up at the police station. The moment Joo Won is eating beef broth while handcuffed while Ra Im storms in and zeroes in on Joo Won with a glare….. They have a fight, with Ra Im (Joo Won) declaring for the second time in the drama “and still, you don’t even think of me for five minutes.”
One sudden and random thunderstorm later and suddenly their souls are back in their right bodies and you have never seen two people so happy to be at the police station. Do they have a better understanding of each other now that they’ve switched places? It doesn’t seem so. If anything it seems to drive them more apart. Joo Won finds a moment to hug her, and Ra Im tells him she never wants to see him again. She can’t jump into his world and find happiness, and he can’t jump into hers. Whatever will they do? Will Ra Im and Joo Won find a happy ending? Or will they end up being star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet?
I loved seeing faces I haven’t seen in dramas for awhile, as well as faces of beloved actors I love and forgot were in this drama! Special shout out to Yoo In Na in her breakout role! She is always adorable and loveable!
This drama includes a gay character, which I hate that it’s something I feel needs to be pointed out, but visibility and representation are both important. The young musician Oska is trying to scout infers that he has feelings for Oska and tries to make Oska’s ex-girlfriend (the director from earlier) jealous. He also tells Oska straight on that he “likes guys” and Oska doesn’t even flinch. This is a whole separate blog post probably, but LGBTQ characters are not super common in Kdramaland, and when they happen they are often cartoonish stereotypes and it’s never really addressed, or if it is, it’s shown as the greatest calamity to befall a family. I do not claim to be an expert on Korean culture, but I know that family is important to Koreans, and to many that means lineage and bloodlines or even just children and grandchildren. The assumption is often that if a character is homosexual, they cannot have children, even though we know that isn’t the case. I think with more visibility that has been popping up in dramaland for LGBTQ characters, the attitudes are changing and there is room and love for more diverse kinds of families. Seeing a gay character handled with seriousness in a drama from 9 years ago was pleasantly surprising, and it means this drama is going to age better than many others. Progress is progress!
This drama, while enjoyable, is still full of all the tropes. I already mentioned the wealthy mother trying to chase away Ra Im by making her life difficult, then making Joo Won’s life difficult. There is also the tragic secret that is shared between the fate and the magic between our two leads… Hint* it has to deal with why Joo Won gets claustrophobic, especially in elevators, and the death of Ra Im’s father. Of course there is a car accident at some point, leading to one of the leads being in a comatose state, and possibly a touch of amnesia thrown in for good measure, because it is one of the most frequently used plot drivers of dramaland. Wish I was kidding. Luckily, a lot of the tropes used in this drama (amnesia for example) are not a major drag like they are in most other dramas I see them in. They actually make it fun in this one, so don’t let it scare you away from watching this drama!
My final verdict is that this drama is still awesome. There are plenty of funny moments, plenty of melodramatic moments, plenty of sweet moments. The cast is amazing. From Hyun Bin acting as Joo Won who has an attitude of a wealthy jerk while still somehow being incredibly endearing. Especially when he’s paired with Ha Ji Won acting as badass stuntwoman Gil Ra Im who actually has a really cute girlish side to her but also seeks justice and will not let people get away with treating others poorly. And it all gets amped up to 11 when they switch bodies. This drama is a lot of fun.
Special cameo by Son Ye Jin in the final episode has brought us full circle. Catch Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin in Crash Landing on You on Netflix! Secret Garden is currently available for streaming on Viki!
I’m probably going to watch another Hyun Bin drama next week so……….
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Dramaland 