This review may contain spoilers
Love knows no borders
9/10 is my rating. This is a 2019/2020 South Korean television drama with 16, 70-110 minute episodes.
Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) has lived the life of a Princess as a chaebol heiress to one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea. She is the only daughter and has always been somewhat of a black sheep leading her to form her own successful fashion sporting goods line. She has two older brothers who would be the logical successors to her father, however, he does not feel like his sons have what it takes to run the business. He announces his plan to have his daughter, Se-ri, run the company when he retires and plans to announce it at the next shareholder meeting. Se-ri is excited to have proven herself and vows to wrap up her own business and put it under management with just one final campaign. To test a flight suit she goes paragliding in Seoul and a freak weather event, with tornadic winds, blows her off course into North Korea's portion of the demilitarized zone. Having lived a pampered life she does not, at first, realize how dangerous the situation she has found herself in is. As luck would have it, she is discovered on patrol by Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin) who is from a powerful North Korean family and is serving as a Captain in the Korean People's Army. Unlike Se-ri he knows all too well what might happen if she was turned in to the North Korean military police. After some reluctance he decides to protect her and help her get back to South Korea. Meanwhile, Se-ri's family, particularly her brothers, assume her dead, and began competing for the role of their father's successor. When they find out Se-ri is alive by chance, they conspire to keep her from returning to South Korea. Meanwhile Jeong-hyeok has been trying to solve the mystery surrounding his brother's death and winds up with an enemy in common with Se-ri who is determined to expose them both. Although Jeong-hyeok is engaged to a North Korean heiress, there is no love in the arrangement, and he finds himself drawn to Se-ri and she to him.
spoilers*. I like the glimpse into North Korean life that this show gives. It illustrates how people all over the world are very much the same in that we want good things for our kids, to have loving friends, and see the people around us happy and healthy. In the beginning, when the female lead first landed in North Korea I liked how they did not immediately befriend her but had a debate about what to do with this person who was possibly an enemy. It felt like they went through the same type of discovery and found that they had fewer differences and more similarities. I liked all the young military men and how loyal they were to each other and to their captain. I thought it was interesting how she found a way to fit in with the local women and came to be friends with them. The male leads fiancé and him were in an arranged marriage and it was interesting to see the conflict as he started to fall in love with someone. It also delved into love versus obsession and there was a lot of character growth on all of their parts. The female lead started as a spoiled and “Picky Princess“ but she learned through being around people that had so much less than she did yet still found ways to enjoy life and each other that she did not need all those things she had back in South Korea. I thought the way her family had very little love between them as they were too busy fighting for control of the company showed the way when the focuses is on the material a lot of the joyous things in life are lost. I would’ve scored this even higher but I was, unlike a lot of people, disappointed in the ending as I thought they might find a way to be together either her going to North Korea or him defecting to South Korea. I thought perhaps there was an angle with her being rich and them wanting her money as the father had mentioned. It turned out in the end that they were only able to be together in SwitzerlandJust a couple weeks out of the year. I was also disappointed that the side couple never got to be together because he wound up dying around the time he finally came around and redeemed himself. I still feel like it is Netflix influence that makes it so the females in these act as if they don’t need a man in their life. That is a very modern Western concept. I know some people would say there are families that live that way and that is considered a normal type of ending or at least one possible ending. To me I watch stuff not to see the harsher parts of life play out, I like the happily ever after stories as I think life is hard enough as it is. Still it was very good and very well written with excellent actors. The chemistry between the couples was very believable and the friendships were heartwarming. I highly recommend this to anyone that wants a glimpse into North Korean lifestyle as I understand there were many North Koreans who provided information and insight for the script so while it is still a movie and not entirely based on facts a lot of the major elements such as power outages, house searches, and a lack of technology for most people I understand accurately portrays life for many North Koreans.
Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) has lived the life of a Princess as a chaebol heiress to one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea. She is the only daughter and has always been somewhat of a black sheep leading her to form her own successful fashion sporting goods line. She has two older brothers who would be the logical successors to her father, however, he does not feel like his sons have what it takes to run the business. He announces his plan to have his daughter, Se-ri, run the company when he retires and plans to announce it at the next shareholder meeting. Se-ri is excited to have proven herself and vows to wrap up her own business and put it under management with just one final campaign. To test a flight suit she goes paragliding in Seoul and a freak weather event, with tornadic winds, blows her off course into North Korea's portion of the demilitarized zone. Having lived a pampered life she does not, at first, realize how dangerous the situation she has found herself in is. As luck would have it, she is discovered on patrol by Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin) who is from a powerful North Korean family and is serving as a Captain in the Korean People's Army. Unlike Se-ri he knows all too well what might happen if she was turned in to the North Korean military police. After some reluctance he decides to protect her and help her get back to South Korea. Meanwhile, Se-ri's family, particularly her brothers, assume her dead, and began competing for the role of their father's successor. When they find out Se-ri is alive by chance, they conspire to keep her from returning to South Korea. Meanwhile Jeong-hyeok has been trying to solve the mystery surrounding his brother's death and winds up with an enemy in common with Se-ri who is determined to expose them both. Although Jeong-hyeok is engaged to a North Korean heiress, there is no love in the arrangement, and he finds himself drawn to Se-ri and she to him.
spoilers*. I like the glimpse into North Korean life that this show gives. It illustrates how people all over the world are very much the same in that we want good things for our kids, to have loving friends, and see the people around us happy and healthy. In the beginning, when the female lead first landed in North Korea I liked how they did not immediately befriend her but had a debate about what to do with this person who was possibly an enemy. It felt like they went through the same type of discovery and found that they had fewer differences and more similarities. I liked all the young military men and how loyal they were to each other and to their captain. I thought it was interesting how she found a way to fit in with the local women and came to be friends with them. The male leads fiancé and him were in an arranged marriage and it was interesting to see the conflict as he started to fall in love with someone. It also delved into love versus obsession and there was a lot of character growth on all of their parts. The female lead started as a spoiled and “Picky Princess“ but she learned through being around people that had so much less than she did yet still found ways to enjoy life and each other that she did not need all those things she had back in South Korea. I thought the way her family had very little love between them as they were too busy fighting for control of the company showed the way when the focuses is on the material a lot of the joyous things in life are lost. I would’ve scored this even higher but I was, unlike a lot of people, disappointed in the ending as I thought they might find a way to be together either her going to North Korea or him defecting to South Korea. I thought perhaps there was an angle with her being rich and them wanting her money as the father had mentioned. It turned out in the end that they were only able to be together in SwitzerlandJust a couple weeks out of the year. I was also disappointed that the side couple never got to be together because he wound up dying around the time he finally came around and redeemed himself. I still feel like it is Netflix influence that makes it so the females in these act as if they don’t need a man in their life. That is a very modern Western concept. I know some people would say there are families that live that way and that is considered a normal type of ending or at least one possible ending. To me I watch stuff not to see the harsher parts of life play out, I like the happily ever after stories as I think life is hard enough as it is. Still it was very good and very well written with excellent actors. The chemistry between the couples was very believable and the friendships were heartwarming. I highly recommend this to anyone that wants a glimpse into North Korean lifestyle as I understand there were many North Koreans who provided information and insight for the script so while it is still a movie and not entirely based on facts a lot of the major elements such as power outages, house searches, and a lack of technology for most people I understand accurately portrays life for many North Koreans.
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