CLOY

By Artchil B. Fernandez

Let us talk about something pleasant in this dark time of COVID-19 pandemic. The past weeks were shrouded with gloom and dreariness as uncertainty envelops the nation.  To cope with the stress and anxiety, I did online research for my papers and while doing this accidentally stumbled upon a site that contains the 16 episodes of Korean drama, “Crash Landing on You” or CLOY.

Three months back, this K-drama created a sensation when its ending crashed the ratings – the highest rated in the history of South Korean TV channel TVN making global headlines. I am not into K-drama, preferring the Japanese ones (no offense to K-Drama fans), so the news hardly roused my attention.

While staring at the site, a related controversy in the local scene erupted.  Movie director Erik Matti earned the wrath of K-drama fans in the country after he slammed Korean shows as the doom of the Philippine movie industry. This time my curiosity about K-drama was stirred. Why not find out what the fuss is all about. I am sure a K-drama is way, way better than the midnight shows of Du30 where he banters about nonsense – dental issues, selling mangoes, his two pens, dead horse blood, etc.

These are the questions that guided my exploration into the K-drama world, particularly CLOY. Why the series broke records in TV ratings? How and why did this series capture the imagination not only of the Korean TV audience but that of the global crowd as well? Does K-drama forebode the death-knell of Philippine teleseryes? (It took me four days to finish CLOY, four episodes per day. No major spoilers here.)

On the whole, CLOY is a love story. Boy and girl with different backgrounds met, there is an obstacle in the relation and ended with the resolution of the conflict. But what makes CLOY compelling to watch is how it recast the ancient ”boy meets girl” story into a tale that goes beyond the love angle and made it as a backdrop to tackle serious socio-political, economic, and cultural issues of the divided Korean peninsula.

CLOY is the cross-border story of South Korean chaebol heiress Yoon Se-ri inadvertently blown to North Korea in a paragliding accident and met Ri Jeong Hyeok, a captain of the North Korean Special Forces. Despite the danger to himself and the soldiers under him, he hid and eventually decided to help her. As expected, they fall in love. The dynamics of how this happened surely made the romantically-inclined swoon. It is the context of the story however that made watching CLOY a roller coaster ride. The complex relation of North and South Korea is an insurmountable obstruction that dooms the story of Captain Ri and Se-ri from the start. Further complications arose when it was revealed Captain Ri is the son of the director of the General Political Bureau, a member of the North Korean elite. At this point, the story is transformed into a high-stake political thriller exposing the ruthlessness of North Korean politics as Se-ri’s presence endangers the position and status of Captain Ri’s family. The maneuver and counter-maneuver of Ri’s father and his political rivals are sure to keep the audience on the edge.

The story lifts a curtain on the Hermit Kingdom. Life of ordinary North Koreans is contrasted with that of the elite. North Koreans breathe fear as the presence of the totalitarian state is everywhere albeit invisible in CLOY. Karl Marx would have wept had he known such Terror State was established in the name of his ideas. This is not the society he envisions in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.

The bitter division of the Korean peninsula is poignantly portrayed, especially when the second part of the story shifted to South Korea. One heartbreaking moment is the scene where North and South Koreans cheered the Korean team in a football match against Japan. The desire for reunification among them is overpowering. One can’t help but feel the pain of Koreans who are separated by a bygone era, the Cold War.

Aside from context one strong point of CLOY is the manner how the story unfolds. The plot is unpredictable, the twists bring surprise and the ultimate resolution keeps one guessing. Is there a happy ending for Captain Ri and Se-ri considering their status in their societies and the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between North and South Korea? Can love transcend the ideological divide and if yes, how in this context?

CLOY is unique for the third party in the love story is not a person but international politics. The villains are not even part of the love triangle. To prevent boredom, a parallel love story was also evolving alongside that of the main story. The twisted story of Gu Seong-jun and Seo Dan provides a refreshing respite. Yoon Se-ri’s dysfunctional and scheming family further muddled the situation of the protagonists.

What makes CLOY gripping which captured the heart of the audience is its straight forward but elegant, tender and sophisticated way of telling a simple love story. No frills, it stuck to the main story but the volatility of the plot keeps the viewer off-balance. It effectively utilizes flashbacks to tell the back stories but does not overdo them. Loose ends are neatly tied up. The series is very realistic, with no flight of fantasy. Above all, it is the story that drives the whole series, not the love team.

Given the plus-points of CLOY, Erik Matti’s fear has a basis but it is wrong for him to blame the Filipino audience or K-dramas. The fault lies squarely on the Philippine movie industry whose creativity died a long time ago. Pinoy teleseryes are a rehash of the same boring story – the rich oppressing the poor who turns out rich or becomes rich and takes revenge on tormentor. If Pinoy showbiz does not employ the same tired and predictable formula, it only produces remakes of foreign shows, K-Dramas among them! In the end, Pinoy dramas only succeed in insulting the intelligence of the audience.

If the Pinoy showbiz industry is to survive it has to learn a thing or two from K-dramas and challenge itself to be better. Whining won’t save the Philippine movie industry but creativity and genuine talent will. CLOY has shown the way forward.