Author: Simon Huang
The popular Korean drama " Crash Landing on You " came to an end recently. Its ratings surpassed well-known works such as "Castle in the Sky" and " My Love from the Star ", becoming another phenomenal Korean drama. , and also attracted much attention and controversy because of the topic involving North Korea. From the perspective of plot setting and actor arrangement, "Crash Landing on You" does not break through the traditional "Mary Sue Sweet" model - perfect characters, romantic love, and beautiful stories make it easy for the audience to immerse themselves in this fictional story. In the dream. Through the participation of celebrity idols, commercial packaging, and the spread of Korean drama fan circles, it is not surprising that "Crash Landing on you" has gained great popularity.
Poster of the Korean drama "Crash Landing on You"
In addition to the common Korean drama routines, the most eye-catching thing about "Crash Landing on You" is that it places the story in the mysterious country of North Korea, resulting in "defamiliarization" and "re-creation" strange effect. Russian formalist literary theorist Shklovsky once proposed the concept of "defamiliarization", believing that literary and artistic works can produce charm beyond ordinary realistic style works by presenting them in a different environment from reality. For this reason, in literature or film and television dramas, creating an unfamiliar context can not only open up the screenwriter's imagination, but also increase the perception. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone. However, "defamiliarization" does not mean unattainable "distance", but must be based on a certain real-life experience. If the audience thinks the plot is too absurd and lacks a sense of reality, it will be difficult to resonate with the creator. Therefore, to achieve a better "defamiliarization" effect, it is necessary to choose an object that is not far away from most people's cognition for "recreation" to achieve the desired effect.
For Koreans, North Korea is the most familiar and unfamiliar land in the world. There are compatriots with the same roots as them. However, due to many reasons in history and reality, North Korea and South Korea have two completely different countries. The social system has made it difficult to heal the historical scars of the same nation. However, both North and South Korea share the common desire to reunify the Korean Peninsula. However, due to too many practical factors, the road to reunification on the peninsula is extremely difficult. In this sense, "Crash Landing on you" chose North Korea as the stage for the plot to unfold, which is more clever than choosing to travel to the Goryeo Dynasty hundreds of years ago or to an alien planet tens of millions of light-years away. Because this is the "most familiar stranger", it not only gives the audience a sense of involvement, but also stimulates their interest in exploring the unknown, which also opens up space for expanding the plot.
Based on this situation, "Crash Landing on you" inevitably contains a certain amount of "re-creation" when presenting the image of North Korea, but these fictions and exaggerations must also be based on a certain degree of truth. From the perspective of plot setting, the play reflects the cultural scenery of North Korean cities (mainly Pyongyang), including various urban infrastructures, especially landmark buildings, and various details of the daily life of North Koreans.
For example, famous buildings such as the Ryugyong Hotel, Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang Railway Station, the "United as One" building opposite the Juche Tower, and the Three Charters Memorial Tower for the Reunification of the Motherland appear many times in the play. On the screen, these buildings It was so fake that many viewers mistakenly thought it was shot in Pyongyang. In fact, many of "Crash Landing on You" was filmed in Mongolia. For example, the scene when the train passes through the wasteland was shot in the vast land of Mongolia. As for the famous buildings in Pyongyang shown through the lens, they were realized with the help of CG technology. Precisely because they are not shot on site, some scenes cannot be 100% restored. If you observe carefully, you will find that the scenes in the play are different from reality. For example, the back (that is, the west side) of Pyongyang Railway Station is not full of tall buildings in reality. Behind the train station in the drama are famous high-rise buildings such as Koryo Hotel and Ryugyong Hotel. But for the vast majority of viewers who have never been to North Korea, these shots are already highly restored.
The daily life of North Koreans presented in the drama is also very similar to the actual situation, such as the collective life of neighbors. In North Korea, the collectivist lifestyle exists objectively and is the basic logic that constitutes the people’s cognitive society. It is difficult for individuals who are separated from their units or organizations to gain recognition from North Korean society.Therefore, the behavior that transcends personal interests and obediently distribution is very Korean. This is reflected in all aspects of the people's lives, from clothing, food, housing, and marriage, and it is the same. North Korea has still implemented the "three major free policies" to this day -free housing, free education and free medical treatment, but after all, its overall resources are limited. Therefore, the heroine Yin Shili could not find clothes that was suitable for you at first at the beginning of Pyongyang. It was also based on reality. Reasonable plot. The relatively conservative social customs and clothes make Miss Qianjin from South Korea uncomfortable, but love of fashion is a common feature of the North Korean people. Unique "fashion".
Of course, there are many unrealistic and absurd plots in "The Forced Downside of Love". A certain degree of imagination and fiction guarantee the perception of the work. For example, the heroine Yin Shili accidentally fell into North Korea when playing gliding umbrella, but was not arrested by the border warrior. After that, the plots involving sexual emotions were mostly imagined in accordance with the aesthetic standards of Korean society, and it fictionally constructed a "high sweet" story of a foreign country. Although Li Zhenghe is a fictional North Korean, his identity, appearance and aesthetic taste are not essentially different from the perfect male image of the Korean "overbearing president". This setting does not match the real logic of reality, but it is in line with the inherent logic of the literary world. Essence Another example is the drag racing plot on the streets of Pyongyang, Li Zhenghe and Yin Shili finally met in Switzerland. These absurd settings have made "Forced Dowager of Love" more appreciated at the fictional level. In fact, by observing the Korean image in the drama, you can also see the reality of Korean society and some possibility of the future of the Korean society imagined. (Huang Ximeng)
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