Vacation is just around the corner and what’s better than kicking back and watching a movie? I recently found an interesting movie called Pilot and is about a recently fired pilot struggling to get a job, eventually deciding to pose as a woman.
Plot
Han Jungwoo is a successful pilot loved by many. But his popularity has gotten to his head: he doesn’t answer his mom’s calls, he has a strained relationship with his wife due to work, and he sleeps on the job sometimes. All of that comes crashing down when a recording of insensitive comments he made 2 months prior is exposed, getting him fired and now, he can’t find a job at any airline. It gets even worse when his wife divorces him so he now owes child support as well as mortgage payments. This leaves him moving back home to live with his mom and sister. Eventually, he finally lands an interview that might save his career. However, there’s one problem. The airline is only hiring female applicants. After some coercion and blackmail, Jungwoo takes on the identity of his sister. Obviously, he can’t show up as himself so his sister, who just so happens to be an online beauty content creator, helps him look the part. And he ends up getting the job! Problems arise though as he starts being treated like a woman. A pilot once respected him now flirts with him unprompted. A man tries to pick up Jungwoo at the club even when he refuses. All in the meanwhile, he forms a strong bond with a female pilot, seeing a completely different side of the industry.
Real Life Context:
There are very few female pilots, so Jungwoo’s character getting a job that was meant for a women is morally questionable. About six percent of all pilots are women. Scholarships will even be offered to women for aviation school simply because of the demand for female pilots. He stole an opportunity from someone who probably fit the same requirements and faces difficulty in the industry.
Why do We Love Cross-Dressing Movies?
This type of story is nothing new. Main character can’t achieve a certain goal, so they dress up as someone of the opposite gender (usually an already existing character), to get what they want. And usually some sort of romance will develop, suggesting queerness even though it usually doesn’t get executed that way. All of this coupled with a dramatic reveal. But what makes these plots so appealing to us as viewers?
Well, it’s cool to view life though a different perspective. Especially when a guy pretends to be a girl because he starts to experience troubles he didn’t understand before. Or when a girl pretends to be a guy and experiences privileges she’s never had access to. Also, it’s pretty satisfying to watch a makeover transformation.
Rise of K-Dramas and Korean Movies
If you go to Netflix and see the trending shows, you’ll probably come across quite a few K-Dramas. Why is this, you may ask? Now, it’s technically for a variety of reasons but one of them specifically is that many are targeted towards women. Pilot, for example, is directed by a woman. And K-dramas are usually written through the female gaze, which appeals to women through storylines such as “rags to riches” where the main character gets saved by a handsome rich guy.
Another reason would be the drama. Similar to Bollywood movies and telenovelas, people watch K-dramas for the enticing plots. Many tend to have complex storylines that interest the audience, such as Pilot where the main character impersonates his sister to get a job after getting blacklisted.
My Opinion
Overall, I thought the movie was pretty good. I didn’t find it realistic that Jungwoo lost his job simply due to some questionable comments he made in the past. Men are usually untouched by their poor actions. However, I did like how he didn’t end up with his female pilot friend because that would be too cliché. Also, she was clearly only attracted to him when he was pretending to be a woman. It was pretty funny how his old coworker started flirting with him and couldn’t recognize him. I’d give this movie a 7/10.
You can watch this film on OnDemandKorea or Dailymotion
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