KDrama Review: My Love from Another Star

 
The Gist: Cheon Song Yi (Gianna Jun) is a top star in Korea. When she moves next door to Do Min Joon (Kim Soo Hyun), a centuries old alien stranded on Earth, it's an immediate clash of personalities. Things go from bad to worse when Min Joon ends up being Song Yi's professor. Yet, when Song Yi gets caught up in the death of another big name star, Do Min Joon becomes the support system for Song Yi. Things are further complicated by the brothers Lee: the younger Whi Kyung (Park Hae Jin) is hopelessly in love with Song Yi and the older Jae Kyung (Shin Sung Rok) is responsible for a number of crimes, including the murder that Song Yi is getting blamed for. While co-star Yoo Se Mi (Yoo In Na) is benefiting from Song Yi's hardships, she is still hoping for Whi Kyung's affections. As Jae Kyung looks to eliminate Song Yi as she tries to salvage her career, Song Yi and Min Joon get closer and closer.

Love:

1. Imperfect Leads

Song Yi is instantly unlikable - vain, prideful, mean, and just plain dumb. Do Min Joon is overly smart and cold, deliberately uncaring. It was nice to get some main characters that are actually flawed. Yes, Song Yi has a heart of gold and Min Joon is adorably protective, but it takes some time to break them down to get to their creamy, lovely centers. They had remarkable chemistry and so while it takes a bit to warm up to them, I loved them.

2. Song Yi's Brother

Yoon Jae (Ahn Jae Hyeon) was such a nothing character for the first half of this show that I was delighted and surprised when he actually showed up in his scenes with Min Joon. The blind adoration and blatant love he has for his sister's love interest, is 100% hilarious. These are some of the best scenes of the show and it had me laughing out loud. I could have used more of Yoon Jae.

3. The Alien Thing

I really worry about shows that have "a big reveal" because it's distracting to the plot development. Yet, this show didn't really dwell on the fact that Min Joon was hiding his alienness from Song Yi and allowed their relationship to develop unhindered. Once the reveal was made, I thought the show handled it deftly and didn't leave me feeling anxious or annoyed.

4. Kiss the Girl!

For someone who gets sick kissing people, Do Min Joon just can't keep his hands off of Song Yi. I love the amount of intimate moments we get with them and *SPOILERS* how about that red carpet kiss at the end? Dead on.

Meh:

1. Time Limit

Ah! How I hate shows that start off with a time limit to the romance. This one starts off with Min Joon leaving for his planet in three months. What makes it extra frustrating is that he's been here for four hundred years. FOUR HUNDRED! And he has to leave now? That said, I think it was handled nicely with a happy ending that isn't too perfect.

2. Doppleganger

Ugh. I am so over the doppleganger thing. It had me pulling out my hair in Rooftop Prince. I wasn't crazy about it in this one, but it wasn't overbearing. At most it's frustrating because you don't know if Min Joon likes Song Yi for herself or because she looks like someone from a long time ago. I think the plot would have been a little bit better and more believable (well, for a show about aliens) if Song Yi looked similar to her, but wasn't played by the same actress. Just unnecessary.

3. Love Quadrangle

Poor little brother. Whi Kyung is so pitiable. He and Song Yi actually are a pretty good match and I firmly believe that he could make her happy. As much as I love our main duo, it's pretty obvious that Song Yi would have been happier with Whi Kyung. I was glad to see Se Mi grow into her own a little bit and shake off her unrequited love, but the threads between everyone is just so crazytown. I wish we could have gotten Whi Kyung a girl, so that I didn't feel so sad for him at the end.

4. Hospital...again?

There's not a lot about this point, but really, Song Yi is in the hospital like 35 times in the course of this show. It made sense the first time, then it just got to be overbearing.

Hate:

1. Murder!

OK. I have serious beef with the believability of Jae Kyung as a character. His plans are just so unsustainable. You can't just kill off everyone you have a problem with and not get caught. That' not how life works! I also found the murder plot to be weirdly serious for an otherwise pretty light and happy show. Then when *SPOILERS* we get the news that Jae Kyung killed his brother, that was just way over the top. Who does that? Did I mention how sad I feel for Whi Kyung, because it is SO MUCH. I sort of had this feeling with Rooftop Prince too when the lead tries to kill his cousin because it's just such a weird mix of tones for a show like this. That said, the actor is rather delicious when he's playing evil and does it well. Oh and did we mention him locking up his wife in a mental institution? Who does that???

So:

So.... I freaking loved this show. As many things about the plot as predisposed me to not like it, I just found it so sweet and just fun. It's not believable in the slightest, but who watches dramas for believability? The pacing was excellent and I watched the whole thing crazy fast. The action is fun and the love just has me sighing. It was great. Better than I thought it would be.

Final Grade: A+