My Love From the Star

I decided to hell with working on Valentine's Day (well, at least I worked out) other than laundry/shopping stuff...and I'd already done enough ridiculous silly watching some of Welcome to Waikiki while at the gym...so I thought I'd try something I've been wanting to watch that sounded like it would be funny but also less slapstick.

Which made me think of Jun Ji-hyun (Legend of the Blue Sea) because she's got such great comedic timing. So I thought I'd try My Love from the Star. Besides knowing she was in it, the only other thing I knew is that she plays some kind of Hallyu star and there's a love story with a handsome alien (hence the "from the star" bit). Also, I saw that Shin Sung-Rok is in it. I've been seeing him in clips for The Last Empress. I know I'm not going to watch that one...or, at least, it's doubtful...because it looks like way too much chaebol/royalty/backstabbing shenanigans and it's over 40 episodes BUT he intrigues me so I kinda wanted to see him in something. He's got such an oddly angular face. I think he's a bad guy in this one though. But let me start over.

I did NOT know going in that the alien Do Min-Joon (played by Kim Soo-Hyun) actually landed 400 years ago where he met a young girl/woman when his spaceship landing nearly blew her off a cliff. And...that young girl/woman is apparently now reincarnated as Jun Ji-hyun's character Song-Yi (and the hint is that she died tragically young the first time around). So, boom, destined love/fate/past connection thing. Hmmm. Sounding very similar to Legend of the Blue Sea, isn't it? He also saved the current version of Song-Yi when she was a teenager from being squashed by a truck (though he himself has not visibly aged in his 400 years on earth and, while she remembers it and kind of thinks of him as her "first love", she can't remember his face).

At the modern day point in the story, a comet is approaching earth and it's apparently his ticket home that he's been waiting 400 years for. It'll arrive in 3 months and then he's gone. Song-Yi has moved in next door to him, though he doesn't yet know that she's the same girl. She's a bit crazy, which, okay, I like from Jun Ji-hyun. She's also kind of unexpectedly sadder than I thought she'd be. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed and, while her fans mob her, they're also always calling her stupid. I mean, she kind of is, but she's also smart enough that it bothers her. She's also got a manipulative, greedy mother. She's kind of tough and weak at the same time. Which is okay. But it seems like a lonely life.

The other two characters in the picture are two of Song-Yi's friends from way back. The girl (Se-mi) is also an actress, but she hasn't hit it big like Song-Yi. The guy seems okay and has loved Song-Yi for 15 years or however long and has been trying to get her to marry him (but Se-mi obviously has a thing for him and Song-Yi doesn't and never has--when she was saved from the truck it was because she was running away from him--he's just her friend). He's also the younger brother of the Shin Sung-Rok character (who seems, so far, to be kind of a standard scheming evil chaebol dude not above killing people for financial gain, though at least their dad seems clueless that this is going on). Oh, and Song-Yi has a younger brother that seems okay, though his friends don't know that she's his sister.

So...this is a bit of a quandary for me for a few reasons. One is that there's probably bound to be some type of deus ex-machina type of thing to get around the whole long-lived alien/short-lived human thing / leaving the planet thing. Two is that he's a) super smart and doesn't like stupid people (or people in general, for the most part) and b) more than 400 years old (and who knows how long he was alive before he came to earth) so the only reason I can so far see for him to fall in love with Song-Yi is because they are fated to do so. Eh, I dunno. I'm not a huge fan of destined love stories. They aren't usually done very well. I have hope, as this one gets really good ratings and I do really like Jun Ji-hyun but I'm wondering if I should've waited even longer after watching Legend of the Blue Sea before trying it? There do seem to be some serious similarities.

We'll see. I'll at least give it a few more episodes. I did at least do a "does it end well" Google search and based on the blurbs (didn't read recaps as I don't want to be totally spoiled), it looks like it does.

Edit: Heading into episode 6. I'm still liking Ji-hyun, though she's more abrasively clueless in this than she is fish out of water clueless. I mean, you can kind of get it -- she's been surrounded by sycophants and that horrible mom since she debuted at 15. You see that she can be nice, when she's around friends (or people that she doesn't think want something out of her). But still, it would be nice if she had more "nice" moments.

Sung-Rok's character is about as evil as they come, but to almost ridiculous proportions. Like, his first thought seems to be to off people. Something gone a bit wrong? Kill 'em. How is that your go-to option? He doesn't even try to out manoeuvre people. He just kills 'em. Without even a lot of planning, which makes you feel like he's had to have left evidence behind. And how long has he been this way??

Se-mi, the best girl friend is, well, she's been harbouring jealousy and petting it like a live thing for years. So she's not a good friend, per se. Or a friend, honestly. I don't think she's inherently bad, she's just been eaten away by envy for a long time. The wanna-be fiancé is actually a very good guy...but Song-Yi been telling him in every way possible for years that she's not interested, so I'm not sure why he keeps holding on. It's kinda sad for both of them, because I think she'd much rather he was just a friend...and that's something she's needed far more as a person. She really is a lonely character. And, let's face it, he'd probably be happier too.

As far as alien dude, his equanimity is definitely shaken. Some of that whole storyline is a bit weird, with the stuff in the past. Though I'm still so fresh off of Legend of the Blue Sea that the parallels (while different) are probably too obvious. BUT overall I am enjoying it as a gestalt and it's fast-paced enough to hold my interest. My favourite parts are the more intimate, quieter, friendly/family-ish ones though, like when Do's "father" comes over and they all eat together. And I want to know more about the manga shop owner that's a friend of Song-Yi. What's up with her? She might be the only "real" friend Song-Yi has as I think she's the only one that doesn't want anything from her and will tell her like it is.

Edit: I finished it.

And...well...if I hadn't seen Legend of the Blue Sea first, I would have liked this one more. But there are some places where that show just really outdid this one. That's not to say I didn't like this one...but this one did have more problems. Anyway, back to bullet points...

• The worldbuilding / mythological framework for his "alienness" either wasn't adequately explained or was glossed over or contradicted at times. 
• The "happy" ending didn't really address any of the actual problems...nor did it really make sense as far as the rules of the world as previously explained...basically, he goes back to his home planet and then tries for three years to teleport back, only able to do so in spurts until finally he's able to sometimes stay for long periods of time. So much doesn't work with this that I don't even want to go into all the reasons why (or into any of the other little niggle-y problems). But it also doesn't address what's gonna happen as she ages and he doesn't or the fact that he's allergic to human saliva (seriously, what about other bodily fluids??) and the whole Time Traveler's Wife-style random disappearance/teleporting thing was just...eh, weak. There was a whole bit where the younger brother discovered a new asteroid and named it after Do Min-Jun...I'd thought they were gonna have that be the actual Do Min-Jun traveling back to Earth, which would have made more sense. But they didn't. So I'm not even sure why they had it in there. 
• Honestly, the whole thing about this super advanced alien civilisation traveling by means of asteroids/comets that they created seemed really kind of stupid. And then he's able to simply teleport back? He'd been wanting to go home for 400 years before he met Song-Yi. I guess he didn't want to go back bad enough?? And the random dissolving into a wormhole thing? Meh.
• Glad that poor second lead dude didn't wind up with the rather bitchy non-friend Se-mi. Of course, he never got over Song-Yi either, which really sucks for him. He was loyal to the end.
• The evil older brother played by Shin Sung-Rok was over the top ridiculous. I do feel like I like him as an actor but, wow, what a sociopath of a character. He even killed the eldest brother.
• I enjoyed the almost Rocky Horror-like camera-facing interview sessions more than I should have. Because, Rocky Horror. Not sure if that's what they were going for, but that's where my mind went.

Eh, mostly it felt like they'd come up with all of these barriers to happiness in the beginning of the show and then didn't really adequately know how to resolve them (and it was a romantic comedy, so they kinda needed to), so they threw shiny things at you in the hopes that you wouldn't notice. And it was shiny. Jun Ji-Hyun really is awesome and I quite liked Kim Soo-Hyun too. He is a bit otherworldly handsome. He was mostly stoic, but when he did break, he did a good job with it. 

What's-her-name did a good job with Se-mi too...actually, I so didn't like her character that I'm gonna have to wait to watch a show currently running that she's starring in. It looks cute but I don't even wanna see her right now. Maybe in a few months. Park Hae Jin as the second lead was really good, even if he did look like he was on pot half the time because his eyes were always so red. Did he have to use something for his crying scenes or what? I wanted to give him eye drops. He's gonna be in some new show this year as a lead, so I'll probably watch that. 

So...overall, I did enjoy it. It suffered in comparison to LofBS (which did a much better job on worldbuilding) but it was a good show with some good moments. I'm glad I watched it. I don't think I'll watch it again, but I can't really complain. Little dude even got into a few episodes of it with me. But I am a little sad that it wasn't MORE.