You Who Came from the Stars: Episode 1

별에서 온 그대: 제1회

Joseon Dynasty, 1609. Do Min-Joon (김수현) lands on Earth aboard his UFO, momentarily startling all the Earthlings present to witness such an occurrence. 400 years later, he is now adept at the ways of human beings, changing professions as each decade passes and regularly getting issued death certificates by his only friend who happens to be a lawyer. The appearance of a rare comet signals his return to his home planet, leaving him with just three months to say goodbye to no one in particular. Cheon Song-Yi (전지현) is South Korea’s biggest Hallyu star, although her fame is mostly derived from her physical appearance rather than acting prowess or intelligence, neither of which she appears to possess. She has 20,000 friends on SNS and loves posting selfies with not-so-well-thought-out captions, making her the laughingstock of the online community. Assuming that Min-Joon is yet another stalker following her to her new posh condo unit, she lashes out on him before realizing that they are neighbors and that he has no idea who she is. Later on, she finds out that he is actually her university professor, and that their paths would be crossing more than they would expect.

This is the typical romantic comedy template for K-dramas: indifferent guy + quirky girl. Why should you watch this, then? Alien meets the epitome of the airhead celebutard. Hello! The whole pilot episode is like one big anthropological case study on the current generation’s obsession with attention and social media, brought to you straight from the outsider perspective of an extra-terrestrial. What I particularly liked, though, are the extra scenes after the credits roll, with Min-Joon breaking the fourth wall and telling us about his experiences during his last 400 years on the planet as a defense for gossip surrounding his persona, which he could not help but hear because his senses are seven times stronger than that of a normal human being. Aside from that, there is this other thing that binds the two lead characters aside from the unquestionable chemistry between the actors portraying them: Solitude. For the alien, this is rather obvious and self-explanatory, but for the actress it is more of an irony on how she is surrounded by a throng of people yet still feels alone and empty deep inside. And yeah, the other theme: Fate. Hopefully, the plot would not drag in the length of its 20-episode run.

Expressions of the day

운명 Fate

다 할수있어 You can do everything

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