LMD
finally gave in. They had been buzzing around my consciousness for a
very long time and 2013 was the year I succumbed to the peculiar
addiction called the K-Drama. K- for Korean (or J- for Japanese
dramas), these programs are the Asian relations of our lost,
lamented soap operas. There’s no end of variety; Joseon era historicals
(The Moon Embracing the Sun), gender-benders (Secret Garden,
Coffee Prince), paranormal modern fantasies (Vampire Prosecutor),
slice-of-life dramedies (Reply 1997), and the ever-popular
unlikely romance between the Plain Jane (Relatively speaking: There’s
no such thing as a plain Korean actress - I think it’s against union
rules.) and the wealthy, spoilt Flower Boy (a stylish, pretty
young man). The oppressively wholesome love stories (In Korea,
accidentally brushing against someone’s hand is tantamount to a marriage
proposal. The J-Dramas are somewhat less insistently virginal.),
which also feature varying production values ranging from epic to
chintzy, can glue you if you find one that fits.
In the
three months since I gave over, I've inhaled about two dozen titles,
starting with Boys Over Flowers, or F4, as it’s known in Korea, a show
so popular, it’d been remade four times in Asia, with a US version
dreaded - I mean, expected - any minute. There were shows that were
tossed after three episodes, but the majority I've stuck through. Most
of them are entertaining enough, but somewhat lacking, particularly
where the female lead is concerned (Mainly in Korean soaps vs.
Japanese ones, where they're a bit more sophisticated and adult.).
The lead male characters are almost always written strongly with a
definite sense of who he is and will be through the duration of the
show, while the females tend to be very mutable and their personalities
often fluctuate with the writer's whim or the plot's need. The girl you
cheered for in chapter one may not resemble herself five episodes in.
However...
My
heart has been won by what has so far been not only my hands-down
favourite K-Drama, but might be one of my fave shows from anywhere and I
don't even know its proper name. It's got several translation
variations, but for our purposes, let's call it My Love from Another
Star.
It’s
part Sci-Fi time-travel fantasy, part comedy, part romance and all
brilliant. Starring Jun Ji-hyun {Gianna} as Cheon Song-yi, an
outwardly vacuous actress wending her way thru the fox traps of fame;
envious colleagues, backstabbing friends, social media gaffes in front
of the anonymous, yet powerful plague known as the netizens. Her career
is on a slippery slope that is not helped by her forthright manner and
tart tongue, when she meets a young man who is completely unimpressed
with her fame and amazingly has no idea who she is. What, is he from
another planet? Well… Do Min-joon was stranded on Earth four hundred
years ago after losing contact with his fellow space tourists. His part
of our story revolves around his connection to the soul of a little girl
he met then. Fast forward four centuries and that little girl may or
may not be reincarnated into the body of the vain, silly, trouble-magnet
celebrity who keeps crossing his path. Min-joon finally ready to go
home, but his entanglement with the tumultuous Song-yi keeps getting in
his way.
The
writing is great, the characters are rich, and the acting! Jun Ji-hyun
kills it as the spoiled actress, Cheon Song-yi, giving the most
full-bodied performance I've seen in a K-Drama, and her incendiary
chemistry with
Secretly, Greatly hunk, Kim Soo-hyun,
going all Spock in Armani as the really old alien, Do Min-joon, is too
much. Too much! Throw in some jealousy, betrayal, romantic triangles
and a (multiple) murder mystery and there ya go. It's only up to
episode eight and doesn't have a set number yet, but it's slaying the
ratings in Korea and was just sold to China at the highest price ever
for a drama. Each chapter has been better than the last. I hope you
all love as much as I do.
Babies, this might be the best Welcome 2014 present I could give you.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
January 14th, 2014
Click on the link
below to watch My Love from Another Star on DramaFever.
LMD
finally gave in. They had been buzzing around my consciousness for a
very long time and 2013 was the year I succumbed to the peculiar
addiction called the K-Drama. K- for Korean (or J- for Japanese
dramas), these programs are the Asian relations of our lost,
lamented soap operas. There’s no end of variety; Joseon era historicals
(The Moon Embracing the Sun), gender-benders (Secret Garden,
Coffee Prince), paranormal modern fantasies (Vampire Prosecutor),
slice-of-life dramedies (Reply 1997), and the ever-popular
unlikely romance between the Plain Jane (Relatively speaking: There’s
no such thing as a plain Korean actress - I think it’s against union
rules.) and the wealthy, spoilt Flower Boy (a stylish, pretty
young man). The oppressively wholesome love stories (In Korea,
accidentally brushing against someone’s hand is tantamount to a marriage
proposal. The J-Dramas are somewhat less insistently virginal.),
which also feature varying production values ranging from epic to
chintzy, can glue you if you find one that fits. 
