My Love from the Star (2013) Review: The Alien Next Door

Is My Love from the Star worth watching?

Yes. My Love from the Star remains one of the most entertaining fantasy romances Korean television has produced, thanks mostly to Jun Ji-hyun’s hilarious, fearless lead performance. The pairing of a deadpan alien with a loud, self-absorbed celebrity is a perfect engine for comedy, and the series finds real tenderness underneath. The reservation is a thriller subplot involving a murderous heir that grows heavy-handed, and a middle stretch that repeats itself before the finish.

What is My Love from the Star about?

Do Min-joon arrived on Earth four centuries ago, during the Joseon era, and has been stuck here ever since. He does not age, has abilities no human possesses, and has spent his long exile keeping to himself, most recently as an aloof university lecturer counting down the months until he can leave. Then Cheon Song-yi, a wildly famous and wildly insecure actress, moves in next door, and she has no intention of being ignored.

My Love from the Star is a South Korean series in Korean, written by Park Ji-eun. Kim Soo-hyun plays Min-joon and Jun Ji-hyun plays Song-yi, with Park Hae-jin, Yoo In-na and Shin Sung-rok in key supporting roles. This review covers the complete series: one season of 21 episodes, broadcast from late 2013 into 2014, when it became a phenomenon across Asia.

Jun Ji-hyun’s gloriously unfiltered star

The show’s comic energy comes almost entirely from Jun Ji-hyun. Song-yi is vain, demanding, not especially well read and fiercely proud, and Jun plays all of it at full volume without ever asking the audience to dislike her. Her tantrums, her public embarrassments and her boundless self-confidence are consistently funny, and Jun lets glimpses of loneliness and insecurity show through the performance so the character never becomes a cartoon.

It is a rare kind of comic lead: a romantic heroine allowed to be ridiculous. Much of the series’ reputation as a genre-defining rom-com rests on her willingness to be so.

Kim Soo-hyun’s deadpan counterweight

Kim Soo-hyun has the opposite job. Min-joon is reserved, precise and quietly weary after centuries of watching people come and go, and Kim plays him with understated dryness. The humour of their relationship comes from his exasperation and her obliviousness, and the romance gains weight from his growing recognition that he may have to leave anyway.

Park Ji-eun’s writing gives the alien premise a melancholy edge. Flashbacks to Min-joon’s Joseon past and his careful, solitary routines in the present suggest a man who has avoided attachment for good reason, and the fantasy becomes a way of talking about time, loss and the risk of loving someone.

Where the thriller subplot drags

The show is less assured when it turns to crime. A menacing chaebol figure and a mystery around a death in Song-yi’s circle drive a thriller strand that feels heavy and melodramatic next to the comedy. Shin Sung-rok is effective as a threat, but the villainy is broad, and the plot mechanics often exist mainly to put Song-yi in danger so Min-joon can use his powers.

The series also shows its age in places, including glossy product placement and an episode count that invites repetition in the middle. None of it undercuts the leads, but a tighter version would be stronger.

Who should watch My Love from the Star?

It is ideal for fantasy romance fans and anyone curious about one of the shows that helped spread K-drama fandom across Asia in the 2010s. At 21 episodes, it is a real commitment, but the comic energy keeps most of it moving. There is some violence and peril from the thriller subplot, though the tone stays mostly light.

If you enjoy it, try these next:

• The Legend of the Blue Sea, another Park Ji-eun fantasy romance with Jun Ji-hyun, this time as a mermaid.
• Crash Landing on You, the same writer’s later romance about two people from very different worlds.
• Goblin, for another immortal hero whose long life makes love both precious and dangerous.

The verdict

My Love from the Star is a K-drama classic that still delivers laughs and heart, largely because Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun make such a well-matched odd couple. The thriller elements are clumsy and the middle episodes drag, but the romance and comedy hold up well more than a decade later.

Rating: 4/5