MY LOVE FROM THE STAR IS HERE YET SO FAR

By: Jesus Z. Menoy

As a night person, I busy myself with a number of things in the evening. Besides writing, watching
television eats up my time. Sometimes, I do multi-tasking – reading and writing and watching TV. I wait
for ‘Saksi” before I sleep so I have the chance to watch the Korean dramas aired by GMA Network.
If my memory serves me right, I witnessed “Jewel in the Palace,” “Jumong,” “My Name is Kim Sam
Soon,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Attic Cat,” ‘Full House,” “All About Eve,” “autumn in My Heart,”
“Temptation of Wife,” “East of Eden,” “Queen Seon Deok,” “Master’s Sun,” “Dong Yi,” “Empress Ki,” “The
Princess’ Man,” “Coffee Prince,” and “Baker King.”
One of the unforgettable Koreaan teledramas I’ve seen so far is “My Love from the Star,” which
stars Kim Soo-Hyun (Matteo Do in the tagalized version and Do Min-Joon in the original version) together
with Jun Ji-Hyun (Steffi Choi in the Tagalized version and Cheon Song-Yi in the original version). Luckily for
me, the time of its airing was the time I arrive home from school. This is one Korean telenovela that I
watched from start to finish: As far as I can remember, I, as well as my family, didn’t miss any single
episode of it.
Based on Wikipedia, the plot goes this way:
“ Do Min-joon (Kim Soo-Hyun) is an alien that landed on Earth in the year
1609, during the Joseon Dynasty. As he tries to help a young girl, Yi-hwa, from falling off
a cliff, he misses his trip back to his planet and is stranded on Earth for the next four
centuries. He possess a near-perfect appearance, enhanced physical abilities involving
his vision, hearing and speed, and a cynical, jaded view regarding human beings. As time
goes by, Min-joon is forced to take on new identity every ten years, as his human
appearance never ages. In the present, he works as a college professor. With only three
months left before his long-awaited departure back to space, he meets Cheong Song-yi
(Jun Ji-hyun), a famous Hallyu actress who suddenly becomes his next-door neighbor.
Slowly, he finds himself entangled in Song-yi’s crazy and unpredictable situations, and
finds out that she looks like the young girl he fell in love with in the Joseon era. Min-joon
tries to keep himself away from Song-yi as he needs to leave the place but often finds
himself failing to do so. However, Song-yi gets entangled in the dangerous game of Lee
Jae-kyung (shin Sung-rok), the elder brother of Lee Jae-kyung (Park Hae-jin), who has
been her friend since middle school and is in love with her. Yoo Se-mi (Yoo In-n) is Song-
yi’s childhood best friend who has a crush on Hee-Kyung since middle school. Realizing
her love is just one-sided, later Se-mi gives up her feeling on Hee-Kyung and starts to
focus on her career as an actress. As Jae-kyung tries to silence Song-yi, Min-joon finds
himself saving her multiple of times and eventually the neighbors fall for each other. But
Jae-kyung turn out to be much more dangerous than Min-joon suspected as he hurt Se-
mi’s older brother who is investigating on an actress murdered case that Jae-kyung
strongly involved and he mysteriously also starts to lose control over his super powers.

The fact that the two leading characters belong to different worlds, it is impossible for them to be
together. Although both have human features and feelings for each other, they are not meant to be
lifetime partners because the alien Do Min-joon has to leave Earth and return to his planet or to his star;
thus, the drama was give the title “My Love from the Star.”
It is expected that the love relationship existing between the two wont prosper since we have
been exposed to score of films depicting stories of failed relationship between a human being and another
creature, for example, a mermaid, fairy, a monster, and so on. One outstanding love story of this sort is
the 1982 film ET (short for “extra-terrestrial” which means “out of this land/world”). The boy named Elliot
and the creature from another planet (Was it Martian?) which looked much different from humans
became friends. The ET was stranded on Earth, which means that his stay here was not permanent. It was
transient, that is, he had to leave the planet and return to his own sooner or later. This is where the
similarity between “ET” and “My Love from the Stars” lies. Elliot could not prevent the ET from leaving
after recovering from his illness because the Earth was not his world and he had a slim chance of surviving
in our world (That was why he almost died of illness here).
However, this fact remains: Love transcends race, color, creed and other differences. No matter
how different the two creatures are and how distant they are from each other, they are bound by love.
And that’s what matters most.
The love story is only one of the factors which got me hooked on “My Love from the Star.” The
qualities of the two characters who are foil to each other is another factor. Min-joon is a serious and
responsible man while Ji-hyun is a funny and careless (clumsy) woman. The story is both comic and tragic;
there is a good blend of the funny (early episodes) and the serious (the latter episodes). Moreover, the
events in the plot were so interwoven that the suspense in the narrative gradually boils up.
Because it is a memorable romantic drama series on television, GMA Network decided to make a
remake of this unusual love story. Based on the hit Koreanovela of the same title, this teledrama will
feature the Ultimate Star Jennylyn Mercado as Steffi and the upcoming male lead Gil Cuerva as Matteo.
Directed by Joyce Bernal, the remake will premier in May 2017 and will replace GMA Telebabd series
“Destined to be Yours.”
To those who failed to see the Tagalized version of “My Love from the Star,” I recommend that
you watch its remake and find out how Jennylyn and Gil will give justice to the specific roles assigned to
them. Knowing the caliber of an award-winning actress that Jennyyn is, viewers will have no qualms are
regards to her acting. Under the helm of an equally award-winning director Bb. Joyce, Jennylyn will
showcase her acting prowess better. However, the commercial model Gil will have his first crack at acting
in this teledrama, which will serve as his debut performance, his baptism of fire. Therefore, he has to show
off what he’s got and prove to the world he deserves the acting assignment given him by the network. He
must outdo, if possible, the performance of Kim Soo-Hyun if he wants to stay in the industry for good. If
not, such assignment will be his first and his last.
“My Love from the Star” is here to stay as its remake has found its way. Even if it goes away, it
will still stay… here in my memory.

To-Do List
1. Answer the following questions concisely.
a.) What is your view regarding the Filipinos’ patronizing foreign shows such as the Korean
telenovelas?
b.) Why do Korean teledrama click in this country?
c.) How do you regard the works of other nationals, for example, the Mexicans?
2. Write a description of your favorite Korean drama on television.