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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "My Love from the Star" Episode 6

Notwithstanding the crisis point at the last cliffhanger, this episode irons itself out without too much drama or danger. Unfortunately Min-Joon doesn't seem to have learned too much from this experience. I'm sure ice-fishing with his buddy is lots of fun, but when there's a murderer running around with good reason to kill Song-I, waiting until the last minute all the time is probably unwise. Even if the man in question has time-stopping superpowers.

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While Min-Joon may not have thought through the situation fully, "My Love from the Star" as a whole is clearly making a point of holding the focus on it. The flashback to the Joseon era is especially harsh this time, and I love the serious impending sense of doom. We never get that with traditional sci-fi stories, because there's always a bazillion pieces of amazing future technology that the heroes can use to save the day when their opponents are just bow-and-arrow wielding cavemen.

But Min-Joon, even though he has abilities far in excess of anything seen by the characters in other franchises with the word star in the title, is clearly mortal. His opponents, far from being easily bamboozled simpletons, are serious, competent adversaries that could headline the villain spot in any Joseon drama. As science fiction "My Love from the Star" is surprisingly innovative in its cynical attitude toward the superiority of superior beings.

This isn't just true for the aliens, either. Hwi-Kyeong isn't at quite the evil level that Jae-Kyoung is, but his dialogue this episode clearly indicates he has some rather unsettling ideas about women. He doesn't just enable Song-I- she also enables him by never calling him out on the way he acts. They're in a bit of a symbiotic relationship in regards to bolstering one another's negative qualities that they don't really want to change.

Indeed, any progress regarding character development seems to be a fair way off. There's an entire extended sequence where Song-I drives to school in about the most self-aggrandizing way possible. Ironically when she runs into crisis, it's not actually her fault, but rather that of someone else. This is a very deliberate criticism of the kind of life that Song-I leads. A bit of self-awareness and defensive thinking could have saved her from that particular disaster. Bear in mind that by defensive thinking, I mean anticipating what other people will do. Not trying to avoid them altogether, which seems to be the only strategy our lead characters understand.

Review by William Schwartz

"My Love from the Star" is directed by Chang Tae-you, written by Park Ji-eun and features Jun Ji-hyun, Kim Soo-hyun, Park Hae-jin and Yoo In-na.

Added episode 6 for the Korean drama 'My Love from the Star'

 

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