I know, I know, I’m super late to the party. I think the ultra-hype for this drama was back in 2013!!! But after It’s Okay to not be Okay and Dream High, I was on the hunt for more Kim Soo-hyun, lol. Originally I wasn’t planning on writing any review or reflection on this drama because I’ve been pretty busy lately and was watching this drama quite casually for a long time, sometimes with it playing in the background, an episode here and there during breaks, etc.
[SPOILER WARNING – I’M BASICALLY ONLY WRITING THIS REVIEW TO DISCUSS THE ENDING LOL]
This drama is definitely what I would call a light watch, lots of humour, cheesy moments, and a fairly straightforward plot. I didn’t feel there was much in the way of in-depth analysis, or strong points that needed to be emphasized. While I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the Kim Soo-hyun eye candy, hehe, I wasn’t as gung-ho as I’ve been for some other dramas. I liked that Cheon Song-yi wasn’t characterized as this pure, gentle, morally superior female lead. She was so realistic…petty, vain, hypocritical, weak, clingy, and honestly kind of dim-witted at times LOL. The actress Jun Ji-hyun really left her grace and dignity behind to portray an accurate and pretty hilarious character, and I appreciate it a lot! It’s what made the love story between her and Do Min-joon the alien extra cute. In spite of her many flaws, Do Min-joon cared about her and slowly grew attached and actually invested in wanting to stay on earth.
I guess the main reason I felt the need to say something about this drama was that I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. Throughout the whole story, the underlying question was “HOW are the main couple going to end up together?”. Notice, the question was not “WILL the main couple end up together?”. Because of the type of story it was, there was no doubt in my mind that somehow, the seemingly insurmountable hurdle facing an alien and a human in love would be resolved. Whether it was Do Min-joon finding a way to become human, or him bending time and space to make it back to her, I was 99% sure it was going to happen. And it did happen. Sort of. Do Min-joon was able to return to earth to be with Cheon Song-yi, but the unexpected part was that he didn’t have control over how long he could stay each time he found his way back. I guess because of some intergalactic phenomenon, he is continually pulled away from earth (something about a wormhole, lol), although each time he can stay longer and longer. At the end of the drama, Do Min-joon disappears from Cheon Song-yi’s side again, and we see her accepting this reality and anticipating his return. She says that because each time he appears again could be his last time, she cherishes each moment with him as something precious. I almost wish they had ended it there, but I guess the writers decided to give the audience a definitive happy ending, so we do see Do Min-joon coming back in the final scene. I’m really impressed they didn’t go with the easy route and give the characters exactly what they wanted without sacrifice. In the end, Do Min-joon was still allergic to human fluids, he still had ties to outer space, and he still will live infinitely longer than Cheon Song-yi. But that doesn’t mean the time they have together won’t be meaningful and full of love. They accepted these realities and decide to be with one another anyways.
One final note…my favourite relationship in this entire drama was the one between Do Min-joon and Cheon Song-yi’s younger brother, Cheon Yoon-jae. He starts off as this sulky, standoffish teenager whose eyes seemed to be perpetually rolling up in annoyance and disgust at all the stupidity of the adults around him. Honestly, I don’t blame him, the majority of the human adults in his story (minus maybe the good-looking prosecutor heh heh) But after he meets Do Min-joon, he finds a mentor and older brother figure who shares his interest for space, but honestly it was mostly just hilarious. He originally was protective of his sister and wary of any guy trying to court her, but after discovering Do Min-joon’s extensive collection of space photos and telescopes, and realizing how knowledgeable he is about space (understandable, considering he’s from space LOL), Joon-ja is immediately star-struck, pun intended. He looks up to Do Min-joon above anyone else, and basically worships his feet and tells him to forgive all his sister’s flaws, hahahaha. He even fought with Song-yi over him lmao, it was so funny. I think the best part was when Yoon-jae found out Do Min-joon’s alien identity. He’s not phased at all, but instead is just even more excited and in awe, and promises to keep his secret. AND THEN HE TRIES TO DO THE E.T. FINGER TOUCH THING LMAO. That was the highlight of the show, I swear lol.
All in all, this was a nice light-hearted fantasy romance, and while it was an older style drama, I can understand why at the time, everyone was squealing about it, and I can DEFINITELY see why Kim Soo-hyun’s popularity skyrocketed (pun intended) after this drama aired. He’s so great, lol.
Thanks for reading, and happy watching!
Thought Bubbles 