My Love from the Star

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 named 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 possesses 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 a 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 Cheon 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 resembles the young girl he fell in love with 400 years ago in the Joseon era. Min-joon tries to keep himself away from Song-yi as he needs to leave the planet, but often finds himself failing to do so.

Song-yi gets entangled in the dangerous games of Lee Jae-kyung (Shin Sung-rok), the elder brother of Lee Hee-kyung (Park Hae-jin), who has been her friend since middle school and is in love with her. Yoo Se-mi (Yoo In-na) is Song-yi's childhood best friend who has had a crush on Hee-kyung since middle school. Realizing her love is unrequited, Se-mi ultimately gives up 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 times, and eventually, the neighbors fall for each other. But Jae-kyung turns out to be much more dangerous than Min-joon suspected, as he hurts Se-mi's older brother, who is investigating the murder of an actress in which Jae-kyung is actively involved, and Min-joon also mysteriously starts to lose control of his powers.[3]

"My Destiny", the theme song of the drama performed by Lyn, received positive reviews in South Korea and peaked at number 2 on the Gaon Music Chart.

The show is written by Park Ji-eun,[32] directed by Jang Tae-yoo,[33] and produced by Moon Bo-mi and Choi Moon-suk under the banner of HB Entertainment.[34] As the protagonist of the series possesses superpowers, like the ability to teleport and stop time, special effects had to be employed. The crew used 60 small, special cameras for bullet time effect creation. The GoPro camera was installed in 180 degrees and "stopped" characters were filmed from various angles. The final scene is a montage of various smaller details and then enhanced digitally. This was the first time that HD cameras were used to produce a television series in South Korea.[35]

Among the filming locations were two newly built luxury buildings, Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park (DDP) and Boutique Monaco.[36] The Korea Tourism Organization later held a 3D exhibit at the DDP Art Hall from 10 June to 15 August 2014 which featured one of the house sets used, with the display rooms titled "Start," "Fate," "Shaking" and "Longing" in line with the plot of the drama.[37][38]

The series influenced Korean fashion, with clothes, accessories and make-up products worn by Jun Ji-hyun seeing an "unprecedented" surge in orders.[39] It also placed first as "Korea's most favorite program" in a poll conducted by Gallup Korea in February 2014, with 11.5 percent of the votes.[40] The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, a children's novel, was propelled to the top of the bestseller lists in major Korean bookstores after the male protagonist repeatedly quotes from it throughout the series.[41]

In addition to high viewership ratings in South Korea, the series also proved to be successful in China, where it became the most expensive Korean drama sold at US$35,000 per episode until it was surpassed by Descendants of the Sun in 2016.[42][43] It also became one of the most viewed streaming shows on Chinese platform iQiyi, where it was streamed more than 14.5 billion times from December 2013 to February 2014.[44] The series struck up a craze for chimaek (chicken and maekju), a popular Korean snack of chicken and beer, which is the favorite snack of the female protagonist. Despite declining chicken consumption in China due to fear of H7N9 bird flu, fried chicken restaurants in cities saw an increase in orders after the show ran.[45] Meanwhile, Korean instant noodle maker Nongshim said sales in January and February 2014―while the drama aired―rose to a record high in its more than 15-year history of business in China; this, too, was attributed to a scene in the drama where the couple enjoyed a bowl of noodles on a trip.[46]

In this table, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

• A 70-minute special episode aired on February 7, 2014 at 23:20 (KST) titled You Who Came from the Stars: the Beginning which recapped episodes 1 to 15 focusing on the love story of Do Min-joon and Cheon Song-yi.[52]

My Love from the Star's cast and crew have been nominated for many accolades including Baeksang Arts Awards and the SBS Drama Awards, Korea Drama Awards, International Drama Festival and Shanghai Television Festival.[57][58] Kim Soo-hyun has won the Best Global Actor in Huading Awards.[59]

In 2014, an American remake was under development at American Broadcasting Company, to be written by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, and produced by HB Entertainment and EnterMedia Contents in association with Sony Pictures Television. Executive producers will be Craft and Fain, creator of the original series Park Ji-eun, CEO of HB Entertainment Moon Bo-mi, and Sebastian Lee and David Kim from EnterMedia Contents.[60]

A Philippine remake was broadcast and produced by GMA Network.[61] One of the top leading ladies in the Philippines, Jennylyn Mercado was tapped to portray Jun Ji-hyun's character, Steffi Cheon (Cheon Song-yi). On 9 December 2016, Filipino-Spanish model and first time actor Gil Cuerva was confirmed to be the leading man, replacing Alden Richards of AlDub, who was initially announced to star as the male lead but later turned down the role for another project. The series was under the direction of Bb. Joyce Bernal and was released on 29 May 2017.[62] It was a success in the Philippines, achieving high ratings, and dubbed as "One of the most loved Korean drama in the Philippines".[63]

A Thai remake by Channel 3, starring Nadech Kugimiya and Peeranee Kongthai was aired between 17 September to 11 November 2019, with low ratings.[64]

Due to its popularity in mainland China, the series was re-edited into a two-hour feature-length film by Chinese production company Meng Jiang Wei, and was released in theaters in summer 2014.[65]

In a statement posted on her blog on 20 December 2013, author Kang Kyung-ok alleged that the series' concept was plagiarized from her 2008 comic book Seol-hee, claiming that the background, setup, jobs, and relationships between characters were similar.[66][67] The spokesperson from production company HB Entertainment denied the plagiarism charge, calling it "nonsensical" since the male protagonist in Kang's story is human, not an alien, and that screenwriter Park Ji-eun "had never read or heard of" Seol-hee. A representative from SBS told news outlets that the network would investigate the matter.[68] On 20 May 2014, Kang filed her lawsuit in court against Park Ji-eun and HB Entertainment, asking for ₩600 million in damages.[69] HB Entertainment responded that it was prepared to "strongly confront" the lawsuit with their own evidence and witnesses, calling the charges of plagiarism "synonymous to a death sentence" to creators which must be "eradicated."[70] Kang dropped her lawsuit on 3 July 2014 after an out-of-court settlement.[71]

Indonesian television network RCTI aired a TV series in 2014 titled ‘Kau Yang Berasal Dari Bintang’, first thought to be an authorized remake of My Love from the Star, but was then found to be a plagiarized version, with the Indonesian series having exactly the same set up and storyline as the Korean drama. In an interview with Korean media outlet TV Report, a representative from SBS Contents Hub said, "The drama was created without the obtainment of legal publication rights. You could view it as plagiarism. [...] While we were in the process of discussing the sale of legal publication rights with another Indonesian enterprise, this drama came out. We are in the midst of finding what course of action to take."[72][73]

• Official website (in Korean)
• My Love from the Star at SBS International
• My Love from the Star at HanCinema
• My Love from the Star on IMDb