Tao of K-drama: An Alien in Our Midst

The 2013 K-drama My Love from the Star is a story about an alien who is trapped on Earth in 1609 and waits 400 years for the next flight home. The alien doesn't age and has abilities far above those of an average human being. He has to be careful to hide himself, going to great lengths to disappear at regular intervals and come back as a different person. He pays a price for this -- he explains at one point that he served in the army 47 times. And he stays at a distance from people and things, reasoning that if he would be sad not to be able to take it with him, he shouldn't have. All of this is well and good until he meets his match, the over-the-top actress, Chun Song-yi just three months before his ship is to come in. 

He is living under the name Doh Min-jun (somewhat like Winnie-the-Pooh living under the name of Sanders). He is cultured, serene and withdrawn. She is loud, incessantly active, remarkably ignorant and prone to make silly errors of all kinds. Yet nearly as soon as he meets her, he "wants to have her." He helps her out of all manner of scrapes and she comes to rely on and love him. He is supposed to leave on the ship and fears that he doesn't leave, he will die. But more important than preserving his anonymity or his life is his wish to protect the one he loves. 

This show is a comedy, but has a dark underbelly of a serial killer on the loose, and edging towards Chun Song-yi. As it turns out, Doh Min-jun can only protect her by revealing himself. When she is in danger, despite the crowd of reporters watching and recording everything, he scoops her up and teleports her to a safe place. 

And this is where the show gets interesting: we don't have the ET scenario of trying to outrun NASA or some other alien hunters. People are interested, but the show ignores that and keeps its focus on the manner in which Doh Min-jun faces his other problem, that of dying if he doesn't get on the ship. 

At this moment of hysteria about "aliens" invading the United States, I find the calm of My Love from the Star refreshing and somehow plausible. As K-dramas often do, the show raises the "Why not?" 

The show focuses instead on the point that, in the presence of Love, the cool, detached spaceman violated the rules that had protected him for 400 years. It is a moment from the song, "In my world only you/make me do for love what I would not do."

This is worth pondering -- that LOVE is the most powerful force, and worth our attention more than our fears are.