A Few Words on You From the Stars

(This is a format I've invented to make reviews more straight-forward if I feel like doing them, which also works better with my busy, busy schedule. So enjoy a blunter, better-polished version of one of my earliest reviews.)

You From the Stars remains a favourite of mine, and unlike other favourites it holds up surprisingly well. In some ways, it is more relevant now than it was five years ago - in the aftermath of Sulli's death, it feels like only now is the world starting to perk up and listen to devastating effects of cyber bullying. Messages that You From the Stars was asserting before this dialogue had really started to blossom. How we perceive fiction evolves as we do, and I love that. The iconic heroine, Cheon Song-yi, tends to have a polarising effect. Some people say she's abusive and obnoxious and nauseating - whilst I suppose I can see how her big personality may turn some off, I wonder if its because drama viewers are so used to "candy" heroines who are all clones of one-another. Song-yi laughs in the face of that conformity and she's a delight. This re-watch changed my conceptions of the love story, though. It isn't perfect. Song-yi is invasive and embarrassing, Do Min-joon is capable of so much cruelty, and their relationship is so abrasive you wonder if this is genuinely supposed to be a romance. And yet they can't help loving each other. And I just adore that purposeful imperfection. People look back on You From the Stars these days and wonder if it was overrated - I can tell you myself, it is not. The blockbuster hit's beauty is on par with some of the most cinematic dramas of this year - the sets are big and detailed, the locations breathtaking. The angst is still delicious, the villain bombastically theatrical. The comedy is still capable of knocking me out, and the special effects hold up majestically. I will look back in ten years and call this drama a classic.