‘Where Stars Land’…Somewhere in this forgetful and disjointed drama, lies a compelling story about living with a physical disability.
Also translated as ‘Fox Bride Star’.
Spoilers Ahead…
How do I review this drama without making it sound like just a list of missteps? You see, Where Stars Land isn’t an utterly unwatchable drama but there aren’t many positive aspects to it, as well. If you like rom-coms, there are a few elements of it, largely thanks to the secondary lead couple, Oh Dae Gi (Kim Kyung Nam) and Na Young Joo (Lee Soo Kyung). If you like workplace-centric dramas and are interested in the workings of an airport, there are instances that may interest you. If you like fantasy, there is an element of that too, with Lee Je Hoon’s Lee Soo Yeon possessing supernatural strength. But unfortunately, none of these aspects come together to form a cohesive narrative because of the undetermined number of open plot threads.
The story is set entirely in Incheon Airport, concentrating primarily on the Passenger Service Team — where our protagonists Han Yeo Reum (Chae Soo Bin) and Lee Soo Yeon work — and in parts, on other departments like the security team, customs and immigration, transport department, etc. Now, the very first speedbump on this runway is setting the story in a very real, very important location such as the Incheon airport. This makes it extremely hard to suspend disbelief in many of the episodic situations. Every time something dramatic happened, I couldn’t help but think that there is no way this is would happen in real life, that too in one of the top airports in the world. It became hard to buy that gang members could easily enter staff premises and protest there. Or that a woman would use the hallway for displaying flowers. Or that a very angry customer would break, not one but three self check-in counters. Maybe this has happened or could happen, but the show doesn’t have a strong emotional anchor to root these situations in, to help dispel those disbeliefs. And one of the major reasons for that is, the leading lady; which brings us to speed bump number two.
After a long time, I found myself entirely uninterested in the female lead of a K-drama. The problem is the inconsistent writing, and Chae Soo Bin’s character Yeo Reum, bears the brunt of this, the most.
If Yeo Reum has a bad sense of direction (which is conveniently forgotten about after the first episode — she has trouble navigating T1 where she had worked for a year, but when she is transferred to T2, she suddenly has no trouble navigating an entirely new terminal?) why did she apply for a job in a place as enormous and complex as the airport? The reason related to her father goes unexplained, so it is harder to buy her decision to continue to work at a place where she is not comfortable and not good either. When she sees an unidentified object, she proceeds to examine it herself, without calling the security or the bomb squad first. In the middle of a potential bomb threat, she argues with a co-worker about a job in which she clearly is in the wrong. She keeps whining about not getting compliments at her job when all she does is cause trouble. She says she works hard, but we don’t see it. What we do see is her abandoning her post and not following orders, making it difficult to gain any sympathy for her and again wonder how such an incompetent worker still has her job at one of the top airports in the world.
Also, it doesn’t help that we are only given indicators to why Yeo Reum is the way she is. She says there was an incident in her past which caused people to look at her differently, but we never find out what that was. Was this the same secret that one of her bullies was threatening to spill? Was it that she was adopted or was ill as a child? — deductions I made myself, because the show leaves everything ambiguous. And because of this the entire drama feels disjointed. I felt like I was watching a sitcom, where occurrences in one episode is irrelevant to the next.
We are introduced to Han Yo Reum’s mom (Kim Yeo Jin) through a tension-filled episode, never to see her again. We are shown that Heo Young Ran’s (Hong Ji Min) husband is having an affair, but we never get a resolution to that information. Ko Eun Sub’s (SF9’s Rowoon) co-worker (Ha Ji Eun) goes into labour at work, and we never find out what happened to her. Unlike the Reply series or Prison Playbook, these moments don’t even tie into the week’s central theme. It just feels like adding new information, instead of revealing it.
The protagonist, Soo Yeon also suffers a lot due to this. Except for the horrific accident that leaves the right side of his body paralysed, we learn nothing about him. Why does Mr. Jang choose to give him the metal arm? Why is everyone so suspicious of it and why does Soo Yeon himself, want to keep the device hidden? Did Mr. Jang himself develop the prosthetics and why can’t it be provided to other people with disabilities?
We don’t see Soo Yeon on the wheelchair much (considering that he has spent the last eleven years on it) or the difficulties and inconveniences he goes through after the accident. Without this, it is difficult to understand his resolve to spend more time with Yeo Reum, despite all the warning signs his body and is arm is giving him.
Only in the last episode do we find out that just two years after the accident, his mother re-married and moved to the States, and there is just one dialogue uttered, about how difficult it is to live with a person with disabilities. We also hear that Yang Seo Koon (Kim Ji Soo) had a younger brother who had a similar problem and as he couldn’t get help (the specifics of all this is left out), she helps out Soo Yeon (again, we never find out how she got acquainted with Soo Yeon). As a result of all these gaps, I couldn’t get emotionally invested in any of these characters.
The show packs in a lot and nothing lands satisfactorily. There is a mildly interesting subplot about the abuse of power and the whole ‘customer is king’ mentality which allows passengers to get away with verbally, physically or sexually assaulting the staff. But it’s just a scene here and there and is never developed further. Even the whole airport and its inner workings just occurs independently on its own without any connection to other plotlines, which creates some jarring tones in the story.
The drama also pulls a Good Doctor where an elder brother/mentor figure (played by Lee Dong Gun) humiliating and disrespecting a junior is somehow considered caring. All in all, the only thing Where Stars Land accomplishes successfully is being an advert for Incheon airport.
