SINGAPORE – It’s pretty obvious that the Koreans have been taking over the world for a while now. But who would have thought that Korean aliens would beam in and finish the job?

I say this because everywhere I turn, the K-drama My Love From The Star is the talk of the town. The show ended its run in Korea last week, but is still airing on the cable TV channel ONE here. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably heard or read about it. (If you haven’t — what planet are you from?)

Everyone seems to be following the tale of an improbably pretty man-boy alien Do Min Joon (played by the now-cosmically-successful Kim Soo Hyun) who lands in the Joseon dynasty, gets stuck on Earth for 400 years and falls in love with a top actress fallen from grace, Cheon Song Yi (played by My Sassy Girl’s Jun Ji Hyun), just as his window for going home opens.

ALIENS OVER FLOWERS

It’s not surprising that the water-cooler buzz has been all about a certain scrummy extraterrestrial. As a symptom of this meteoric obsession, Internet shopping sites have been hawking “Cheon Song Yi’s lipstick” and all manner of paraphernalia. I haven’t been able to stand in line for a taxi without hearing animated discussions about “Manager Do”. Thanks to a taxi driver who had his radio turned up, I heard a caller to a Chinese-language station talking about how she had redecorated her phone’s wallpaper by replacing a picture of her son with a picture of Kim. We have entered the era in which galactic lust supersedes even maternal love.

Even our local celebs are starry-eyed over the drama. K-groupie Ann Kok has made no secret of waiting eagerly for episodes. And Yuan Shuaiposted a picture of himself to Instagram with his hair swept over his forehead, looking uncannily like Kim’s character, with a caption referencing the show.

Why is everyone going nuts for My Love From The Star? The show’s astronomical success is down to a combination of perfect casting and near-perfect plotting. Jun, in her first television drama in 14 years, is successful enough to let it all hang out. Kim, who plays the alien, is no gargoyle to begin with, but with a blunt bowl-cut that hasn’t worked on anyone since Nick Carter, he has turned Dr Spock into Dr Hot.

When the all-too-human actress meets the interplanetary interloper, the pair become star-crossed lovers — literally. And while the title and the plot are both cheese-tastic, the subject matter manages to address the deep and fundamental questions of human existence: Why are we here? Is there such a thing as fate or destiny? Why do things have value only in the light of mortality? Just how much BB cream are they both wearing?

TRENDSPOTTING

Like any other hot trend, it’s only a matter of time before other shows jump on the bandwagon and give us spin-offs and adaptations. When ratings defy gravity, everyone wants the recipe for the winning formula. As far as My Love From The Star is concerned, I can already think of a few out-of-this-world plotlines for the local market:

An alien lands in Singapore and falls in love with an actress.

An actress lands on Mars and falls in love with an alien.

An alien lands in Singapore and becomes an actress.

I think that an alien and his date would really enjoy the reminds-him-of-home landscapes of Gardens By The Bay or ION Orchard; the horticultural tranquility of the Bishan-Kallang Park Connector; and the romantic-rendezvous vibe of the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant. In any case, My Love From The Star has been one small step for alien-kind, one huge step for K-drama.

And, Houston, we don’t have a problem with that.

Catch My Love From The Star on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8.55pm on ONE (SingTel mio TV Ch 513 and 604/StarHub TV Ch 820, 823 and 124).