How original is the idea behind "You Who Came From The Stars?" A romance between an alien and a human is not an original idea. Consider the story of Superman, who landed on earth from Krypton and fell in love with a human reporter. That comic book was first published in 1939. Or how about the 1976 film "The Man Who Fell to Earth" with rocker David Bowie. And then there was the 1984 film "Starman" with Jeff Bridges.
But adding the element of the spaceship landing in the Joseon era, says the cartoonist Kang Kyung Ok, means that the drama has consciously or unconsciously borrowed much of its plot from her fantasy romance cartoon "Seolhee."
"Seolhee" is based on an event that took place 400 years ago during the time of Prince Gwanghae of the Joseon Dynasty," said Kang Kyung Ok. "Aliens treat the main character so she looks young forever. She lives over 400 years, and returns to Korea to reunite with a person who looks exactly like someone who helped her during her childhood."
For Kang Kyung Ok, it's too much of a coincidence. The plot of the popular new drama too closely resembles her cartoon.
"Anyone can make references to the same time period, but the story of a person who does not grow old for 400 years living in modern times and dealing with his fate is much too similar," she wrote on her blog.
The reference to a Joseon-era UFO was used before in "The Joseon X-Files" and is based on incidents described in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. The idea that someone is more than a century old but still looks young is hardly new. It was most recently used in the "Twilight Saga."
But Kang Kyun Ok thinks the drama borrows too heavily from her cartoon.
"The setting in the drama is very similar with the exception that the male and female characters have been switched. There are only minor differences in the order of how things are revealed throughout the story."
The cartoonist has been contacted about making her work into a film but refused because the cartoon series was not yet complete. When she noticed the drama's similarities, she did not believe that it was right for her to stay silent about the issue.
"You Who Came from The Stars" stars Kim Soo Hyun and Jun Ji Hyun, as the alien and the woman he loves. Her character, a self-indulgent film star, reminds him of a young girl he first helped when his spaceship landed on earth during the Joseon era.
The producers of the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) program "You Who Came From The Stars" deny the allegation that they stole the concept of their television show from the comic book and say they did not even know there was a comic book.
"Writer Park Ji Eun has never even read the comic book and she has been preparing for the drama for a long time," said the SBS representative.
A spokesperson for HB Entertainment, the production company behind the drama,called the claim total nonsense and plans to issue an official response.
