Where Stars Land

Why the Winter Soldier plot?

*Mini rant with spoilers ahead*

I went into this expecting a healing/fluffy drama but was surprised by the mystery. It was unexpected and out of place. The story started as a light drama about airport employees. It sets up a romance between a woman plagued with bad luck and a mysterious man. The drama and romance was realistic and sweet. The side characters' storylines were my favorite parts. The acting was great too.

This drama suffered from one terrible plot point. Why did he have this bionic arm that gave him super strength? The drama could have been interesting without it. He could have just been disabled without the Winter Soldier superpowers. The mystery could have been the same, and the drama's tone would've been more consistent. I've rewatched this a few times and I always skip this plotline.

It's a good drama if you skip the sci-fi stuff which is why I rated this so high.

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Those who spent many times at airports may like it.

If you watch Terminal by Tom Hanks, this is Korean mellodrama version of it. At least, most scenes are within terminal building. This is the attraction factor for me as I LOVE airport and I spent most of my time in the airports. Another reason to watch is Lee Je Hoon. I enjoy his acting and always like the characters he play, mostly action, thriller, fantasy genre. I have seen most of his drama and movie. This drama is my way to see the romantic side of him. I have high expectations because of these two reasons.

The premise is promising but it is poorly executed. A life within airport terminal is dynamic, chaotic but there's strict structure and rule to orchestra the complex system. There are 1001 possibilities in the airport and the drama told a few of those stories. Some were quite known and some others may not be known for casual passengers. There is specific terminal issue every one or two episodes. Within this context, this drama delivers.

However, in this is the biggest disappointment, the characters are not consistent. I can't relate to Han Yeo Reum character. Well, I prefer strong FL and she is not that kind of girl. She is a bubbly persona who is too busy thinking of what other people think about her. Her kindness and willingness to go extra miles to help others should be her charm but it didn't work for me. Too many times, I am frustrated with her logic. This is my first Chae Soo Bin drama so I don't have comparison to her acting (it's weird that I didn't manage to go beyond the first 15 minutes for the strongest delivery man and rookie cops).

Lee Soo Yeon character made me sad. Such a waste to Je Hoon acting. The first few episodes, the character is clear. Strong, cool headed, smart and all that. I can try to understand his fear in going back using wheelchair if there's a stronger back story. The look of other people? Or maybe this is the Korean context that I can't grasp. There were scenes to explain that he is lack of love, being abandon and all that. Still, there are too many holes here.

This is the case for the rest of the characters. I can imagine each of them is a strong character with their own charm. Is there not enough time to build it and give a proper story for each of them? In my opinion, everyone is interesting here.

Rowoon as Go Eun Seob and Kim Kyung Nam as Oh Dae Ki is so underrated. For me, they stole the show with their "supporting" role. Provide a beautiful nuance to the story.

Let's talk about the story. In addition to problems around the airport (passengers, aircraft, and alike), there is one big drama that should be the one that connect the past and the present time, the relationship among main characters. As the "peak", the story only shown in rush in the last two episodes. It appeared poorly and ended in a manner like it's not a big deal. So one person is groomed to drive privatization of an airport. Why it takes years, there are other ways to do that. There should be bigger goal when you implant a person to get profit out of an airport. Think about other drama with similar goal. Every episode there would be a tactic or strategy in place to move towards the goal. None in this drama.

That's one. Another one is a story about human with different ability, disable person. This can be a great story and yet, they stick to the stigma around disable person. I am sad. I like dr romantic, written by the same script writer. So, I don't know what happened here. I think this drama want to tell too many stories but failed to make it coherent. This reminds me of prison playbook - there are a lot of characters, each comes with their own story and the drama able to tell it beautifully, coherent, consistent and every thing is needed to tell the bigger story.

In short, do I recommend to watch it? Yes, why not. It's easy to watch, you won't get too stressful about it. If you like the casts, you are going to enjoy it. If you are the type of person who get annoyed with inconsistent characters: don't. My suggestion, don't put high expectations, just enjoy it. The soundtrack is super nice. Lee Je Hoon is nice to look at. Watch the last episode with the least expectation. It's happy ending, don't worry. But all done in rush. Well, that last scene made me write this review after hiatus for a year or more. (Seriously, can someone enlighten me with why there is no face of Je Hoon?)

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? Where Stars Land – My Short, Honest Review

I'll be very honest guys.
Both Lee Je-hoon and Chae Soo-bin are my favs, so naturally, I picked this up. I love exploring underrated dramas, and I was especially curious to see Je-hoon in a romance after only watching him in intense thrillers like Taxi Driver and The Negotiation.

What I liked:

Je-hoon nailed the emotionally distant, reserved ML. His silent expressions hit harder than full dialogues.

Chae Soo-bin’s character was chaotic but warm. She wasn’t perfect, but that made her feel more real.

The airport setting was peaceful yet dynamic, it visually reflected the characters’ internal struggles.

Themes like disability, bullying, self-worth, and workplace pressure were handled quietly and maturely.

The second leads were sweet and added softness to the story without being overdramatic.

That quiet slice-of-life meets healing tone made it a comforting watch overall.


What didn’t work:

The genre was all over the place—romance, sci-fi, slice-of-life—and it lost focus mid-way.

Some storylines (especially with the side characters and ML’s past) felt unfinished or dropped.

The last 2 episodes felt rushed and unnatural like the writers suddenly had to wrap it all up.

Biggest frustration? The lack of communication between the brothers. If they had just talked instead of avoiding everything, half the drama wouldn't have happened. That whole subplot could’ve been resolved better.

The romance build-up was slow, which I liked, but the emotional payoff got rushed and didn’t fully land.


Final thoughts:
It’s not flawless, but it’s a soft, underrated drama with a warm soul. If you’re okay with a few messy edges, and you're watching for the quiet chemistry, gentle themes, and of course, Lee Je-hoon in a rare romantic role it’s totally worth it.

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The romance in this drama is truly great plus the OST!

Highly recommended romance drama because it depicts about acceptance and commitment in both love and work towards life. Where Stars Land (Fox Star Bride) is one of the best romance drama in 2018. I may think that this drama has the best OST's (I swear). Chae Soo Bin and Lee Je Hoon portray their roles really well plus their chemistry and both the security lover's in the airport (really great chemistry ahead for them also). Great drama!



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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I enjoyed watching this show, but now that I'm trying to write a review I'm having difficulties trying to describe why. I guess I liked the main couple's romance, the lack of a second ML and the OST, but honestly WSL is pretty mediocre for the most part. Maybe it's because I ALMOST felt like that the Incheon airport is a magical place..

Anyway there are lots of negatives:
I could go on and on how stupid our ML is for doing the kdrama equivalent of "burning his life" for nonsense reasons, or how certain characters completely change mid way, the lack of pre-production obviously shows. The most interesting characters on the show barely had any screen time, like that pregnant woman at the control tower, or my favorite supporting actor of all time Kim Wonhae only had like 5 scenes where he did practically nothing.
There were so many missed opportunities, like there were those mini crises at the airport, they could have made some really interesting ones, but all of them were boring. The ending was rather underwhelming, it's one of those "50 minutes of melo followed by 4 minutes of chill & 1 minute of actual happy ending" endings, I'm not impressed, I would have felt more satisfied had they all died in a nuclear attack at the airport... Oh I almost forgot that there were gangsters too, what a waste of screen time they were...

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Not a memorable Drama

After reading the review, I thought this drama might a gem in discovery but I was disappointed.
This drama left me more annoyed than anything else.
I like dramas that transform the lead players due to lessons learnt from life. There were glimpses of brilliance but sadly they were dropped to pursue other side drama.
In particular I refer to main theme "There are no coincidences and everything has a purpose". There were glimpses of developing this theme but as I said before they really didn't go deep into this theme.

Ok.. It wasn't typical family drama. They took a disaster movie theme with 1/2 hour episodes of airport drama and mix it with our OPC (our primary couple) love story. Our FL chooses a guy who also has self-esteem issues. In fact, the ML is so selfish that he chooses not to live. He would rather leave the FL with good memories.. What good memories.. OH I dated this guy and he chose to die on me.. Oh well.... The guy is not in gratitude and realize that he has a lady who loves him regardless of his physical condition... and that's where I begin to get annoyed.

So what's the end result of her love... He abandons her for a year without a word to communicate with her. And that leads to me to the ending: They guy shows up at the airport without a word and she has to find out that he has come back by some chance. At this point .. I decide that she too is a doormat!!

The drama also left other side players without any conclusion.. such as the homeless guy. What happened to him and what was his role in the whole drama. I thought he may play YODA to help our OPC grow.. but alas, nothing happened.

Skipping to the end:

Then at the ending, they only show his back.. what happened to his face. I can only imagine that the selfish bas*** was probably thinking "Oh my god .. this Bit** found me... crap".

I think I am giving this drama a rating 4.5 due the fact, they got me emotionally by I being royally pissed off!! Otherwise a '1'

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Meh. One time watch.

It was good. One time watch. Romance is well written. Loose end tho very anti-climactic in the aspects of his relationship with his brother. It felt out of place like it was just there because they had to fill in the time. They did not shoot the ending with the actor too ig. Very weird to not show his faceq For the last 5 mins. It was good. One time watch. Romance is well written. Loose end tho very anti-climactic in the aspects of his relationship with his brother. It felt out of place like it was just there because they had to fill in the time. They did not shoot the ending with the actor too ig. Very weird to not show his face For the last 5 mins. 6/10.

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It's a great story, and very easy to watch ... SPOILER ALERT

I absolutely LOVED the 30 minute episode format. No huge time commitment, and plenty of time to stop and get things done, while still bingeing. I would like to see more 30-45 minute per-episode dramas.

I gave if 9.5 rather than 10 stars, partially because a lot of plot lines were never resolved or explained, but mainly because after we supported them through 32 episodes, the director stole the final moment from us by hiding his face at the end.
What the hell was that all about? BOOOO.

Otherwise, a great story, mostly well told, and the acting was superb. Pretty good OST as well.
Amazing how Lee Je Hoon can be so blank faced, and yet convey so much emotion and inner turmoil at the same time.
Stellar performance by the ML.

Well worth your time. I watched it all in 2 days and never got bored.

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Kind of a confusing mess

This drama was a pretty interesting watch. In a weird way, though, they somehow managed to rush the romance yet make the story drag at times at the same time. It feels like the romance between HYR and LSY kind of appeared out of nowhere, but it was still pretty cute nonetheless. The day-to-day life of airport employees that this KDrama showcased was interesting, and I have a deeper respect for airport employees now because of that. Not gonna lie though, I was extremely confused with the bad blood between LSY and his hyung, but I just kind of went along with the storyline anyway. Altogether, this was a nice drama, but they could have expanded on the romance a bit more and shortened the uninteresting office drama.

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Why are there so many negative reviews???

I loved the show, sci fi component and of course Lee Je Hoon's acting was flawless. I felt the pace was good and i eagerly watched every episode without feeling like i wanted to fast forward all the time. The music was great too. Im on episode 13 now so im nearing the end. Hope the ending is a good one. Ive enjoued the show so far, especially the second ML and FL (security vouppe) gave me so many laughs!

I think what people were complaining about the ablest views of society isnt unfair after all. Especially the scene where he was unable to do anything after he found out she got hurt, that was heart wrenching. It made me completely understand why he did what he did to her attacker.

Overall i recommend watching this as it had me engaged. I didnt even know of this show despite it being aired 4+ years ago. Glad i found it!

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