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I've been mainlining Korean Dramas for a couple of months now and I have to say that I am pretty much loving it. The series are short, pretty easy to get into and when they work, BOY am I a slave to the stream. The bar for success was set pretty high as my second kdrama ever was the amazing 1st Shop of Coffee Prince. Although nothing has quite matched Coffee Prince, I've watched some really fun programs in the last two months.
Boys Over Flowers is a schizophrenic, awesomely cracktastic kdrama full of plot holes, hysterical (and not always in the good way) shenanigans, travel hijiniks, wacky hair, and contrivances destined to alternately make you want to start drinking or utterly fall in love. In case you were wondering, I totally fell in love.
Boys Over Flowers (alternately called Boys Before Flowers) is based on the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango. It's been translated into various Japanese and Taiwanese series and movies. The source material, of which I am unfamiliar, seems to be pretty popular.
BOF tells the story of Geum Jan Di, a poor "commoner", who gets a swim scholarship to attend Shinhwa High School, an uber elite school for the disgustingly rich and powerful, after the bad PR that crops up after she saves one of Shinhwa's students from committing suicide as a result of the being brutally bullied and beaten by the student body, and her relationship with the schools "princes", the bored, callous, super rich, plutocratic Flower Four (F4). More expressly, it's about the relationship that develops between Jan Di and the sometimes thick, often ignorant and violent successor to Shinhwa Group (who own the school and half of Korea, apparently) and F4 leader, Gu Jun Pyo. I cut my teeth on old school romances, so I'm familiar with the Spunky Heroine saves Wounded/Tortured Hero trope, but BOF kinda pushed in ways that I was unprepared for. Thus, I was totally surprised and I pretty much hated Gu Jun Pyo for the first, like, four episodes. As a result it took me a minute to realize that they were actually going to pair Geum Jan Di (who's awesomeness kept me watching, especially after the Spinning Drop Kick of Death) with Gu Jun Pyo and not with the guy who was very obviously the object of her affections, the dreamy, soulful (if bland) Yoon Ji Hoo.
However, once I let myself go and once the plot got going, I found myself quite caught up and quite in love with Gu Jun Pyo. The thing that I find myself loving about kdramas (and let's remember this is only numero four) is how very hard the heroes fall for the heroines. There's a demonstrable level of attachment that is mostly absent in American TV. Guys have got to be macho and being macho means blowing shit up and never telling your girl that you love her. In kdramas, I am utterly taken with how angstful it all gets. Yeah, sometimes it's a little over the top, sometimes I roll my eyes, but in the end I'm giddy.
BOF kept me giddy through the second half of the series, but it did start to wear. Somewhere along the way the plots started to unravel and the lengths to which TPTB had to go to keep our couple separated was insane. There was always something. From his sense of duty, to a sudden fiancee and a last minute case of amnesia, BOF went there … a couple of times.
For the Bad:
- Unfortunately, there were alot of plot holes, plot device-type characters who disappeared suddenly (and conveninelty), and unresolved story threads. Occasionally, the plot got so crazy that I just had to shake my head and wonder what the hell. It's kinda crack because at no point did I really think that I wasn't going to finish Boys Over Flowers. Although, there were a few hairy moments during the fiancee scenario in which I questioned my dedication to the cause. Jun Pyo and Jan Di just lost their spark through that span of episodes and I started to weary of the tears and soulmates-gazes-colliding-from-across-the-room glances.
- The theme song almost drove me out of my tree. It was on rotation every five minutes, I kid you NOT! The same (gouge my) damn (jab an ice pick into my brain) song. CONSTANTLY! Thankfully, someone must have given them a clue because the soundtrack changed a little more than halfway in. We're talking the same song for better than half the episodes, people. And not an unobtrusive instrumental gently playing in the background. We're talking caterwauling lyrics at every possible opportunity.
- The hair!!! OMG! With the hair. I'm sure this is all per the manga, but the reality was a little astounding. I quote Jan Di when I say how much I loathed Jun Pyo's curly hair. Now, Jan Di's mom looked like she had naturally curly hair (or at least a very good perm). Jun Pyo, however, looked like someone had gone buck wild with a curling iron. It definitely mellowed over time, and I eventually came to kinda miss the full on barrel rolls, but, dude! Like, whoa. Then there was Ji Hoo's post-Macao hair cutfrom Hell of utter seriousness. It was odd. It looked more trendy, but it was also too severe for the actor's face and he became, at least to me, infinitely less attractive. The longer hair gave his face a softness that I quite liked.
- Everything but the kitchen sink got thrown at our star crossed lovers, omg!
- The disturbing brutality of the Shinhwa High students. There's bullying and then there's Bullying. The point at which a student is about to jump off the top of the library in order to get away from the torture and appease the blood thirsty high school masses, well, that's just a little too far. I was amazed at how there were NO teachers and NO ONE did anything. Kids were just tortured to, literally, within an inch of their lives. And the craziest part was that the torture was all old school Roman Republic. The F4 issued a red card emblazoned with a gold skull and crossbones to one of the students which signaled the rest of the student body could begin terror tactics. And I mean everything from physical to mental torture. I found it insane that the Hero of our Story was behind that kind of torment. It threw me for a complete loop. Cuh-razy!
For the good, however:
I loved F4 (after the first episode in which I hated everyone except Jan Di)! Song Woo Bin was sorely underused. Once we got past the annoying and cringe worthy Ebonics slang English he liked to throw around (especially in the beginning -- yo, yo ,yo, what's up), he was a character that I actually missed having a back story for. All of the other F4 got plenty of screen time (especially Yoon Ji Hoo), but Woo Bin was always kinda out of the picture. There were a few Woo Bin, Jan Di one-on-one moments that I found a little disconcerting simply because it was so rare and we knew almost nothing about him besides his family had mob ties and he could beat the shit out of people (an ability not exactly exclusive to him).
- Yi Jung and Ga Eul were an awesome couple all on their own and independent of what was happening in the main storyline. Kim Bum, the actor playing Yi Jung, was absolutely adorable. Ga Eul was sweet, a little less spunky than Our Heroine, and forever with her heart in her eyes, but totally lovable.
- Koo Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di and Lee Min Ho as Gu Jun Pyo. I thought the actress was on the plain side in the beginning, but then she smiled and, damn is that girl pretty. I loved the over exaggerated expressions and her feistiness. I just loved Jan Di! When it became obvious that she was totally into Jun Pyo, well ... I near about split my face grinning at their antics and the screen. Of course, all of the star-crossed out of nowhere stuff got to be totally eyeball rolling, but I loved them anyway and watched just to see how the two would finally end up together.
It is very possible that I will be re-watching this series. That means that I'll probably do a blow by blow episode recap. Just because I can. But we'll see. Recaps, to me, mean watching the show a little more critically. It can't always be about the squee. I'm also unfamiliar enough with the genre conventions to totally screw a recap up. Ah, well ... we'll see.
In the meantime, I'm actually writing a Boys Over Flowers vignette (I need a beta, btw, preferably someone familiar with kdramas or Korea. Just because I'm anal like that.) Can you believe it?! And have notes for three more pieces. Then I'll be moving on to My Name is Kim Sam Soon.
Oh, kdramas! How I love you!!
Boys Over Flowers is a schizophrenic, awesomely cracktastic kdrama full of plot holes, hysterical (and not always in the good way) shenanigans, travel hijiniks, wacky hair, and contrivances destined to alternately make you want to start drinking or utterly fall in love. In case you were wondering, I totally fell in love.
Boys Over Flowers (alternately called Boys Before Flowers) is based on the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango. It's been translated into various Japanese and Taiwanese series and movies. The source material, of which I am unfamiliar, seems to be pretty popular.
BOF tells the story of Geum Jan Di, a poor "commoner", who gets a swim scholarship to attend Shinhwa High School, an uber elite school for the disgustingly rich and powerful, after the bad PR that crops up after she saves one of Shinhwa's students from committing suicide as a result of the being brutally bullied and beaten by the student body, and her relationship with the schools "princes", the bored, callous, super rich, plutocratic Flower Four (F4). More expressly, it's about the relationship that develops between Jan Di and the sometimes thick, often ignorant and violent successor to Shinhwa Group (who own the school and half of Korea, apparently) and F4 leader, Gu Jun Pyo. I cut my teeth on old school romances, so I'm familiar with the Spunky Heroine saves Wounded/Tortured Hero trope, but BOF kinda pushed in ways that I was unprepared for. Thus, I was totally surprised and I pretty much hated Gu Jun Pyo for the first, like, four episodes. As a result it took me a minute to realize that they were actually going to pair Geum Jan Di (who's awesomeness kept me watching, especially after the Spinning Drop Kick of Death) with Gu Jun Pyo and not with the guy who was very obviously the object of her affections, the dreamy, soulful (if bland) Yoon Ji Hoo.
However, once I let myself go and once the plot got going, I found myself quite caught up and quite in love with Gu Jun Pyo. The thing that I find myself loving about kdramas (and let's remember this is only numero four) is how very hard the heroes fall for the heroines. There's a demonstrable level of attachment that is mostly absent in American TV. Guys have got to be macho and being macho means blowing shit up and never telling your girl that you love her. In kdramas, I am utterly taken with how angstful it all gets. Yeah, sometimes it's a little over the top, sometimes I roll my eyes, but in the end I'm giddy.
BOF kept me giddy through the second half of the series, but it did start to wear. Somewhere along the way the plots started to unravel and the lengths to which TPTB had to go to keep our couple separated was insane. There was always something. From his sense of duty, to a sudden fiancee and a last minute case of amnesia, BOF went there … a couple of times.
For the Bad:
- Unfortunately, there were alot of plot holes, plot device-type characters who disappeared suddenly (and conveninelty), and unresolved story threads. Occasionally, the plot got so crazy that I just had to shake my head and wonder what the hell. It's kinda crack because at no point did I really think that I wasn't going to finish Boys Over Flowers. Although, there were a few hairy moments during the fiancee scenario in which I questioned my dedication to the cause. Jun Pyo and Jan Di just lost their spark through that span of episodes and I started to weary of the tears and soulmates-gazes-colliding-from-across-the-room glances.
- The theme song almost drove me out of my tree. It was on rotation every five minutes, I kid you NOT! The same (gouge my) damn (jab an ice pick into my brain) song. CONSTANTLY! Thankfully, someone must have given them a clue because the soundtrack changed a little more than halfway in. We're talking the same song for better than half the episodes, people. And not an unobtrusive instrumental gently playing in the background. We're talking caterwauling lyrics at every possible opportunity.
- The hair!!! OMG! With the hair. I'm sure this is all per the manga, but the reality was a little astounding. I quote Jan Di when I say how much I loathed Jun Pyo's curly hair. Now, Jan Di's mom looked like she had naturally curly hair (or at least a very good perm). Jun Pyo, however, looked like someone had gone buck wild with a curling iron. It definitely mellowed over time, and I eventually came to kinda miss the full on barrel rolls, but, dude! Like, whoa. Then there was Ji Hoo's post-Macao hair cut
- Everything but the kitchen sink got thrown at our star crossed lovers, omg!
- The disturbing brutality of the Shinhwa High students. There's bullying and then there's Bullying. The point at which a student is about to jump off the top of the library in order to get away from the torture and appease the blood thirsty high school masses, well, that's just a little too far. I was amazed at how there were NO teachers and NO ONE did anything. Kids were just tortured to, literally, within an inch of their lives. And the craziest part was that the torture was all old school Roman Republic. The F4 issued a red card emblazoned with a gold skull and crossbones to one of the students which signaled the rest of the student body could begin terror tactics. And I mean everything from physical to mental torture. I found it insane that the Hero of our Story was behind that kind of torment. It threw me for a complete loop. Cuh-razy!
For the good, however:
I loved F4 (after the first episode in which I hated everyone except Jan Di)! Song Woo Bin was sorely underused. Once we got past the annoying and cringe worthy Ebonics slang English he liked to throw around (especially in the beginning -- yo, yo ,yo, what's up), he was a character that I actually missed having a back story for. All of the other F4 got plenty of screen time (especially Yoon Ji Hoo), but Woo Bin was always kinda out of the picture. There were a few Woo Bin, Jan Di one-on-one moments that I found a little disconcerting simply because it was so rare and we knew almost nothing about him besides his family had mob ties and he could beat the shit out of people (an ability not exactly exclusive to him).
- Yi Jung and Ga Eul were an awesome couple all on their own and independent of what was happening in the main storyline. Kim Bum, the actor playing Yi Jung, was absolutely adorable. Ga Eul was sweet, a little less spunky than Our Heroine, and forever with her heart in her eyes, but totally lovable.
- Koo Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di and Lee Min Ho as Gu Jun Pyo. I thought the actress was on the plain side in the beginning, but then she smiled and, damn is that girl pretty. I loved the over exaggerated expressions and her feistiness. I just loved Jan Di! When it became obvious that she was totally into Jun Pyo, well ... I near about split my face grinning at their antics and the screen. Of course, all of the star-crossed out of nowhere stuff got to be totally eyeball rolling, but I loved them anyway and watched just to see how the two would finally end up together.
It is very possible that I will be re-watching this series. That means that I'll probably do a blow by blow episode recap. Just because I can. But we'll see. Recaps, to me, mean watching the show a little more critically. It can't always be about the squee. I'm also unfamiliar enough with the genre conventions to totally screw a recap up. Ah, well ... we'll see.
In the meantime, I'm actually writing a Boys Over Flowers vignette (I need a beta, btw, preferably someone familiar with kdramas or Korea. Just because I'm anal like that.) Can you believe it?! And have notes for three more pieces. Then I'll be moving on to My Name is Kim Sam Soon.
Oh, kdramas! How I love you!!
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Date: 2010-01-14 08:00 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 06:01 am (UTC)From:It's hard! I am very eager to start Kim Sam Soon!!