Daebak K-Rambles

Re-watch value: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

*partially taken from Viki*

This classic tale of hate-to-love focuses on a young woman named Dong Shancai (Shen Yue), a commoner scholarship student at a prestigious school for the wealthy, who is loyal and kind with a fierce sense of justice and a strong will.

When Shancai stands up to the F4—a group of four powerful young men who rule the school—after being unable to stand by and watch them bully others, she becomes the next target of their tyranny and catches the particular attention of the group’s leader, an extremely arrogant and aggressive young man named Daoming Si (Dylan Wang).

At first, Daoming Si is determined to make her bow down to his authority, but is unable to help falling in love with the fierce and defiant Shancai, who rises to every challenge he throws in her path. Although Shancai harbors a crush on the quiet and refined Huaze Lei (Darren Chen), who treats her kindly and helps her, she comes to see that Daoming Si is more than he seems and finds herself warming to his clumsy but devoted affections.

Filled with comedy, drama, the sweetest of romances, seven luxurious filming locations around the world, and a cast of pretty boys, Meteor Garden (2018) is a remake of the classic Taiwanese drama of the same name from 2001 that was adapted from the world-famous Japanese comic Hana Yori Dango.

Rambling

*beware of spoilers*

I didn’t know Netflix was cooking up a Boys Over Flowers remake until it hit my Netflix homepage, and my eyes bugged out. I was hesitant to start watching because of my history with the story.

My first K-drama obsession was Boys Over Flowers, watching it twice and holding it on a high pedestal for years…until I tried to watch it again and couldn’t stomach it. The whole thing aged very badly, and the school bullying aspect was just too cruel. Even Lee Min-ho, who had since become a bias of mine with BOF and City Hunter, seemed to have lost his luster, his acting now laughable to me.

I watched Hana Yori Dango, and I remember enjoying it (although J-drama is drastically different from K-drama, T-drama, or C-drama). However, I never once thought of watching the original Meteor Garden, the Taiwanese version of BOF, since 2001 seemed like a terrible year to revisit and one look at the show’s poster, with F4’s collective hair game being so God-awful, made me cringe. In my BOF mania, I even watched the first episode of the American version that came out a few years ago, which was beyond atrocious. Borderline heinous. So I pressed play on the first episode of Meteor Garden 2018 hoping for the best but expecting the worst. And I’m so excited to announce that I absolutely loved it!

Good Changes

It was the BOF that I’ve always wanted, really. The cast was ridiculously attractive and they could all act so well. I mean, I rarely, if ever, found myself amused by their performance because it was lacking. F4, Shancai, and everyone else were dead-on and believable. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.

More than anything, I think the show did away with all the preposterous tropes and things that drag a foreign drama down. Gone was the school bullying! Gone was the curly hair for Jun-pyo (Ah Si)! Gone was Jan-di’s (Shancai) little brother (although I suspect China’s one-child policy might have something to do with it)! Gone was the stupid subplot of Jan-di (Shancai) losing her ability to swim! Gone was high school! NO MEMORY LOSS FOR JUN-PYO (Ah Si)!!

Everything, down to the last detail, was updated, enhanced, or otherwise brought up to the quality that I’ve seen in so many other shows that don’t have the lineage of BOF. It was a long time coming. Even the infamous shooting star necklace Ah Si gives to Shancai was gorgeous (!), so much so that I kept wanting it myself.

Romance

I still have butterflies over the romance between Shancai and Ah Si. They had an electric sort of chemistry that never got stale. They were magnetic, and the way he looked at her was just… <3. I already knew the plot, so nothing was a surprise, but I still found myself anxiously waiting for the next episode. It was addicting for sure.

Dylan Wang who plays Ah Si showed so much range that I almost fell out of my chair when I found out he is only 19 years old. I think he has a long career ahead of him and that he needs to prepare for instant fame. He knocked it out of the park with his rendition of the arrogant heir we all know and love.

I would say that the kissing was rather lacking but that the skinship was high to make up for it. He was always hugging her or otherwise trying to get as close as possible to her. It was adorable and extremely believable, the way their relationship progressed. I didn’t roll my eyes when he gave her a piggyback ride® or at any wrist-grabbing®. This couple was a pleasure to watch.

My favorite moments include when he slowly bends down so his face is next to Shancai’s as she reads about the cooking contest on his phone. Or the charming London montage as they romp around the city together. Or how he proposed to her by saying “Let’s have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together for the rest of our lives.” And so many more that seem to lose their luster if I try to summarize them.

Other F4 Members

Another thing I found so interesting was the storylines for the other members of F4. All the versions I’d seen before left those dudes out to dry. They were just pretty faces, side characters with no gumption, no motives, no drives. They even make a joke about that very fact in the show, with Ximen quipping back something like, “I am the main character in my own life!” I liked that Meizuo didn’t get the girl; in fact, his crush goes after an older man with whom she had a one-night stand!

Xiaoyou, Shancai’s best friend, ends up with Ximen. I remember that this pairing was terribly played out in the K-drama version, so I was waiting with baited breath for the outcome in Meteor Garden. I’m beyond happy with this version, with how Ximen actually got closure with his first love, and how he finally lets Xiaoyou in. Their B-line was super cute. My favorite part was their first date together and Ximen tries to pull off all his usual tricks to impress girls and it doesn’t go the way he wants. His dumbstruck look as the building lights up with the heart and Xiaoyou is so dazzled? Priceless. She caps it off with a ~fine~ kiss, which seems to shake him out of the daze.

The Ending

Episode 48-49 were the finale episodes. Unfortunately, I found the wedding ceremony utterly bizarre. Time seemed to get all twisted after Shancai passed out (from starvation and exhaustion). She was all of a sudden back in her apartment and heading to a going away party for Lei. Why does she then get knocked unconscious simply by bumping into that dude? Implausible.

She wakes up in full wedding regalia and gets assaulted by a nostalgia-inducing Ah Si reciting mad dialogue from throughout their history together. She throws her shoe at him before he disappears. It’s so disjointed she thinks it’s a dream, and I thought the same thing, too! I couldn’t tell what was real and what was fake.

Then Ah Si’s older sister Zhuang materializes on stage in short shorts with two backup dancers to do some choreo to the “Like a River” anthem. Zhuang then conjures up F3, who appear in white suits. They offer themselves as possible grooms to Shancai, and she logically shuts them down one by one.

Only after all this surreal foreplay do the boys conjure Ah Si, who appears walking down an aisle made up of all their friends, bouquet in hand. They proceed to get married right there, with absolutely no family present. Lei walks Shancai down the “aisle,” and Zhuang officiates, but not before she epically trips Ah Si to the ground.

So many questions here, but here’s my main concern: Why does the evil mom transform into a loving mom and all animosity dissipates as soon as she sees Ah Si’s company vision video? This makes absolutely no sense. Not too long ago, Ms. Yue was telling the history of the Daoming family, saying they were happy until she took over the family business. And Zhuang had just been slapped across her face, but now she’s suddenly OK with happily keeping her mother company in as she sleeps? This lady is perfectly content to try and make the newlyweds breakfast before she heads off to travel and presumably “find herself.” Shancai even calls her “Mom” and I winced, waiting for a negative reaction. But no. Nothing.

I appreciated that we got to see a little bit of their married life, though. I liked that they got married while they were still young, and there was no hiccuping time jump into the future. Thank God Shancai didn’t have to become a doctor to prove herself remotely worthy of being with Ah Si ::glares at the K-drama BOF::

I didn’t particularly like the final bit with our main cast singing “Emotional” with Harlem Yu, but I guess you can’t go without an overtly happy ending.

All in all, I highly recommend this bad boy. If you have Netflix, you have no reason not to start this thing asap. It’s worth it.::heart eyes emoji::

Are you a Boys Over Flowers stan? Did you see the original Taiwanese Meteor Garden? What did you think of this version? Tell me in the comments below!

P.S. OST

In a word: Fitting.

They had the Biship Briggs track “River” for angsty, bad-ass moments, and Netflix ponied up big time for Great Big World’s “Say Something (I’m Giving Up On You)” for the heartbreaking moments.

I did see that the F4 boys contributed A TON of tracks to the OST, though! Check them out below: