Geum Jan Di, is an incredible female lead okay? And I am 100% willing to fight anyone on this. At this point, I have noticed some tendencies within K-dramas and I am quite glad with them. You see, she is a positive, hardworking young woman who doesn't take shit from anyone and who will never back down. I love this.
So the story actually starts when, while she's working at her family's dry cleaners and has to go deliver to the infamous Shin Hwa High which is actually this shit hole ruled by F4, four "flower boys" that are unbelievable douchey (yes, autocorrect, that is a word) and send out these red cards damning them to hell. I mean, it just means they are enemies of these of F4, or more specifically Goo Joon Pyo who is the Main Douche Bag, thus unleashing some heavy bullying on the reciever of these death sentences. So Guem Jan Di actually happens to be delivering to the guy who is about to commit suicide after receiving the red card, and of course saves him by barely catching him and being handed a scholarship to study in Shin Hwa High in return.
Things start really going when Geum Jan Di shares her ice cream with Joon Pyo... okay she shoves it up his nose but I mean, it's the same thing. And he first tries to handle the situation personally, Jan Di doesn't back down, so he gives her the red card, she still deoesn't back down despite the humiliation, blood and tears shed and so... Joon Pyo somehow (I've no idea how this happened but it was incredibly hilarious) came to the conclusion that she liked him, thus beginning the chase where she throws his offers in his face and begins to develop feelings for Ji Hoo. 1/4 of F4 and the only one that seemed to be human and saved her a few times.
I literally don't think I can sum it all up, because there's more drama in that 1 hour long episode than in the whole of past 5 years of my life (I'm antisocial - it helps), so let's just get on with my review shall we.
I had a hard time getting through the first episode because one of the things I have low tolerance for is bullying, and this was some heavy bullying Jan Di was put through so I just kept thinking about how we'd get to the point where Joon Pyo was fighting for her love and grit my teeth and pull through. Of course, the hard start did an excellent job in 1. Creating empathy for Jan Di and 2. Making me cheer her on and care if she makes it or not. This is the best thing to do as a writer when starting a story so, well down Mr. Cruel Writer Sir.
So, as I suspected the first few episodes were hard but then... oh then. As far as characters go, I enjoyed them all. All four of F4 and GaEul, who was Jan Di's girl friend in this drama. I loved them all and I loved them more when they were together. I think it's hard to make your typical-rich-boy likable and at the same time make you despise him, so they definitely did a good job with that. Also, I think it helps that I just enjoy so much those characters that are absolutely ruthless to the rest of the world but will lasso the moon for you if you ask them to. Which describes all four of F4.
I loved the female characters as well, including Joon Pyo's sister of course - total badass in heels. If there's something I love about dramas is how they seem to be written spectacularly with well-fleshed characters, and equally strong men and women.
As for the plot? Well, the first time I watched it I was just getting into dramas so I didn't know too much about how these go. I had only watched Playful Kiss previously which was a sweet, light watch that took like two days. Thus, the difference between them was very present. You see, I got surprised every time by how much schist went down in a single hour, and I'm the type of person to yell at a screen so you can just imagine how that went. I understand that it is called "drama" for a reason so of course it wasn't a problem for me that so much went down, what did create a problem for me was the unknowing of how dramatic they like to be when there only two episodes left.
Now, I won't give you any spoilers but I am pretty sure that when writers are close to the end they're like, "Oh, only two more episodes left? Let's blow shit up." with an evil grin on their faces. Seriously. That's how it goes.
All in all, I of course really enjoyed it. The ending had me sobbing and my brain throbbing (in pain, it began to do that when I got too excited or simple an intense feeling. I'm pretty sure it was just it being like "calm the f down Vanessa".) I was thankfully alone at home when it was time for the last episode which allowed me to express myself verbally, I couldn't wait for time to pass so I could watch it again and when I did this time... well it was just as good. Thankfully. It is such a good story filled with literally everything you could ever want - attractive characters, a good plot, laughter, tears, burts of outrage (a lot of those, incidentally). So I am so glad I decided to watch it because it was absolutely amazing and I get this feeling in my chest every time I hear this song because... well you have to watch it.
Boys Over Flowers is one of the most well-known dramas. I can't really tell you why. Maybe it was the first of this sort, where a cheabol gets tamed by a hard-working girl or maybe because it was created at just the right time, or with just the right set of actors and actresses. However, what I can tell you, is that it's definitely worth its popularity. If you start with this.. well you just won't find the ending. But I'm sure you're used to that. And like it.
- V
PS
I know the review is a little all over the place but it's because I started it a while ago and didn't finish it until now, so I don't really know where my mind was when it was starting it so I just had to do with my current state of mind to finish it.
No comments:
Post a Comment