Dramatic Drama is Dramatic.2

Finished watching 꽃보다 남자 (Boys Over Flowers) several weeks ago, but hadn't really gotten around to writing my thoughts on this Kdrama. 


Spoiler warning. You've been warned. 


I'll start by saying this Kdrama is the third tv series that has taken the story of Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango and adapted it using characters, story plots, and settings relevant to its respective countries. Japan of course did its own television adaptation with Taiwan being the next country to adapt the series. I feel like this is starting to be a trend with Kdramas, adapting Japanese manga series into Korean television shows. Uh oh. 


The story is basically as follows: A girl meets rich, powerful, snobby guy, they hate each others guts, then they slowly fall in love, and then the rest of the 20-something episodes are dedicated to breaking them apart and putting them back together. The end. 


This series is pretty funny, or maybe the humor comes from all the romantic-related jokes that are written in. I'm convinced now that actors, or maybe the actresses, are instructed to play the "cute" role, because that seems to be somewhat consistent in the number of Kdramas I've watched or at least sampled. I should probably branch out to different genres than romantic-comedy. 


Speaking of romantic quips, this show pretty much has every. Single. Scenario/event possible. Seriously, I felt that every single cliche, romantic story action that could happen, DID happen in this show. Guy and girl hate each other but then love each other? Check. Guy saves girl's life? Check. Multiple times. Playful carwash scene? Check. Girl trips and guy catches her sparking a oh-my-god-I'm-in-the-arms-of-the-person-I-like feeling? Check. Multiple times. Pushing someone out of the way of a speeding car only to get hit and severely injured himself? Check (even if that didn't happen between two romantic interests.) Guy gets amnesia and forgets his lover? CHECK. 


Basically, if you can think of a cheesy romantic action that can take place in a movie or tv show, 꽃보다 남자 is probably gonna have it, as well as many, many other story mechanisms that Koreans just seem to love so much. Love triangles? This show's got like 5! Maybe more. 


One gripe I had was when the boys get their haircuts almost halfway through the series, Jihoo gets Bieber hair. Fucking. Bieber Hair. Gross. 


But I think my biggest complaint with the storyline that annoyed the hell out of me each and every time it happened was this: 


WHERE THE HELL ARE THE TEACHERS/FACULTY OF THE DAMN SCHOOL WHEN KIDS ARE GETTING BULLIED TO THE POINT OF DEATH? 


Really! Someone's about to throw himself off the top of the school, kids are causing nasty bike accidents, they lock a girl in a classroom only to throw in noxious gas inside with her, not to mention all the emotional abuse the student body causes! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU, TEACHERS? 


No sense whatsoever. 


One line I absolutely loved occurred later on in the series when Jandi and her brother are sleeping: 
Brother: "Ahh! Earthquake!"
Jandi: "Earthquake? What do you think this is, Japan?" 


lol Japan. classic. 


Also, something Joonpyo is telling Jandi as they're star gazing: 


"It's a star called Sirius in the Orion constellation."


Wow. False. Sirius is in Canis Freaking Major. I'm not sure if this was a translation error on the subber's part, but I feel like that'd be a hard translation to mess up if the words Sirius and Orion are English-Korean cognates


And what the heck is the relationship between the porridge shop owner and Jihoo's grandfather? They never explained that! unless I missed it. Derp.

Ah, one last thing, a trend I'm starting to notice in Kdramas: actors make kissing look really unnatural. Seriously. It's so awkward to watch, because they're just pursing their lips and kinda mashing them together. If I had to describe it, your lips take the shape as if you were just going to give someone a quick peck on the lips, except instead of a one-second peck, you end up mashing your lips with the other person's lips for, oh I don't know, 10+ seconds. And you don't move your lips either, you just hold them there. It's so unnatural-looking on film.

But in the end, 꽃보다 남자 is a really entertaining Kdrama, save my numerous gripes about nit-picky things. Recommended to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, loves Kdramas, is willing to sacrifice about 26 hours of their time. Although it has been out around the web for over a year now, so everyone's probably seen it already. Heh.