Boys Over Flowers, A Retrospect
(Plus Boys Over Flowers vs Meteor Garden)
By Nabil Bakri
You might want to read Meteor Garden (2001): Looking Back to the Sensation of a Generation
and Meteor Garden (2018) Review: The Phoenix from the Ashes
and Meteor Garden (2018) Review: The Phoenix from the Ashes
Key Abbreviations: BOF (Boys Over Flowers/Boys Before Flowers), MG (Meteor Garden), GOT (Game of Thrones), LOTR (The Lord of the Rings)
SPOILER ALERT!
All pictures belong to GROUP 8 except indicated with asterisk (*)
“His world, my world. There’s no such thing. If you’re in the same spot, looking in the same direction, that’s all that matters.”
It was 2009, I was in junior high. Facebook was
bigger than ever, Harry Potter was still in Hogwarts, Celine Dion was just
touring around the world promoting Taking Chances, and 2012 seemed to be a
dreadful year to come (thanks to the movie 2012). To be honest, I did not notice the hype surrounding Boys
over Flowers. Perhaps it was because of girls’ attention being split into many
directions and it was a very early moment for Korean Dramas. What I recognized,
at the time, was the popularity of the Twilight Saga, everybody seemed talking
about this bizarre girly-movie that actually entertained a bigger audience than
its target (it surprised critics after predicting how bad it would be). But the
real hype was Bieber-Fever, the rise of the lucky young Canadian singer, Justin
Bieber. With songs such as Baby, One Less Lonely Girl, and One Time being
played non-stop and people were talking endlessly about this new kid in town.
Not necessarily all good comments, but he was the centre of attraction, girls
loved him while the boys loved to hate him, including previous generations
condemning Bieber as the clear sign of degradation in the quality of music (the way older people, back in the 60's-70's) condemn Elvis Presley for destroying the value of music).
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| (*/Nabil Bakri/private collection) |
During all these hypes, between the clashing
spotlights, a Korean Drama began to steal the attentions of young girls that
almost like Meteor Garden, as if history repeated itself, destroyed the
geographical barriers. And with the ever more rapid and rigid rise of social
media, Facebook and Twitter (people could follow celebrities, Justin Bieber was
known to post many of his activities that his fans could read, like, re-tweet,
and share), it gained more popularity way much faster. And although it did not
cross the borders of age and culture the way Meteor Garden did, it was hailed
by not only Koreans, not only Asians, but the West and all over the world,
embraced by the new audience of television-drama that was so ready to swallow
the K-drama wholeheartedly. It wasn’t as popular as Meteor Garden, so it’s not
so bizarre that I failed to notice its popularity (I simply didn’t care and
frankly, somewhat despised K-dramas/Pop, at the time). I guess I was too busy focusing my
brain to process other popular entertainment products (remember, few last great PIXAR
movies were made during this moment) and yes, I read all four novels of the
Twilight Saga (maybe because I was deeply in love with this girl in my class,
but I still didn’t notice Boys over Flowers despite her being a kind-of number
one fan).
But as I grew up and I gave the chance to
Meteor Garden, to finally watched the whole show after 17 years so that I could
judge the quality of the drama (does it deserve all the praise and hype it
received) and during my research, I found that both shows are based on the same
story/manga originated form Japan, Hana Yori Dango. Thus I thought that it
would be great to watch Boys Over Flowers after finishing my Meteor Garden show
and judging it in this blog. After I noticed that the article concerning Meteor
Garden was a success and it became the trending article of this blog for weeks, I
decided to finally judge Boys Over Flowers. Now let’s just begin…
“Opportunities in life only happen once. It’s like when you go to the store and see something but you don’t take it, maybe when you come back you won’t find it.”
1. Story Logic
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| (*/Nabil Bakri/private collection) |
Yes I know that stories are basically
illogical. Harry Potter, The Avengers, Cinderella, and many other are absurd,
really, and can never happen in real life. Well, if that’s what you understand
as ‘illogical’, then yes, all stories are illogical. But the stories I
mentioned, based on their genres, are plausible thus making them logical. Every
single action is based on logical reason and move the story to a perfect cause
and effect chains of reactions. Harry Potter, according to its genre, is logical. It is
logical because every character has logical reasons and their actions are the
logical responses to the previous logical circumstances. Now, I dare to say
that Boys Over Flower is illogical, simply because everything in it seems to
defy logic. Yes, the magic in Harry Potter is never going to happen in real
life, but its rules and the effects that follow are logical. The first
illogical point in the drama comes from its character. The characters in The
Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, and even Jewel in the Palace, are serious
(with few comic reliefs) because the story, the setting, the tone, everything,
is serious. The problem with BOF is that the characters do not match the story,
the setting, the tone, everything, and change drastically, dramatically, and
(mostly) abruptly without concrete logical reason. It is logical to have Sandy
and Squidward in the series Spongebob Squarepants because the whole series is
about making you laugh, it’s not something serious and therefore, adding a
serious character is illogical. The first episode of BOF is somewhat serious,
but ruined by its lead character that does not match the whole scene. Yes, it’s
probably because the director wants to create a contrast between the lead
female and the rest of the drama’s characters, but if that’s the intention, it
does not work so well. Anna and Elsa (Frozen, 2013) are different and we can
see the contrast, but that does not destroy the logic behind the story. Elsa,
even though she becomes (spoiler alert!) less joyful, does not diminish the
tone of the entire movie.
“You do this every time. Whenever I try to get closer, you trample my heart like it’s nothing. Do I still mean so little to you?”
BOF shows a very serious scene of a student
tries to take his own life. If it’s a comedy, why the scene looks so serious?
He should just jump and just like Tom and Jerry, comes back with minor injuries
or like a Looney Tunes character, returns as a spirit with wings heading for
heaven. But this scene is not a funny moment, this is serious. But if this is
serious, where are the teachers? This is a high class school, there must be a
lot of CCTVs, securities, and ‘duh’ teachers. The ‘suicide attempt’ location is
crowded with students. Witnessing such serious event, one of them (at least)
should contact the teachers. But no. And then we have the lead female comes in
to the screen. She comes with the most illogical narrative the writer could
come up with, destroying the seriousness, fixing the problem with stupidity.
See? The drama is lacking in logical actions. That the teachers do not show up
is illogical, that this strange character interrupts a very serious scene is
illogical, and the reason behind her coming inside the school is also
illogical. In the magic world of Hogwarts and all, if you’re defeated and
transformed into a tiny speck of negativity, you must perform a ritual using
the blood of your enemy to take revenge. Voldemort was defeated by Lily and
James Potter, his enemies, who had a son named Harry who also becomes his enemy
for standing on his way. If I’m Voldemort and I want to take revenge, it is
logical to go after Harry and not Ronald Weasley. Even though such thing as
magic is ‘illogical’, but the story is moved by logical reason thus make it
‘plausible’. That’s what missing in BOF.
“I like you. No matter how hard I try not to like you, no matter how hard I try to erase you . . . my efforts are so fruitless to the extent that I get angered by it.”
2. Story Consistency
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| (*https://aminoapps.com/c/k-pop/page/blog/will-be-updated-as-i-watch-the-episodes-boys-over-flowers/5gIV_uLp4m1DMnVL7Qzn8eMonvkDnZ) |
I am aware that a TV series is different from
movies, that it has benefits from its longer running-time so it can deliver
more details, more drama to the story. With only 2-3 hours of running time, it
is impossible for a full-length movie to deliver stories as complex as series
with its obvious advantage of time. Plus, even though the director wants to
convey a very sophisticated and detailed narrative through the medium of
feature-length movies, that very idea contradicts the foundation of a
feature-length movie, that it is NOT a series and it is NOT a book, if you want
detailed narrative you should ditch the movie and read the book. The most
popular and recent attempt to stuff movies with extra details came from the
director Peter Jackson with his Hobbit Trilogy. The result was disappointing.
The movies try to serve you as many points from the source as possible and in
the attempt to fulfil the intention, the whole movies feel dragged, unfocused,
and frankly, the trilogy looks and feels like TV shows while it isn’t. Game of
Thrones were created initially for TV shows, and the result is fantastic.
However, even with the obvious benefit of time, a show must NOT deliver
inconsistencies. It is true that we must pay attention to multiple characters
in the Game of Thrones, but this technique is established perfectly and
permanently since day one, and these characters were crucial in a way that
their actions will eventually lead to more important actions and then a grand
conclusion.
“Guys don’t do things for no reason in front of the girl they like. There’s always a reason. I’m speaking from experience, so you can trust me.”
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| (BRAN STARK in GOT *This picture belongs to HBO/look for GOT on DVD/Blu-ray/digital) |
BOF, in terms of its story, does not have such
complexity near Game of Thrones in its characters, and that’s all right since
it does not need complicated leader figures from different kingdoms to then
lead the story, sewing it together to create a grand tapestry, to deliver its
intention. BOF is a light and simple narrative. We can pick few characters and
make an opera with only 5 characters to deliver the basic story of Hana Yori
Dango. Heck, even with GOT, we could pick few characters to deliver the basic
story (Peter Jackson was successful in presenting The Lord of the Rings, a
relatively complex narrative, to three compact 3-hours movies by focusing on
certain characters only). BOF is a TV show, so it has the privilege to tell the
story as vivid and complex as it could be, involving as many characters it needs.
But the problem with BOF is that it tells too many stories of too many
characters that do not move the story forward, nor change the basic storyline.
Whether you like it or not, the main characters
are Geum Jan-Di and Gu Jun-pyo. To make the story surrounding these two
characters consistent, the show should only present actions that will
eventually affect the relationship between these two characters. Instead of
building consistency, the show tries to detour the whole show to a very
different story. It is good to know deeper about the life and relationships of
Kim Bum’s So Yi-Jung, for instance, but if that affects nothing to the
integrity of the show, the focus on his private life is not necessary. The show
may still consider So Yi-Jung’s life as important, but that does not mean to
focus too much on him to just distract the main point of the entire show. I
could not believe how many times I cringe when the show tries to distract me,
as a viewer, from the most important part of it, the love story between Geum
Jan-Di and Gu Jun-pyo. Well, I’m okay with an extended background story of a
character, but what happens in BOF is that these back stories, ultimately,
affect nothing to the overall and entire show. Adding more materials that
ultimately change nothing, is inconsistent. If the show wants to tell the story
of our two lead characters, everything should be ‘about’ them or the things
that happen in the show, even though it does not involve them directly, affects
them, and affects the overall story. In other words, the extended story should
be meaningful, or else, you might just want to stack it in the ‘deleted scenes’
corner. Now that I mentioned ‘deleted scenes’, you might want to know about
‘deleted scenes’ and why some scenes, no matter how great they are, were
deleted from the final project. Yes, it’s lavish and all, but a compilation of
lavish deleted scenes won’t make a lavish final cut.
3. Casting- not match, the face, expression, do
not match the character
These handsome boys and beautiful girls
(seriously, I like Kim So-eun as Chu Ga-eul, lovely) were cast to play
interesting roles in BOF. They’re all handsome and beautiful, and talented, no
doubt of that. I am not trying to say that they are not physically perfect or
that the single source of the show’s popularity was the good-looking lead
characters and that there’s no potential value within the story. I cannot judge
the score for the actors’ ‘handsomeness’ or ‘cuteness’, but I do know the
beauty measurement (apply universally for both men and women) and I do know
whether an actor is cast in a matching role or not.
The problem with BOF, I think, is not about the
actors per se, but the placing. There
are good-looking actors who are just plain cute and simply cannot be a ‘serious-mature
man’ on the screen and better assigned for a role that match his appearance. In
a way, making his appearance supportive to the character, because the character
is not playing the actor, but the actor plays the character. In my notes, Kim
Bum is not the best choice for the playboy So Yi-jung and Kim Hyun-joong isn’t
really match for the character Yoon Ji-hoo. During my viewing experience, I could
not stop my mind from noting that Kim Bum might be a better choice for Yoon
Ji-Ho based on his face, facial expression, and his overall look, the prejudice
that someone might notice in the first meeting with him. As a film lover and
observer, my brain automatically search for clues from thousands of previous acting
I’ve seen in movies, making comparisons, and drawing some interesting conclusions.
With his quality, if I was the decision maker, I would never ask Kim Bum to
play So Yi-jung. The same thing happens with Kim Hyun-joong, I don’t think he’s
the perfect choice for Yoon Ji-Ho. If I had to rearrange the existing ensemble,
I’d probably swap Kim Bum’s and Hyun-joong’s roles, maybe even considering Kim
Joon to play So Yi-jung.
I criticize vocally the selection and
characterization of Ku Hye Sun as Geum Jan-di. And again, I’d probably swap her
role with Kim So-eun, but no matter, because a wrong casting-choice ‘actually’
could be saved by characterization, acting, and story, and there are many
actors who portray characters not matching their appearance but ended up doing
well, so well. “Could Michael Keaton be the Batman?” they once asked, but
voila, a true Batman he is. But this is exactly the problem with BOF, that even
though the actors do not match their characters’ descriptions, they still manage
to deliver awful acting based on awful script to totally ruined the whole
concept of a Cinderella story. Furthermore, many of its characters change their
personalities depending on which episode they’re in, showing us yet another
problem of inconsistency. The vivid example is Jun-pyo’s mother, Kang Hee-soo
portrayed by Lee Hye-young. She is the mother of inconsistency. She sometimes
tough, harsh, mean, but sometimes weak, melancholy, and plain odd (she asked
Jan-di to be enrolled to the exclusive school, but then asked her secretary ‘who’s
stupid enough to put that girl in that school?’ as if she has amnesia or being
the stupidest businesswoman on earth or trying to joke but fail horribly).
4. Music- okay,
popular
Three strikes of negative judgements from me,
but I finally come to a positive one, plus I’m not an expert in judging music
or song, so I’m just gonna give you this simple line:
“Almost Paaaaaradiiiiiise”
Gotcha, I caught you singing!
The songs in BOF seep quickly to the skin of
popular culture. They’re glamorous as the show and match the overall vibe of
BOF. A lot of people consider the songs as being memorable and in the end, it’s
impossible to detach the songs from the show because the songs remind them with
the show, instantly.
5. Effects and Background, okay, lavish, more
contemporary and dream-like
I could trash its writing and its casting, but I
am bound by the law of objectivity to praise its special/practical effects, background,
wardrobe, and many more supportive parts in the show. If you’re looking for a
sight, than BOF is not the wrong place to seek. However, such lavish decoration
moves the story further away from reality and to my surprise, this is exactly
what people (K-drama lovers) love from Korean Dramas, the luxurious, perfect,
dream-like objects and subjects that would never happen in reality. BOF, then,
becomes more than just a Cinderella story since a Cinderella story (backed by
our history) is indeed dream-like, but proven to be possible (except the fairy
godmother and glass slippers). BOF represents dream, a fantasy, and an ideal ‘happy’
universe for its fans. And although they know it’s an exaggerated visualization
of life, an illusion, as long as the drama keeps them entertained and enthralled,
providing them a doorway to look away from reality for a moment, it’s okay. It’s
not the depth of the story they’re after, it’s the sight. But of course, I
am all for stories and casting, so…
6. Audience and Critics
As I mentioned in the previous point, BOF tries
to target a certain group of people by ditching the other. It’s not necessarily
a bad decision, but because it was created from a popular source (Hana Yori
Dango) preceded by a massive world phenomenon (Meteor Garden), critics would
not lose their grips from the show criticizing its writing, casting,
inconsistencies, and what it does wrong. However, critics seem to agree that
the background and all are great, much like what I wrote in point 5. So, it is
a movie praised by fans, but panned by critics.
7. Compared to Meteor Garden
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| (*) |
-The establishment of college student is good
Geum Jan-di and Jun-pyo are originally high
school students, but there are inconsistencies and illogical plot in the show
concerning this particular issue. At one point, Jun-pyo has graduated from high
school but Jan-di doesn’t because she is his junior. Suddenly everything starts
to fall apart, the story becomes so bizarre. Why would Jun-pyo, after finally
gets Jan-di’s attention, disappear suddenly from Jan-di’s life and considers
her as a complete stranger? Why the F4 stay in the high school all the time
even after their graduation? Shouldn’t they attend classes in university?
Now this is a problem that, I think, Meteor
Garden fixes: the establishment of a university as the setting. Being in
college means you are more free than in high school, and Jan-di and Jun-pyo
(and their friends, really) seem to miss their classes all the time. If it
happens in college, the lecturers will not care as much as when it happens in
high school because the teacher will call the parents already, saying how bad
their kids are for skipping so many classes. Establishing the lead characters
as college students also means that these characters are now adults and
responsible for their own actions. Therefore, showing more aggressive passion
(actually, lust) is somewhat understandable. When Daoming Si aggressively touch
San Chai, it’s not so bizarre since they’re both adult, and it enables the
scene to seep deeper into audiences’ mind, that it proves how Daoming Si unable
to control his feeling towards San Chai, that he is now deeply and passionately
in love with her and he can’t even explain why, he’s just madly in love with
her and has no power to control it. This way, the story of how he stands
against his mother (even decided not to get the inherited wealth just to be
with San Chai) flows more natural and understandable.
-San chai is not weak
Even in the Cinderella story, Cinderella is not
weak. San Chai by all means is not weak. She knows that Daoming Si is super rich
and handsome, she knows that she’s actually in love with Lei, and she will not
fall for Daoming Si easily. And, that’s exactly what happens in Meteor Garden.
Daoming Si has to do everything he can to attact Shan Cai and only in the last
episode, she confesses that she loves him. The whole series is focused on how
Si tries to convince San Chai to be with him. They both show affections to each
other during the show, Shan Cai gradually feels for Daoming Si, but that end result
is what the audience has been waiting for. At last, an official statement, yes,
she loves him. It seems like it’s very hard for San Chai to admit that she
loves Daoming Si and of course, the relationship between these two lovers is
full of risks. But during the rainstorm cast by Daoming Feng, Si’s mother, San
Chai remains strong and unbreakable.
Geum Jan-di, on the other hand, is the complete
opposite. She makes this heroine look weak and miserable. And, she falls for
Jun-pyo in what feels like a flashing light compared to Meteor Garden. Okay,
she feels for Jun-pyo before the middle of the season, now what? When Jan-di
clearly falls in love with Jun-pyo, it seems like there’s nothing more to tell,
that the goal of the show is now reached, Jun-pyo no longer needs to prove
himself as worthy to Jan-di (and it looks like Jan-di is the one trying to get Jun-pyo’s
attention all the time instead of the opposite), thus the creator tried to put
anything onscreen, making the show inconsistent.
-Characters are more consistent: Xi Men does
not date Shan Chai’s friend
The characters in Meteor Garden are more
consistent, making them more real. Daoming Si has not completely changed after
he manages to get Shan Cai’s attention, Shan Cai remains strong and independent
even after she gets all the attention and when suddenly thrown to the lowest
moments of her life (she doesn’t broke down, she manages to look as cheerful as
possible, she endures, just like she always has). There are two interesting points
that BOF contradicts with MG in terms of characterization: Daoming Feng/Kang
Hee-soo and Xi Men/So Yi-jung. Throughout the show, Daoming Feng is this evil
mother and she remains nasty to the end (even the ending is inconclusive about
Feng’s feelings towards his son’s love to a ‘peasant’, very true to the basic
idea that she has no feelings) but Kang Hee-soo, even though she looks elegant
and cunning, she seems to be more flexible. She tries to give us the impression
that she is actually the villain, but she fails to portray a ‘good’ villain,
she fails to maintain her ‘villainous’ till the end as she shows more flus of
emotions. It is actually okay to have a villain turns a hero (or in BOF a comic
relief with her dancing) just like Schwarzenegger in Terminator. But of course,
the transition does not happen abruptly and constantly, but built cautiously by
following simple logic and consistency and making sure that the transition is
meaningful. This kind of transition, however, is nowhere to be found in Kang
Hee-soo.
My highest appreciation to MG is in the
character Xi Men. He and So Yi-jing should have the same rule in life, dating
random girls for fun and not get attached. I appreciate MG simply because Xi
Men maintains this rule till the end. Kim Bum (So Yi-jing) does not look nor
act like a ‘real playboy’ thus making him falling for Ga Eul looks ‘okay’,
because he’s initially does not have the look of a player. His expressions show
us that he’s caring and kind, and faithful, a total contradictory to Xi Men.
-More real and logical, plausible
I know that my judgement may feel biased to
you, but I used the exact same rules to judge these two similar shows. I aimed
for the story logic, consistency, background/effects, music/soundtrack, casting
match and acting, worldwide reception, and critical response. I ‘happened’ to
live in 2001 and 2009, so I am alive during the peak of these two TV
supernovas. I remember how big MG was and even though I don’t remember BOF
being bigger than or even as big as MG, but I do remember how big Korean Waves
was (and still is). I saw MG when I was young, but I do not count that as a ‘viewing
experience’ because I did not understand a thing about MG and I did not like
MG, it’s just that everybody happened to talk about it. So, officially, I saw
both MG and BOF in 2018, so before this, the score was 0-0, no one’s better
than the other. Then I saw MG (partly because it came out first) and I think it
deserves all the praise it got based on my considerations I mentioned
previously. Then I saw BOF and it happened to fail in most of my criteria of a
good show. The rating score is not helping, the critics testimonies are not
helping, and the overwhelming number of fans saying "it’s actually bad but I love
it anyway, it’s just almost paradise," is not helping. Now, how dare I am
comparing MG and BOF and not the original Hana Yori Dango manga? Well, first,
MG and BOF are based on the same source and both are made for TV. Second, as
for Hana Yori Dango, I got to admit that I haven’t read the source, but the
paradigm that the adaptation has to be as faithful as possible to the source
(to be a good adaptation) has been debunked by How to Train Your Dragon (being
damn good even though being too different from the source) and The Hobbit
Trilogy (being too faithful and damaging the quality). A shift of medium should
take the account of artistic license to adjust the initial realm of manga to
TV, plus it’s not an anime so the depiction of the manga in real life should be
different in scale and expected to be more real (otherwise make it an anime and
mimic the manga). Both shows have their own strengths and weaknesses with MG
being more logical and more real while BOF being more lavish and plain elegant.
The decision to view these shows are in your hands. If you’re here for the sake
of story, go look for MG because BOF might trigger your logical-system to crash
and you might ended up throwing your computer to Saturn. But if you’re looking
for design, Lee Min Ho, Kim Bum, or expensive objects, go see BOF. This is my
judgement and unless you can prove it otherwise (using the logic of
objectivity), I will not change my mind (even when the girl I liked happened to
love the Korean one, doesn’t mean I liked her less, though, (psst) plus I kinda like Ga Eul, I think
she’s cute, but please don’t tell anybody, I’m counting on you!).
DVD Specifications:
Boys Over Flowers
8 Discs, DVD-9/Double Layered
Manufactured in Singapore
All pictures belong to GROUP 8 except indicated with asterisk (*)
NBL ArticleLOGIC
a Nabil/Skywalker/Rangga Project
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