Boys Over Flowers
4/10
 |
| Boys Over Flowers |
Genre: Episodes:
25 Year: 2009
Romance
Comedy
School
Synopsis:
By chance, Geum
Jan Di is admitted into Shinhwa High- a prestigious high school for the
extremely wealthy. The school is controlled by a group of four students, all
handsome, wealthy young boys, otherwise known as ‘F4’. The F4 take advantage of
their power, and spend much of their time harassing other students. After Geum
Jan Di stands up to the leader of F4, Gu Jun Pyo, she becomes the group's next
target.
Cast:
 |
| Ku Hye Sun (Geum Jan Di) |
 |
| Lee Min Ho (Gu Jin Pyo) |
 |
| Kim Hyun Joon (Yoon Ji Ho) |
 |
| Kim Bum (So Yi Jung) |
 |
| Kim So Eun (Ga Eul) |
 |
| Kim Joon (Song Woo Bin) |
General Thoughts:
Why is this
drama so popular? Seriously why? It’s such a mess. I had such a hard time
writing a synopsis because so much random bullsh*t goes on, and it really
doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. There’s not really any other continuous
plotline aside from ‘Gu Jun Pyo likes Geum Jan Di. Geum Jan Di may or may not
like Gu Jun Pyo’. Oh my god. 25 hours. Why did I stay with it? That’s a whole
25 hours of my life I’ll never get back. That’s the equivalent of being killed
a day earlier. And that’s honestly what it felt like. Seriously
though, it didn’t start off too badly. It was always going to be shallow and a
little immature, but at least the start had some sort of continuing plot- F4
were asshats, and Geum Jan Di was standing up to them and upsetting social
order. Then she was upsetting social order by being Jun Pyo’s girlfriend (which
happened so randomly fast, I might add), and jealous girls were being mean and
F4 had to save her.
 |
| It was weird (and a little creepy) how quickly they were into each other |
 |
| Victims of the void |
I wasn’t
emotionally attached to any of our main characters, except So Yi Jung (and how
much of that was just Kim Bum’s face?), and sometimes Ji Hoo. Our two lead
characters were totally sucky, didn’t have a lot of personality, and made
sporadic, incomprehensible decisions. It makes me mad just thinking about it.
What Was Great:
Oh goodness, this
is a stretch- what did it do to earn those 4 out of 10?
Second Male
Lead Syndrome:
 |
| Why wouldn't you go for this? |
Yoon Ji Hoo was
my favourite of the two boys vying for Jan Di’s heart. He never came across as
a giant wanker the way all the other boys had, and rather than participate in
their torture, he just turned a blind eye. Which in itself isn’t that great,
but when compared to boys heckling other students to suicide, he looks pretty
golden. Then he steps up when Jan Di is in trouble, and looks out for her all
the time. He’s basically just sweet, caring, and hurt from his past
experiences. Ah, Ji Hoo- the soulmate. Personally, I found his character much
more developed (and likable) than Gu Jun Pyo. Originally, I was wanting him and
Jan Di together, but then when her character basically fell apart, I was like
okay, that’s fine. He can be single.
Jung Eui Chul:
 |
| Cannot get enough of this man |
He was
fantastic, and his acting was fantastic and I’m so glad they brought him back for
a few more episodes. I love Jung Eui Chul so much that I don’t doubt that such
a large reason why I hated Gu Jun Pyo was that the first glance we get of him is him being a d*ck to Eui Chul. I wish they’d extended the plotline with Eui Chul, because not only is he a great actor, but his character(s) added some
much needed tension, and gave our other characters room to develop beyond ‘I
kinda like Geum Jan Di’.
 |
| If you're mean to my boy, I probs won't like you |
Pottery
Romance:
My favourite
romance of the drama. I loved how while both Yi Jung and Ga Eul both felt a
pull towards each other, they didn’t really act on it seriously until they were both
emotionally ready. Unlike many female characters, Ga Eul let Yi Jung know
exactly where her heart was at, and in turn, Yi Jung let her know that he was a
weenie and probably wouldn’t treat her right. Regardless, she stuck around and
tried to help him through his heartbreak and anger at his father. I also really
enjoyed that Ga Eul didn’t stand in the way of Yi Jung’s dream, and let him go
to Sweden without being a weepy, whiney K-Drama girl. It also made for an
extremely cute reunion between the two after the time skip, when Yi Jung learns
that Ga Eul has been talking about him to her students. Ah, so adorable.
 |
| "Throw away your misconception that all good girls want nice guys" |
What Wasn’t:
 |
| Not with that hair |
Gu. Jun. Pyo:
I struggle with
dramas where I don’t adore the main male lead, and I HATED Gu Jun Pyo. He
really doesn’t have very many redeeming qualities. Sure, he had some funny
moments, and could also be very sweet to Jan Di, but all that was overshadowed by
his large amounts of obnoxious d*uchebaggery. From the moment he was getting a
laugh out of possibly driving another student to suicide, I had an inkling that
I wouldn’t like this guy. I have no idea why Jan Di chose this violent,
stubborn, arrogant guy over sweet Ji Hoo. Sure,
this decision might have made sense had she always been keen on Jun Pyo, but
the fact that she made the switch from nice to nasty was just ridiculous. Jun Pyo's over-the-top violence, and willingness to get into fights bothered me, as he just had such a horrible underlying character, even if he could cover it up most of the time with put-on cute. It irked me that he was always so ready and willing to punch Ji Hoo. Don’t punch your best friend, mate. That’s not how friends treat each other. Also
Jun Pyo’s hair. What even is that?
 |
| Seriously. How am I supposed to cheer for a guy that drove someone to suicide? Not happening. |
Sloppy
Storyline:
Not having a
consistent plot really hurt this drama for me. It was all over the place, and
as such was massively unbelievable. Honestly, who has this much crazy sh*t
happen to them? I can appreciate that to many people these smaller storylines
can be new and interesting, but it just didn’t cut it for me, particularly when 99%
of all problems were just solved by Jan Di and Jun Pyo deciding that no, they
wouldn’t break up this time around.
 |
| Hmm, maybe I shouldn't let psycho classmates kill my girlfriend. |
Crappy Main
Couple:
Along with my
dislike of Gu Jun Pyo is my dislike for the main pairing as a whole. Both Gu
Jun Pyo And Geum Jan Di lack any real substance. Both are fairly weak characters
with no backbone. They never say what they want, leading to millions of
problems as a result of crappy communication. I honestly don’t understand how
these two people could have a functional relationship with anyone, ever.
Who is Song Woo
Bin?:
 |
| A Fight! Can I come out now? |
Was it really
F4? It felt a lot like F3 most of the time, with Woo Bin rocking up only when
someone needed a good beating. And even that was done by Jun Pyo half the time.
He was only there to make up numbers; we get to the end of the series, and
still no one knows anything about him. There’s only one scene where he gets any
character development, and it only goes for about a minute. He and Yi Jung are
on a bridge and Woo Bin feels like he doesn’t fit in because he’s not the son
of a rich family, but the son of the mafia. Oh my god, where did this come
from? It was a great idea, but was executed horribly. It was possibly one of
the most insightful story-points brought up, yet the writers choose to ignore
this character arch, instead focusing again on Jun Pyo and his relationship
with Jan Di.
 |
| Only real character development is in a flashback |
Re-watch?
Nope. No.
Never. I had to finish this drama as it is constantly raved about and topping
‘must see K-Drama’ lists (Lord knows why), but you couldn’t pay me enough to
sit through that mess again. Sorry. |
| Soz not soz |
No comments:
Post a Comment