My experience of this drama was so much different to my experience of watching You're Beautiful. It was a long time ago that I watched the original version of Boys Before Flowers, Hana Yori Dango - probably at least 9 months - and so the story was much less fresh in my mind. I think that was the problem with You're Beautiful, in that I could remember so much about every plot turn and character development in Ikemen Desu Ne that I couldn't be as sucked in as I know I could have been. Even though the backbones of the plots of Boys Before Flowers and Hana Yori Dango remained the same, some of the little details were changed between the two versions, and I can honestly say these were my favourite parts.
JanDi (Makino) is a poor girl that by chance gets to attend the highly prestigious school which is ruled over by F4, four young men who have everything on their side and get everything they want. Their leader, JunPyo (Tsukasa) targets JanDi for daring to talk back to him, but eventually starts to fall for her, even though she likes another member of F4, JiHoo (Rui). The other two men, YiJung (Sojiro) and WooBin (Akira) generally just follow the others around and do as they are told. It is basically the story of the trails and tribulations of their relationship.
From Google. WooBin, JunPyo, JanDi, JiHoo and YiJung. To begin with, I was like 'ah these boys aren't so hot' but they really grow on you.
I could see the reason that this was so highly rated, but I do have to admit, I still think I prefer Hana Yori Dango. I couldn't help but find JanDi somewhat annoying, and there was little to no connection between her and JiHoo. I was so rooting for Makino to choose Rui over Tsukasa, but I found my allegiances reversed in this drama, which I guess was the way it is supposed to be. Having said that, one thing that I adored about this version was something that was completely overlooked in the original, and that was the character of GaEul, JanDi's best friend. I was cheering for her subplot relationship with YiJung more than I was for the main characters most of the time, and even though their ending was only hinted at and never really confirmed, the whole sub story was really sweet. In the original, the best friend (I think her name was Yuki, although I cant even remember) came across as more of a stalker, and not as much of a good friend to Makino.
Did I cry? No. Was I close? A few times, but never from anything sad or upsetting happening in the story. The one thing that moved me in this drama was the acting of Kim HyunJoo, who played JunPyo's sister. She was really powerful.
I liked it, but in the end, once again, the original wins outright. If only they could merge the best parts of the two together. Although Boys Before Flowers gets plus points for having Shinee in their soundtrack.
Apparently, my version of connections for Korean dramas is going to be what bands the actors are in. However, this isn't going too successfully as I still have very limited knowledge of kpop. JiHoo is the leader of SS501, WooBin is in T-Max, and both are bands I have heard of but know nothing about. Sigh.
Next is Personal Taste, and something brand new.
<3 x
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