Fall 2005
Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) is about a financially poor girl named Makino Tsukushi (Inoue Mao) who attends a high school for the super rich through the sacrifices made by her family. As she is different from her classmates in terms of status, money, and power, all she wants to do is pass through each day at school without any issues. Unfortunately, she inadvertently gets involved with Domyoji Tsukasa (Matsumoto Jun), the leader of the powerful group, F4 (Flower 4). Domyoji is known to have a bad temper and when he doesn't like a student, a red note is slipped into the student's locker. The student then gets harassed by other students forcing him/her to leave the school. Since the F4 are heirs to powerful Japanese families who donate to the school, they can do whatever they please; even the teachers don't get in the way. But when Domyoji tries to get rid of Makino, she surprisingly stands up to him. Since people usually cower before him, he is startled and actually develops a bit of an affection for Makino. This starts a rocky relationship between the two, but will there be a happy ending?
Recommendation: Okay, so first of all this drama was based on a popular girl's manga. Since I'm a guy, I don't read girl mangas (not saying that all guys don't read girl mangas) so I can't compare the series to the manga version. I do know that it was a very popular manga and actually the drama got really high ratings. Unfortunately, I have to say that it really didn't do much for me. I thought Inoue Mao acted well, but I just couldn't watch the drama without gritting my teeth sometimes. Man, I hated those three annoying rich girls (although they were probably meant to be annoying) and all the F4 members including Matsujun (he was funny at times) made me cringe. Oguri Shun was descent. That said I actually liked Makino's family and Kato Takako who played the dango store owner was funny too. I understand that the directing team may have wanted to make it feel like a manga at times, but sometimes I think the people in charge should think more out of the box and not necessarily try to match how the characters are in the manga exactly. Also, the more episodes I watched, the more I felt like I was watching a drama really for women (obviously because it's based on a manga for girls). Anyhoo, with all the luxurious items from cars to jewelry that they had to use for the series, I think it was quite amazing. Still at the end of the day, I don't think I would go back and watch this one again, even if you bribe me with a dango.
STORY: 1.0
ACTING: 0.5
DIRECTING: 0.5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 1.0
EMOTIONAL FACTOR: 0.5
3.5 Out Of 5.0 Crowns
when i started watching this drama, i was not too sure if i was going to like it. Everything starts bit over the top and the main character bullying was bit of a turn-off. However, when i got pass all that, it was not all that bad. What i like is the chemistry between the two main leads.
ReplyDeleteI really really like the airport scene at the end of season1. Later i found out that everything was done in one take. man! these guys are really talented. I think that matsumo is someone who can really immerse into a role. He was excellent in this :)
but you are right, there are bit of over-acting (the girl who plays ryu's love interest, domyoji's elder sister).. other than that, it was not that bad.
Yes, I actually watched this drama because I heard it was based on a popular manga series. I thought it was over the top too, but when I recalled that it was based on a manga, I overlooked it and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
DeleteI didn't know that the last scene was done once! I really like to hear about those types of situations because you develop more appreciation for what these actors can do. Amazing.
well have you watched HYD season 2 and the movie. In one of these, when they roll out the end credit, they show the airport scene from season 1 last episode. You get to see that everything was done in one take... it was amazing. You are right, things like these makes you appreciate the actors even more :) Matsumoto jun definitely can take up roles that are challenging. I dont like him much in simple, boy-next-door kindda roles.
DeleteOh, I must have either missed the end credits or didn't pay attention to them. I did see the second season, but not the movie.
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