Hana Yori Dango Korea

Source: Wikipedia

Boys Before Flowers (꽃보다 남자) is a 24-episode South Korean television drama broadcasted by KBS2TV in 2009. This is the Korean drama adaptation of the popular manga Hana Yori Dango. It is the equivalent of Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden and Japan’s Hana Yori Dango, and thus making it the third televised version to air on television screens.

The series revolves around a girl, Geum Jan-di, who gets a scholarship to enter a prestigious school. Once there, she sees that the popular group is the “F4″ (short for “Flower 4″), a group of young rich boys. Eventually, she begins to like one of them, Ji-hoo, but also discovers that the leader of the group, Joon-pyo, is falling for her. The series is based around this triangle and how it gets resolved.

Here are the characters:

 

Koo Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di

I personally think she suits the role. Well, she’s older than Lee Min Ho in real life but her acting and face made me think that she’s just a teen! So cute and funny!

 

Lee Min Ho as Goo Joon Pyo

Alright. Here’s the character that I adore most!  I dunno, but his charms absolutely caught me. I think he’s the most effective among the actors who played Domyouji’s role (but MatsuJun still runs second, by just an inch XD). He’s funny and handsome, geesh. I envy you, Jan Di.

 

Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo

Ji Hoo is actually the very first character who caught my attention (even before Jun Pyo). He was emhasized in the early episodes of the series (that’s why I noticed him right away). He’s good-looking and I don’t know if it’s just me but he looks like Oguri Shun in some angles. I love it when he smiles – believe me, he looks really refreshing when he does! XD

 

Kim Bum as So Yi Jung

Okay. Initially, I thought his character is going to be played by Kim Ki Bum (a cute korean actor XD) and then all of a sudden, I was convinced that my eyes lied to me. It’s just Kim Bum not Kim KLBum. Oh well. While watching the series, I thought he’s cute and he did justice in his role. Omoshiroi.

 

Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin

He’s my least type among the four gorgeous men. He doesn’t speak too much – more like Takashi Morinozuka of OHSCH. He’s cute, though.

 

Witch Yoo Hee

Witch Yoo Hee, another great korean drama aired by GMA 7. It is comedy-romance in genre and actually one of the k-dramas that captured my interest. The story is about a “witch” who transformed into a beautiful lady, in the character of Yoo Hee. Yoo Hee has never had a boyfriend because all the guys he dated refused to ask her out again due to her nature. Until he met a guy who crashed in her car in an accident, in the name of Chae Mu Ryong (or Marlon in the tagalized version) who eventually turned into Yoo Hee’s fake boyfriend. It has 16 episodes.

Here’s a synopsis from Wikipedia:

Ma Yoo Hee (Han Ga In) is the executive of an advertising company. She would never be caught dead wearing make-up and only dresses in black. Her hairstyle and glasses are very business like looks, her only enjoyment in life appears to be the times when she’s criticising everything and anyone. All of her employees and co-workers fear her and she is constantly talked about when she’s not around. Her stern and harsh nature has earned her the nickname ‘witch’ When it comes to romance she is hopeless. No matter how many blind dates she has, not one has ever led to a second. The reason for this is her negativity and her inability to loosen up and express herself. She is, however, completely oblivious of her faults and cannot comprehend why she is so bad when it comes to love.

Chae Mu-Ryong (Jae Hee) is an aspiring chef with a passion for French cuisine. He has an innate ability when it comes to taste and perfection. Every piece of food and every plate he prepares must be perfect. However this tends to get him into a lot of trouble because when working in a kitchen every moment counts and there is not possibly enough time to take so much care in preparation and decoration of meals. His criticism of a head chef’s cooking causes him to lose his job. His parents have never really approved of his aspirations and dreams to be a famous chef and insist he return to medical school. He decides to enroll back into medical school but changes his mind at the last minute and decides not to.

Mu-Ryong discusses everything with his best friend and ends up going on a blind date to pretend to be someone else who backed out at the last minute. He declines at first since he already has a girlfriend, but his friend offers him money, and warns him however that the woman he will be meeting is rather different.

The woman he meets is Yoo Hee, and while under normal circumstances she would be rude, brash and boring, she tries to be nice and happy in an attempt to succeed on the date. However, her pretending is not very convincing and Mu-Ryong figures that it would be a matter of time before she loses it. The date ends when Mu-Ryong falls asleep for a moment, resulting in Yoo Hee throwing a glass of water at his face and calling him rude. He retorts back to her also, telling her to take care of her appearance the next time she goes on a blind date. The two then leave on bad terms.

While delivering food from his father’s Chinese restaurant, Mu-Ryong becomes involved in a car accident, coincidentally with Yoo Hee. They exchange insurance information and Yoo Hee learns that he lied to her on their date, realizing that he is 1 year younger than her, and that he met her only as a favor to a friend.

Yoo Hee demands the money for the damage to her car to be paid within a week. However, Mu-Ryong doesn’t have any money, and yet Yoo Hee is unwilling to compromise with him. He decides to use his school tuition, which was given to him by his parents, to pay for her car. However, he loses the money after being mugged on the way to pay her.

Mu-Ryong tells Yoo Hee he doesn’t have the money but is willing to work it off, no matter how long it takes or what he must do for her to pay her back. Yoo Hee decides that Mu-Ryong could repay her by working as her house keeper, since she continuously looses her previous keepers.

Meanwhile, Mu-Ryongs girlfriend Seung Mi, who works at her father’s restaurant, is expecting a new head chef: Johnny Kruger, a world renowned chef, who also happens to be Mu-Ryong’s idol and an acquaintance of Yoo Hee as well.

The way the characters relate in the story is quite similar to other k-dramas like there’s a contract and there’s something like this and that. But what made it different to others is the way an event happened. The creativity on choosing the precise situations in order to show the characters’ progress is very well done.  Viewers of all ages would definitely enjoy this drama.

Autumn In My Heart

Endless Love: Autumn In My Heart is actually one of the first great k-dramas aired on Philippine TV (and on Korean TV, as well). Yun Joon Suh (played by Song Seung Hun) and Choi Eun Suh (played by Song Hye Kyo) are the leads of this drama, aired with 16 episodes. Here’s a synopsis from Wikipedia:

The story begins during the teenage years of the two main characters: Yoon Joon-suh (played by Choi Woo Hyuk) and Yun Eun-suh (played by Song hye-Kyo). They are the children of a rich professor and believed they are biologically brother and sister until Eun-suh gets in an automobile accident.

After blood tests were carried out by the doctor on Mr and Mrs Yun for Eun Suh’s transfusion, the Yuns find out that Eun-suh belongs to a Mrs Choi, and Choi Shin-ae (played by Lee Ae-Jeong), is the Yun’s biological daughter. At first, only the parents of Shin-ae and Eun-suh knew about this, but eventually, Shin-ae discovered the truth after she got into a fierce argument with her non-biological mother over a teddy bear she received from her biological father. Eun-suh only discovered the truth after Shin-ae wants her biological parents to take her in. In the end, the two daughters were returned to their rightful parents. Eun-suh now lives with the Choi family, where her biological father is dead and her widowed mother operates a small restaurant living in abject poverty.

Years went by, and in the duration, the Yun family went to the United States, where Jun-suh (now played by Song Seung-heon) returns to South Korea as a successful artist. He went back to the town he lived in, where he encountered his old friend, Han Tae-seok (played by Won Bin). They both stay at the hotel where Eun-suh (now played by Song Hye-gyo) works as a telephone receptionist. Tae-seok (who doesn’t know about the entire brother and sister mixup that happened earlier) fell in love with Eun-suh and played games with her until she was fired from her job. One day Eun-suh saw Joon-suh and followed him to the beach where he was with Yumi (his fiancee) and Tae-sok and the two “siblings” finally meet after ten years.

Both Eun-suh and Joon-suh pretended to have a sibling relationship in front of the others at first but Shin-ae (now played by Han Chae-Young) – angry at Eun-suh for taking away Tae-sok – exposed the two after she found a love letter Eun-suh had written to Joon-suh.
As a fight between Jun-suh and Tae-seok grows over their professed love for Eun-suh, she discovers she has leukemia (the same illness that took her biological father’s life). She didn’t tell anyone until the disease was at a terminal stage. All hope was lost by now, and Eun-suh died as Jun-suh was carrying her around the beach where they spent her birthday as teenagers.

Before Eun-suh died, she told Jun-seo not to follow her in death, and to continue living. However, Jun-suh, grief-stricken by the death of his lover and “sister”, allowed himself to be struck by a truck (ironically the story starts with Eun-suh being struck by a truck), and he died shortly afterwards.

My Review

Well, this drama is a really good one. Especially to me, who likes and prefers drama with a romantic-comedy genre. The twist and turns of the story are very unique and complex. I recommend this drama to all of you who haven’t watched it yet. Song Hye Kyo acted really well in this drama >_< And as far as I can remember, Autumn in my Heart is her first exposure in the Filipino channel. I can still remember my friends talking non-stop about this sensational drama… aww, brings back memories *tears fall*

Two thumbs up for this drama!

I’m back to the K-Drama Craze!

I’m so addicted to it… Again! XD 

Well, I have been an addict since the time korean dramas stormed the Philippines. If I could remember it right, I think it was “Bright Girl” from GMA 7 — the first k-drama aired and dubbed in the Philippine TV. Then, a lot more followed: Stairway to Heaven, Dae Jang Geum (Jewel in the Palace), Full House, Love Story In Harvard, Witch Yoo Hee and a lot more! (If you can observe, all of the titles I’ve mentioned above are from GMA 7… yeah, I’m a big kapuso fan XD)

Currently, I’m sooo addicted to Dal Ja’s Spring >_< Lee Min-Ki, who is the lead male character in the series (He is Kang Tae Bong in the original drama and Philip Kang in the tagalized version) is a real cutie! I’m so addicted to him *faints* XD

 

Thanks to Dal Ja’s Spring, I’m back to the K-Drama Craze!