Boys Over Flowers - Don't Think Love is One-Sided - Desert Rose Band

YouTube ^ | 06 November 2020 | Mary Van Deusen

[mairdie]

A Korean drama music video about the relationship between the leader of a group of boys, and an independent female who wins a scholarship to their elite school after stopping a student suicide.

For a more romantic music video, there's also one from the Chinese drama, Love O2O. The red dress is their formal marriage attire. That video shows the parallel between their online gaming marriage and the real-life marriage they've waited two years for.

Love O2O - Say It Once - Glass Pear

These dramas have more of the 1950s American morals than anything else I've seen.

[mairdie]

"Boys Over Flowers" is a Korean drama about four rich young heirs and the poor girl who obtains a scholarship to their prestigious high school. Because of the objections of his mother, the hero is always being forced toward richer marriage partners. When he is literally forced into an arranged marriage, his character is weak enough that he keeps asking others to make the decision to not marry for him. But his best friend won't break his wrist, the girl he really loves won't tell him not to get married, and the woman he's supposed to marry won't let him go easily, even when he begs on bended knees.

The drama's last major problem has him injured and developing amnesia, and no one telling him directly that he's in love with the heroine and not the girl who swears he had been in love with her. The heroine takes an extreme measure to shock him into remembering her.

She might have been better off with the second love interest who always stands patiently aside for his friend.

[mairdie]

PING to a Korean and a Chinese drama music video.

[reed13k]

Based on the Japanese manga and shows-’Hana yori dango’

[mairdie]

I’ve read about the other versions and I’m looking forward to finding them. I watched both Chinese and Korean versions of Sungkyunkwan Scandal and really enjoyed comparing them.

[reed13k]

to my mind the best Japanese version was this one;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hana_Yori_Dango_(TV_series)

My family [wife is Japanese + 2 girls are fluent ...I’m just a subtitle reader] felt Matsumoto Jun [known more for singing in the band Arashi] and Mao Inoue made this great and that it was closest to the manga.

[mairdie]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I just went and found the Mandarin Chinese one and started that. I’ll look for the Japanese one as soon as I get thru it. Great to know!

Give my best to your wife and daughters. I’ve had better luck with Korean dramas and some Chinese. I’d love good pointers to Japanese ones, if they could!

[Steven Scharf]

Not to be out done, Thailand’s most prolific TV production company is doing their own version with two of their biggest stars as part of the cast.

F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers (2021) https://mydramalist.com/50007-boys-over-flowers

Fueled by pandemic binge watching Bright Vachirawit Chivaaree & Win Metawin Opas-iamkajorn have taken the Thailand and Southern Asia by storm with a hit TV show, 2gether (and its 5 episode sequal Still 2gether) that has gone global. The shows hashtag trended # 1 in Asia every week during the summer. Before their new found fame, Bright had supporting roles in other shows and was a TV show host, but Win had never done anything outside of school plays. Everything they do turns to gold based on their performance.

The other three main actors are making their debut with F4 Thailand. They will all be big stars on the coattails of this drama.

[reed13k]

I saw a version of the Japanese one on youtube but it had extra stuff on the screen so they could try to avoid direct copyright...still an option.

[reed13k]

There’s also an anime version from ‘97 but I haven’t seen it.

[mairdie]

Great news. Looking forward to that.

I have no idea why Asian dramas are so compelling. I do know that I love the high moral ideals. It feels like I’m watching 1950s TV done with spectacular cinematography and much better acting. The one thing that took a while to accept was the youth of the actors in situations more appropriate for people in their 40’s. But once I got over that, it was just fantastic.

I wrote scripts for a while and was agented in Hollywood for two years. The work that goes into these dramas is amazing. But there is a problem I often see where the show goes at a particular pace, and then the last episode goes like it’s being chased by the hounds of hell. The only thing I can think is that it’s caused by some production issue I don’t understand. When I did a spec script for Forever Knight, I learned that they were desperate for Canadian writers because their contracts required a certain percentage of Canadian/American people in main positions. Every Canadian production member they found, meant a free slot to go after the American ones they wanted. I keep wondering what the Asian issues are that I don’t understand.