Shut Up! Flower Boy Band
I was unbelievably obsessed with Flower Boy Ramyun Shop. Every week, I would actually look forward to Mondays, and for the rest of the week, I would watch the raws, then read the recaps, watch the fansubs, then watch the legal official subs. And on top of that, I would gush like crazy about it with my friends. We even got into a (play) fight over who got which boy. (I am not proud... but somehow it rankles me more than I came out on the losing end. LOL.)
And when that ended, as all good things must do, I began to look forward to the next in the Oh! Boy project. Yes, Oh! Boy is predicated on gathering a harem group of boys to "make girls' hearts flutter" but they're backed up by some of the most solid story lines and characterizations I've seen in Korean dramas.
I really enjoyed FBRS: it was a straight-forward romcom with enough self-knowledge and sauciness (real makeout scenes instead of dead fish syndrome! Thank God!) to set it apart from the others. And I couldn't wait for the return of that winning combination in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band.
Instead, I got these punks.
Shut Up! Flower Boy Band isn't a romcom at all, even though it has comedy and a few side dishes of romance. It's mostly a coming-of-age story about the boys in the band as they play music, hang out with each other, and figure out what they want to do with their lives.
The acting is honestly uneven, but they have such fantastic chemistry with each other that it's easy to forgive. Sung Joon as Kwon Ji-hyuk the band's leader anchors the show. He has this great way of expressing emotion across language barriers, or even across the fact that his own character wants to hide his. His (singing) voice is excellent too, not in the way that it's particularly good, but that's it's raw and exactly what you want rock band voices to sound like.
L from the boy band Infinite plays Hyun-soo the main guitarist with a fantastic smirk. He can ice people like no other... though not much else. Lee Hyun-jae (as Do-il the drummer) is even worse, though fandom won't stop swooning over his shampoo-ready swishy hair. Luckily for him, his character doesn't have to do much beyond looking strong and silent in the background (pining after their hairstylist friend). Yoo Min-kyu (as Ha-jin the bassist) is one actor I'm actually looking forward to seeing more from: he's a stronger actor compared to the above two... and yes, he's pretty. Kim Min-seok rounds out the group as Kyung-joong the keyboardist; he is too frickin' adorable. They're highly believable as a pack of friends who care about each other-- it's easy enough to become invested in their friendship that you overlook these individual shortcomings and concentrate on enjoying the drama.
Then there are the girls. (Well, there's also Seung-hoon, Ji-hyuk's main rival, who did a decent and bearably human job at being a challenge. It helped that he wasn't the cause of the drama's main conflict, but that also means I don't have as much to say about him.) What I love about the girls in this drama is that they know what they want and they're not shy about trying to go after it. Even Su-ah, Ji-hyuk's love interest who is about as bland as bland can get. You know the type: the goody two shoes hard-working girl who's poor now because her father is on the run from loansharks. But her saving grace is that she isn't wishy-washy with the men in her life. She's honest about her feelings and calls them out when they're being assholes. Too rare.
I also loved Kim Yerim who was not only a fantastic singer but flirted shamelessly with Hyun-soo. <3
Shut Up! Flower Boy Band (and its standout soundtrack) captures so fantastically the uncertainty, the confusion, the passion, the fun, the angst, and the coolness of growing up. And I have to admit that it made me want to cry a few times, a testament to how well they've constructed these characters. (Either that, and/or I have a weakness for boys who try not to cry.) And I do not cry at any of these things.
So for all that I was obsessed with FBRS, I must say that SUFBB is probably the best Korean drama I've ever seen.
And when that ended, as all good things must do, I began to look forward to the next in the Oh! Boy project. Yes, Oh! Boy is predicated on gathering a harem group of boys to "make girls' hearts flutter" but they're backed up by some of the most solid story lines and characterizations I've seen in Korean dramas.
I really enjoyed FBRS: it was a straight-forward romcom with enough self-knowledge and sauciness (real makeout scenes instead of dead fish syndrome! Thank God!) to set it apart from the others. And I couldn't wait for the return of that winning combination in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band.
Instead, I got these punks.
Shut Up! Flower Boy Band isn't a romcom at all, even though it has comedy and a few side dishes of romance. It's mostly a coming-of-age story about the boys in the band as they play music, hang out with each other, and figure out what they want to do with their lives.
The acting is honestly uneven, but they have such fantastic chemistry with each other that it's easy to forgive. Sung Joon as Kwon Ji-hyuk the band's leader anchors the show. He has this great way of expressing emotion across language barriers, or even across the fact that his own character wants to hide his. His (singing) voice is excellent too, not in the way that it's particularly good, but that's it's raw and exactly what you want rock band voices to sound like.
Click to viewL from the boy band Infinite plays Hyun-soo the main guitarist with a fantastic smirk. He can ice people like no other... though not much else. Lee Hyun-jae (as Do-il the drummer) is even worse, though fandom won't stop swooning over his shampoo-ready swishy hair. Luckily for him, his character doesn't have to do much beyond looking strong and silent in the background (pining after their hairstylist friend). Yoo Min-kyu (as Ha-jin the bassist) is one actor I'm actually looking forward to seeing more from: he's a stronger actor compared to the above two... and yes, he's pretty. Kim Min-seok rounds out the group as Kyung-joong the keyboardist; he is too frickin' adorable. They're highly believable as a pack of friends who care about each other-- it's easy enough to become invested in their friendship that you overlook these individual shortcomings and concentrate on enjoying the drama.
Then there are the girls. (Well, there's also Seung-hoon, Ji-hyuk's main rival, who did a decent and bearably human job at being a challenge. It helped that he wasn't the cause of the drama's main conflict, but that also means I don't have as much to say about him.) What I love about the girls in this drama is that they know what they want and they're not shy about trying to go after it. Even Su-ah, Ji-hyuk's love interest who is about as bland as bland can get. You know the type: the goody two shoes hard-working girl who's poor now because her father is on the run from loansharks. But her saving grace is that she isn't wishy-washy with the men in her life. She's honest about her feelings and calls them out when they're being assholes. Too rare.
I also loved Kim Yerim who was not only a fantastic singer but flirted shamelessly with Hyun-soo. <3
Shut Up! Flower Boy Band (and its standout soundtrack) captures so fantastically the uncertainty, the confusion, the passion, the fun, the angst, and the coolness of growing up. And I have to admit that it made me want to cry a few times, a testament to how well they've constructed these characters. (Either that, and/or I have a weakness for boys who try not to cry.) And I do not cry at any of these things.
So for all that I was obsessed with FBRS, I must say that SUFBB is probably the best Korean drama I've ever seen.