Hana Yori Dango will never go away.
Meteor Shower 1! cdrama. Also known as the mainland version of Hana Yori Dango or the 6th version after the original manga, anime, twdrama (Meteor Garden), jdrama and kdrama (Boys Over Flowers). I'm not going to blog all of this, but figured it would be interesting to check out the hot chinese guys. :) There are already 20 or so episodes out, so I was a little slow at getting myself to watch this. It wasn't too bad.
This starts off with Makino/Chu Yuxun and separately, Doumyouji/Yunhai (a nickname for Xiao Hai) each receiving an acceptance letter into Aliceton University. Yunhai doesn't have his signature perm, but rather 10 inch high spiky hair. Yunhai in a hurry to get to school, causes his taxi to hit Yuxun on her bike. He tries to pay her off, but she doesn't take the cash. The opening visuals featured some car racing and some of the events in the episode lead me to believe that car racing being an important plot point.
The bad:
-Ok, the new Rui/Duanmu Lei is a negative 5 on the Rui-look-alike scale. A definite disappointment after the kdrama version.
-The school uniforms are pretty ugly; plaid trim???
-The dubbing is off and mostly distracting. I guess they are using the actors for their looks and not their ability to speak?
The good:
+It's nice that they are taking liberties with the story. The F4/H4's family wealth all come from cdrama only sources. Lei faints at the sight of blood..amusing. Yuxun has a confrontation with Soujiro/Shaunguan instead of Yunhai. Yunhai only meets the other 3 guys after he goes to school, and has his own confrontation with Shauguan.
+Yuxun and Yunhai are pretty cute together.
+"I hate people using English on me"....hahaha, the funniest asian drama line EVER!
Conclusion: The first episode was fairly fun and the production (without the dubbing) was decent. The preview and ending visuals featured more crying and angst than I care to watch, so I won't be following this drama. It was an interesting interpretation though.
Another summary of Hana Yori Dango and the many versions...
And a music bit:
Masami Okui x May'n 's new song Miracle Upper WL lifts its structure from GLAY's Yuuwaku which isn't bad, but certainly dates me, I suppose. The odd thing is the title. What do you suppose it's supposed to mean?