Comments | meganbmoore: Meteor Garden

meganbmoore

Meteor Garden

Apr 29, 2007 20:51

So, I've been watching Meteor Garden, the taiwanese version of Hana Yori Dango, off and on for about 2 months now, but I think I have to put it aside for a bit and watch a couple other doramas before getting back to it. (I was thinking Yoshitsune, but I think I want a shorter story first, so either a jdorama or Strange Tales of Liao Zhai as it's ( Read more... )

twdrama, twdrama: meteor garden, jdrama: hana yori dango, dorama

Comments 11

forgottenpolish April 30 2007, 02:37:47 UTC

You think I would let you stop watching MG? Yeah right. You already know all my thoughts. I agree should have been dealt with. But yes, you will finish MG, you will.

meganbmoore April 30 2007, 02:47:53 UTC

You will make a 5 hour side trip when you come to Texas to tie me down in front of the TV if I say I'm giving up on MG...

Anmd it's like I've been saying to you since it happened in my viewing...it's not that it happened, it's how the did the after.

forgottenpolish April 30 2007, 03:03:01 UTC

Yes, five hours is nothing compared to how long I will be in the car in the backseat next to clueless boy. In fact I might go five hours to find some sanity before I kill him out of fursration.

Yes, they missed big time aftwards.

alexandral April 30 2007, 18:08:11 UTC

I was thinking the same when I was watching MG, the hitting is not my cup of tea.. But I thought that I must miss some cultural difference of something. Generally in doramas there is too much of hitting the girls for my taste. And even though I like Makino I still a bit "Huh??" about the fact that she was always ready to hit D. and this was supposed to turn him on. A little weird if I am concerned..

** the end of rant **

But - who knows? Different culture?

meganbmoore April 30 2007, 18:12:47 UTC

I've always thought Makino hitting him made him associate her with his sister-the only other person to ever really call him on his behavior-creating kind of a "safety zone" effect for him.

And yeah, I know it's a "cultural differences" thing, and it's not even the event itself i have a problem with(not that i DON'T have a problem with it) as it was that they just swept it under the rug.

alexandral April 30 2007, 19:21:57 UTC

I've always thought Makino hitting him made him associate her with his sister-the only other person to ever really call him on his behavior-creating kind of a "safety zone" effect for him.

as it was that they just swept it under the rug.

I absolutely agree with you, but this is I think where the main part of differences in culture lies. Like , for example in a case of D. and his sister - in a Western show a relationship like this between siblings would have been shown to be entirely weird.. But in Asian drama - no one bats an eyelid. Sister hitting younger brother - NO PROBLEM! And in the same way I believe it is for D. and Shankai. This is just not a big deal and can be swept under the rug.

And honestly, I can't remember the numbers well but it feels like in every dorama a hero hits herouine at least once, or she gets hit in a front of him.. And if he does not hit her she hits him instead. And it goes on for fathers hitting their sons etc. etc. Quite a lot of hitting is going on! :D

meganbmoore April 30 2007, 19:29:42 UTC

Actually, I batted the eyelids quite a few times at the siblings.

The only other dorama hero i remember hitting the girl is hwangbo yoon hitting chae ohk in the second of of damo, and he was only vaguely aware it was her(hence, no sword) as opposed to some lump getting between him and the person he thought was hurting her.

But yeah, there tends to be a lot of hitting in doramas(and in anime and manga) but i can't think of any other scenes like that one.

reapingfolk April 30 2007, 23:31:41 UTC

That's the thing though - Domyoji DID hit Makino. In volume two of HYD, he slapped her. Hard.

And her immediate reaction? To knock him unconscious with a punch. Meteor Garden was pretty good about staying true to the storyline of HYD, but it still couldn't bridge the medium differences. In the manga, where actions are exaggerated (and a girl Makino's size could take being tied to a car and dragged around the school), abuses like that are accepted because the medium itself is not meant to be realistic. It's different when you see real people play this out on your television screen - the exaggerated form of the manga is inappropriate.

The scriptwriter(s)/producers were trying to stay as true to the manga as possible and still not make the show TOO unbelievable.

meganbmoore April 30 2007, 23:48:21 UTC

you kinda proved my point. In the manga(which I haven't read) she clocks him right back. In Meteor Garden, she just takes it, then has an internal dialogue that makes her sound like an abused girlfriend making excuses. That(and the fact that it happened at the beginning of the manga as opposed to just over halfway through) makes an enormous difference.

Like I said, my problem isn't as much the hitting itself, but the follow up...there's no resolution to it and, as portrayed, it comes cross as "it was wrong, but he feels bad so it's ok" which I doubt is what they wanted to convey, just like I dount the mangaka wanted to say it was ok for him to hit her there, as long as he felt bad afterwards.

reapingfolk May 1 2007, 00:10:32 UTC

No, I agree that her trying to rationalize his abuse was not acceptable ( ... )

meganbmoore May 1 2007, 00:49:44 UTC

I think where we're not quite connecting is that I'm referring to the live action HYD and you to the manga, which I likely should have made clearer in the original post(and am about to after I finish replying) Most people on my flist who would bother reading anything I said on the matter know that I haven't read the manga, just seen the shows. (I've been trying to read it for years but have yet to be able to get past the early art and can't bring myself to start several volumes in when it's better...it makes me sad because I've gotten past art I don't like in books I'm less interested in. But, eventually, I shall persevere ( ... )