Boys Before Flowers, episode 1
That was . . . interesting.
This is only the first episode, so we’ll cut it some slack, but the immediate vibe I get from the episode is that the producers are trying way too hard to make this version of Hana Yori Dango the best one yet.
Shinhwa Group? Really? Couldn’t have named it something else? Something that wasn’t the name of the longest running boyband in Kpop? Heh.
Of course, the first ep sets up the rich society and there has to be a lot of fancyness for the viewer to gawk at, buuuut a lot of the sets and props are SO fancy that I just don’t find it believable. Gu Jun Pyo arrives to school by helicopter!!
Gu Hye Sun‘s Keum Jan Di is adorable, but slightly over-the-top. I understand that the Makino character is supposed to be like “What the fuck? Who do you think you are, idiot??” when she first understands the concept of F4, but she just comes off as really loud and brash sometimes. A lot of exaggerated acting from Gu Hye Sun with the eating and the shouting. The scene where she actually confronts Lee Min Ho’s Gu Joon Pyo was nicely done because she was very restrained. My point: the scenes that require her to stay calm and assertive are much better than the ones where she has to act really irritated and annoyed.
Lee Minho‘s Gu Joon Pyo is alright so far. His Domyouji seems unlike Matsujun’s in that his Domyouji is actually one of those wordless, silent, contemptuous, condescending bullies (I almost want to say ‘killer’ because of the first F4 target in the episode) whereas Matsujun’s is a caricature of a big, bad meanie. But the scenes were Joon Pyo is so pleased at himself for thinking he did something really awesome when in fact Jan Di doesn’t even give him the time of day were kind of adorable.
Kim Hyunjoong‘s Rui is HAHAHAHAHAHA-I’M-LAUGHING-BUT-I’M-REALLY-CRYING. Oh man. I can see the director relying on Hyunjoong’s pretty-ness and hoping it’ll carry Hyunjoong through the show but that is soooo not good. I mean, granted, Hyunjoong hasn’t had many lines yet, but his silent-type facade is whacky. He kind of comes off as really cool by doing a lot of intense staring, quiet pondering, but somehow it just feels like he’s a weak actor pretending to be cool.
Hilarious highlights from the episode
Borbes, LOL.
Hyunjoong just playing a violin standing up in the middle of a forest by the school. Yeah. That makes total sense and is not at all farcical.
Hyunjoong puts on a CD and the song that plays is the insert song from “My Girl”!
Most ridiculous English-filled exchange ever.
“YO YO YO MY BROTHER!”
“How did you know I was a chef?” “Because of your delicious looking hands.”
“YOK-SHI, MY BRO, YO!”
I’ll admit, “Yok shi, my bro, yo!” is pretty funny, but let’s not continue this trend of bad English. That wouldn’t be nice to me.
May this drama not be horrible somewhere along the 24 episode road. :P
Amy Reply:
January 15th, 2009 at 1:48 am
No! It is NOT! :P I love him to pieces, but his character needs to do something challenging soon bc it’s such a waste of Kim Bum to just let him play a pretty boy.
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