Meteor Garden

Not great, not awful either

As a Chinese person, I am not proud to say this is my first complete watch of a Cdrama. Needless to say, it pales in comparison to Kdramas. Like, a lot.

ACTING: The acting isn’t great. It FEELS like they’re acting, which is not a good sign. I think Shen Yue is the best one here. The interactions fall a bit short and seem choppy, and are a bit awkward at times. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the “skip a heartbeat” moment when the two mains finally got together, like I usually do in Kdramas. Also the hitting/kicking/slapping scenes are so staged and unrealistic, they were hard to watch

STORY: I literally rewatched the first episode of Boys over Flowers so I could compare it to MG, and even though that one was filmed 10 years before this one, everything about it was better. The execution, the acting, the story. Cdramas have some rly corny and unnatural elements, like the scene of her kicking him in the face, or him suggesting they hide in the girls bathroom to scare her. It’s just plain extra and weird. Also all 6-7 episodes of Meizuo/Caina were skipped.

CHARACTERS: I’ll admit, I had no idea how much the characters grew throughout the series. Their growth was gradual and natural, which I really liked. The mother was too much, she became annoying, not as a character but as a plot element. They used her too much and repeated the situation too many times.

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Love the drama but definitely some negative points

Just as a starter, I have watched only the Korean and Chinese version of this. Many people (I read other reviews before I did mine) have watched the other versions so mine might be a little uninformed...When I first watched this series it was really good. I actually loved it but at that point I still hadn't seen the Korean version. Just comparing between the two I think they each had better things than the other. For example, in MG the series really tried to get you to like Dao Ming Si rather than Huaze Lei when in BoF they both had their moments. Really to me it wasn't much of a love triangle in that sense. Dao Ming Si had many alone moments with Shan Cai and Huaze Lei really did not. Sure, there was that whole friendship but the creators could have really improved the storyline there. Meanwhile in BoF they have you going between characters. I still can't decide who was better for Geum Jan Di, Gu Jun Pyo or Yoon Ji Hoo? On the other hand, I like how Meteor Garden didn't only focus on the main love triangle. They had some episodes to focus on other characters like Xi Men and Xiaoyou. I enjoyed their part of the story. It could have used some more romance and maybe more elaboration but it was good overall. didn't like Mei Zuo's part of the story because it wasn't captivating. The way the story developed for him just wasn't something that fit with the story. I appreciate that they tried to develop those characters a little more but it just lacked creativity. Wouldn't say it made it worse but it definitely made the whole story a little less enjoyable. Like it just felt like they tried to fill in the story but couldn't tie the ends together. Anyways, looking just at MG, the acting could have been improved but I don't judge it because it kind of made the story more realistic. Several comments say that their kiss scenes showed them too stiff but that's what it's like for real teenagers who are in a first relationship. Someone isn't just suddenly going to be comfortable with kissing if they haven't done it before. Especially with someone who they used to hate. So yes, I agree with others, their acting could be improved but considering the characters they are portraying and their experience with acting, I'd say it's spot on. Looking at the storyline as a whole, I'd say it started off really strong, super interesting actually, It really drifted in the middle but then towards then end it improved. If the marriage episode had been more elaborated or just flat out eliminated it would have been perfect. That episode just ruined it for me. It was hella confusing and I didn't understand it the first time. It wasn't until someone else explained it in a comment on a youtube video that I sort of understood it. I'm going to rewatch it to see if I understand it more but I doubt it. I think if anything was good about that episode was the dance by Dao Ming Zhuang. I actually enjoyed it, given the episode. Despite it's good and bad moments I still think it's worth rewatching. Mainly to try and understand the ending but just as a final note, the OST was amazing. I loved it. All the songs were enjoyable with the drama and on their own. I also loved how they were each used at the right moments. Overall, it's a really good drama.

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This version might be my favorite even over the new Thailand version. Although in typical Chinese drama fashion, there are a LOT of episodes, it’s really well done. I appreciate the fact that they took the things that made me mad about the Korean version and altered them to flow better and keep you from getting too bitter. For example, the relationship between Shancai and Lei is much better in this one. The Korean adaptation actually made me really upset that they didn’t end up together with as much time as they spend developing a real, deep and meaningful relationship between them. This one focused much more on Shancai and Si and the obstacles they went through instead. I also appreciated the “other woman” being an ally for the Shancai and Si rather than a long lasting menace. And let’s not forget this case is adorable. I hadn’t seen Caesar Wu in anything other than The General’s Lady, so I’m very happy I get Netflix so I could watch him in this one. The one thing I had a hard time with is that Shen Yue is so adorable it’s hard to believe them when they call her average or can’t understand why the guys like her. This is definitely re-watchable, though admittedly, the second time around I did skip several episodes and focused on my favorites.

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My Nov 2024 Recommendation Challenge.

Fair warning up front. A lot comparison with the old version & of course, SPOILER ALERT!!!

Meteor Garden... Long time wanna watch this but yet so reluctant cause I usually don't like to watch remake drama. But thanx to CharlieX I finally put this into my completed drama list. Really bring a lot of moment from my youth. Haha...

As usual, let's start with the story...

Story of an ordinary girl from ordinary family, Dong Shan Cai (SC) & one of the wealthiest heir, Dao Ming Si (DMS). SC met DMS in the school, where DMS & his gank (F4) become the king in their school. This time, the story start when DMS accidentally broke SC's phone & SC wanted DMS to pay for the damage. And as the story goes, many things happen between SC & DMS, that make them getting closer with each other.

Sorry just a little introduction of the story. Now what I like & don't & the comparison between the dramas...

What I like:
+ No more bullying!!! Yipee... They eliminate the most iconic yet toxic from this drama. Yeah bullying can't be consider cool anymore for kids these days...
+ F4 card where they usually mark it as the sign of the victim change into Joker card. Where people can challenge F4 for the card game.
+ Our F4 no longer useless rich brats, but they're smart & shining in their own ways.
+ DMS is way more childish. But for me it's more appropriate for him.
+ So many hesitant moment feel by SC for their relationship that's feel more like closer to my heart. I can understand all the doubt in SC's heart.
+ The friendship between the F4 gank are like better. I don't know how to explain this, but I just feel the actor themselves are having better relationship with each other
+ They made Xiao Zi (DMS's fiancé) a bigger role. Oh and I love it. This time this monkey girl not just some random rich girl in one of DMS's life.
+ The closer look into all other F4 member. Like they made the closure between Xi Men & Xiao You. They made Mei Zuo's love story too.
+ No one role of cast left behind. I mean like the random SC's classmate, Li Xin Hui & her friend, until the end still included. Or like Chen Qing He & Zhou Cai Na, where if I'm not mistaken, in the older version it's like they're disappear after SC get closer to F4 gank.
+ All the familiar face of our F4. One more the advantages of watching the old drama is seeing all now familiar face... Haha... Seeing them in one screen now it's like a dream... ^^
+ The ending. Oh I love the ending. This is the cause I up the score again. It feels like this version ending give really closures to our drama....

What I don't like:
- They like to take important scene or story line from other version & just attach it in this version. But at the same time they lost the original version meaning behind that story. Let me explain.
* SC's kick. OMG this it the most shocking yet useless moment this version had. I mean the old version is spontaneously did by SC cause she's pissed by DMS after one incident, it's just something she can't hold inside her anymore. But this version.... They made SC sleep on it, then the next day, she just randomly kick DMS. Oh come on... You already sleep on it, you can't be still that mad, or at least you shouldn't be kick him. But since this one of the most iconic scene from this drama, of course they can't erase it...
* The amnesia story. Oh I quite wait for this to comes out, cause it just show how important SC for DMS. But they made it into the moment of jokes play by DMS.
* The stranded in island from Japan's movie version. In that movie, it's all made up by DMS & SC's parent to prove a point for DMS & SC. Are they really ready to take the world just by themselves or not. But this one... They made it into the jokes play by Xiao Zi.

- A little 'Chinese propaganda'..? I mean in the end they indeed included how important for the youth to make their own way... It's like the gov want to put that thought in their youth's minds.

- All the place product advertisement. Oh My God (Said it like Janice from Friends said it. Haha). This is probably one of the most obvious place product advertisement. I usually not so aware of place product advertisement, but this drama it just so much in your face.... They even made the actor in the drama said the advertisement words... Haha...

Overall: I really l glad I can put this into my watch list. And In the end, they made it relevant for kids nowadays...

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Rollercoaster of fantastic and terrible.

Where do I even start with this? The male leads were awesome- very distinct personalities and complex issues. Si alternated between annoying and adorable. Ximen and Meizou were awesome through the entire show. (Caesar Wu never disappoints.) I never did fully figure out Lei, but he was like a puppy I wanted to take home. Female lead was lackluster. Best friend female was pathetic and I didn’t enjoy the way she worked to turn herself into someone else. It annoyed me that this sad tactic worked. The other sidekicks were all entertaining and fun.
The plot was a rollercoaster ride of intriguing and ridiculous- so much so that I had to take some breaks from watching it. It just got too ridiculous sometimes. I would have liked to see Ximen resolve his issues without the use of a pathetic doormat. He deserved better. They probably could have eliminated 10 episodes worth of sad people staring at each other. I fast forwarded through a good chunk of it. And then we arrived at the last few episodes. I’ve never seen anything so crack addled. Longest and most painful dream sequence ever… and I’m still not sure if or when it ended. It hurt to watch, though.
I might rewatch a few select episodes, or just the first half. The flying face kick was a riot. The continuous head slaps kept me giggling. A lot of it was cute. But it just kept jumping way out into left field.

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I had read so much about this and was quite excited to watch it. I have to start by saying that although I have many criticisms about the drama, it managed to lure me to watching till the end. The main plot is interesting enough (girl from simple background meeting boys from another world) but the story gets so convoluted along the way. The leads went through one drama after another - from kidnapping, stabbing incident, lost in snowstorm, getting scammed, starvation antic etc etc - it is like the producers wanted to do multiple plots within one show. There was also an irrelevant side story (Terence and Caina) - what was that about? And the character of Dao Ming Si's mother - is it possible to have such a wicked mother who can turn around so abruptly at the end? I also didn't appreciate the dubbing - Dao Ming Si's voice sounded like a comic character. 50 episodes are too protracted and can be easily shortened as there were too many unnecessary scenes and flashbacks.

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..........

Hmm idrk where to start but I guess ill just start with what I didn't like and what i liked

What I didn't like:
I hated how every time they actually progress in their rs, It gets ruined again due to a petty fight. Then boom progress, oops another fight nevermind. It's basically a cycle of them fighting and fighting. And It's not even romantic.. they act like stray cats fighting most of the time. It's just fights and fights, and when it's not fighting it's the male lead's mom breaking them up. How did they get to the conclusion that they both like each other? What did they even like about each other... he's obsessive, constantly stalking her and is so paranoid, suddenly liked her after bullying her so much, he's soo violent too like he has SO. MANY. RED. FLAGS! and as for her? idek AHAHHAA she's clueless all of the time i hate it.... and soo ungrateful. okay i get that in a majority of the episodes she didn't like him yet but still whether you like him or not, shouldn't you at least thank him for the efforts he did for you? She's just constantly receiving and receiving.. idek... my memory is bad ahah i forgot a lot about why I didn't really like her that much. OH and another thing, i hate how he forces a kiss please and the kisses r always so.. so awkward. The music? LOL all I can remember is that song that goes 'say something I'm giving up on u' everytime they fight over petty things. I like enemies to lovers... but idek if this was enemies to lovers. This was kinda like enemies to friends to enemies to friends to enemies to friends to frenemies to lovers.

What I like:
The actors are cute. That's all. Especially Dylan Wang (The male lead) hez handsome and his smirkss KSHDLSFLSD


I don't think I would rewatch this.... I wouldn't say it's a waste of time but like... idek.... I guess I'm just picky when It comes to romance dramas, or i think i just didn't like the role Shen Yue played here. I like it more when she's bubbly and expressive just like that role she played in 'A Love So Beautiful', i don't really like how they made her so naive and innocent when Daoming Si expresses himself lol.

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Unhealthy relationships

Bear in mind that everyone writes their opinions based on their specific thoughts of the show. I know that this is considered a classic by many; however, there were just too many things in this show that made me wonder why I was wasting my time:
1) His hair. I know it's because of the manga, but you couldn't mention it and then fix it? It was so ugly and distracting.
2) Ming Si was mean, a bully, and physically/verbally abusive. Shoving her up against walls, throwing food at her, calling her stupid and other names throughout the entire show.
3) why in the world would she like him? I re-watched the early episodes to see if I could figure out when and why she started to like him. Still a mystery. So, in addition to not liking him, I didn't like her, because she obviously had self-esteem problems.
4) The idea that F4 would run a college campus was just laughable. It made a bit more sense in Boys Over Flowers, because it involved a smaller high school, and his parents basically owned the school.
5) Then you've got a crazy girl that did something terrible to Shan Cai, the whole school hated Shan Cai because of it, and Shan Cai forgave her and they became besties. Just no.
6) The F4 characters were flat. I get the idea that they are supposed to be totally popular and unapproachable, but cold and flat it what we got.
7) The dubbing. I don't think they could have possibly found people with worse, more irritating voices for some of the people.
8) The acting was not very good. Especially the two leads - he was just angry all the time and she was always wide-eyed and just seemed like she had no idea of what was going on.
9) The storyline was choppy. The writers gave Shan Cai a storyline with a problem for her that needed to be solved. (1) trying to adapt to college. 2) Trying to deal with F4. 3) needing money to pay off a loan. 4) Crazy girl. 5) Liking 2ML. 6) Mean girls lying and putting her in danger. 7) Kidnappings. The list goes on...) They would run with that story and as soon as it was resolved, they created a new problem. So, the show seemed more like a series of vignettes, rather than a cohesive storyline.
10) Too many problems for Chan Sai. Was this done just to make the number of episodes that there were? Because there were too many episodes. A lot of the "issues" could have been completely left out and turned this into a more watchable show.
11) The dynamics of the main couple were to be arguing ALL THE TIME. This was not, in any way, a healthy relationship. The word that kept running through my head was "toxic".
I might have rated it slightly higher if there had been half the episodes, but by the end I was pretty angry that this was time I was never going to get back. I blame myself for my obsessive compulsion to finish shows, no matter how bad they are.

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Waste of a good start

I started writing this review on episode 30 something and it had a higher rating, then the show just went all crazy and made no sense to me.

First I have not seen the original show so I cannot say if this is better, and I have no idea of the source material so I cannot say of this is just following the material. I had heard the bullying aspects were toned down, which is good for me since I cannot imagine any female should find that attractive.

My biggest issue is like the last 10 episodes.... I mean the break up in London made no sense, then the day together in London was cute but again they keep breaking up and it was annoying at that time, then there was the fake kidnapping and the deserted island, I guess cause everyone has one. Then there was the next "break-up" this time forced by the mom and then the starving to death. In the end the most horrible mother of the year - who should be in jail for letting her son starve to death almost, is suddenly sympathetic, and the female lead outside in the rain for days is fine and nothing happened - in reality she would have been dehydrated and gone into kidney failure and caught pneumonia... and you really do not even see what happened to her after she collapsed, Unless the stupid last episode with the dream and the weird wedding was really she was dead - then that would at least make sense. After writing this I feel like I should lower more score more.

The acting was fine, nothing great. Dylan Wang was fun and cute as the male lead and probably had the most growth, but let's face it no one had any growth and development. In fact I found the lack of growth from the female lead disappointing. Maybe that is acting since she seems to play the same character all the time at least from what I can see. The friends were generally annoying, her crying clinging best friend and his group of friends. I did like Hua Ze Lei bit even he got annoying after awhile. Plus was he just always going to be the third person? I mean in the end everyone is doing something and he is just with Dao Ming Si and Dong Shan Can? Just odd since he had potential to be an interesting character and was definitely well acted.

The music was fine, until the one song played every time anyone in the show had a break up - which was twice every episode I think. So even the music was annoying by the end,

I will stop writing or I will lower my score even more. Just sad cause it started off fine, just a fluff show and that is all I expected, but then it kept getting worse.

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Good drama if you like Dylan Wang.

I will say, the action scenes in this show are not done as well as the Taiwanese adaptation. I like Shan Cai's character development throughout this series, though. The Korean and Japanese dramas don't show too much character development with their main heroine.

The music was better than all three KN, JP, and TW adaptations. With one of the popular American produced song, "Say Something'. It's a decent drama. Just the editing is a bit cheesy, but quite a few Chinese dramas have noticeable special effects. Panning to the same shots more than 4-5 times is a little bit... meh? Still, good show to watch. Dylan Wang is an amazing actor and a great choice to have him play as the male lead. I've seen his other works, I have to say, this one is a favorite of mine.

(Watched on: NETFLIX US)

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