Meteor Garden

Simple, feel-good generic university love

I watched this in a few days as background while studying and I enjoyed it because for most of the time it's pretty simple so you don't have to stay 100% concentrated at all times.

Plot is rather simple and typical. I'm not going to lie, it was a bit slow in the beginning as expected and the conflicts were the same over and over again until episode 30 I would say. Got a bit tiring after a while, but it slowly got better and the characters started to grow on me too, although I originally really found Si rather despicable. I did however fully enjoy the small side plots and the backstories of Lei, Meizuo and Ximen. Xiaoyou is the sweetest character too! Really like Jing and Xiaogeng as well!

Not the best, and you could definitely skip it, but it's still rather sweet and feel-good. I do not regret finishing this show and it truly made me miss Shanghai a lot.

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a rollercoaster of emotions!!

Meteor garden became my all time comfort drama just when i started watching it. I do agree that this is unnecessarily long and a bit cringe too. But for me, this was everything. The way the scenes flowed was crazy. The unbreakable love between Si and Shancai made them to never give up on each other. Daoming Si is like the biggest red flag guy ever but the way he loves Shancai made him greener than a green flag. I was so hooked up on the drama. Other love stories was beautiful too. I sometimes cried, smiled, laughed and thrilled. That was a literal rollercoaster. I will never get enough of those mixed emotions. The actors did a great job! And the osts were so amazing i still listen to em. Whenever i have a free time, i rewatch it. This drama made a huge impact on me.
I do recommend it but i cant make sure that you will love it.

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Amazing ML boring FL

I loved the storyline (partially), I loved the actors, especially Dylan Wang, amazing acting. But Shancai, girl... So dull, so boring, i do not like how the actress portrayed the character. if it was a different plot, or actress maybe it would be better. Also, him being super rich and leading one kind of life, would never work in real life, because she is just so basic... Boring in a way. She does not need anything, does not do anything, and at some point, they even give her money to help her... I do not know... I really need a different story (a little bit changed). Also when Dylan acts that he is in a relationship with someone else... Like it needs more of this drama. And the ending...
Switch Shancai's role for someone else, change the plot a bit and you have perfect series.

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Pineapple ⚜️ Persuasion °7.4° °VG°

Shen Yue (A Love So Beautiful, Be Yourself) is Dong Shancai. She's just an ordinary girl. Some even call her ugly, though this actress is a cutie. She's been accepted at Ming De University, and that's a big deal. That's where rich and privileged kids go. It's not long before Shancai learns that “rich and privileged” is a term interchangeable with monsters. There's some mean guys that are at the top of the school's hierarchy (they really aren't that mean, however). Shancai has a run in with one of them right away. She doesn't care who they are, they should be brought down a peg!

Dylan Wang (The Rational Life-7) is the worst ine as Dao Ming “Si”. Don't misunderstand: Mr. Wang is an excellent male lead. He isn't everyone‘s type. He plays the tortured guy who's chosen to become the torturer regularly. Toxic, angry, and bitter seem to come naturally to him. He can also express intense love and desire, and he cleans up well. I'm a fan. In Love Between Fairy and Devil-8.9 he's fabulous. You guessed it, Wang's the DEVIL. The two leads in that show must role-reverse, and it's shocking to see him act the innocent girl ~ He's fantastic. In MG, he gets cuter with every episode ~ All because of Shancai. In the beginning, he tells his friends that their idea of the perfect date sounds “gross”. So, he's childish and has some growing up to do.

Darren Chen (The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty) is Hua Ze Lei, Si's best friend. Shancai falls for him first. Most women do. Lei is genuinely kind and sincere. At times, Lei's character is ill-defined and often difficult to u/s. He is actually boring. He makes some mistakes along the way, too. The other two friends are more on the periphery and fodder for 2ndary romances. Caesar Wu (Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng, General's Lady) plays Xi Men Yan, and Leon Leong (Definitely Not Today, My Love, Enlighten Me) portrays Feng Mei Zuo. For the record, Qinge (Liu Yin Hao from Swordsman's Romance) is caustic. His character is awful.

Based on the Japanese manga series Boys Over Flowers, written by Yoko Kamio, MG is a 2018 release that is a remake of the 2001 Taiwanese show. Other than Japan, Korea did it first in 2009. Their production of Boys Over Flowers-8.3 hit the international scene and took the world by storm. That show not only changed Korean culture, but it started Kdramas’ climb to world domination. They're just about there, now.

Si, not accustomed to hearing the word “no” falls for Shancai. Falling for him would never occur to her. She hates him too much. However, he starts to adjust to her. His sister is on board. She can see how good Shancai is for Si. But Si's mother will not stand for this riff-raff influencing her son.

Back to sis. SIS-a-Li-cious! I love her. She notices Shancai's talent for cooking and starts working with her. (Her first step? POETRY! 😅) Shancai enters a contest and wows them with a recipe she devised based on the oh-so-common everyday dish, 8 treasure noodles. She did it with a 🍍 sauce. Si's food favs are: Kung Po chicken, braised eggplant, sweet and sour pork ribs, and DanDan noodles. ME TOO! Don't watch this hungry.

Why doesn't somebody tell Shancai that what's happening with her friend is none of her business? She can't be there to protect her friend from life. That doesn't do her friend any good, anyway. Shancai is taking on a friend's problems as if they're her own, and as if she can fix them. We are supposed to support our friends but there's a thin line between altruism and arrogance, sometimes. Furthermore, Si deserves to have her priorities on him. I know of what I speak. Relationships are optional. No one should enter one unless that person is willing to make adjustments and sacrifices in order to have a successful love life. It's a big adjustment, melding your life with someone else's. We have to be able to whittle down some parts of our personality, however, we shouldn't do too much of that. It's a delicate balance.

Si has fallen for a practical girl. He buys her 520 roses. She counts them and comes up with 519! She counts again a couple times. And then she lets him know: They gipped us one. Can't she just enjoy herself? Si is adorable, but he is inclined towards tantrums. Early on, it's: “If I'm a stupid pig, you're the stupidest pig ever!” He's just passionate, and Shancai is no shrinking violet. He has justifiable anger that he expresses in wrong ways, but he loves fully and completely. It takes awhile, but he starts to cuddle her and she starts letting him. Si won't waiver, and he's never boring. What more can a woman ask for? You have to wait until ep33 for their first kiss, but it's swoony.

“I'm very frightened of your fighting spirit.” Shancai is tough. She's going to need every scrap of her scrappiness. The show is comprised of them falling in love and then Si's mother trying to rip them apart. She's ruthless. But, I don't think Shancai knows that quitting is an option. Eventually, the four boys begin to acknowledge Shancai's unyielding personality that is like her namesake: a weed that can never be destroyed.

Eps48&49 are loaded with flashbacks & dreams. It's too much. However, the last half of ep49 is wrap-up and pay-off. We get dividends of warmth and glimpses of life going forward for many of the characters. After so much drama, pay-off is nice.

That the bones. When it comes to the filmcraft, there's 50 episodes, so lots of the show is just living life with these folks. It's intermittently clunky and then smooth. It's mostly nice, but some stretches are slower than others. There's a bar in the show where people tell the bartender what mood they're in and what they want their drink to represent, and he brings them something. That's actually inspired… in-spirit-ing😉. There's a Casablanca reference that is pretty impressive writing. The filming of the Ep1 kick is great. Their parties look like a fun time. I was wishing they could have spared us the BOF amnesia motif, and God bless them, they did. I'm downright jealous of some of the fashion. Many of the women are gorgeous, but there's just as many a female character who is not looking her best. Oh my. That outdoor house. It's one of the swankiest structures I've ever laid eyes on.

So, let's Compare MG to BOF, one of my gateway Kdramas.

BoF feels like a pageant or a stage production compared to MG. They are each unreal, but in different ways. BoF feels more alive. MG feels ,more like a dream sequence. They ask much nosier questions in the Chinese version, but much of the dialogue in pre-2019 modern-day dramas is unrealistic and wooden. MG is much better than the average from that era and modern-day Cdramas have come a long way.

Cdrama men are more masculine. They're not as pretty. They are much less emotional. It seems more culturally conservative than BoF, except it's more forward, sexually. There's a comment that these 2 are both adults and what they do is up to them. That would have scandalized our BOF crew.

Kdramas tend to glorify wealth too much, while Cdramas project unease over wealth. It's too close to capitalism, apparently. Si describes to Shancai what her benefits are by becoming his gf. It's pretty tame. Just in trying to woo Jandi, Jun Pyo spends 20k on a makeover. On the flip side, I love Si's house. It's just a touch industrial with muted shades, soft lighting and beautiful artwork that blends in perfectly. MG shows rich people with a fraction of the service staff that the Gu house has in BoF. In MG, rich people fix their own leaky pipes. The F4 gang in BoF are ridiculously 💲wealthy💲. The Chinese dudes are described as men who are very accomplished in their studies. They have money, but the focus was more on their accomplishments. The BoF boys are much meaner - mainly Gu Jun Pyo. He's a monster.

MG is adorable. Bof is melodrama at its best. It starts funnier but turns into more of a tearjerker. MG didn't tear me up much until around episode 30. Jun Pyo is a more needy ML and there's more love triangle tension. Korea just can't get enough of it for some reason.

MG has better 2ndary romances.The one with Zoe Cana is outstanding. MG's warmth radiates more. Some especially warm scenes are when Shanghai has dinner with one of the housekeepers. It's very sweet. They spend more time dedicated to the side romances and there's much less drama. I love the extra time with the rest of the gang.

It's nice having more time to breathe. It would have been nice to see a little more of Jun Pyo & Jandy having fun together.

The story, in all of its iterations, is for romance junkies. I like it enough to watch it in all of its iterations. I do think Bob's execution is superior to MG's but they are both great watches.


QUOTES🗣️

Some things are only meaningful if they happen right then and there.

It's so hard to face my own feelings

Even the spring wind wants to chase your smile.

The dark circles under your eyes accentuate the beauty and sadness of a broken heart.

You have to learn to express your emotions in order to {see things clearly,} face reality and make the right decisions.


〰🖍 IMHO

🎬 7.5🖊️〰7 🎭7.5 💓8 🦋7 🌞7 🎨8.5⚡5 🎵 8.6 😅7 😭5.5 😱2 🤢0 🤔4 💤5.7 🔚8

Age 13+ violence and blood dating adult situations (tame)

Re-📺? Doubtful
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

🌐💓 -
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Wait, My Youth-8.4

Romance junkies only: Accidentally in Love-6.5 ‘18 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine but many object to an outrageous stunt the ML pulls,
Boss & Me-7
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Hidden Love-7.8

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To long of a show

I have a very hard time with this show. It kind of dragged a lot! So much could have been cut out.

The acting was ok. Dylan Wang I think did the best job. Shen Yue did ok. I felt that her part and Darren Chen’s part kind of got on my nerves. I get he was “helping” but it drug on to long and got to the point of being boring.

I sort of liked Boys over Flowers, but same as this show... the FL was to slow to accept their love for each other. Or accept her own feelings for him. I think that is my biggest pet peeve about the Boys Over Flowers shows. Also, the mother’s interface in their love life. Those kind of show get on my nerves and I lose interest in them fast.

Now the music! Oh I love the entire OST! I had to buy it in MP3. It is one of the MANY Asian drama soundtracks I listen to at night. I think that is the true highlight of the entire show for me.

Rewatch? Ya if I am really bored and have a strong desire to watch it again but sad to say I will skip a lot of parts!

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I loved this show a lot ... I haven’t read the novel nor have I watched the Taiwanese meteor garden to compare to it but I did watch boys over flowers the Korean version tbh I prefer this over that for sure .The main lead Dylan wang (doaming si) is extremely good looking and his acting skills aren't amazingly woah but it is definitely very good for a rookie actor and the actress shancai (I don’t remember her name ) is also really good and the chemistry also was amazing I didn’t like the acting of meizo and ximen and even the older sister of doaming si that’s y I rated the acting and casting a little low it was good to watch it coz the friendship in this was shown well compared to the Korean one there it seemed like the other 2 friends were his side kicks here it seemed like true friendship between the 4 and the fact that in this university was for elite students which is good rather than a university just for rich kids in bof was annoying .. The only problem is I thought the show was dragged a little longer with all the extra drama which I didn’t think was even necessary but overall this drama was fab it’s a must watch it’s really good I’ve watched it like 100 times lol coz I loved the chemistry so much it’s too but ( but only the kissing scenes were too off for me I didn’t get the feeling in it but it’s k coz almost all Chinese dramas have very off kissing scenes but romance was very good ) especially the necktie scene was too cute loved it

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What in the LSD trip did i just watch

It started off pretty solid. I immediately felt the chemistry between the actors was on par especially F4s friendship. Daoming Si is portrayed as a bad boy but not was entertaining. I laughed when they said they were polite to females when in fact they really werent. Huaze lei was pretty rude to well. Everyone. Daoming si literally threw a cake in a girls face, on top of force kissing, insulting, pushing and other things to shancai. Ximen was a literal playboy. Dropping women quick after leading them on. Disregarding peoples feelings when he acknowledged he led them on etc. The only half gentleman was Meizou but i kind of got stalker vibes from him.

The plot started off hilarious. The face kick scene then following mummy scene still makes me giggle. The roses was very romantic and made me jealous no ones ever given me 520 roses but i feel that would probably be extremely expensive and a waste of money if im being honest. The show did drag on in the middle. We could have did without the whole cooking show part since it didnt even matter to DS's mom since she didnt come in first and lets be honest, even if she did it probably wouldnt have mattered.

I feel a lot of the misunderstandings could have been avoided with communication. Why is this a recurring theme in dramas? Lack of communication causing unnecessary problems. Like i get it, if you didnt have the argument or what ever the plot wouldnt move forward but its so reliant on the lack of communication aspect i feel a better show could be produced if we didnt have that whole thing going on.

The whole parent breaking up relationship issue is probably cultural to me. Also not born in that class to understand so while it annoys me, i probably just dont understand enough to go into it.

Music choice. Could have had a few options other than the one sad song (say something). The other sings used were nice but say something im giving up on you was just overplayed to the point of annoyance when it started to play.

I liked the relationship between shancai and the housekeeper (her name is lost to me at the moment) and how the housekeeper had the kids wellbeing in mind more than mom did. I just wanted to lock mom in a room and torture her for all eternity but thats cause she was a b who meddled too much.

London was a mess.. who would forgive people who stole your phone and a very important item from your love? Like seriously. An apology and shes perfectly fine? We got food and booze? Alls well!? No. Not even close. Plus her money / cards. Etc. I dont know what she brought money wise but logic dictates you dont bring cash to a foreign country and only have cash. Plus she was smart enough to hide her passport, she would /should have been smart enough to hide some spare money or cards. Ive been to other countries, went to the pitpocket capital of the world in 2017 (barcelona spain) and i took precautions and did research on the country i was going to prior to going. So maybe this just falls on a dumb and niave female lead, but her friends had been in other countries so you would think they would warn her. Maybe im just putting too much logic into this.

The kidnapping island thing was cute and i appreciated their attempt however having a backpack with a fishing rod and water? Lol. Also why did they just abandon the two of them but everyone else had tents food etc? Did the friend want them to suffer? What if they didnt search for anything? Why was someone sneaking around taking pictures? What happened to those photos? So much undisclosed info. Survival instinct would have me looking for a fresh water source almost immediately. Then shelter. Also if you didnt know, in most instances wildlife cant climb. So if you are ever in an instance where you are stuck in the woods or on an island. Climb a freaking tree to sleep. Find vines or build a temporary platform out of branches but get off the ground. If you cant, and you have fire starter or know how to start a fire build a massive fire. It will keep predators away. Keep that baby well stocked. Water is #1 priortity though. You can live a while without food but as stated above not so long without water.

Then there is the ending.... im still not 100% certain i didnt take some hallucinogen or something that made me dream of that ending. Lets gloss over the fact most humans cant live without water for more than average 3 days. On top of that you cant physically stand for that many days without collapsing. I think the world record of standing was like under 40 hours and thats super dangerous because blood will pool in your feet and can cause blood clots etc. Im still not sure if they just glossed over the whole food and water strike of ds and sc and thats why mom slept for 7 days and maybe the dr they had visit mom took care of the kids or the kids died and it was their crazed brains happy ending before nothingness. But lets say that happened. Did mom pee the bed, get ivs, have compression socks etc during that time? Am i putting too much logic into things because again. Cant live usually more than 3 days without water... and if they have ivs your kidneys and intestines still function in that time.... lets move on.. then the whole walk into someone and pass out thing after the prank of ds getting married to someone else and moving to london prank. Just to get her in a wedding dress (strong as hell drugs apparently) and then the dance scene?!!?!? Let alone inviting people to the weddind that made no sense. Thomas? Uhg.

Overall i loved the show mostly for wang hedi but it had its flaws. I had to google an ending and read tons of peoples take on it and im still not 100% sure about it. This was the first show ive ever had to google an ending for.

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First ever Mandarin Series..

So Here's a confession, I have never watched read or anything manga, I have no clue about what this drama was when I went to watch it, so for me, it was a fresh start.
This is also my first Asian Series, Here is my take.

Casting: - All the guys were solid lookers and had the right attitude, Loved Shen Yue, Dylan Wang to bits and actually crushed on Darren Chen for his smile. Come to think of them as newcomers, they have done a fairly good job

Soundtrack: - Rivers and Say something tracks were played at the right moments, I don't know much of the mandarin songs, but seemed right too, however, the best was the soundtracks when F4 was up to some mischief

Chemistry: - Lead Chemistry mesmerizing, the initial hate, then slowly changing to like, then love was quite the journey. I got hooked to the series, becoz of the flying kick...
Darren Chen and Shen Yue - chemistry which changed was shown beautifully too
F4 Teams chemistry and coordination was awesome in the beginning, however nothing in the middle and came back together towards the end
The friendship chemistry of Dylan Wang & Darren Chen was good, but nothing compared to Ceaser Wu and Leon Leong, their comic timings and mimicry at crucial times were a saving grace
The brother-sister chemistry was very entertaining too
And last but not the least Shancai's parents had a good arc

Acting: - Loved the arrogant bad boy with Rivers playing in the background and the pineapple head. He was immature, to say the least fiercely loyal, and crazy tempered, though never a big bully, his pranks were childish except for the cake scene and occasional bumping off people.
Enjoyed the doe-eyed innocent looking naive girl, with so many random and simplistic thoughts, it felt like she belonged to school rather than college and had a sheltered life, though her crying skills can put professionals to shame.
Darren Chen - I can write a sonnet on his smile... enough said.

Best Scenes - The flying Kick for sure, Teaching Dao Ming Si to Date, Throwing the joker card to Hau zei lei, Getting beaten up by Gangs, to save Shancai, the scene that made me come to tears was the London date scene and the conversation with the door in between. Loved Dee Hsu's dance on Rivers.

Could have been better - The female Antagonist Wang Ling wasn't scary enough, she did too many behind the scene activities but nothing very direct. More focus on F4's achievements.

Disliked the product placements for sure, but nothing like the last episode, it was plain pathetic, could have made it at par the other episodes, MeiZuo and Caina's story line, wasn't needed at all

Overall I would say, I am a big-time Crime and thriller person, who has no interest in Teen drama at all, and for me to be hooked to the scene and watching the dialogues in subtitles and still enjoying enough to write a review, deserve serious kudos to new bees...

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Rewatching Meteor Garden 6 years later : did this classic already get old ?

As you may or may not know, Meteor Garden won't be available on Netflix starting from the 30th of November. Of course, I'm weak and couldn't resist watching it again. My story with this drama is pretty simple : it's the first Chinese drama I've ever watched and one my first dramas. I watched it in 2020, 2 years after it was released. And I loved it. I watched it again, sometimes only some parts. Anyway, Meteor Garden holds a special place in my heart.

But now that I grew up and that im not a middle school student, I changed a lot and and the drama did too.

*" I would never force a women to do anything"
If Si says this honorable sentence in episode 8, he doesn't quite respect it. Indeed he kisses Chancai by force multiple times and enterprises physical contact with her without consent many times, sometimes with violence ( episode 3 ). Not to mention Lei also kisses her without her consent.

* "Lei became a real man"
toxic masculinity in the drama

Being "a real man" means hanging out with girls Lei doesn't like ( no offense kiki ), and drowning his heartbreak into women and alcohol.

* getting out of " the shadows of autistic"

" I was a bit autistic " autism can't be cured

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all people! let's watch this drama!

This drama is verry verry good!. This drama contains love story, friendship, family etc. Dao Ming Si and Dong Shan Chai are sweet and cute couple 💘🥰. I'm very like this drama!!!! 💅👑❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

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One of my fave!

Ive re watched this series 3 times!!! It just reminds me of my first love and how pure and intense our first love can be! This was super cute and enjoyable to watch! I love how there wasnt too much angst in the love story, it was just enough to keep you hooked!I really love the brotherhood in this series as well. I really love the chemistry between all of the actors and actresses. I feel they did a great job in their casting! I hope they cast Dylan Wang and Shen Yue in other projects together! This my 2nd romcom ive watched and it pushed me to continue watching others. Hopefully, I will enjoy more of these!

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