alon-luna

I love HYD and the japanese series is one of my favorite versions of the comic- but i didn’t like the first half of the second series (HYD), because in it, Domyouji acts very wishy washy and indecisive towards Makino. This goes on for four episodes (which is a long time considering that HYD is only 11 episodes total); and when you finally find out the reason for his behavior- it still doesn’t make sense why he would behave towards makino like this. He finally snaps out of it in episode 5 and become himself again, thankfully. At least HYD II had a better ending. And it handled the amnesia plot better than MG II xD

Are they planning to base it on the comic? If so, that’s great. While
I liked the first Meteor Garden, they came up with a second series (Meteor Garden II) and at that time the manga wasn’t finished yet. In it, Dao Ming Si spends the entire season apart from San Chai (and indifferent to her) due to memory loss so - so i skipped that entirely. Hopefully they just follow the manga- the amnesia doesn’t take so long there, and despite having it, Dao Ming Si (‘Domyouji’) is still very much in character and doesn’t allow anyone to push him around or manipulate him.

Now, my two cents... I don’t think the ‘Rich Man, Poor Woman’ trope really comes from Boys Over Flowers/Hana Yori Dango’s popularity- I think it’s a popular theme that originated from the ‘Cinderella’ fairytale- yes, I think it actually goes that far back in time, and not just in Asian stories.

I don’t have a problem with remakes... if they somehow prevented original stories from being made into dramas, then maybe you’d be on to something but the way I see it, people can just easily ignore them if they’re not to their liking?

I’m surprised to hear that Goblin received hate- while I thought it was good in parts, it wasn’t great for me and certainly not a favorite. But it has an extremely high rating (I watched it based on that) and I’ve heard nothing but praises for it so I’m surprised to hear about this.

There’s nothing wrong with having an unpopular opinion- people have different tastes; wouldn’t life be boring if everyone liked the same thing, had the same dislikes, the same opinions? Also, i think criticizing a show is fine, as long as people don’t attack the viewers* who like it. The point is, we can’t control what other people enjoy, even if we find them problematic; we can only give our opinions on it.

Where I am from, Meteor Garden (and this is the taiwanese version, not the japanese one) was extremely popular. I remember the ‘F4’ even came here for a concert. At that time, I was working in my first job at a small newspaper company. Employees would literally stop working for an hour to watch the thing on tv! :D Then I remember one of the local channels got to interview Barbie Hsu through an interpreter.

Can u pls send me a pm also? I’m curious about this drama

Can you recommend anything on the same level as Signal? I’ve watched Tunnel and while it had it’s moments, it wasn’t as exciting IMHO.

Episode 12 (or 13?) is where things actually start. If you like, I can message you a summary of what happens in 1-11 so you can skip them. But since you're already in episode 8 it would be a good idea to continue.

Male lead is great. He's the poster boy for devotion and faithfulness. It doesn't hurt that this guy has powers and is a bad ass as well. I'm kind of wondering now if there are other male leads as good as this one lol

If they go down that route (with Shi Hyun dying) I kind of hope they kill Eun Tae Hee also. I prefer both of them to die together just like Dangerous Liaisons. But given the background and age of the characters, I think they'll do the Cruel Intentions ending like you said :(

Thanks for sharing this! I hope they continue with these remakes. I've heard some people say it's better to make your own original script and story for a drama show, but I see no reason why doing a remake is bad- Meteor Garden is the taiwanese remake of a japanese manga, and a korean version of the same thing is out as well. A lot of other countries come up with their own versions of popular dramas (Boys Over Flowers, Full House, etc) Good to see the Philippines join in these things. I hope they do a remake of Secret or Brillant Legacy, Shining Inheritance. I think those two melos would do well since there are many tearjerker moments.

Song Hye Kyo is one of the most beautiful actresses and she's got a lot of charm, too. I remember her for that 3 bears dance she had in Full House XD After watching that, she became more than a pretty face for me.

I don't mind a male character being perfect in the same way I don't mind it if he's flawed or a little mean at the beginning (it's the escapism for me) for as long as the characterization is well written and believable. I read a lot of reviews of DOTS saying the male lead wasn't really into the heroine as much as his job. So it killed my interest in watching it despite the hype. I agree that drama characters shouldn't be compared to real people- thinking you can change a person is grounds for failure, definitely.

Yeah, I actually like Dao Ming Si because he's a funny character- what makes it better is that San Cai doesn't put up with it. It was satisfying to see her smack his forehead and paste the red tag on it. We couldn't have that scene if he had been a nice guy because then it wouldn't have an impact- the girl would just be a jerk picking on a nice guy, not the kind of heroine material you'd root for.

Is it okay to like both? A slightly mean/jerk hero can work depending on the story, but I have a tolerance level for that sort of thing- so for as long as that personal line of mine is not crossed, I don't mind and can enjoy the show. If it is crossed and I don't like what I see, I just stop watching anyway. But a sweet nice lead can be great to watch too. It's just escapism. I don't think people should condone nasty actions in real life but I can understand why some scenes can make others uncomfortable- I think it's a gray area that will be debated for a long time. I think (this is just my interpretation) that the appeal of the nasty hero is the redemption arc- there's a satisfaction watching them change for the better, usually because of the heroine. You can't have that change if he's nice to begin with. But like I said, it's subjective. I'm glad there are lots of hero/heroine type of characters- people can just choose what they like and not judge others for having different tastes.

There are times when a one sided romance (where the villain likes the heroine) can be interesting or entertaining...but I never root for them to end up with the heroine. I just prefer it one sided because it doesn't work otherwise, given the villain's nature. I think the most frustrating type of villain is the one who just seems to get the upper hand for the entire kdrama only to be defeated at the end. Those types make my blood boil. Especially when everyone around them act so stupid -_-

There's a side romance going on but it's not the focus of the story.