Feli

Is this really BL or does it just have a gay main character?

The description says she leaves to learn pottery from a friend so we knew that. I agree with you about the ballerina, but it would have been nice if maybe she played the violin, or got accepted to a cordon-bleu school in Paris, heck they could even make her a hip-hop dancer... just a little something different.

I agree. I like it when there are differences, it's what makes the drama worth watching. However, I do think the story arc should remain somewhat familiar. The female lead should be so kind in the beginning that people mistake her for being weak. There should be a woman that the male lead wants to marry who for career opportunity leaves him hanging and feeling sad/mad. I have to say I'm looking forward to this.

I know what you mean. That's true of a lot of "real life" couples. I think it may have something to do with the fact that a good actor brings the character's feeling to life to share with the audience but when the feeling is true IRL with your co-star it might feel like they're showing too much of themselves and not the "character", plus you have the whole "bleed over" thing where the anger/love your character is feeling effects the real-life interactions of the actors and therefore the couple... I think it's probably easier to "off" the character if your co-star is just another actor. Great on-screen chemistry doesn't mean the actors even like each in real life, Dirty Dancing is an example of that,

I didn't like it when the writers had him ask Sumire to leave her child and marry him, it didn't ring true to me. I also wanted him to realize that he had fallen in love with Airi just like Edmond did with Haydee.

dramacool has it.

I watched it on kissasian.

Until I read the book, I choose to believe Tanaka and his sister. As for the "mother".... You discard the sick bastard and get your children counseling.

Because in many Asian cultures (Thailand especially) marriage is more about duty. Who's better for the family. If love happens it's lagniappe.

It's possible she didn't tell him. I think it's more likely that she thought the baby daddy was someone else. I also think his reactions show he would have taken care of the baby no matter who the baby daddy was. I don't understand why everyone takes the word of the crappy mother who would have every reason to lie about her children. That's why I want to read the book.

I think it's low due to frustration.
The drama ended at the part where Aya leaves to become a professional artist with Hayato and there's no listing of Part II to finish the story. Up to that point, the writers had made some small but interesting changes to the way the leads reacted to each other. For example, while Aya is ridiculously kind in all the versions, Kei is more aware of Aya as someone he enjoyed having sex with so he's attracted to her on a physical level. It made the flavor of his possessive behavior towards her different, to him she's not just the mother of his child. If they do finish it this could become my favorite version because of those changes.

The two best versions were Meteor Garden (2001) and Hana Yori Dango (2005).
For me what makes or breaks this story is the chemistry between the main leads. That even in the beginning when she likes a different boy there's "something" about the two mains together that are like magnets; at first, there's a force that's pushing them apart and then BOOM the polarity changes and you can't keep them apart for long.
School bullies are often victims of abuse at home., the actor has to how the vulnerability behind the bully. That the whole reason the young man behaves the way he does is that his mom has trained him like the Spartans did their warriors. The actress has to sell that the girl likes bad boys. It's one of the reasons she has a crush on Rui in the first place and that even if she doesn't want to admit it, she really was secretly attracted to the alpha bad boy in F4 until he started acting like a total a-hole around her.
In Meteor Garden Barbie and Jerry had mad chemistry and I think Jerry did the best job as the rich guy who knows money can't buy you, love. In Hana Yori Dango Jun and Mao also had mad chemistry, but I think she did the best job at showing how confusing it can be for a teenage girl who's attracted to someone in spite of herself.
In Boys Over Flowers, no shade on Gu Hye Seon, Jan Di might as well have been a 12-year-old girl. She was so "pure" there was no spark between her and either of the guys. (I mean seriously Ji Hoo had more sexual tension from the way that guy in Macao (?) looked at him than when he was kissing Jan Di) The best couple in this drama was Ji Sung and Ga Eul and they were the only reason I was able to finish the drama. The rest are pale echos of this three because let's be honest, times have changed. The #Me Too movement has made it impossible to be true to the manga and set it in the modern era. We are trying to teach young people that stalking is bad, and that you don't have the "right" to another person's feelings just because you're sincer.

DF worked with Netflix on a few projects. Netflix was so impressed with the owners and their management that they bought out DF. Then they moved the original management to high priority Netflix projects and replaced DF personnel with new people. DF limped along for a while but as people learned the ropes at DF, if they were good, they'd get promoted to Netflix projects. Netflix eventually closed down the site (even though it was STILL making a profit) because they were making way more money on other projects. However I'm sure it's also one of the reasons why Netflix is now producing K-dramas and movies that the company believes will do well with its international viewership.

Well, if that summary is correct, it looks like this story might be making some major changes from the original drama... No prima ballerina girlfriend? No post-it note girl? No slimy brother in law who sets them up for blackmail? Yeah Right!
On the other hand, we know these two actors can generate the heat that Ethan Juan and Joe Chen did in the original. That was one of thing I loved about it. It wasn't "just" her kind personality that won him over, you could see he thought she was sexy too. It was there in his eyes whenever he looked at her, and you didn't see that look with the ballet dancer.

Maybe Xia Ke doesn't like "perfect" girls. Some men don't don't thank goodness or I wouldn't have a love life. lol

Well, Ritu was lucky that the kids in his apartment peer-group were exceptionally loving and truly cared about each other. Without them, he could have easily become the monster his mother saw him as... I was pleasantly surprised that the mom responded in a positive manner once Ritu was able to explain why he was always rebelling against her. It's showed that she loved him too and that even if he hated it, her dressing him up as a girl had been her twisted way of trying to connect with her child.

Maybe, but except for a willingness to kiss whoever he felt like in an effort to mess with them, they only people Ritsu pursued sexually were the girls. This is why I really liked this drama, there are all sorts of possibilities while they figure out who they are.

It sounded like Ritsu's father was so abusive that his mom tried to commit suicide more than once just to get away from him. I'm guessing that Ritsu looked so much like his father his mom dressed him as a girl to make him look more like her. Poor Ritsu didn't like being forced to look like a girl. Every time he would get angry and rebel his mother was reminded her of his father at which point she would get angry and scared and take it out on Ritsu. When Ritsu was 3 or 4 he finally had it with looking like a girl and cut his hair. From then on she stopped showing him any signs of affection and would punish him harshly whenever he did something to displease her.

I don't think Ritsu is bi, but I do think Saturo is.

After plowing through 50 plus hours the mental gymnastics required to finish Enteral Love of Dream. This was three hours of twisted teenage angst the way only the Japanese can deliver it.
I really liked it. it was a nice palate cleanser.