lilili

The fiance in 2001 Meteor Garden had a similar vibe. I always like it when the fiance is super cool because you could see her as being a good wife to the ML except he's already lost his heart to the FL so it makes his choice more meaningful.

I saw a tweet that said Hana was Thyme's mirror reflecting back at him all the ugly things he's done in his life and I loved that.

He's amazing as an in love person but also in the scene with Gorya's family where he's sitting quietly and taking it all in and trying to understand them. I think he's very good in quieter scenes and goes wrong when he's in the scenes that require big emotion because he overdoes it. But he also has that indefinable something that makes people stars. When he's onscreen you're looking at him. It's something beyond his acting performance.

Assuming you're okay with being spoiled, the situation between them varies in different versions of this drama. Sometimes they get together and sometimes they don't. In most versions though her boyfriend cheats on her and dumps her and Kavin helps her get revenge.

It goes back and forth here. There was another bump in antis a while back. Just wait them out and the interesting people will weigh in again.

I feel the same way about Jerry Yan's Daoming Si! It's because he brought a lot of vulnerability to the role. You really feel it in the scene before the basketball match when he grabs Shancai and begs her to love him so he can call off the match. But unfortunately Daoming Si also had crazy abusive moments like trying to sexually assault Shancai and slapping her hard across the face, so I couldn't be 100% on board the ship. Bright is bringing a lot of vulnerability to Thyme only with less violence directed against Gorya (which is a good thing, dear god)

Him kissing his glass after he says everyone in the club gets free drinks was erm pleasing to my eyes

Yeah I've seen her videos, she doesn't like the drama and has been way more critical than I am. I love it very much but this episode was a bit much with the Hana scenes for me.

He seems really grounded? I can't exactly explain it but he wears his fame effortlessly and he's so young to be in that intense spotlight, especially because weirdly he has so many haters. He never seems pressed about it or like he's desperate for attention. It's impressive.

Yes! Part of the reason it feels dated/cliched to some people is because it invented all the tropes and was so hugely influential on everything that followed. For example if you're really into Kdramas you almost have to see Boys Over Flowers just to understand what you're watching and where it comes from. The drama Extraordinary You is basically a (very hilarious) send up of BoF .

I can't think of a western series that is comparable to HYD/BoF but I think a lot of fairytale tropes apply: Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Wendy with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, Snow White, Red Riding Hood.

https://twitter.com/shinesforbright/status/1485246866170445824?t=DAOxRH3RQYWGi1311nnxbA&s=19

I'm not going to try to talk you out of your (honestly, totally valid) opinion of the story but I'll say this: I have a podcast talking about Kdramas and our Boys Over Flowers episode accounts for 70% of our total listens. And now that F4 Thailand is airing, a completely boring tweet I made has 1.3K likes and 800 shares. This franchise has officially been remade 5 times over the past 30 years and has at least five unofficial remakes that I know of. For whatever reason, this story is a beast and speaks to multiple generations.

Wow that thread blew my mind. Now I need to rewatch that scene with Hana.

He's so pretty I can't get over it sometimes. In this episode it was the scenes in the closet with the star lights playing across his face, phew

The major plot points are almost identical to 2005 Hana Yori Dango but there are a lot of small (and in some cases big) changes to the characters that give the drama a dramatically different feel. Also things like integrating social media to the story and expanding the roles of key characters. It's impressively well done.

I love your review! Everything you said right here. I've seen the Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions and this is the only one where I wholeheartedly ship the main couple and you explained exactly why. And yes to Kavin and Kaning, the dynamic that was set up in ep 4 with her returning the money, she's small but mighty and he will fall eventually.

But it was on Hana's Insta account! Wouldn't she be wondering why the hell Hana was posting a video of Thyme asleep?

Did anyone notice that Thyme's hands are trembling when he moves Gorya's head to his lap? Gah my heart.

I agree, that was really strange. That's why a lot of the episode didn't really work for me until we got to the point where Thyme shows up to rescue Gorya. At that point the feels took over and I was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I'll be honest, I felt a lot of this episode was deeply silly (MJ's hacker squad and the yearbook being right there on the shelf) and I thought Hana's monologue went on way too long (though I did love it when Thyme apologized to her) but from the moment Thyme picked up Gorya until the end of the episode I was UwUing all over the place. OMG their chemistry is fire and I love it when Bright is soft.