A flyby Hanadan (all versions) comment.

[dangermousie]

These are my favorite caps of Jun Pyo from ep 8. Because as a Russian, it just hits everything right for me, seeing a guy this happy feeding and fattening up his woman :)





Side note: it's not a slam, because I am enjoying Korean Hanadan tremendously but it appears to be just as loosely (if not more so) inspired by the manga, rather than a faithful adaptation, than Japanese Hanadan was. Which means that yes, I am that freak for whom Meteor Garden is the favorite adaptation of the three. In large part, also because Barbie's Shan Cai could would over Jandi AND Jun Pyo and not even notice: can you imagine her letting the Mean Girls humiliate her about food left-overs and needing Jun Pyo's rescue? She never needed rescuing from anything unless it was overwhelming physical force (the beatdown after false photos, when even surrounded by a group of guys punching her in the face she would still face off with them, or when she was kidnapped by Junpei). Nor would she ever let Jun Pyo drag her somewhere or buy her an outfit (in fact, she'd total Jun Pyo faster than his sister did, just as Jandi probably would smartly run away and never ever want to deal with Daoming Si. Ever).

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yep, Barbie is awesomest of them all. JAn di is kind of strong, but not as strong as Barbie. Makino (?) I have only seen in the second Hanadan and she did a lot of crying and mopping, so she came across as the weakest .

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

She was pretty strong in S1 but in S2 got caught in all the romantic entanglements :)

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

The more I think about it, and the more of the other adaptations I see, the more convinced I am that Barbie Xu is hands-down the best of them. She projects such incredible strength that you're not aware of how little she is; she truly matches all the towering men around her (ah, MG and its lovely complement of tall men *salimbol goes to her happy place*).
BTW, hello alexandral! I'm sure I've followed dangermousie over to your blog a time or two.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Hi! ** waves ** Lee Min Ho (Jun Pyo) is very tall too. :D

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

He is, isn't he? It makes me very happy :-). For me it isn't a must that the F3 be tall (that's more like icing on the cake!), but Tsukasa/Dao Ming Si/Jun-pyo absolutely has to tower over everyone else.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

True, Jandi is not as strong .. she has her ubergirl strong moments but she's becoming more and more 'draggable' by both of the guys. I really wonder why this is. Maybe they think Korean viewers want more "Joon-pyo enters scene, saves the day, pwns evil rich ppl" type scenes. Maybe they think that along with occasional anger, Jandi also just feels rather confused entering the luxurious world of the rich and finds it hard to cope in it because it's so alien to her (so when he drags her around a fancy department store, she's reluctant but also puzzled as to what's happening). It also makes you wonder what some of cultural traditions may effect the way they adapt these.

Though I think personally the Taiwanese are just lazy script writers so it's simply easier to adapt it as close to manga as possible. :) Not that I don't enjoy it but I think that's largely the reasoning behind it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I've seen plenty of Taiwanese 'original script' dramas which were good (starting with my all-time favorite, The Outsiders) so I think they can write good scripts. But to me (I confess I am a nitpicky purist about these things) if you adopt something, might as well stick as close to the source material, unless it's seriously flawed. There is a reason I prefer Taiwanese manga adaptations to the rest of them. Take various versions of Hanadan. Whatever the better points of Japanese and Korean versions (and there are many), the character arcs and character development make most sense in the Taiwanese version. I mean, if the author created the biggest selling shoujo manga ever, she presumably knows what she is doing, and you can do worse than follow her outline. The relationship between the leads and development of their characters doesn't come across anywhere near as believable and worthwhile (to me) when jdrama or kdrama muck around with the order and attitudes severely.

It's interesting, your point about kdramas and attitudes. I have seen some incredibly strong, even fearsome, women in kdramas, but they are always in period dramas: the heroine of Damo could take apart anyone or anything and needs no rescue ever. Her only issues are emotional (i.e. what typically happens with a male character only). There are a couple of period dramas coming out now where the main character is a woman who rules and fights and the men are 'subservient.' Or take both the awesome females in Capitol Scandal: one is a courtesan/assassin and even the more 'traditional' Yeo Kyung makes Jandi (or any other modern heroine) seem like a pathetic weakling. But I can't think of that sort of thing in a modern drama. I wonder why. I would love it.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I read on dramabeans that the actress of Gaeul has a small part in a sageuk drama where an older actress plays the lead part: http://www.dramabeans.com/2008/11/chae-shi-ra-becomes-empress-cheon-chu/

So you've definitely got it right about strong girls in period kdramas. I guess the girls in modern dramas are spunky but at the end of the day more leadable by other people and somewhat weaker in that sense. The really sassy ladies I've found in kmovies, like My Sassy Girl - but in that the girl has a backstory as to why she raises so much hell and gives the hero such a hard time all-around (and she's very very extreme as the hero doesn't do anything to deserve her treatment). Or My Tutor Friend where the older tutor lady gives the student dude a piece of her mind no problem.

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

Whatever the better points of Japanese and Korean versions (and there are many), the character arcs and character development make most sense in the Taiwanese version. I mean, if the author created the biggest selling shoujo manga ever, she presumably knows what she is doing, and you can do worse than follow her outline. The relationship between the leads and development of their characters doesn't come across anywhere near as believable and worthwhile (to me) when jdrama or kdrama muck around with the order and attitudes severely.
QFT (look, I only learned this net abbreviation yesterday and already I am using it! ;-). You've said it beautifully: you can combine scenes, you can cut scenes out, you can even remove or add minor characters, but when you remove some of the central underpinnings of the original story things can no longer flow in a logical fashion. And that gradual, realistic character development is (IMO) the manga's greatest strength.

[syrenstar.livejournal.com]

Although MG is not my favourite (like DR Who I think which you watch first remains your favourite) Shan Ci was a character I could respect. Jan Di on the other hand I might end up liking a lot but quietly going a long with Jun Pyo lost her a lot of points with me.

Hanadan Makino I'd say had a lot of quiet strength, you didn't know it was really there until you pushed her too far.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Icon! Yeah, Jandi seems to go along entirely too much (also, why is accepting clothes OK but not furniture? They lost me).

I liked Hanadan makino quite a lot. She was ladylike but firm.

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank goodness I'm not the only one thinking this way! Until yesterday I was assuming they were going to do an 80% faithful adaptation of the manga, just inserting random scenes from later but mostly getting away with it - until they suddenly leapfrogged over about 10 volumes worth of character development to have Jan-di and Jun-pyo going out (adorable as it was, and it certainly set off much squeeing on my part)!! And I was really cross she didn't slap those bitches down as manga Tsukushi and Shan-cai would've had no trouble doing. Grrrr. I shall be grouching properly about this tonight/tomorrow, I assure you.
So yes, Meteor Garden, you still wear the crown!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I loved your post on it! And yeah, the meekness makes no sense. I liked her attitude towards them in the beginning of the drama much better.

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

Why thank you ma'am! *happy blush* Others have wondered if the change in director has something to do with her different, lukewarm attitude; perhaps we'll be able to tell in the forthcoming episodes. It's making me feel guilty for moaning about the OTT before; at least she had the requisite spunk at that point! ;-)
I was talking to somebody else (gogomoksori, I think) and she said watching BBF was akin to having the rug continuously pulled out from under your feet. Because they don't seem to be operating from a stable foundation, and the quality varies so wildly; when it's good it's very very good, but when it's bad it's rotten! And it's impossible to predict which way it's going to go.