Random things related to K-Hanadan and Meteor Garden

[dangermousie]

1. I continue to (re)watch Meteor Garden with filmi_girl (we have finished ep 6 out of 20-ep edition) and yup, it's official. It's my favorite version of them all: hard to beat gradual and believable character development in this one. Shan Cai is tough as nails and uncowed by anybody or anything: even physically overwhelmed by a gang of guys punching her in the face (!!!) she only gives up fighting back when she physically cannot stand up any more. As I commented to salimbol this complete lack of fear or limits is, IMO, in large part why Dao Ming Si is so attracted to her: it's her fierceness. He is pretty much without limits himself, even if in a rather antisocial, unhealthy way.

I do love that every time he tries to be bossy (reflexively, not even intentionally) she smacks him down for it. I don't think anyone can control her ever :) I also adore the scene where she needs to distract him from the foreigner who took her to a motel so she starts praising his language skills (LOL) in no subtle fashion and he almost visibly puffs up at the praise. He keeps doing these little looks at her all the time, like a puppy seeking approval. Scary, bitey puppy: the scene where he gets revenge on those who mistreated her is LOLtastic in his matter-of-fact violence and her matter-of-fact 'Lord, not again' response to it.

(Side note: the scene where he is drunk and mistakes Shan Cai's friend for Shan Cai and is all angsty and hot and smoochy? FTW!! Mmmm. Jerry Yan.)

I also adore the confession/makeout-in-his-house scene where they get so enthusiastic they fall off the bed. LOL. Though I do wonder how far they would have gone if the bed edge was a little further off - she was doing the opposite of fending him off and he clearly had no objections to continuing either (I love that the Taiwanese version allows the hormones part of the equation, just as in the manga. Leaving love or character stuff aside, they are healthy young adults with hormones, and I am sure that contributes to their interest in each other :D) Also, it not only sets up Shan Cai's waffling/DMS' feeling of betrayal over Lei smoochies later (I had SUCH a flashback to Mars there *sigh*) it's just plain sweet and hot.

Oddly, having grown up watching Soviet TV, lack of budget for this drama actually contributes to my enjoyment. Also, this version's Lei/SC date is awesome: it's so very boring. Lei might be a cool person but he and SC are so not compatible.

Oh, and it's official. This version's Domyouji is such a dork, he is capable of creating his own dorky black hole.

In K-Hanadan news,

1. Is it just me, or does Lee Min Ho in this picture look freakily like KimuTaku? No wonder I like him :)



2. I never notice soundtracks, ever. When people swoon over soundtracks or revile them, I am all 'there is music in there?' But much as I love K-Hanadan, the awfulness of the soundtrack is getting so epic even I notice. If I hear 'almost paradise' one more time, I am getting a plane ticket to Korea to personally beat up the music director - it's the worst song ever, used at inappropriate times (yeah, guys fighting at hockey ring - perfect time!) and so often I want to inflict bodily harm on the sound guys! UGH.

3. I think the below pic of Lee Min Ho is quite YUM.

Comments

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

Hhahaha... I was IM'ing my friend while watching ep 7 and said the songs with the english words put in are hilarious. (He got me into anime and he finds it hilarious when random English words are put into asian media.) I was quoting, "Almost Paradise *korean korean korean*". The problem is that there was an "Almost Paradise" song in Footloose and I feel that's where they stole it from...

I went looking for Meteor Garden but couldn't find it... anywhere, actually. I didn't look at the places you linked to for buying the dvds. I didn't try the jaddicts lj community yet tho...

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Butting in, but as I also suffered from not being able to find Meteor Garden for a long time, I feel your pain. You can find it on the jdramas community here (you have to be a member.

You can also get it in torrent form. Just search google for "Jem Meteor Garden" (Jem is the group who subbed it).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Asian poploves random English words (they seem to view random English the way we view random Asian scripts - when I was in Japan a couple of years back, I saw so many t-shirts with cool looking but ridiculous engrish).

Hope you are not disappointed by low production values of MG. I grew up on USSR tv after all :)

[fivil.livejournal.com]

OH THANK YOU for saying that about the soundtrack. It is GODAWFUL. The songs and their placement is distracting and the way that annoying "paradise" song comes on during awkward moments is just unbelievably grating. I'm trying hard to think if I was ever so annoyed at insert songs in a drama and nah, not really. I'm not crazy about the silly rap song in My Girl ("new year's eve in Kazakstan"????) but as a song it was used quite nicely. I understand why they shove those insert songs in (promoting kpop artists blah blah) but yeah, K-Hanadan has a really crappy way to insert the songs. Meh.

And yes, I love the Lei/SC date in MG. It's awkward in a very bad way .. not awkward like "we'll get a hang of this dating thing soon" but more like "we're obviously not meant for this". Dull dullness.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Lei is so very pretty but five minutes of that date and U'd brain him myself just to end the pain.

I have NEVER seen a drama where the sountrack bothered me half so much before. It's extraordinary!

[valkyriesailor.livejournal.com]

Is it just me, or does Lee Min Ho in this picture look freakily like KimuTaku?

THANK YOU!!! I belived all the time that it's only me thinking that Lee Min Ho looks like Kimura. He isn't my favorite person so that distrubed me for quite a while. But Min Ho really shows so many cute & handsome faces, that I just can't hate him. <3

And WHERE was this picture till now? I would be really in love with it if smoking wouldn't be a major part of it. T_T

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't know where that picture is from but I hope there is more where that came from :)

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

I cannot stand that breathy girlish song they play three times an episode whenever someone broods. So godawful!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Lucky? Which more rightly should be titled Sucky. I hate it but the hate winner is Stand by Me. i'd love to stand by the author all right. With a two by four.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I've recently been wanting to rewatch Meteor Garden. Watching BBF, I'm getting all sorts of flashbacks. I also think I'm going to finish Meteor Garden 2... wish me luck! I really love Boys Before Flowers, but thinking about it more, I think Meteor Garden is still my favorite adaption. (When I first started watching twdramas the production quality bothered me (and this was on one of the GOOD ones; ISWAK), but now I'm oblivious to it... I still warn people about it though. Twdramas will never be as pretty as jdramas or kdramas. I love them best regardless!)

I'm highly disappointed with the music in BBF. The first kdrama I watched fully was Coffee Prince, which, in my opinion, had a fabulous soundtrack. So naturally I assumed kdramas were good with the music. But alas, I was proven wrong. Taiwanese dramas still win in that aspect.

Woah... that picture *saves it to occasionally gawk at*

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

It's funny; I don't notice the lower budgets on tw-dramas any more myself. (I do warn people about the lack of budget in Meteor Garden, though, because people need to know what they're going to be seeing there! I imagine it would be a real shock to the system if you're used to more recent stuff ;-) And MG is remaining my favourite adaptation as well, I think, unless BBF manages to become spectacular over the rest of its run.
All the k-dramas I started out with had good soundtracks (Coffee Prince included), so BBF's music is a terrible disappointment, I have to say.
That LMH picture is niiiice! And I'm giggling at your icon ;-).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

MG2? You really must be a glutton for punishment! The production values don't bother me, but yeah, I warn people. Recently, twdramas have been looking gorgeous and sumptuous all of a sudden (Silence was spectacular) - no idea what happened. In MG, it looked like all the rich people leave in the same hotel :)

I am so glad someone feels the same way about twdramas - they are my favorite.

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

I am convinced the music director is deaf. They use the same songs about 18 times in an episode and these songs are supposed to tell us how we should feel. I think they should just leave that to the actors.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't think he is deaf, I think he is actively malicious and likes torturing us :)

[seven-trees.livejournal.com]

But much as I love K-Hanadan, the awfulness of the soundtrack is getting so epic even I notice.

These are my exact thoughts on K-Hanadan's music. I really only notice music when it's exceptionally good (like in Coffee Prince) and almost never if it's mediocre. But it's like the music directors just picked three random songs out of a hat and decided that those were the only ones needed for the whole drama. I hate "Paradise", "Stand By Me", and only mildly tolerate "Lucky".

And even though the songs themselves annoy me, it's where they put the songs that is starting to really frustrate me. I don't know if they're trying to be sarcastic or what. I mean, who the hell would think "Paradise" was suitable for the scene where Jun Pyo puts the smack down on Ji Hoo--although, to be fair, the soundtrack stopped before he really started punching him. But still, when they're pushing each other around and stuff? Really? Unless that song's secret meaning was something along the lines of a blood-soaked paradise, I don't think it went well there at all. Or at the beginning of the ep, where Jandi and Jun Pyo have that conversation and she kind of rejects him there and they play "Lucky". Either they're being sarcastic or they're just retarded. I can't think of another explanation.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

There is no rhyme or reason for song placement, except that they have a contractual obligation to put in each song 3 times per ep, or just take sadistic glee out of torturing us. The drama is very good elsewhere, a pity the music is so awful.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

He does have a very attractive nose.

[zsuness.livejournal.com]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Dangermousie/6a00c2251eb6048fdb01101629a110860c-.jpg
HOOSHIT. I am so easy. XDDD

I don't see the KimuTaku, though.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am too lazy to look for Kimutaku pics...sorry :) Maybe I am just hallucinating :P

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

agreed about the lameness of alot of the k-hyd songs. that being said, being a je fan I'm used to hearing tacky pop songs. so the only song that REALLY bothers me, is that stupid almost paradise one -_- and yes they insert all the songs, in EVERY episode. whether they suit the scene or not. just to run them. and i find it super annoying. no contest here, j-hyd had the better music. most of it was scored and simply instrumental so it only enhanced the emotion of a scene rather than distracted from it. I always notice music in dramas, and i tend to dl the ost's of alot of the dramas i watch. *music junkie* and so far I'm not impressed much with k-hyd's tunes :/ and even the ones I do like, are played SO often that I think by the time 24 eps are over i'll be so sick of hearing them I'll never want to hear them EVER AGAIN.

I guess no hyd adapation has ever been perfect for me. i cant say I have a favorite cause they all have their own certain flaws that bother me immensely. however i managed to enjoy watching them all the same. I'm rewatching, very slowly though, meteor garden as well. since i'm really someone who puts alot of emphasis on aesthetics the relative drabness of mg really bugged me the first time around. but now after the super fancy j and k hyd productions. the tw version's relative homeliness almost seems refreshing. for me mg has been a drama i can enjoy more in retrospect. however, i have to say, i cant really stand dao ming si. and not cause of how he's written but i think the actor is terribly unconvincing. :x

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

All three songs drive me crazy - their instrumentals are fine but the songs? OMG!!!

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

I was going to say something and then I saw the last pic.

And now I can't *wipes the drool*.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

Urgh, the music. I think my main problem is not necessarily the individual songs and pieces of background music themselves (some are quite good, actually), but their placement. 'Wildly inappropriate' would seem to sum it up!
Those LMH pics - yuuuummm! (Also: bad boy for smoking, but I already knew he did that.) I wonder if that second picture is from forthcoming episodes? We have heard vague threats of a change in hairstyle, after all. (If this is the case, I may just stop bitching about it. Because that is HOT!). He really does look like KimuTaku in certain shots, doesn't he? And we all know he looks like Jerry Yan at times. I should fish around for the pictures where he looks like Kingone, to complete the triumvirate of lookalike hotness! ;-)

!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I hate the placement AND the songs.

If that pic is from forthcoming ep, I am all for it, purism be damned in this one instance.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Hee! He looks indeed a bit like Takuya! YAY! And Takuya has a propensity for hairstyles like Jun Pyo's too.

Songs are BAD. ALL OF THEM. Even Sasha who (I am afraid) is growing into a little fan of Asian pop (she asks me to listen to every single song on "Bleach" twice) said that the song is bad.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's so cute about Sasha. And yeah, the music is horrifying!

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

I do love that every time he tries to be bossy (reflexively, not even intentionally) she smacks him down for it. ...Scary, bitey puppy: the scene where he gets revenge on those who mistreated her is LOLtastic in his matter-of-fact violence and her matter-of-fact 'Lord, not again' response to it.
And he's so proud of himself for having done it, too. Priceless!
It never ceases to amuse me that one of the facets of their relationship is 'animal and its trainer' ;-).
I also adore the scene where she needs to distract him from the foreigner who took her to a motel so she starts praising his language skills (LOL) in no subtle fashion and he almost visibly puffs up at the praise.
That is just the cutest scene! She knows him so well already by that point.
I also adore the confession/makeout-in-his-house scene where they get so enthusiastic they fall off the bed.
It's moments like those that make the other live actions versions feel neutered!
Though I do wonder how far they would have gone if the bed edge was a little further off - she was doing the opposite of fending him off and he clearly had no objections to continuing either
I've wondered that myself ;-). It's just begging for fanfiction, don't you think? Anybody care to indulge us? :-)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It never ceases to amuse me that one of the facets of their relationship is 'animal and its trainer'

And it never really stops, not even when he is "housebroken" :)

That is just the cutest scene! She knows him so well already by that point.

He is just so ridiculously simple and easy to please when it comes to her :)

other live actions versions feel neutered!

Oh yes. And I would love fic!

[fenrir-khan.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHA! The music is truly lame isn't it? That 'Almost Paradise' tune makes me crack up, most of all when it is played out of left field at totally inappropriate moments.

Like a few commenters above, it's hard for me not to make the comparison with other dramas that make a very good use of music, as a means to subtler ends than just having noise accompany the action. I think the best example is probably Coffee Prince: for instance, to this day, I can't hear 'Coffee is...' without stopping to reminisce. The music in Goong is pretty good too: it has less variety, but it's very good at capturing the feel of a given scene.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I have never before seen a drama from any country with such horrific music!

[thinking-lotus.livejournal.com]

mmmmm ... Barbie Hsu.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

She is so very awesome.

[syrenstar.livejournal.com]

You're slowly convincing me to re-watch MG. I had a hard time with the cheap sets and the bad acting but this time I'll definitely skip season 2.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yesssss....*pushes* But stay away from s2. Even I couldn't get through it.

[sprigit.livejournal.com]

Speaking of the scene where Shancai was complimenting Ah Si on his language skills, I also love the way she motioned for the other guy to leave. I think Barbie is such a terrific actress. She is able to pull of any emotion, no matter what it is. And she is so expressive.

And oh my gosh I just love Jerry Yan!!! He is just so incredibly gorgeous! And he's pretty good at acting all angry and jealous. hehe.