Deja vu about deja vu...

[dangermousie]

According to dramabeans, Korea is remaking Proposal Daisakusen, the fluffy jdrama of some years back about a young man given a chance to change things at the wedding of his best friend whom he hopelessly loves. Starring in Yamapi's role is Yoo Seung Ho, finally in an age-appropriate role (I love the boy, but there is no question that his roles in both Flames of Desire and Warrior Baek Dong Soo should have been played by someone 10 years older).

Despite my horror (that continues and will continue forever) at the fact that someone in Japan thought it a good idea to remake Mawang, in general I am quite a fan of remakes. Often, they are better than the original because they have time to work out the kinks. E.g. I think Ikemen Desu Ne is better than You're Beautiful and The Empress is better than Jotei.

But I am puzzled as to why ProDai. Sure, it was a cute enough drama. It was also one I forgot the moment I finished. It seems odd that it got a remake but then Jotei did too and that was a clown trainwreck on LSD and it turned into quite a decent drama.

However, you know something which will make any sane person on my flist run? The writer is the one who wrote the Korean Boys Over Flowers. Dramabeans thinks the problem with BOF was more directing than writing but I beg to differ. BOF was, simply, the most atrociously-written kdrama I've ever had the misfortune to see (and with some of the turkeys I saw, that is saying a lot). By the end, it didn't even make sense and made me hate pretty much every character. Narratively it derailed into second-lead shipping which would have been fine if it carried through but, abruptly, it didn't (probably because the mangaka would have sued). I've ranted enough about BOF to not have to do it now, but think about it, people - if the writer could mess up this badly with something that (a) had a complete and detailed manga out and (b) two previous successful TV adaptations, what is she going to do to poor ProDai?

On second thought, I might tune in out of sheer curiousity.

Comments

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I dropped out of Boys Over Flowers fifteen minutes in, after I saw the boy who was bullied to the point of suicide was played for laughs. Not even Lee Min Ho can redeem that for me.

I also have a Thing against must-stop-the-best-friend's-wedding stories--obviously she doesn't love YOU, as she's marrying some other guy, so stop being selfish and give her up! Going back in time to change the way you acted before might actually work, though. I'll wait to hear more about this drama before I make my mind up. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I liked the manga and the Taiwanese version because they actually followed through with the 'actions have consequences' motif - while the boy being bullied scene didn't happen in either, there was an equivalent in severity incident that Domyouji was involved in some years ago that he gets pretty badly punished for and it's viewed as appropriate and a sign of his growth.

One of the things I liked is that in manga and twdrama, Makino understandably made him jump through a million hoops until she was ready to believe he was a human being. (jdrama tried but was too constrained for time to do it effectively imo). In BOF, she was basically 'you are hot so I don't care' which is idiotic.

[timescout.livejournal.com]

My reaction to reading about who the writer is: o_O

Not that I'm the least bit interested in this regardless who the writer is....

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think it might actually be more entertaining than the original - the original was just bland, this mught be epically bad.

[december-clouds.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of The Empress but now I have to go watch it.

[december-clouds.livejournal.com]

And Korean Boys over flowers was sad. Just plain sad.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

viki has it. It's excellent.

[hamster428.livejournal.com]

Lol ur sense of curiosity is stronger than mine. I lost interest in ProDai when he keeps going back and back and back and I decided I didn't want to go back anymore.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ProDai would have been a fun movie but the premise was too slim for a jdrama. Which makes me wonder how it will work for an even longer kdrama running time.

Please tell me someone will get amnesia.

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

I was all excited about this because Yoo Seung Ho finally gets lead role playing an age appropriate character and then I read that it's being written by the writer of BOF and now I basically have no hope of this drama actually being good and I've pretty much lost al interest. I am almost tempted to watch it just to see how she will mangle this drama. I feel bad for YSH because he's going to have to work with the garbage she churns out.

I still can't believe she managed to screw up Hana Yori Dango. How do you even do that?!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Screwing up Hanadan should be impossible. That is why I want to tune into ProDai - this is going to be an epic, one-of-a-kind trainwreck.

[shima-sama.livejournal.com]

I don't really consider Ikemen Desu Ne as BETTER than You're Beautiful, but the fact that they had to take the series and cut it down to a smaller number of episodes made it easier to zip through. Less filler, because they had less time.

I got to probably episode 10 of Boys Over Flowers before I realized I was wasting my time. Hana Yori Dango isn't necessarily the best drama ever, but my GOD it was better than that.

(I'm waiting for the Korean drama version of Hana Kimi, though. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE THAT WOULD BE LOLARIOUS.)

[spunspider.livejournal.com]

ha, the kversion of hana kimi is being produced by SME which means they're probably going to be using their very limited stock of actors which is SUCH A SHAME.

[rectherapyfreak.livejournal.com]

Nice! A Kversion of hanakimi I'm excited!!! What otehr dramas have been done by SME?

[happahaole.livejournal.com]

I think I also quit BOF after 10 episodes...about the time when he got amnesia. I mean...rly? amnesia? lol not what I signed up for...
And I'd also really like to so a korean hana kimi! Bring. It. On!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The hilarious thing is that in the manga he basically has it for one afternoon but every version draaaaaaags it out for forever.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am not a huge fan of kdrama comedy (personal preference there) so the fact that a lot of it got taken out in Ikemen made me a fan.

I can't wait for hana kimi - it's going to be epic. Probably epic in its badness, but still...

[spunspider.livejournal.com]

well i thought prodai was incredibly static so i was never going to be very enthused but lolllllll that writer W H Y. i hope she has learnt to plan better because i think she just fucking lost her mind under the pressure of live-shoots or something, it did not begin that bad at all. the best thing about prodai was the catchphrases: don't knock new york + hallelujah chance ftw. (and the randomness of a church fairy....)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I started having problems with BOF about 5 eps in, when Makino agreed to date him so soon, but it was enjoyable (if insane) through mid-teens when the writer really lost it and started writing her scripts in front of a KHJ shrine with her own blood.

I didn't care for ProDai (I don't know anyone who felt strongly about that drama one way or another actually), so I am morbidly curious with this one.

[rectherapyfreak.livejournal.com]

uhh...yea I agree about the writing!! The 2nd half was crap!!! If it had ended with Ji Hoo and Jan Di together I would have liked it. Worst version of HYD ever.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

If you turn me into an obsessive JH/jandi shipper, you know you are doing something wrong.

[jennyhime.livejournal.com]

BOF was atrocious in every way! I really could not watch it, it made me hate it so much. (so far the jdorama has reigned supreme)
The writing was a big problem in BOF so I keep my fingers crossed that this is well done.
Mawang was a okay jdorama, it could have been so much more if they would have skipped the JE boys even though Ikuta is a quite good actor. Ikemen was just wonderful, so much better then the original while Empress is better the Jotei.
But I confess I was not a Prodai fan at all, I loved the supporting cast but Yamapi and Masami had no chemistry at all. Yoo Seung Ho can out act Yamapi without a doubt now I hope they cast a good female lead and supporting cast just not any idols, it would be nice to see some fresh faces once in a while.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

jdrama was very solid (though my heart belongs to the twdrama) but what the writer of the kdrama was thinking escapes me.

I have a huge problem with compressing Mawang in less than half the length. The plotting is destroyed by that pretty much, it's a rare kdrama with no filler. Also, the cast was much much too young.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

On second thought, I might tune in out of sheer curiosity.

ditto. Though I did semi-enjoy ProDai. Merely for Yamapi running - all. the. time!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I watched it in the throes of my Yamapi love and mmmm, he was fine in it.

[moraitika1.livejournal.com]

I love YamaPi to bits, I watched
from Stand Up!! to horrendous Sore wa, Totsuzen, Arashi no you ni...( this comes from a person obsessed with noona love, someone who likes YSY with either Lee Jiah or his possessive roommate- I'd send her to hell but the bitch thinks just like me and I would do the same if someone would wag the tail near my boytoy),
from nice Nobuta wo Produce or Dragon Zakura to fabulous Kurosagi,
from serious Code Blue (I, SP and II) to cute and popular Buzzer beat ( there I discovered Mizobata Jumpei, however I discovered lately that BB quoted Kimura Takuya's Long Vacation a bit too much and scene by scene in some places, specially in the love triangle)

BUT coming/dreaming back in time was never on my list!!!ProDai? Just NO! I love PI but NO, YSH (lil jailbait! )this subject isn't on my list.

I just realized that Kim Beom in The who still wants to marry looked more like an under-aged kid than Yoo SeungHo, and YSY looks like a grown up in M2P, 30 no way, but mature enough, with the right acting chops.

On the other hand, until now, YSH has done almost everything an actor can do:
child actor for The Legend and King and I, one of the F4 in Queen Seon Deok, I hoped that his role in Warrior BDS will equal Kim Chun Chu - vulnerable yet loving and longing, with the smarts and appeal yet one of the backstabbing friends... ups on paper sounds the same, however something was too villainous with an unappealing side and I didn't like he was controlled by the forces above.

He played in a family drama as Flames of ambition...somehow the fact that he looks so young made his char believable: that he can be controlled by his momsters, with another actor I would be annoyed to hell that he lets himself manipulated worse than any other kdrama would be. Usually even the easiest guys tells "Mom stop now, coz you'll never see me again" or whatever in this range, but YSH was so vulnerable and exasperated by his moms, however the fact he was listening to them just in the way a kid would do, was adorable and not cringe worthy


In the last 3 years( since 2009) he made 2 dramas with over 50 eps( FOA and QSD)in both he wasn't just a plot device but he made his chars believable, a drama with 16 (GOS aka Dragon Zakura's remake)- main lead and romantic teenager and WBDS with 29 eps where he was the villain and second lead,
3 movies ( In one was a kidney cancer patient- City of fathers, in another a rebellious teen - Blind, and Fourth Period Murder Mystery - was running for his life and proofs for his innocence as main char)

OMG about YSH I would love to write until tomorrow morning, but sorry kid ProDai ain't for me

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love time-travel, but not with that writer, that's for sure.

[moraitika1.livejournal.com]

I love a believable time travel stunt... but this one ain't on my believable list. Those cdramas where heroine goes back in time to have the Emperor for dinner and his general for breakfast are on my taste but this is too far away even for a fantasy. The vibe just ain't there

[happahaole.livejournal.com]

Err...usually remakes/sequels are worse than the original. Especially for movies. I hate it when they remake classics.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I was talking in specific drama context. I wish new Hollywood would leave old Hollywood alone.

[spazzy06.livejournal.com]

BOF was embarrassing enough. I don't want to even to begin to imagine what they're going to do with Proposal Daisakusen. The J-drama barely had enough substance to sustain eleven episodes. What the heck are they going to fill the 16 episode Korean version with?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Weep, get beaten up by mobsters, have random Engrish, get amnesia, fall into pools?

[mionenoelle.livejournal.com]

I admit I haven't watched ProDai, but a kdrama penned by the writer of BOF sounds iffy at best, a potential disaster at worst. BOF sucked during the latter half. I agree with both you and JB. The writing was beyond terrible, but the incompetent directing made it much, much worse.

Meteor Garden (the first one) shall always and forever be my definitive HYD adaptation. While the HYD jdrama's script, acting, and directing were all good, the actors themselves didn't charm me, so I didn't sit through the whole thing. But BOF was a class in itself in bad writing/directing and general adaptation decay. The only reason I finished it to the very end was because by the time my brain was revolting at the suckiness of it all, I was already too attached to Lee Min-ho.

I liked YB more than its jdrama version, but that's because I loved Korean cast and I enjoyed the humor of the Hong sisters. I do agree that the writing is tighter with IDN. I guess I generally prefer the originals to the remakes/redos, no matter what nationality it is.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

MG was my second ever drama and a huge favorite. It will always be the definitive adaptation for me.

Oh, this is going to be so entertaining, for all the wrong reasons!

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with you on this one... BOF's biggest crutch was without a doubt it's writing, not that the directing didn't suck either...and I'm saying this despite the fact that the fangirl in me did enjoy this series....also Kdramas have a terrible track record when it comes to remaking j mangas/dramas/movies...I dont think City Hunter counts, since by all accounts, the remake's plot had absolutely no connection to that of the original in anyway, I also liked The Man Who Can't get married but there is no doubt that Kekkon Dekinai Otoke was better than that.....so yeah taking all this into account and the fact that Kdramas are much longer which means they're really going to drag things out compared to teh original, I have no hope for this drama...well aside frim YSH (WhY, BOY?)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The only way that would work is minidrama.

I thought The Empress is a great kdrama remake of a jdrama but then the jdrama was a wreck.

[akatsukichii.livejournal.com]

I just find it funny that this is Yoo Seung Ho's second Yamapi role first God of Study and now ProDai...Hmm I watched the first like 3 episodes and the last three and pretty musch fast forwarded the rest...I liked the SP though.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I didn't think about it but you are right - he's definitely doing a Yamapi thing :)