Further Hana Yori Dango ramblings
Feb. 7th, 2006 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieIt’s taken me almost as long to fall in love with Hana Yori Dango as it’s taking Tsukushi to fall for Doumyouji. But now, it’s mad pash so I am afraid there are a few more posts coming up. Of course, I am only 12 or 13 episodes from the end (and have seen 30+ already) so it shouldn’t be too bad. :P
I do have to say I like the story’s character development. I mean, it’s rather impressive that at this point I have an impulse to shake Tsukushi and tell her to ‘oh, come on! Make up your mind and reciprocate already’ when at the start of the series I couldn’t believe that Doumyouji was a love interest and hated him with a passion. Good job.
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katranna was right. There is certainly something Bollywoodish about HYD. And not just the whole “rich boy falls in love with poor girl and a lot of melodrama and class differences occur” (this is not a scenario you could believably set in an American context after 1950s but it is a beloved storyline in Bollywood). There is this whole hyperbole of wealth that Bollywood likes to do as well. The Doumyoujis aren’t just rich. They are super super SUPER rich. It reminds me of the Bollywood blockbuster K3G and the fact that the Raichands’ house was the size of a small country and that Rahul took a helicopter home (then there is the fact that he picked a spunky poor girl instead of a suitable rich girl and got in a lot of trouble, but hey, he is more like Rui than Doumyouji, anyway).
But the big difference is in treatment of family. In K3G, Amitabh’s stern patriarch was basically the way some people conceive of God: loving, source of all your goods, and expecting minute and total obedience. Not an easy deity perhaps, but certainly, misguided pride or sternness aside, he clearly loves his family. In Bollywood, family is paramount. HYD is not like that. Doumyouji addresses his mother as a bitch a few times (and mind boggles imagining this in a Bollywood movie) and that moniker is fully deserved, as she is a horrible horrible woman who uses her children as pawns. I don’t really think she sees them as people at all. Actually now, after meeting his mother, so much about his character makes sense: his inbuilt disdain, his disregard for anyone not his friend or someone he cares about. In fact, I am astonished he turned out as well as he has, with that kind of family. After all, he has close friends, he really cares for his sister, and he truly loves Tsukushi. I don’t think his mother is capable of any of these feelings. I don’t think there is anyone she loves (other than herself) in the whole world, and it’s clear she is incapable of seeing people outside her class as individuals. Heck, I don’t think she is capable of seeing her son and daughter as individuals. His family also explains his lack of socializing skills. He simply doesn’t know how to interact with people. Doumyouji mentions that since he was a child, he’s only seen his parents a day a year because they live abroad (which would explain his close bond with his sister), which, while certainly a blessing in disguise (having Mommy Dearest around every day? *shudder*), would definitely lead to no proper upbringing about normal human interactions. The fact that he is capable of loyalty or love with psycho bitch in the gene pool? Impressive. Just as impressive as the fact that Tsukushi grew up strong and uncompromising with her shallow, grasping parents.
I do love the fact that when Tsukushi comes to his birthday party, Doumyouji introduces her to his mother, no hesitation or fear or anything. Of course, he introduces her as “the most important woman in my life,” which, aside from the fact that she hasn’t even gone out with him, is really cool but brings down the wrath of Mommy. And that of course leads to one of my favorite moments in the series, and one of the many reasons Tsukushi is so super-cool, even with her tendency to temper and jumping to conclusions. His mother, livid but well-bred, decides to humiliate Tsukushi. As Doumyouji’s friends lied that she is some kind of corporate daughter, Kaede (Mom) tells her “well, growing up in that kind of household, you must know how to play a musical instrument. Come, play us something on the piano” and so Tsukushi has to perform in front of 300+ people, all of them snooty strangers and Kaede is just waiting for the girl to break and run off because obviously, Tsukushi has no idea how to play. And Tsukushi just sits down, no hesitation, and just starts banging on the piano, not even trying, and not flinching, even though she knows there are 300 people in the room and Kaede is doing this to humiliate her. She is just incapable of backing down (in which she is really similar to Doumyouji). And you see Doumyouji just grin proudly and you realize that part of the reason he fell for her is because she can stand up to his devil of a mother. Actually, good for him that after a family of strong women, he still fell for a strong girl not someone who would 'yes sir' to him (and one girl who tried he told her to snap out of it).
Of course, the irony is that by trying to break apart Doumyouji and Tsukushi, his mother is accomplishing exactly the opposite. After all, Tsukushi hasn’t even accepted Doumyouji as a date and his mother flips that they would get married! I guess it doesn’t occur to her that anyone can turn her son down. But her authoritarian dictates are actually making Tsukushi’s ingrained stubbornness act up and are making Doumyouji’s chances better! Not to mention that providing him with a built-to-spec fiancée, someone who is suitable and pretty and spunky (heck, Doumyouji could have probably fallen for her if he wasn’t already in love) is doing more for Doumyouji’s cause than anything else. He’s been professing he loves Tsukushi for ages, and he’s rescued her and chased after her and all to little effect, but now that she might lose him, Tsukushi is turning green and realizing things. Hmmmm.
Favorite scene so far? Hmmm. It would be when she tells him she doesn’t want to have him around any more because she is suffocating (being nudged and prodded by evil bad guy who she doesn’t realize is evil) and he has no pride and tells her he loves her and will follow her anywhere. And she walks away anyway. But then the bad guys kidnap her (Bollywood!) and tell her that they kidnapped her so that Doumyouji would show up and they can get their revenge on him for various stuff. And Tsukushi (who tries to fight even though she is tied up pretty tightly) just tells them he won’t come after her little “leave me alone” speech and of course he shows up anyway. And then he basically lets himself be beaten within an inch of his life for her sake, because they are all "we are holding scissors to her face and if you move and hit back, it's she who will suffer." And she stares horrified, and he just tells her "don't look at me like that because it makes you ugly, just close your eyes" and then he lets them beat him and they are all taunting him about "don't you want to hit us" and you see him struggle hard to contain himself. Woe. And then he is all unconscious and she manages to jump in front of him and shield him with her body. Waaaaaangst. Love. Of course, this being them, once they are both in the hospital, it’s back to friendly (?) insults, and her apology starts out lovely and gets worse and worse “I don’t want you to die even though you have a horrible personality, and a lot of people would be happy if you died” :P And yet, just as typically, she jumps up in front of him when she thinks the bad guy has come back, even though she is hurt herself. And he tells her not to cry because it will make the scratches worse and her uglier. Heee. Insults as endearments.
And earlier on, they even had a lovely cliché “she has hypothermia so they need to strip in front of a fire so he can give her body heat” scene. Yay. No sex though, just sleeping and cuddling and (this being them) bickering. Though Good Lord, that girl is slow on the uptake. “Why did he go out in a raging blizzard to rescue me?” Hmmmm, let’s see. Snap out of it, girlie. By now, I definitely want to make Tsukushi fall for him. He's rich, he's crazy for you, he stood up to his bat of a mother and almost got killed for you, even after you rejected him horribly. What more can you want?
Also loved the scene where she bakes him cookies for his birthday and they are in different shapes of his face and they are kinda burnt and smell like fish and he is so giddy because she baked for him. And it’s a personal gift. Awwww. Then, of course, he wakes up poor Rui at 6:30 am to ‘hang out’ and while Rui keeps trying to fall back asleep he keeps going on and on and on about it. And then all three of his friends have to deal with it (with Rui’s resigned “He’s been doing this at my house since forever” making me LOL). And his friends finally lose patience and go: “OK, enough about this. But did you have sex?” ROFL. And they tell him that if he waits for Tsukushi he’ll be 50, so why not play the field.
I do think they make a good match for each other (though I wouldn’t inflict them on anyone else). They are both pigheaded, not too intellectual, subtle as a brick, physically reckless and very loyal, and with an overbearing personality.
I do have to say I like the story’s character development. I mean, it’s rather impressive that at this point I have an impulse to shake Tsukushi and tell her to ‘oh, come on! Make up your mind and reciprocate already’ when at the start of the series I couldn’t believe that Doumyouji was a love interest and hated him with a passion. Good job.
katranna was right. There is certainly something Bollywoodish about HYD. And not just the whole “rich boy falls in love with poor girl and a lot of melodrama and class differences occur” (this is not a scenario you could believably set in an American context after 1950s but it is a beloved storyline in Bollywood). There is this whole hyperbole of wealth that Bollywood likes to do as well. The Doumyoujis aren’t just rich. They are super super SUPER rich. It reminds me of the Bollywood blockbuster K3G and the fact that the Raichands’ house was the size of a small country and that Rahul took a helicopter home (then there is the fact that he picked a spunky poor girl instead of a suitable rich girl and got in a lot of trouble, but hey, he is more like Rui than Doumyouji, anyway). But the big difference is in treatment of family. In K3G, Amitabh’s stern patriarch was basically the way some people conceive of God: loving, source of all your goods, and expecting minute and total obedience. Not an easy deity perhaps, but certainly, misguided pride or sternness aside, he clearly loves his family. In Bollywood, family is paramount. HYD is not like that. Doumyouji addresses his mother as a bitch a few times (and mind boggles imagining this in a Bollywood movie) and that moniker is fully deserved, as she is a horrible horrible woman who uses her children as pawns. I don’t really think she sees them as people at all. Actually now, after meeting his mother, so much about his character makes sense: his inbuilt disdain, his disregard for anyone not his friend or someone he cares about. In fact, I am astonished he turned out as well as he has, with that kind of family. After all, he has close friends, he really cares for his sister, and he truly loves Tsukushi. I don’t think his mother is capable of any of these feelings. I don’t think there is anyone she loves (other than herself) in the whole world, and it’s clear she is incapable of seeing people outside her class as individuals. Heck, I don’t think she is capable of seeing her son and daughter as individuals. His family also explains his lack of socializing skills. He simply doesn’t know how to interact with people. Doumyouji mentions that since he was a child, he’s only seen his parents a day a year because they live abroad (which would explain his close bond with his sister), which, while certainly a blessing in disguise (having Mommy Dearest around every day? *shudder*), would definitely lead to no proper upbringing about normal human interactions. The fact that he is capable of loyalty or love with psycho bitch in the gene pool? Impressive. Just as impressive as the fact that Tsukushi grew up strong and uncompromising with her shallow, grasping parents.
I do love the fact that when Tsukushi comes to his birthday party, Doumyouji introduces her to his mother, no hesitation or fear or anything. Of course, he introduces her as “the most important woman in my life,” which, aside from the fact that she hasn’t even gone out with him, is really cool but brings down the wrath of Mommy. And that of course leads to one of my favorite moments in the series, and one of the many reasons Tsukushi is so super-cool, even with her tendency to temper and jumping to conclusions. His mother, livid but well-bred, decides to humiliate Tsukushi. As Doumyouji’s friends lied that she is some kind of corporate daughter, Kaede (Mom) tells her “well, growing up in that kind of household, you must know how to play a musical instrument. Come, play us something on the piano” and so Tsukushi has to perform in front of 300+ people, all of them snooty strangers and Kaede is just waiting for the girl to break and run off because obviously, Tsukushi has no idea how to play. And Tsukushi just sits down, no hesitation, and just starts banging on the piano, not even trying, and not flinching, even though she knows there are 300 people in the room and Kaede is doing this to humiliate her. She is just incapable of backing down (in which she is really similar to Doumyouji). And you see Doumyouji just grin proudly and you realize that part of the reason he fell for her is because she can stand up to his devil of a mother. Actually, good for him that after a family of strong women, he still fell for a strong girl not someone who would 'yes sir' to him (and one girl who tried he told her to snap out of it).
Of course, the irony is that by trying to break apart Doumyouji and Tsukushi, his mother is accomplishing exactly the opposite. After all, Tsukushi hasn’t even accepted Doumyouji as a date and his mother flips that they would get married! I guess it doesn’t occur to her that anyone can turn her son down. But her authoritarian dictates are actually making Tsukushi’s ingrained stubbornness act up and are making Doumyouji’s chances better! Not to mention that providing him with a built-to-spec fiancée, someone who is suitable and pretty and spunky (heck, Doumyouji could have probably fallen for her if he wasn’t already in love) is doing more for Doumyouji’s cause than anything else. He’s been professing he loves Tsukushi for ages, and he’s rescued her and chased after her and all to little effect, but now that she might lose him, Tsukushi is turning green and realizing things. Hmmmm.
Favorite scene so far? Hmmm. It would be when she tells him she doesn’t want to have him around any more because she is suffocating (being nudged and prodded by evil bad guy who she doesn’t realize is evil) and he has no pride and tells her he loves her and will follow her anywhere. And she walks away anyway. But then the bad guys kidnap her (Bollywood!) and tell her that they kidnapped her so that Doumyouji would show up and they can get their revenge on him for various stuff. And Tsukushi (who tries to fight even though she is tied up pretty tightly) just tells them he won’t come after her little “leave me alone” speech and of course he shows up anyway. And then he basically lets himself be beaten within an inch of his life for her sake, because they are all "we are holding scissors to her face and if you move and hit back, it's she who will suffer." And she stares horrified, and he just tells her "don't look at me like that because it makes you ugly, just close your eyes" and then he lets them beat him and they are all taunting him about "don't you want to hit us" and you see him struggle hard to contain himself. Woe. And then he is all unconscious and she manages to jump in front of him and shield him with her body. Waaaaaangst. Love. Of course, this being them, once they are both in the hospital, it’s back to friendly (?) insults, and her apology starts out lovely and gets worse and worse “I don’t want you to die even though you have a horrible personality, and a lot of people would be happy if you died” :P And yet, just as typically, she jumps up in front of him when she thinks the bad guy has come back, even though she is hurt herself. And he tells her not to cry because it will make the scratches worse and her uglier. Heee. Insults as endearments.
And earlier on, they even had a lovely cliché “she has hypothermia so they need to strip in front of a fire so he can give her body heat” scene. Yay. No sex though, just sleeping and cuddling and (this being them) bickering. Though Good Lord, that girl is slow on the uptake. “Why did he go out in a raging blizzard to rescue me?” Hmmmm, let’s see. Snap out of it, girlie. By now, I definitely want to make Tsukushi fall for him. He's rich, he's crazy for you, he stood up to his bat of a mother and almost got killed for you, even after you rejected him horribly. What more can you want?
Also loved the scene where she bakes him cookies for his birthday and they are in different shapes of his face and they are kinda burnt and smell like fish and he is so giddy because she baked for him. And it’s a personal gift. Awwww. Then, of course, he wakes up poor Rui at 6:30 am to ‘hang out’ and while Rui keeps trying to fall back asleep he keeps going on and on and on about it. And then all three of his friends have to deal with it (with Rui’s resigned “He’s been doing this at my house since forever” making me LOL). And his friends finally lose patience and go: “OK, enough about this. But did you have sex?” ROFL. And they tell him that if he waits for Tsukushi he’ll be 50, so why not play the field.
I do think they make a good match for each other (though I wouldn’t inflict them on anyone else). They are both pigheaded, not too intellectual, subtle as a brick, physically reckless and very loyal, and with an overbearing personality.
