dangermousie | In the middle of my mad love for Korean Hanadan, a bit of love for the Taiwanese version

filmi_girl came over today and we spent the day watching Korean Hana Yori Dango ep 5, talking, and watching the first two eps of Meteor Garden, which I talked her into watching (on the principle that you can't have too much Hanadan). She seems to like it, which is YAY! We will continue to watch more together.

I've forgotten that MG is a lot more open about sex and violence than the kdrama and much more open about sex than the jdrama (which is less open about sex than kdrama).

You know, this rewatch of MG confirms that much as I enjoy Inoue Mao and Go Hye Sun as Makino in the Japanese and Korean versions, respectively, Barbie Hsu is my definitive Makino. She is so tough she could probably wipe the floor with the other Makinos. She is just incredible: the scene where she thinks Dao Ming Si (this version's Domyouji) had people write around she had two abortions and comes to find him, boiling mad, but can't reach him because he is sitting up too high so she kicks Akira in the shins instead, is one of my favorite things in the world. When she is at the party with the mean bitches, she is not embarassed or weeping when they try to humiliate her, but pays back with interest. She is TOUGH.

Lee Min Ho is shaping up to be my favorite Domyouji, hands down, but Jerry Yan is just as gorgeous and (since this version sticks close to the manga) is a hell of a lot more messed-up and out-of-control, which I love. A dorky almost-psycho is an almost irresistable fictional combo for me.

And oh oh oh oh oh oh, I go nonverbal when I think of Vic Zhou (my favorite drama actor and probably the best-looking guy I have ever seen) as Lei, this version's Rui.

I think, in some ways, this version just imprinted on me: it was only my second drama (after Mars, which also starred Barbie Hsu and Vic Zhou, in roles that are polar opposites to their roles in MG) and the one which made me realize Mars wasn't a one-off fluke and I should investigate this world of dramas...I am pretty blind to its flaws, I admit. Or maybe my manga purist heart just likes how super-faithful it is as an adaptation (I adore Korean Hanadan beyond measure, but it's not as faithful and much as I love Japanese Hanadan, it's more like a freeform interpretation of the manga)...

In honor of that, a cute MG mv.