Meteor Garden pushing...

[dangermousie]

Both Meteor Garden and Hana Yori Dango are based on the same manga, Hana Yori Dango ('Boys Over Flowers', apparently the biggest-selling shoujo manga ever), and is the story of a strong-willed poor gal heroine and dorky and arrogant rich guy hero. I am sure I could sum it up more, but chances of you actually having me friended and yet knowing nothing about Hanadan in all its iterations are pretty slim.

MG is a Taiwanese drama adaptation and Hanadan is, of course, the Japanese one. Both were hugely successful when they came out (MG was first and started the whole F4 craze), and rightly so. A lot of people prefer the Japanese version, and it's wonderful: well-acted, with a budget the GDP of a small country etc.

But I am one of the people who, much as I love Hanadan, prefer Meteor Garden. MG is not just one of my Top 10 dramas of any country, it's also one of my comfort dramas: whenever I need a pick-me-up, I always can rely on a bit from MG to make me feel better. It was only my second drama and I adored it to bits, but it holds up so wonderfully on rewatch too.

So why do I prefer MG?

1. Inoue Mao who plays Makino in the Japanese version is a darling, but Barbie Hsu, who plays the Taiwanese equivalent Shan Cai, is my favorite drama actress ever.
2. I prefer the story to be set in college and not high school
3. There is no doubt the Japanese F4 boys are actors who range from decent to really good but...F4 are supposed to be super hot and I think the Taiwanese ones are way hotter. They fit my mental image of F4 to a tee, not the same with Hanadan boys. I grew to love them anyway but still...I mean, you'd never beat the combined hotness of Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Ken Chu and Vanness Wu. Seriously.
4. Is Matsumoto Jun (Domyouji) a better actor than Jerry Yan (the Taiwanese equivalent)? Yes. But Jerry Yan with his broad shoulders, dimples and height makes me weak in the knees like I am a silly teenybopper...(there are rumors he might star in a Taiwanese adaptation of Skip-Beat as Ren. If that happens, I would die of glee).
5. BIGGEST REASON: the script. MG is very very faithful to the manga. It's basically a very good, straightforward adaptation. The Japanese version takes a lot of liberties and is very loosely based on it. Which is fine, but since I am the manga story fangirl, I much much prefer the original story :)
6. The ANGST. Oh, the yummy angst.
7. It's longer so it has more time to develop the characters...I like that.

So yes, this is all a very long-winded way to say that while I love the Japanese adaptation with mad love, I adore Meteor Garden even more!

Here is a totally adorable cute OTP mv for MG. I dare you not to think it's super cute:

Comments

[moth5dream.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) Guess I'm in the minority. Never knew about any of this. Don't know much about manga, anime, etc. Never got into it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

They are fun.

[timescout.livejournal.com]

The mv is so cute, no doubt about it.

MG has been on my list for a while now but I've sorta avoided it as I tried few TW dramas and they just don't seem to appeal to me at all. But I will check MG out when I have less of a drama backlog.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Silence? It's very good (if angsty). Or Mars? Which ones did you try? *is curious*

[timescout.livejournal.com]

Silence might actually do. Angst never hurts as far as I can tell. xD

Oh, I watched about 6 eps of Mars, then skipped few episodes onwards and gave up. I just could not relate to the characters at all. I guess I should have picked up something with 'older' people, ha. I don't remember what the other one was, guess I wasn't all that impressed with it either, ha.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Here is a link to an awesome Silence MV.



A Taiwanese drama I heartily recommend is 'The Outsiders.' Basically, it's about the lives of three boys who grow up to become members of the Triads. Their leader, Ah Hao, falls in love with an upper-class, sheltered pianist girl and angst and awesomeness follows:



Here is a MV that got me to check it out.



I fell madly in love with it and did incoherent blogging under that tag, if you are curious to check out more about it before venturing.

http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/tag/the%20outsiders

[je12-vz09.livejournal.com]

agree with you. i'm watching MG right now for the nth time and though i've seen it so many times, i keep coming back to it, even if there are still a no. of dramas that i haven't seen. plus, Jun+Shun tandem plus Mao is like a given fact that the show will make it big. these 3 have carved their names already even before doing this drama. but when Jerry, Vanness, Ken & Vic did MG, they're still unknown (although Jerry & Ken did GTO-TW before, they still remained unknown) and yet it was a hit. they made it big. and though i like Jun+Shun+Shota+Abe as Jap. F4, F4-TW would always be my no.1.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Icon! Yes, totally agreed.

Including HYD2 and excluding MG2 ...

[village.livejournal.com]

I don't like one better than the other - I find them both kind of incomparable. Odd, huh? I find what one lacks the other makes up for and vice versa. They are both imperfect dramas in different but equal ways and they're both good in different but equal ways. I don't think one can surpass the other for me. A rare opinion, I'm sure.

It's really weird. If I had to choose one over the other, I don't think I could. I definitely agree that the TW version's F4 is an almost perfect one, in terms of the manga or at least the anime, where I was first exposed to the story.

It does make you wonder what the Korean version will be like though, doesn't it? Maybe it will try to bring the positives of both versions together and come out with the best adaptation EVAH.*









*Although I doubt it. I fear for this version. I really do. I hope it doesn't suck the way I think it might. I want it so much to be good.

Re: Including HYD2 and excluding MG2 ...

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point, village. While I'm squarely in the 'I like Meteor Garden better too' camp, I couldn't honestly say in pure intrinsic terms it's miles ahead of HYD because it's got too many flaws. And there are plenty of things about HYD that I'm willing to admit are very well done. If they could somehow be squooshed together we might almost get perfection! K-drama version, please don't let us down. Please. We're begging you!
And yes, let us not count MG2. It doesn't exist if you don't admit to its existence.

Re: Including HYD2 and excluding MG2 ...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this version might suck. Or not. *crosses fingers*

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

No, no, no. NO - NO!
You cannot make me watch Meteor Garden ... you.just.can't. *sigh* The mv is cute though and as I have already given up on HYD halfway through last year (I just don't find Matsumoto shippable, I just can't), perhaps I should watch MG ... I might. Perhaps marathoning it now as I can't do much with my right arm in a cast-like splint.

NO! What am I thinking ...
.
.
.
.
You win dangermousie You are one dangerous, evil woman :)

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

You should always listen to dangermousie, scottishlass. She is a wise woman. Meteor Garden might make you see the light where the j-drama failed :-).
Plus Jerry has beautiful arms. And the aforementioned dimples.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay! Just keep oin mind they had a tiny budget :)

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

watch MG! That drama means a lot to me, in so many ways more than one. i will have to write about it ....

[prettierdanpink.livejournal.com]

I can't compare HanaDan and MG because I am so inlove with both versions.. Sooo. IDK. D: Haha.

I agree, I lovelovelove Inoue Mao but Barbie Xu is, and will forever be, my favorite ^_^

you'd never beat the combined hotness of Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Ken Chu and Vanness Wu. Seriously.

I AGREE WITH THAT COMPLETELY. ♥

LOL @ Jerry Yan. Agree, Matsujun >>>> Jerry Yan as an actor but Jerry's Dao Ming Si fits him PERFECTLY. :)

[bambinainnero.livejournal.com]

MG irritated me to no end, it was frustrating to watch (probably because of the heroine, since I couldn't stand her most of the time); AND, I didn't find Jerry particularly handsome lol. at all.
Actually I was a bit disappointed in both versions; I hadn't read the manga but I knew that F4 had to be outstandingly hot, and all the actors.. were not.
Except for Vic Zhou and Matsujun I've always thought there was really nothing outstanding about them.
That said, I watched MG first and maybe I was disappointed cause I had such high expectations, since everybody was always talking about it, dunno. HYD is not one of my favourites either, but I thought it was definitely better (again, I haven't read the manga so I can only judge the drama itself, not the drama based on the manga).
But I did find Matsujun's voice annoying, after a while (why did he feel the need to shout like crazy every 10 minutes?). Now I'm on ep 8 of season 2, we'll see
(I also watched ep. 1 of MG2, but I never went past that, I refuse to see more. Memory loss, are you kidding me?! ugh *frustrated*)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

MG2 is awful, true.

[main-hoon-emily.livejournal.com]

Hmm...that guy is a lot cuter than Matsumoto Jun, so maybe I need to watch Meteor Garden to actually like the Makino/Domyouji pairing? Because I spent the whole of Hana Yori Dango hoping she'd dump Domyouji for Rui since he was so much better looking!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, I don't find Matsujun hot. Good actor yeah, hot no.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this lovely post, dangermousie!!!! It really validates my love for MG (which has no bounds), and I do feel the same even if I love HYD. MG2 sucked to the core. but ieee! thanks!!!

btw, i haven't read Skip Beat, what is it about????

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I really adore MG so. I actually think we first 'discovered' each other because of MG, no?

I have managed to avoid MG2 and plan to continue.

Skip Beat is about a young woman, named Kyoko, who is ditched by her bf in a horrid fashion. He is a rising idol singer so she decides to get revenge by entering showbiz and becoming even more famous. :) I would imagine if they do the drama and get Jerry, he'd be Ren (the male main character), who is a big star in the same agency Kyoko is in and is a driven perfectionist who has issues about connecting with his emotions (and, because it's a manga, is also Kyoko's childhood best friend, but she doesn't know it).

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

i didn't realize that i haven't replied.

and yes, MG was the source of our dorama bond ;).....

now that you gave me the low down, i have read vol 1 of Skip Beat (from the library!). It is pretty good, however, I've resisted buying mangas due to not having much space. so reading it at the bookstore or borrowing from the library works for me. ;)

[carviangli.livejournal.com]

wow...I ALMOST forgot how hot Jerry Yan is...he is incredibly good-looking :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Yes.