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alicenowonderland · 2 years

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F4 FEVER ✨

Okay, can we all agree that our childhood is not complete if we do not have a crush on one of the F4s or if we did not watched Hana Yori Dango adaptations. Who does not imagine herself being the female lead falling for the rich, handsome, toxic male lead? Or falling for the second male lead who wears in all white or any white in it? Just kidding! But I know we all loved the series.

So before I get into my point, I would like to remind you, my dear readers, that the things I will discuss here is based on my opinions. Everything that I will be put here is based on my point of views and own understanding.

Please do not forget to give me comments and please be gentle when giving one. I would love to meet other people who has the same insterests.

So… let’s get started!

🌸 THE F4 and their story 🌸

First let us know who are the F4 and their story.

F4 or also known as the 🌸 FLOWER FOUR 🌸 is a clique of young, handsome, rich men who rules the school just because they are rich and most popular. F4 came from the manga, Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) , which is written by a Japanese writer and illustrator, Yoko Kamio.

The story revolves around Makino Tsukushi who came from a middle class family. She studies at Eitoku Gakuen (academy) where the F4 rules. Tsukasa Domyouji, Rui Hanazawa, Sojirou Nishikado and Akira Mimisaka. All four of them are friends since Kindergarten and causes the bullying inside the school whenever someone gets in their way. They bully the students by the means of the RED CARD. When Tsukushi helped her friend from Tsukasa’s bullying, she stood up against him and kicked him, making Tsukasa interested on her because she was the only girl who stands up to them. Tsukushi fell in love with Rui while Rui is still waiting for Shizuka Todou, Rui’s first love. Then there was Tsukushi’s mom who is against their love because Tsukasa comes from a rich family and we know the rest.

No matter how long and what year, we always bing watch and rewatch the series because it gives us different kinds of story-telling which makes it interesting no matter how many adaptations we watched.

🌸 THE F4 and their adaptations 🌸

Hana Yori Dango has an anime adaptation as well as a movie which first aired in 90s. The first ever television series was aired in Taiwan on year 2001 where we met Dao Ming Xi, Huaze Lei, Xi Men, Mei Zou and of course… Shancai. Yes, METEOR GARDEN. It was released in 2001 and popularized since then.

Meteor Garden Taiwan has two parts. Just so we thought Shancai and Azi have their happy ending, that is where Azi had amnesia on Season 2 and we met Princess Ye Sha and things just go crazier.

The second country to adapt it into a TV series is no other than Japan. I do not know if they really intended it then Taiwan did it first or they decided to have live-action series after the success of Meteor Garden.

Hana Yori Dango was released in 2005 and yes we all loved Domyouji! *heart eyes with drools* We cannot deny how handsome and charismatic Jun Matsumoto is even when we first saw him as an Arashi singer. The series had a part 2 also which is pretty similar to the Taiwanese version. I do not know if the Japanese stick with the manga (bec I haven’t read the manga yet) but there are things that are not similar to other adaptations. There is also a Hana Yori Dango Final: The Movie with the same casts but the story revolves around the engaged life of Tsukushi and Tsukasa.

In 2009, South Korea’s Kdrama was sky-rocketing when they released the TV series Boys Over Flowers, the Korean adaptation. This is where it was popularized again not just in Asia but all over the world. In this show we met Lee Min Ho and Kim Bum whom we gushed over a hundred times because why not. *raining hearts* *heart eyes* A lot of fans became nostalgic when they watched the show. It lasted for 25 episodes with super catchy OST. Almoooost paradiseeeee~

After 17 years, China released their own METEOR GARDEN. It was year 2018 when Cdramas are being popular and of course they have to have a remake of Meteor Garden. *for youuuuuuu ooohhh ooohhh~* We cannot deny the love we had for the new casts especially to Dylan Wang, Darren Chen and Shen Yue.

The lastest adaptation that we loved and one of the most awaited adaptations is the F4 Thailand on 2021. We cannot deny how beautiful they changed the story but still the same plot is there. We loved Bright, Dew, Win and Nani on their Thai Series but we loved them more on portraying the infamous F4. They gave us new stories to the series and we cannot help but to delve deeper into their stories. We cannot wait for a week just for the next episode to be released. Let us admit it, we missed the F4! The show was 16 episodes and kuddos to the writer, director and crew staffs for being so creative on the story-telling. How I miss Gorya and Thyme and of course… Ren! *hearts everywhere*

I was shocked when I knew that Indonesia, USA and India had their own adaptations too but as a web series. I stumbled upon it when I am searching about the topic and saw it. It is unlicensed/unofficial adaptations but it is where it came from. Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta (Indonesia) was released on 2002 and had another adaptation on 2017. Boys Before Friends (USA) on 2013 and Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan (India) on 2014. China has also an entry called entitled Meteor Shower that was released on 2009.

🌸 The F4 and their differences 🌸

Same plot, same story line but different scenes. Maybe that is the reason why we loved these adaptations and it does not matter if we know the start to the end of the story because of its variations.

On Meteor Garden Taiwan since it is the first to have a TV series, it became a little bit detailed and has 27 episodes on the first season and 31 on the second season. We cried, we laughed and we feel what we need to feel on every scenes. Even there was a point where we chose Huaze Lei over Dao Ming Xi for hurting Shan Cai. We watched how their feelings grew and how they fought against all odds. It has also a side story of the F4 which is the Meteor Rain where we knew about Xi Men’s first love and Mei Zou’s love story. We do not know more about the F4’s family but we know that they are born with silver spoon and that they are spoiled rich kids who rule the Ying De Academy.

On Hana Yori Dango I guess they really stick to the manga. It has three parts, the last one is a movie about the engagement of Tsukasa and Tsukushi. This is the only adaptation that has a spin-off called Hana Nochi Hare which took place on Eitoku Academy ten years after the F4 graduated. Unlike the Taiwanese version, Rui Hanazawa is a quiet guy and his family owns a large trading firm. Sojiro came from a reputable family who owns a large tea ceremony school at Japan. He has an older brother which is not on other adaptations. Akira came from a family of mafia and has twin sisters which is not said on other adaptations.

On Boys Over Flowers, we had a new taste of the story. We saw how lavish the life of the F4 and how grand Gu Jun Pyo can give gifts to Jan Di, for example is a heart island on Jeju. Talk about money! We also loved the characters of the F4. Jun Pyo who came from a rich family and plays violin just like Huaze Lei of Taiwan adaptation, Jiho who is the grandson of the former President, Yi Jung came from a family of artists and he is skillful on pottery and Woo Bin whose family owns a large construction company and they have connections to the mafias.

Meteor Garden 2018 is a bit of mild compared to other adaptations. The F4 is not really that bad bullies compared to the other adaptations. They are just smart players of their game who ruled Ming De University because they are intellegent and because they give the school numerous awards because if their skills on playing a card game called Bridge (poker). This is the only adaptation with card game like that and that they are in college. All of the adaptations were set in high school. They give joker cards instead of red cards to those people who challenge them. Huaze Lei also plays violin and majors in music unlike the three F4 who majors in business. We do not know much about the other two F4 but we all knew that they are great Bridge players.

Lastly, the F4 Thailand which I can say is the best adaptation. We witnessed on the first seasons how evil Thyme’s Mother is until she became not-so-evil on the end. We saw how MJ cares for his friends and we witnessed how F4 settle their friendship using fists. Hahaha! We witnessed how Thyme changed and how Gorya struggled just so Thyme could remember. We realized that this show could really happen in real life but also how great it is if someone who holds into power like that changed because of love. This is the only adaptation where I saw that the male lead (Thyme) asks forgiveness to everyone he bullied. Talk about character development! We also knew Kavin’s first love and MJ’s KFC love. Hahaha! We saw how Ren got hurt when Mira decided to go abroad and settle. We knew each character, Thyme is possessive to his power at school because of his Mom. Ren who likes to draw and is very artistic came from a family of Doctors. Kavin who is a playboy yet afraid to fall in love again because of Mona came from a family with high ranking positions in the government. His grandmother is also a National Artist because she makes really nice flower garlands. And, MJ who is a handsome hacker and came from a family of mafia. We witnessed different forms of love and how it was portrayed by the different persons because it is what they knew.

I am so sad because I will the shows but happy also because who does not love that story? Who does not love a toxic guy that changes into a good one because of love? Of course no one in real life would like that but because it is very entertaining, we watched it.

I hope other countries would make their own adaptations. What I like it more is it showcases the trends and cultures in each countries. So I really hope Indonesia, India and USA will make a TV series adaptation not only a web-series. I hope Philippines will make one too!

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