Kkotboda namja

This is my second Korean drama that I watched after they began being made available on Netflix streaming video service. I don't speak Korean or any any connection to the country, but with the English-language subtitles on Netflix it's no problem.

I absolutely love this series! It's an old story, poor but spunky heart-of-gold girl gets taken in by rich patron (in this case, Korea's most prestigious private high school for scions of wealthy and powerful families) and has two rich men fighting over her, but it's told in a modern way with glamorous sets, location shots, and fashion. I love that the show is romantic but clean (no foul language or raunchy sex scenes) and that there's story and character development.

The interesting thing about the two Korean dramas I've now seen is that it's the men/boys who are presented as the sex symbols. They walk into a room looking like they've just stepped out of a photo shoot for Men's Vogue or GQ magazine; their hair is so perfectly colored and coiffed, long and luxurious. They sneer better than Basil Rathbone and their arrogance makes Mr. Darcy (of Pride and Prejudice fame) seem humble by comparison. The women, on the other hand, are plainer and more ditzy, and very much at the mercy of the whims of the powerful men in their lives.

On reviewer on Netflix said this show had turned her into a couch potato. Likewise.

This is a uniformly good to great drama about a young girl, Geum Jan Di (an excellent Hye-sun Koo) who gets accepted into the most elite school in Korea after saving a person there from jumping off a building. That person had been targeted by the Flowers 4, the quartet of hearthrobs who practically run the school. Geum Jan Di gets particularly under the skin of Goo Joon Pyo (Min-ho Lee) after she refuses to back down to him. He tries to make her life miserable, but she never backs down from him. Eventually, he is enamored with her. Another major character is the sensitive Yoon Ji Hoo (Hyun-joong Kim), who becomes more of a friend to Geum Jan Di. Over the course of 25 episodes, you watch as Geum Jan Di tries to maintain her independent spirit. Goo Joon Pyo is a rich guy and she is a "commoner". How can love prevail? The whole drama is filled with all sorts of emotions, happiness, sadness, anger, frustration etc, but the glue is the great work by Hye-sun Koo. She conveys everything in her sweet smile, her anger etc and her pretty dark eyes. You want her to be happy and thats what really makes this drama, you're rooting for her. There are other characters including Geum Jan Di's best friend Ga-eul, who is very sweet, but the best parts of this drama is when Geum Jan Di is being her wonderful ingratiating self. Guys will love her, girls will love the 4 guys. Very highly recommended, you'll love it.

Let me start by saying that I am the biggest fan of Korean TV and almost exclusively watch K and C-dramas which I feel are far superior than western tv these days. I totally LOVED Meteor Garden despite it's cringeworthy moments and ridiculous ending. So I thought I would go back and watch the 'classic' Korean version (I haven't seen any others). Wow, where do I start. The good points, I like Lee Min Ho and the Si Hoon character and far preferred Jan Di's friend to the same part in MG. But this series required you not to just set your brain aside, you need to put it in another room just to prevent the urge to use it from time to time. It was like they wanted certain moments or scenarios but didn't bother on any of it making sense. I kept laughing out loud at the sheer ridiculousness of the situations and stupidity of the characters. I mean MG was frustrating, but at least the chemistry between Si and Shancai was off the charts and they were actually happy together for more than 5 seconds at a time. Jan Di looked like her skin crawled every time Joo Pyo came near her. She was a sweet character, but thick as a plank and totally lacked that unique cuteness required for the role. The ending was slightly better and less ridiculous than MG but it was tedious to get through. Apart from one series, I have never rated a K-drama lower than a 8 so my 6 stars hurts, but I recommend you might want to skip this one.

I saw this ten years after it was released, I am not Asian, I am not a teenage girl. So I guess the flaws in this show are impossible not to notice. 1. The F4 are not only jerks with weird hairstyles, they are criminals. They are such bullies at the beginning of the show, it is practically impossible to really believe they are good later on in the series. 2. Jun Pyo in particular is such a big jerk, showing his "love" by constant insults and manhandling. 3. Jan Di starts well, but her character regresses instead of developing. 4. There are some pretty big plot holes there... 5. I really hope schools in Korea aren't like the one in this show, which is plain hell for the weak. 6. Jan Di's family are the worst. They are always trying to get money out of everything. There are one step before prostituting their daughter, if that would mean catching a rich son in law.

But: there is chemistry between the leading couple, Jan Di can be endearing at times, the male lead is pretty attractive in an ugly-handsome way, even with that God awful haircut (apparently he's a very hot name all over East Asia), and the soundtrack is addicting, so I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it at all.

I realise this is a few years old now and it was fashionable at the time, but the hair is just sooooo bad and has dated badly. It even makes the fashion of the time (which wasn't that great) shrink into oblivion. While i'm all up there for girls sticking up for themselves, she's very aggressive and screams a lot which kind of spoiled it a bit too. I'm only 3rd episode in and although i'm cringing at every opportunity, i'm still watching. Lee Min-Ho... mmmmmmm. Horrible, horrible permed hair, but if you look past that in the shower scene etc. ..... mmmmmm. I'll keep watching.