Between Kgotboda Namja and Hana Yori Dango
During one of those stormy days a weekend ago, I started watching this Boys Before/Over Flowers. It was a Korean version of the Taiwanese Meteor Garden. The Korean name was Kgotboda Namja (꽃보다 남자 ). It is still being aired on KBS in Korea. Supposedly it is going to end in March. Don't ask me how they were even posted on the net. That's the wonderful thing about internet. :)
I was too excited when I started watching it. I just clicked on the top of the 'hottest' list and couldn't wait to get started as soon as I found out that it was a Korean version of MG. But now I suffered from it. The new video is trickling down sooo slow. It barely even trickling anymore. Like somebody called the plumber and had it fixed. I came to episode 12 and stopped to think. I could continue and watch till episode 14 which was the last one available right now. If I did that, I'd risk forgetting and would have to rewatch it when the episode 15 comes out and wait another month before the next one comes out. If I stopped watching now and wait until more episodes are accumulated, I could just rewatch episode 12 instead of waiting miserable for the new episode to come out each time. I opted for the latter.
Now what to do ? It's another stormy weekend, and I didn't really want to start a new series with this one hanging. So I looked for the Japanese version instead. ha..ha.. The name is Hana Yori Dango (花より男子). And since I was still quite fresh with the Korean one, I could actually made some comparisons. One very obvious thing was the castings. The Korean version had a better choice for the F4 guys. While the Japanese had a better main girl character. The Japanese version is very dark. It was dark, literally...ha..ha.. But the portrayal of the bad character was also dark. While the Korean one was more light and cheerful. It's really hard to say which one actually represent the manga better since I haven't read the comic itself.
I was too excited when I started watching it. I just clicked on the top of the 'hottest' list and couldn't wait to get started as soon as I found out that it was a Korean version of MG. But now I suffered from it. The new video is trickling down sooo slow. It barely even trickling anymore. Like somebody called the plumber and had it fixed. I came to episode 12 and stopped to think. I could continue and watch till episode 14 which was the last one available right now. If I did that, I'd risk forgetting and would have to rewatch it when the episode 15 comes out and wait another month before the next one comes out. If I stopped watching now and wait until more episodes are accumulated, I could just rewatch episode 12 instead of waiting miserable for the new episode to come out each time. I opted for the latter.
Now what to do ? It's another stormy weekend, and I didn't really want to start a new series with this one hanging. So I looked for the Japanese version instead. ha..ha.. The name is Hana Yori Dango (花より男子). And since I was still quite fresh with the Korean one, I could actually made some comparisons. One very obvious thing was the castings. The Korean version had a better choice for the F4 guys. While the Japanese had a better main girl character. The Japanese version is very dark. It was dark, literally...ha..ha.. But the portrayal of the bad character was also dark. While the Korean one was more light and cheerful. It's really hard to say which one actually represent the manga better since I haven't read the comic itself.
pictures courtesy of www.tbs.co.jp and www.kbs.co.kr
Official site for Hana Yori Dango http://www.tbs.co.jp/hanayoridango/
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