Boys Over Flowers

How does one go about writing about this drama? It was a pop culture phenomenon and total hot mess of a drama that skyrocketed these actors into stardom. It also brought together this group of misfits called the F4Plus1 working on this blog. This may not have been the first drama that we all watched as group, but it is the drama that we always come back to and holds a special place in our hearts.

As the original five of us started along this road towards Korea we discovered that we were like our own little reverse F4. We had four girls and boy and we thought, why not. Let’s roll with this and see where it takes us. It may not take us anywhere fantastic in the world, but what better way to keep in touch and maybe make some K-poper stumbling along on the internet smile, should they find this blog.

There is something to be said for loving something like K-pop and dramas. Whether it says that the person in question is delusional, patient, or maybe a little of both is up to the one viewing that fan. It doesn’t matter what that viewer thinks though because all that matters is that that fan is enjoying themselves and has found something that inspires them to do something as silly as starting a blog that most likely no one will ever see other than those people that are working on it and sympathetic friends.

Now if we’re all done sharing our feelings, let’s talk about this drama!

Like I said before, there is so much to talk about, so how does one even start? I guess you could say that the entertainment value of this drama far exceeds the drama itself. Thinking about this drama now, while I was watching and then afterward when I had time to digest everything reminds me of when I read Twilight a few years after it came out. While reading, I thought it was an amazing story and was completely engrossed. I was not a crazy Twihard mind you, I just really enjoying the story. When I actually finished though and was able to step back and come up for air, I realized how stupid it actually was. The only difference with BOF is that I still love it even with all of its imperfections and insanity.

My main issue with the drama itself is that it was really long, like really long, and it didn’t need to be, not that I wouldn’t watch all 25 episodes again in a heartbeat. The part where it really started to lag, I think, was when they went to Macau and Joon Pyo basically said GTFO to everyone. For Pete’s sake man! Get your life together and stick it to that dragon lady of a mother of yours! You are Shinhwa so grow a freaking backbone! Hire protection or something! Lock that woman up! Geez!

I just want to punch him in his stupid face!!!

All that anger up there is why I fell in love with this drama because one moment you are hating on Joon Pyo so hard for being the biggest scum on the planet and then you want to hug him as he sobs over what he has done to the one person he has ever loved. 

Feeling all the feels right now

There is also one of my most favorite side OTPs ever in this drama. That's right I'm talking about Yi Jung and Woo Bin...wait what? Just kidding, although they do have a pretty sweet bromance. I'm really talking about Yi Jung and Ga Eul (of course) who I will forever ship no matter who these actors work with or who they may eventually marry. I don't care! (cue 2NE1 music here) I think that I may have liked them better than Joon Pyo and Jan Di just because their love wasn't so complicated, even if I did want to punch Yi Jung in the face sometimes too. Korean dramas bring out my violent side okay? They were just so sweet it almost gave me a cavity but not in an annoying way like some other couples do. 

So close, yet so far away.

But seriously, back to Woo Bin and Yi Jung. I think that every drama needs a solid bromance whether it be through background characters or main characters, it just needs to be there. While their bromance is not the best one that I've ever seen (that goes to Goo Yong Ha and Geol Oh in Sungkyunkwan Scandal) it is a good one, especially when they are laughing at Joon Pyo behind, or in front of, his back. 

Who thinks Boys Over Flowers is amazing?

As I have been writing and looking at pictures to put in this post, I ran across what I consider to be the shame of this drama. I will explain to you what I mean in a poem 

There once was a girl named Jan Di 

Who thought she was real good at free

She would jump in the pool

Thinking she was cool

.................
But all it did was piss me off!!

Oh, I'm Jan Di and I'm such a good swimmer and I could have gone to the Olympics and I can beat the boys in swimming.

 

As someone who did competitive swimming from 1997-2011 and taught swim lessons and swim team from 2005 until the present time, whenever I watched these people swim (if I could stomach it) all I did was mentally correct their form. I wanted so badly to jump into that pool with them and give them the stoke refinement that they so desperately needed. 

Just thinking about it makes me mad!

And then don't even get me started on Jan Di drowning whenever she got with in a mile of water. She is a swimmer and a 'really good' swimmer at that (so much sarcasm there), but she can't even stand up in three feet of water when her shoulder hurts. Her freaking shoulder. I have dealt with shoulder pain for a long time. I have been a flyer all my life and in high school when I started to swim the 100 fly it started to worsen. Then in college I partially dislocated my shoulder, but I'm totally fine. I can still swim, even if my shoulder is easily irritated. That's not to say that whatever happened to Jan Di isn't serious and it wasn't really sad that she would never be able to swim again, but come on! Swimmers should be able to tread water and swim without using their arms or hands. If you would excuse me a moment, I going to go take some deep breaths.   

Okay I think I'm good now. That episode with the swimming competition though.......

The last thing that I am going to say about this drama is that it follows that usual pattern of the couple gets together, then the break up, then they get together, and so on and so forth. This drama takes it to a whole other level though with the constant breaking up and getting back together and then there was this whole fiasco: 

You're not my girlfriend!!

Seriously writers? You're going to do this now? You know there are like two more episodes right? You do? Okay, I'm just going to trust you then......And then this happened. 

Oh man, this drama.....

Writing about this drama brings out so many emotions, as I have said, and if I were to write about all of them this may never get posted because there is just so much to say. Instead of writing, I think that I am going to make you all a montage of some of the things that made me roll my eyes the most

That just happened

These three 

How are you that stupid? Like, seriously, how?

Really? A saxophone? 

But, of course, I snark about BOF with an abundance of love. It is so fun to make fun of it because it is really easy, but it is also a really good drama for those who are starting their journey into dramaland.

As for whether or not you should watch this drama (if you haven't already) the answer is a resounding YES! I don't think anyone who watches dramas can go without watching this one because there are references to it everywhere. Everywhere I tell you!! You will be sitting at whatever screen you watch dramas on and feel a slew of emotions from happy to sad to angry to embarrassed (both for the characters and for the weird things that the writers put into the drama e.x. swimming and the saxophone).

This concludes the first...would you call it a review?.......review for a drama, Boys Over Flowers, the drama that started everything that you see before you.

~ Alora