1 great Japanese Drama

2 seasons

20 episodes

17 hours and 7 minutes

And I’m proud to say that I’m done with another Japanese Drama Marathon. : Hana Yori Dango. That’s because I did it within 4 days of insufficient sleep. Needless to say, I practically had to drag myself away from the PC to get myself to classess on time and trying hard to concentrate. It was very very hard when my mind kept wandering to the drama, thinking about what will happen to the Tsukasa-Tsukushi-Rui love triangle.

By now, all of must think I’m siao for putting myself on such an irrational situation. Being dreamy and so unlawyer-like(okay..okay, I’m not one now but going to in like 3 years times) Called me all you want. I don’t care. Seriously…

Me, Jade Hwang is a hardcore fan of dramas!!!

Let’s start with my take on the drama…

It’s wayyyyyyyyyyy much better than the Taiwanese version, Meteor Garden!

I only watched the 1st episode and could predict that it would be a let down. Come of think of it, it was adapted from a Japanese manga, how could they possibly convey the Japanese ‘flavour’ to a Taiwanese drama? Plus, I hated F4. The 4 Taiwanese ‘hunky’ guys who was idolized by million of girls across Asia. Ewww…they are such a turn off to me. I may be biased on my opinion but who wasn’t.

That’s why I was sceptical when I came across the drama at D-Addicts. My first reaction was, oh no, another remake!

But then I saw lots of people downloading the drama and it prompted me to read the reviews. People are raving about it. Coincidentally, the 2nd season was still airing in Japan at that time. In the end, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a shot.

Sadly, my UTorrent is overload with dramas waiting for downloading. So in a desperate attempt, I MSN-ed my brother and asked for his help. Not only he refused to download the drama for me but scolded me for watching all this stupid drama. Huh, I thought he loved Japanese Drama. Maybe because I told him it’s the Japanese version of MG. He too dislike them.

About a few weeks later, he came back with the HYD drama in his hard disk. Guess how he defended his scolding towards me.

“oh, my friend happen to have the drama. i had nth to do so i watched it lah.”

“this drama is damn good. the lead actress also cun”

Aduh!

That’s my brother to you. He’ll only watch when there’s kawaii girls around.

Anyway, I was hooked the moment I start. There was no turning back. Every aspect of the drama is fabulously done from the casting to the cinematography. The set of Eitoku Gakuen comes to life in grandness. Imagine students went to school in limousine, wearing expensive watches and branded handbags. It just makes you wonder, is this for real?

The drama centered around the life of Makino Tsukushi (Inoue Mao) whose headstrong character lead her to become the target of F4, a group of young rich heirs who ruled the school. The group members consist of Doumyoji Tsukasa, Hanazawa Rui, Nishikado Soujiroh and Mimasaka Akira.

 Matsumoto Jun did a fantastic job as Doumyoji Tsukasa. At first, I wasn’t paying much attention on him but gradually as the story progressed, it’s impossible not to notice his marvelous performance. He practically becomes Doumyoji and portrayed the violent, arrogant, rich spoilt brat and ‘almighty me’ Doumyoji so convincingly that I actually wanted to declare a war against him too. Although he might not have the looks and height compared to Hanazawa Rui, the amount of emotion he projected was amazing.

The same goes to Oguri Shun who played Hanazawa Rui. I particularly loved his character even from the beginning. He just have this coolness which attracts me.

As for Matsuda Shota (Nishikado Soujiroh) and Abe Tsuyoshi (Mimasaka Akira), they did well as a supporting roles. I like the fact that they remained close and supportive of Doumyoji even though he shun them off in the 2nd season. Their friendship is priceless. In some of the scene in the 1st season, I was surprised when Akira converse in Mandarin. He speak it quite well without any accent. Later on, I found put he was half chinese, born in China and spent his entire childhood there. No wonder his command of the language is so good. Nishikara Aki who acted as Tsukushi’s best friend, Matsuoka Yuki is not to be forgot. Personally, I was rooting for her to be with Soujiroh. They looked cute together.

Towards the end, it’s good to see that Tsukushi, Yuki and the F4 are getting along. They are like a bunch of close-knit friends who were there for each other. And I love it when they said yo…!

With great settings and great cast, this drama is a must watch even if you are not a fan of MG. It’s on an enitrely different standard. In addition, with just 9 episodes on the 1st season and 11 more episodes on its 2nd season, this drama is not like your typical draggy love story. It managed to insert some form of comedy in highlighting Doumyoji’s baka-ness. It was hilarious to watch him fumbling with his words and speech. The continuing bickering from Makino/Doumyoji are fun to watch. One of the factor which keep the drama going.

What I’ll remembers most about this drama is the MANY obstacles both Tsukasa and Tsukushi had to go through. Like the rest of the fans, I too felt their heartache and suffering. Fate kept testing their love but the ending justified it all when they were together with Tsukasa proposing to Tsukushi. Ah…that scene is soooo romantic.

Lastly, for all great drama, there’ll be great OST. HYD is no exception. I fell in love with Planetarium (Otsuka Ai) and Flavour of Life (Utada Hikaru). Listen to the song and you’ll know why.

By the way, I found this in one of the fan’s blog. You can know how big is HYD in Japan just by looking at this picture.

Unbelievable, huh? STAMP!!!

[Note : HYD can be download from SARS-fansubs]

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