But despite the exciting things that had gone on in real life and in the real world, the year 2009 is also a time to rejoice for all asian drama addicts like us because after the starvation for good dramas that 2008 has left us with, 2009 opened with a bang and offered us a plethora of choices of series that we can enjoy over and over again…The kind that would leave us with a myriad of emotions after watching it ranging anywhere from giddy spazzing, inspired crying or sometimes just plain dry heaving…
Having said that, allow me to share my non-expert views on the dramas that I was able to watch for this year and the impressions that I had from watching the said series…
Since precious hours are spent on watching a long running drama, I have made it a point to write down my thoughts almost every year on the dramas that I got to watch for the year, perhaps as a reminder to myself if the time I indeed spent watching a series was well worth it or if I should have just spent that time learning a new hobby perhaps… SAY… stamp collecting…
Please take this review with a grain of salt as this is my own list and own opinion and in no way am I an expert critic nor reviewer but hopefully it will be helpful to some who would read this, especially for those who are taking their first foray into the world of asian drama watching and would like to know what sort of dramas are out there and were on display for the year that was… so here we go…
Talk about failed expectations… I guess this series tops my list among those dramas that I have greatly anticipated but which failed to deliver in terms of my belief of how good it could have become but sadly never got there…
It started out quite strongly… Such opulent and impressive setting, An addicting OST and don’t even get me started on the eye candies… Lee Minho was the greatest discovery ever since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon… They can say all the crap that they can about Kim Hyun Joong’s acting but to heck with it… To me he could have been a wax statue but I’d still have no complaints… (what can I say? I’m biased…) Top it off with Kim Bum’s devilish smile which is enough to melt any girls heart and Kim Joon who may not be as up there in terms of looks with the other three but who surely makes up for it with his charisma and screen presence…
That alone is enough reason for any girl to tune in if only to see what this series is all about and if it will live up to the hype it has promised …
For the first 12 episodes of this series, I would not have spent my Monday and Tuesdays anywhere else but glued on my laptop waiting for 9 PM to get my BOF fix along with my fellow addicts… To me, at that particular time during that short six weeks, it was time really well worth spent but sadly… Macau happened and from there, everything went downhill…
To give credit where credit is due, Episodes 1-12 of this series was pure entertainment… the pacing fast, the story humorous, the Hana Yori Dango magic alive and evident in each of the scenes that are shared by Goo Junpyo and Geum Jandi onscreen… but then, Jandi and Junpyo had to part ways after the barn scene in the ski resort and little did we know at that time that with that parting, we’d have to say goodbye too to the charm and appeal that has kept most of us glued to the first 12 parts of this series…
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? By the time episode 16 came around, I don’t even know if I am still watching the same series with the same scriptwriter… It seemed like she has lost steam in the middle of the drama and for lack of anything else to write, we get repetitive angst and scenes that are not as vital to the series that seem to drag on for ages from episodes 13-25 … The instrument playing, the angle on Yi Jung’s first love, the constant MTV’s that seem to not do anything at all to the advancement of the story but rather just to showcase the dramas OST… Everybody’s crying, everybody’s scheming, even Woo Bin tried to jump off a bridge for Heavens sake!
But the most irritating part for me was that just when Junpyo and Jandi’s relationship was about to take a turn for a deeper kind of connection, the writer broke them off which is part and parcel of the original story and which should be a factor that could have been played to enrich their relationship even more but then the brilliant writer (insert sarcasm here) got this stroke of genius that she has to drag it on for what seems to be an eternity until we barely get a glimpse of the OTP together onscreen before it is the end and that’s only when she decides to get them back together again… (Somebody get me a brown bag… I am getting flashes of the hell that I went through in Meteor Garden 2 all over again…)
Even if I am all about Hyun Joong, I still can’t take how the latter half of the series seem to revolve around him and Jandi rather than the story that should really be all about Jandi and Junpyo…
Don’t get me wrong… there were glimpses of the once good thing that BOF had been at the beginning at some latter points in the series… but then it was as if with that glimpse, a spark of hope is reignited in my heart that it could become the good thing it once was but alas… that is not bound to happen and as if the writer knows just where to hurt me, she lets me down time and time again and I am in for even more frustration and disappointment…
However, despite the failure of the storyline, there are still a lot of good things that I am thankful for for this series…
The awareness and frenzy after Lee Minho’s existence has been unveiled is one (greatness like his is meant to be known… can you just imagine if Lee Minho had not done BOF? His presence would still be only known by few which I think is really unfair to womenkind everywhere) Kim Hyun Joong enjoying MASSIVE popularity is second (like Minho, greatness such as his should be shared and enjoyed by a vast majority of people…) and yessiree… I guess I would not have to say it anymore… the OTP… the ship that I’ve been onboard on for the last year… the coupling that is simply known popularly by the name MinSun… Goo Hyesun and Lee Minho…
I could not imagine how bleak my 2009 would have been without the spazzing that this pairing has brought to me… the Behind the scenes moments that they have shared together which all MinSun sisters replayed time and time again obsessively… the stares and lines that they’ve exchanged in interviews that made us giggle like schoolgirls … the hopes and dreams that we so vicariously pinned on Hyesun since there’s no chance in this lifetime that Minho would be ours so we just tried to live it through her…
Sure, BOF has failed in making it to my list of top dramas that I would remember for its greatness… but if only for the three reasons I cited above and the mania that it has spurred while it was airing… BOF would always be a drama that I would remember sometimes frustratedly but more often than not with great fondness…
Rating: 3/5
QUEEN OF HOUSEWIVES
Ahjummas have never been more cool than in this series… Why can Koreans make a drama that seem to be a spin off of popular American TV shows like Desperate Housewives or Melrose Place and yet it never seemed to come across as being a rip off?
QOH is truly one series for 2009 that I have enjoyed from start to finish… I have always loved the concept of powerful women outplaying and outmaneuvering each other using their wits and intelligence (All hail women power) but sometimes it is just plain funny and entertaining to see some women resort back to the basics like a$$kissing and powertripping when all else fails…
Watching QOH is like watching a Pixar cartoon or a Disney animation where there is an underdog that dreams of being part of the “in crowd” and a Queen Bee who is currently reigning supreme with her hordes of supporters… In her quest to accomplish her dream, the underdog does everything in her power to make sure that she gets into the Queen Bee’s good graces not knowing that she has something within herself that could make her even more powerful than the Queen Bee if only she has spent more precious time looking inside herself rather than in her plotting and scheming to just be one of many…
At the beginning I cringe at every single thing that lead character Ji Ae seem to be doing just to be part of the in crowd at Queens Food (that scene at the bag shop where Sammonim returned Ji Ae’s gift only to find out it was a fake still has the power to give me nightmares)… There are times that I see a semblance of Drew Barrymore’s character in the movie Never Been Kissed in Ji Ae where they both plan and ponder over how it is to be part of what’s hip and yet despite that people just always seem to remember them for being Josie Grossie…
I have had little patience for Ji Ae’s character at the start… everything seems to be part of her comeuppance for being such a snob and a beeyatch during her reign in school as being the most popular one… I could relate to Bong Soon’s character and her feelings of resentment but gradually, the tables were turned and my heart began to understand what Ji Ae is going through…
What I loved most about QOH was how it unfolded each of the character in the show to show us the depth of their personalities beyond what seems to only be present in the surface…
At the end of it all, I love how it’s all about Family and Friendship and the values and ethics that a person holds dear to himself that makes or breaks his path towards the kind of person he wants to become and the success and failure that comes with it…
Another strength of this series is in it’s casting… I am so not used to seeing Oh Ji Ho as the whipped husband in any of his series but bias aside, I am starting to believe that as time goes by he really improves as an actor with the variety of roles that he has played and chosen… (ok… let’s just forget that Single Papa in Love ever existed…)
I have never known Kim Nam Joo prior to this series but Ahjumma cardigans and pink lipstick aside… I love how she owned Ji Ae and made the character as relatable as possible… Lee Hye Young is unquestionable in her role of Bong Soon… I loved her in Dal Ja’s spring, I loved her even more in this series… But I think due credit should be given to Choi Chul Ho for being a revelation in this drama… Majority of my LOL moments really came from his character of Joon Hyuk and that’s saying something when looking at it from another perspective, they could have made his character into the reincarnation of evil…
Rumors are adrift that there would be a season 2 for this drama and I’m all for it… They say only good things deserve a sequel and judging from the fun I had while watching this entire series, I would say that for QOH a part 2 is something that was well earned and well deserved…
Rating: 3.5/5
TAMNA THE ISLAND
I used to hate saeguks… hate them with a passion… it was the kind of drama that I would not dare touch with a ten foot pole and yet there was something about Tamna that drew me to it making it an exception…
I could not rate this show and would not rate it due to the unfortunate fact that I am still scouring everywhere for the uncut DVD and has stopped watching when MBC butchered the editing so badly to shorten the episodes from the original 20 to 16 just because of ratings… However, I could not help but write about Tamna since the first 12 episodes that I watched were some of the best times I’ve ever had watching a drama for 2009…
I first started watching this series out of curiosity… the plot and setting seem fresh, young and fun and indeed it was but what a delight to discover that TAMNA is so much more…
The breathtaking scenery and cinematography…the OST that made me feel as if I am part of some great adventure and voyage unto unknown territory… the witty scriptwriting that more often that not had me chuckling… but most of all, I have to admit that the strength of Tamna lies mostly in it’s love story and the triangle that sorrounds its main characters namely William, Beo Jin and Park Gyu…
From the very beginning Seo Woo as Beo Jin has already captured my heart as the naïve pearl diver from Jeju who wants to have a life outside of that which she was boxed in and raised to do…The moment that she got together with Im Ju Hwan as Park Gyu… I was hooked and I kept watching and watching and watching until before I knew it… I have become a fanatic Islander too…
Although Pierre Deporte’s acting as William was sometimes a pain to watch… It all fades into the background whenever Park Gyu stares at Beo Jin longingly with hungry eyes whenever she shares moments with William and he becomes a lovelorn fool waiting for her in the sidelines…
It is that longing and pain and the sadness and happiness of a young, teenage love blossoming in front of my own very eyes that somehow drew me in into Tamna’s magical world…
The excitement that the appearance of these two men had brought to a once normal and ordinary girl’s everyday life as she makes the choice between a person whom she thinks she’s in love with and one whom she is really destined to love had me watching each episode with breathless anticipation that no wonder this series has created a manic fan base despite it’s low ratings…
CITY HALL
Best. Drama. I’ve. Ever. Watched. For. The. Year. PERIOD!
City Hall is like your first sip of beer… At the beginning, you find the taste a little weird or funny but the more you drink it, the more accustomed you grow of it and then that’s the only time that you can truly appreciate its flavor and you begin to understand why others can not live without it…
Major thanks to City_girl and mewific from the ulzzangs thread in PEX for introducing me to this drama… I have always been a big Kim Sun Ah fan but somehow the prospect of a drama set in politics even if it stars one of my most favorite Kactresses does not seem to have that much of a pull or come on for me…
Thank God they have discussed this series extensively on the thread that I was curious enough to try it for myself otherwise, I might be missing half of my drama watching life… (and I really mean that!)
I would not lie… I struggled through the first few episodes of this drama when they were setting up the plot and the characters of the series… But as Cha Seung Won and Kim Sun Ah’s chemistry slowly began to unfold with each episode… I was mesmerized and before I knew it… I was waiting for the upcoming episodes of this series already with breathless anticipation…
Every barbed remark and witty retort that Cha Seung Won and Kim Sun Ah exchange becomes the most genius piece of line I’ve ever heard… Every comedic and dramatic scene that they act on becomes a masterpiece and even if they are just standing so close together, their chemistry was so palpable that there are times I expected my laptop to just combust and burst into flames…
Cha Seung Won and Kim Sun Ah are truly actors and actresses in the truest sense of the word… They only have to stare at each other and I get butterflies in my stomach… They only have to make a face and I am doubled over in laughter… I have never cried as much watching any other series (except perhaps 14 sai no haha) but I cried not for the drama that the story is all about but rather because of the purity, depth and extent of love that Shin Mi Rae and the Deputy Mayor had for each other and the sacrifices they had to make along the way to fight for that love…
City Hall is a LOVE STORY in the purest sense… It does not try to be cutesy, but rather you get the kind of love that one can only dream to have in an entire lifetime…
It is the kind of drama that delivers scenes which would get you crying because of how much love is conveyed between the two protagonists and while you’re pulling out tissues to wipe your tears away, you are also giggling like a schoolgirl because you just can’t help but marvel at how they can still love each other despite the hurt and the pain…
The most satisfying ending… the BEST OST that adds and does not detract from the story… the best balance of comedy and drama… the best chemistry ever in its lead actors… The hottest kissing scenes… If only for that, City Hall tops my list of best drama for this year…
But you know what the funny part is? Remember how I said I’m not all about politics? This drama proved me wrong…
The more I watch the series, the more I appreciated it for it’s entirety rather than just the lovestory… It stirred patriotic emotions in me that I never thought even existed… I felt sad at the state of the city that Shin Mi Rae was living in and I applaud her courage and bravery for being gutsy enough to bring change to an otherwise rotten political landscape despite the sacrifices that she has to make…
Somehow, I remembered the Philippines and I couldn’t help but wish that some day we’d get our own Shin Mi Rae too whose intentions would truly be for country and not for selfish reasons… one can only hope this 2010…
Rating: 5/5
LADY CASTLE
Oh the catastrophe that was Lady Castle… I don’t even know where to begin…
I have waited for this drama with bated breath and great anticipation perhaps because it is Yoon Eun Hye’s comeback vehicle and she always has the best choice when it comes to her dramas…
Add to that the fact that I am coming straight from the Queen of Housewives bandwagon and Yoon Sang Hyun was simply a delight to watch in that series that I somehow had the feeling that I am in for as much fun as I had while watching him in QOH… Sadly, the YEH-YSH equation did not seem to match up and with that the series seem to be headed for failure…
The first few episodes of the series was Blah… mediocre at best with some entertaining moments thrown in for good measure coming from Yoon Sang Hyun mostly… I was waiting for the series to take off… to have its moment of genius that would change it from a show that you watch to just pass time with to one that you’re really looking forward to watching and seeing… but 8 episodes into the drama, I have accepted my fate that it would never come…
If there’s one good thing about the series, it is Moon Chae Won and her acting… I have not been able to watch Brilliant Legacy but I am pleasantly surprised at how the girl can still act stellarly in a series that has such a flimsy material… for that I give her props…
Jung Il Woo was such a cutie also in the first few episodes of the series…until the scriptwriter turned his character whiny and gave him that bad perm job then even that simple pleasure that I derive from this series seem to have been taken away from me…
The plot twists seem scattered… everything Haena does make her appear somewhat dimwitted rather than noble and there was just something about the characters that do not connect with the audience…
I guess for the most part, I will remember Lady Castle for the atrocities that pass off as clothes that the stylist of this series made YEH wear to make her appear as a chaebol but sadly just comes across to most of us as alien…
This series is something to be watched perhaps when you’ve ran out of options but to me for the most part, this series is forgettable…
Rating: 2/5
YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL
Ahhh… just reading through the title of this series is enough to bring a smile on my face…
If City Hall is all about the kind of love that stirs your passion and emotions, You’re Beautiful is cotton candy and pink roses and a floaty white dress that you wear while strolling hand in hand with the man you love in a flower garden…
It brings such warm, gooey, sunshiney, marshmallow feelings…the kind you get when you’ve had your experience of first love when everything seems to be magnified ten times and your emotions tend to overrule every single logical thought that you have in your head…
This series is pure delight from start to finish… Formulaic yes but somehow the genius that are the Hong Sisters were able to give this drama a fresh twist that despite the fact that we could have seen some of the scenes in other series, it looks and feel new to our senses…
The entire cast was delightful to watch in their portrayals… each and every single one of them and I do not mean just the four that make up AN JELL… every single character seem to bring something to the table… He Yi, Manager Ma, President Ahn, the stylist coordinator, AN JELL’s fangirls and the list goes on and on…
You’re Beautiful is not really a series that would grip you with its depth… come to think of it, its mostly fluff but it sucks you in and pulls you into the story and perhaps for the most part the success of this series can be attributed to that…
The great musical scoring is one thing that I love about this series too… It seems to stir your emotion even more when you come to a vital part and Mi Nam and Tae Kyung are just staring at each other and then you hear the first strains of Ottokadyo or Without Words that seem to tip you over the edge wherein you sob like a baby or squeal like a loony spazzing over them…
You’re Beautiful might not be a perfect series but it delivers on all of the factors that makes one addicted to a drama series…
I would never forget Jang Geun Seuk’s facial expressions and the way he exchange sarcastic remarks with He Yi, Shin Woo’s kind eyes and pitiful one sided love… Jeremy’s bubbliness and cuteness that makes the series even more delightful to watch and Park Shin Hye’s portrayal of a naïve nun turned man turned woman …
I guess with that, this drama makes it to my top list since undoubtedly, it has left its mark not just in mine but I bet in many of its audiences hearts…
Rating: 4/5
HE WHO CAN’T GET MARRIED
I have made snippets of reviews for this series since I have just watched it not more than two weeks ago but I am surprised to see how it has ranked quite low in most of the reviews for the dramas for this year…
I have not watched the original version of the drama which stars Abe Hiroshi so I have no point for comparison and boy am I thankful because personally, I truly enjoyed watching He Who Can’t Get Married in it’s entirety…
Like I mentioned in previous posts… Watching the series was like taking a leisurely walk… one where you don’t need to hurry but rather wherein you try to stop and enjoy each of the scenes you see and then when you put it together, only then will you get a full appreciation of the entire landscape that you have just passed through…
I guess this series struck a chord in me because there is always the need for people to conform… Being a non-conformist living in a world that you have to adjust to must be pretty scary for someone like Jo Jae Hee and yet he has come to a point where he understood himself enough that he does not even feel afraid anymore and somehow in the process, it is the world that has become afraid of him…
I particularly love the scenes where Jae Hee and Moon Jung were already dating and he is letting her in to his world little by little… That part comes across as being endearing to me rather than being selfish because like him, I also have days when I want to be by myself and being with company really does feel burdensome even if that person is someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with… Isn’t it a true love match if you indeed find a person who would understand that need without questioning?
I love how the lesson of this show is all about breaking the rules of conformity… it is a celebration of one’s uniqueness… of a person’s individuality and how no matter how weird you think one is… there is always a chance for acceptance coming from that of another person of everything that makes you, you…
One of the best lines that I have heard from a series for this year came from this drama…
“I have stolen away your loneliness… from now on, you don’t have any more reason to be lonely”
And isn’t that what love is? The chance to make that of another person happy and to take away the sadness that seem to have come from his past and the promise of making a life together where you both build new beginnings…
RATING: 3/5
THAT FOOL
If not for Hwang Jung Min, I would perhaps say that That Fool is pretty forgettable, formulaic fare but since the man practically breathed Goo Dong Baek and carried the whole drama on his shoulders… he was able to elevate the status of this series from being “seen this before” to something emotionally relatable and heart tugging if not just because of his portrayal in this series…
Everytime Dong Baek smiles or wipe his nose or eyes in that endearing, naïve way of his my heart aches and cheers for him to triumph in the end and for life to give him a break and in the best way possible by giving him an unattainable superstar who had transformed herself to becoming the love of his life in the person of Han Ji Soo…
I don’t know what kind of actors school Hwang Jung Min went to but the kindness in his eyes really hits me where it should whenever he begins his self sacrificing dialogues and when he tries to hide his hurt away from the once selfish Ji Soo… I have never been as involved with any other male lead in any other series that I could not even care less what happens to the lead female star as long as they end up together…
Kim Ah Joong is sure gorgeous but Hwang Jung Min ate her alive in all of their scenes for this series… (the girl has serious killer legs though and her bod? GAHHHHHHHHH!!! I’d die to have her body)…
Han Sang Chul who plays Ji Soo’s younger brother is such eye candy too and reminds me of a younger Binnie but somehow I just cringe whenever he ends up screaming at almost all of his scenes….
In the end, That Fool is pretty entertaining fare… one where you can spend an hour each day immersed in its storyline and somehow feel that you’ve done some good just watching Dong Baek rub some of that niceness on you… (hehehe!)
He may be no Cha Seung Won in the looks category but what oppa Jung Min lacks in looks this actor sure does make up for in talent and heart…
Rating: 3.5/5
Oh the kitsch and fun that was Mei Chan no Shitsuji… Watching this series was like watching Hana Kimi all over again except this time there are more females…
What I wouldn’t give to have someone as hot as Hiro as my butler but like all Jdramas go, the plot of this drama seems to be exaggerated, over the top and out of this world (which is understandable since it is a manga adaptation) but boy… it sure does make up for mindless entertainment…
Mei Chan No Shitsuji definitely has its share of squee worthy moments brought about mainly by the triangle and OTP It also had a lot of ROTFLMAO moments and the suspense sometimes just gets to you… (I was tempted enough to scour the manga to see the mystery behind Lucia’s character) …
It is not a drama which would increase your IQ by even 1 percent so if you’re looking for that kind of drama this might not be for you but if you’re just looking for a relaxing, fun watch I suggest pick up this jdrama and enjoy the hilarious ride that it will give you…
Rating: Average
BUZZER BEAT
Yamapi aside… I think I would have enjoyed this series too because of its very solid storyline (thinks about it…) Ok… scrap that… Yamapi is a MUST for me to have enjoyed the series that much…
Buzzer Beat was such a welcome surprise… I was expecting a drama anchored solely on the sport plotline but it turned out to be a love story set amidst a basketball backdrop…
Finally a Jdrama that depicts relationships the way that it should be depicted… I love the dose of realism that one gets in this series and how it tackles the age old dilemma of lovers everywhere which is that of ambition vs. love, and boy am I happy to see that in the end the characters get both… (Why, oh why do we even have to choose? Can’t we really have both?)
I truly enjoyed this series from start to finish… the development of the lovestory between Riko and Naoki did not seem contrived… they started out as acquaintances, then friends before finally becoming lovers and I love how the story walked us through all of those developments like we’re all really part of that journey…
Aibu Saki is such a good actress that I loved her in Absolute Boyfriend but hated her with a passion in this series… and don’t even get me started on the Yamapi-Keiko pairing which has now seemingly progressed to being real which perhaps goes to show how much chemistry they have onscreen and offscreen…
Topless guys, comedy, angst and squee worthy scenes this drama seem to have a little bit of everything and it still comes out as neatly wrapped and packaged with a whole lot of substance until the very ending…
Rating: GOOD
So what about you ? What’s your pick for this year?
Looking forward to more interesting fare for 2010 and to more interesting dramas that would come our way in this year to come
Things i’d miss, things i liked and disliked and other stuff BOF related:
ALL THINGS BOF THAT I’M THANKFUL FOR AND WOULD MISS
So we’re almost down to the homestretch and call it a moment of melancholy or the fact that it’s Monday tomorrow and i have to get back to freakin’ work but i felt a little sadness saying goodbye to BOF…
Despite the crap that was season 2 and the fact that i seriously want to tie a noose around the PD and scriptwriters neck and hang them on a public plaza most of the time during these recent episodes… i admit that there are still a lot of good things that this show has brought to us and these are also the things that i’d miss once BOF is over…
Let me tick it off one by one:
1. LEE MINHO - what a discovery… This guy is not only seriously HOT (enough to literally make you want to take off your clothes when you see him but HE CAN ALSO ACT!)
2. Kim Hyun Joong’s First real acting gig - It might have been a hit and miss thing for Hyun Joong as Jihoo but admit it, no matter how much people talk dirt about how bad of an actor he is, we would not have soooo many Jihoo-Jandi shippers around if KHJ did not bring justice to the role…
3. Kim Bum and Kim Joon Bromance - Man! This is seriously the only ship that made me think twice about going brokeback… When all hell breaks loose between the OTP, expect Woobin and Yijung to still be consistent with their covert glances and touchy feely acting…
4. BOF threads - i will miss the exchange of ideas, the bashing, the heated war and debates between the Jandi-Jihoo and Jandi-Junpyo shippers, the spoilers, the play by play account of what would happen in the next episode and dissecting details over what went on in the previous ones… I will miss the funny comments, the irritating ones, the panic i feel whenever Mods close down the soompi thread… man… i think i will miss even the spam comments but most of all i will miss all the wonderful BOF followers who can relate to my addiction and who went crazy over this series as much as i have…
5. The supporting cast - Never again will i find another villain who literally makes me go Uh-oh and freeze wherever i am for FEAR THAT SHE CAN SENSE ME even if i’m behind the computer than Mama Kang… I will truly feel deprived of Junhee noona’s sassiness, Jandi’s crazy family, Grandpa’s gruff but loving rebukes, Master’s gayness, GaEul’s moocher friendship, Halmonnie’s pimpin’ cane, the mean girls and their harebrained ideas that always blow up in their faces, Jaekyung’s “fatal attraction” persona and Ming’s participation that up to now i can’t even see the sense why they have to bring in to the fray… These are the characters that made BOF, BOF and without them it would never be the same (although with them, the show also seemed to have lost its focus on the OTP)
6. The good times and the angst - Junpyo’s dimwitted but sweet ways, Jandi’s gangster persona, Hyun Joong’s rolling eyeball expressions, Woobin’s gangsta english, Yijung’s corny sax playing, The crying scenes complete with screaming… The never ending love triangle between Jihoo-Jandi and Junpyo … Scenes where Jihoo looks longingly at Jandi with so much love i feel as if my hearts going to break and the LOVE that Junpyo and Jandi have for each other that they can’t express to the fullest because of the obstacles…all of these drove me insane…insane i tell you… with frustration sometimes but more often than not in joy and spazzing…
AND LASTLY BUT NOT THE LEAST…
6. I will miss my OTP, Junpyo and Jandi/Minho and Hyesun TOGETHER - The fact that i long for them week after week after week and the fact that no matter how much we complain against the production for keeping them apart but the moment we see them together onscreen, somehow makes all the waiting worth it… CHEMISTRY I TELL YOU… CHEMISTRY this two have it… Never have i seen a couple whose offcam interaction seems to surpass even that of the storyline that is in the drama and that is what kept us going…
We lived our Minho fantasies vicariously through Hyesun and boy, she really did deliver… (it helps that Minho doesn’t need prodding…hehehe!)
Seriously, producers should milk this pairing for all it’s worth and do another series with them in the cast PRONTO!
Now since it’s also the last episodes here are the things that i would want to see when the show wraps up:
1. Mama Kang begging Jandi for forgiveness and licking the ground she walks on to get it…
2. Jihoo going abroad to forget Jandi and having a wild, passionate affair with a girl who’s UBER FUNNY the likes of Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live that would make him loosen up and live life to the fullest
3. Yijung burying his drama queen persona and eloping with GaEul to a far away country where they will make pots and channel Ghost all night and all day together
4. Woobin finally getting a house and meeting a mafia daughter and together, they will build an empire of cool, kindhearted gangstas… (that and a rapping contract with P.Diddy)
5. Grandpa and Halmonnie falling in love and living the rest of their lives in a retirement home complete with fishing amenities
6. Umi to be gone from the face of the earth and for Jaekyung to send Chen to abduct her the moment she arrives
7. Jandi and Junpyo not succumbing to the daily grind of married life and still remaining as in love with each other as the day that they got together
8. LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF SKINSHIP, MAKING OUT AND PASSIONATE ADULT KISSING BETWEEN Jandi and Junpyo…. (they can even dedicate 20 mins of the show for this and i wouldn’t complain… What? That can’t be done? Ok… i’ll settle for the F4 dropping their pants and dancing around in their boxers instead…)
9. AND BUT OF COURSE, for my OTP to live happily ever after without any more threats of separation complete with peaches and cream complexioned little Jandi’s and curly haired, bratty little Junpyos…
1. Only in BOF can you kick a guy in the face and he’d fall in love with you… In real life, that’s a serious offense for reckless imprudence resulting to physical injuries
2. Only in BOF, can a multi billionaire head of a global conglomerate have time to meddle in her son’s life and worse even trail the object of her son’s affection… It’s true that this also happens in real life but only in BOF can that tycoon have so much zest and passion for this task the way that she does when she’s talking about mergers and takeovers…
3. In BOF land, Rich boys don’t know how to wake up by themselves nor to set alarms… They always need a maid to do it for them, or horn toting hotel managers to tell them it’s time to wake up…
4. Only in BOF can you only have two reasons for NOT being in your classroom during class hours, that of bullying other people and making their lives miserable and of cheering on your classmate in horseracing, car racing and swimming contests to see who gets to win the girl they both like in the end… Otherwise, you spend hours and hours of meaningless meandering along campus hallways…
5. In BOF, you only need to befriend rich people and you’d never want anything more for the rest of your life… Travel perks, interior decorating, cellphones, clothes, jewelry, handkerchiefs, jobs (not just for you but also your ‘rents) … NAME it, they can give it… Even better, you only have to be the best friend of the poor girl who befriends the rich people and you’d enjoy the same benefit… plus, you also get dibs on the poor girls boyfriends friends…
6. Only in BOF can TV’s be tuned in to people that you want to avoid the moment you pass a display full of it… The TV’s are also programmed to show clips of you dating to your mother who is sooo against it, even if the topic is all about flowers blooming in spring…
7. Big Brother is alive and watching you in BOF land… Lovelorn best friends know where you are at your moment of need, evil mothers are notified when you meet with their sons and ex boyfriends always walk in on you when you’re having the sweetest moments with your best friend who is in love with you… Heck! even grandfathers who abandon you draw you when you are not looking…
8. In BOF jealousy is contained to glaring, staring and fist clenching… after that all is forgotten… (caution: may involve some crying but mostly glaring and staring)
9. Only in BOF can the lead girl eat and stuff her face with food without the fear of choking…
10. Professional swimmers can drown in 3 feet of water in BOF and it happens not just once but twice in the span of one to two years…
11. In BOF land, lip pressing is the best way to show how passionate your love is for a person… Libido is an unknown of word and they think that babies are delivered by storks…
12. In BOFland, your memories of certain aspects of your life are always set to emo music and done in MTV like moments…
13. There’s nothing that hotcakes can’t cure in BOF land…
14. Only in BOF can you find a girl who’s sooo touched with her best friends incessant instrument playing without her telling him to just stop with the crap coz it’s making her head ache…
15. Only in BOF land are fireworks displays activated with a snap of the fingers
16. You can set up Christmas lights without the need for permits and without drawing attention in a public playground in BOF land…
17. Only in BOF land can the lead characters be inopportune enough to meet with kidnapping, robbery, drowning, abandonment, suicidal mothers, blackmail, embarrasment about their backgrounds, fainting spells, arranged marriages and amnesia and the likes all in the span of their young lifetime…
18. Feisty noonas can beat you up with magic sticks in the middle of the road without anyone feeling the need to call police officers for physical abuse
19. Short skirts or leg baring is always the answer if you want two rich boys to fight for your love and affection
20. Only in BOF have i ever looked over these things i mentioned because i’m just too darned crazy about it…
My Boys Over Flowers Best And Worst List
In memory of Boys Over Flowers and since I am suffering from major withdrawal this Saturday, I am recalling my personal choices for scenes and moments from this obsession that truly hit the spot and those that I can altogether have done without…
MY BEST AND WORST BOF MOMENTS
F4 in that balcony in Jeju talking about Junpyo’s impending marriage to Jaekyung and how it affects Jandi tied with Junpyo, Jihoo and Yijung kissing Woobin after the truth or dare game in Jandi’s rooftop apartment
FUNNIEST GOO JUNPYO LINE:
Geum Jandi? What’s that? Ahhh… it’s Geum Jandi… I’m so busy that I didn’t even notice that you didn’t even call me for 3 days and 13 hours…
FUNNIEST GEUM JANDI MOMENT:
During the welcome party for Suh Hyeon, she was wearing that wonder woman costume and she snuck in towards the buffet table and spat the tomato that she just put in her mouth when the mean girls found her…
FUNNIEST GEUM JANDI AND GOO JUNPYO MOMENT:
Junpyo forcing Jandi to say “I’m sorry oppa” in a cute voice when apologizing to him
MOST TOUCHING GOO JUNPYO LINE:
Looks, money, status I have it all… I don’t need that from you all you need is to be Geum Jandi
MOST TOUCHING GEUM JANDI LINE:
“I haven’t lost to you, and I am not running away either. You’re the worst person I’ve ever met. I’m leaving because I don’t wish to connect the ones I love to you. I’m just sorry that I can’t save the one person I love the most from you.” …
BEST YOON JIHOO LINE:
“I don’t know when it started either. But now, I can’t be without you.”
BEST SONG WOOBIN LINE:
YEAH… (said when he just beat up a thug in Macau and they asked if he was Prince Song)
BEST SO YIJUNG LINE:
There are things we have to go through in order to become stronger, and to find our true selves. Like what you went through today.
BEST JUNPYO/JANDI SCENE:
The whole segment in the playground at the end of episode 9
BEST JIHOO/JANDI SCENE:
The wedding photo contest
BEST JUNPYO/JIHOO SCENE:
Junpyo talking to Jihoo about wanting to give up Jandi to him but knowing he just can’t…
BEST YIJUNG/GAEUL SCENE:
The 5 minute kill during their fake date
BEST YIJUNG/WOOBIN SCENE:
Walking around with arms around each other in the ski scene
BEST SUPPORTING CHARACTER:
Madam Kang
BEST KISS:
Junpyo and Jandi’s highway kiss on episode 10
(nope it’s not the kiss, but the essence and the moment leading towards that kiss)
WORST KISS:
Jaekyung and Junpyo’s kiss in the school hallway
WORST USE OF AIRTIME EVER:
Umi playing the harp tied with Jihoo playing the piano when grandpa had a heart attack
WORST MOMENT FOR MAMA KANG TO ARRIVE:
Junpyo and Jandi the maid in bed after waking him up
SIDE CHARACTER I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT:
Ming
BEST SCENE THAT MADE ME CRY BUCKETS:
Jandi playing the piano during Junpyos birthday tied with Jandi crying on Junhee’s shoulders
BEST ANGSTY MOMENT:
Junpyo breaking down at the airport tied with Junpyo breaking down at the board room after looking at Jandi’s photos
BEST MAKEOVER:
Jihoo’s haircut on the second season
BEST OUTFIT:
Jihoo’s leather jacket from the car race scene
WORST OUTFIT:
Woobin’s tux during Junpyo’s wedding
BEST JEALOUSY MOMENT:
Junpyo seeing Jihoo and Jandi at the airport in Macau
CHARACTER THAT REALLY MADE MY TOES CURL IN HATRED:
Umi
BEST ORIGINAL SCENE FROM THE MANGA:
Jandi triggering Junpyo’s memory by falling into the pool
BEST REMADE SCENE FROM THE MANGA:
The maid arc
WORST REMADE SCENE FROM THE MANGA:
The Jihoo-Jandi love angle that outshone the main OTP
BEST JUNPYO/JANDI DATE:
The zoo date
BEST JIHOO/JANDI DATE:
The Macau date with the piggyback ride after
BEST USE OF A PROP:
The star necklace
BEST SONG FROM THE SOUNDTRACK:
Jisun’s What do I do?
BEST NAKED MOMENT:
Woobin and Junpyo in the sauna tied with Jandi walking in on a barechested Junpyo
CHEESIEST SCENE EVER:
Yijung playing the sax in the bar and announcing that Gaeul is his girl
FOOD THAT GOT YOU CRAVING:
Tuna sashimi from the Episode 8 Junpyo/Jandi date
MOST DISAPPOINTING MOMENT:
Junpyo agreeing to go through with his wedding to Jaekyung
MOMENT THAT COULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME BUT TOTALLY FIZZLED OUT:
Junpyo’s dad being alive all these time
MOST EXTRAVAGANT F4 MOMENT:
The Caledonia trip
Ok guys… Since I’d only be watching the final episode today and it’s the last… I would be liveblogging my recap for Episode 25 and give my opinions simultaneously while I’m watching the ending with much anticipation…
And since that is the case, let me just get one important thing out of the way before I even begin…
UMI should die… DIE A PAINFUL, SLOW TORTOROUS DEATH… the kind that you get to see in movies like Saw 1, 2, 3 up to 24…
Now that that’s done… on with the liveblog … (pushes play and BOF starts playing)
Ohhh… Jandi is in Junpyo’s room, bringing him a doshirak and looking at him peacefully sleeping while she voodoos her way back into his memory… WHAT A LOVELY SCENE… Until Effin’ Dumb Bish Umi got on my screen with her friggin’ crutches and her dreams of becoming Junpyo’s dermatologist…
GET AWAY FROM THE HOTTIE UMI… like now! Before I take that toner stick that you’re carrying, shove it in your mouth and give you even more reasons to stay in that hospital like, for good!
As Junpyo wakes up, shocked, to find Umi probably writing stalkerish notes in facial gel like “RAPE ME Junpyo” on his face… he notices the lunchbox that is by his bedside and takes a bite out of it…(YESSSSS… YESSS Junpyo eat your own head and get to remember Jandi!)
And as if there was not enough reason to make me hate Umi’s guts… she goes and takes credit for Jandi’s handiwork when Junpyo asked if she was the one who made the Junpyo rice… (SCREW YOU SLUB! I swear I just woke up from a nap and you already got me started on the hatin’…)
”The person that I’m supposed to remember it’s you, right?” and psycho liar nods her head…
WHAT THE? like a fool Junpyo falls for it! (I wanna kill someone now preferably UMI!… and Junpyo… while we’re at it, have you noticed that your beanie has the word DESTROY printed on it? That should have been enough clue for you that you should DESTROY the BISH! I never thought I’d say this but ohhhhhhhh… LAWDY! How I miss Jaekyung!)
WHOOO!!! Woobin and Yijung… time for some bromance… and it seems like Yijung has really gotten an acquired taste for cheap fastfood coz here he is again, ordering porridge from Jandi and GaEul and I bet having Woobin pay for it once they’re done… (What did I say? Yijung=CHEAPSKATE… I’m starting to think Yijung is the K-version of Uncle Scrooge… albeit, a HOT uncle scrooge…)
As the girls looked on curiously and the boys eat like they’re not rich heirs but starving beggars, Woobin announces that Junpyo was finally released from the hospital… Jandi was of course, excited, and just like common practice in any other REGULAR job, Jandi just takes off her apron and scampers off to visit her boyfriend with nary a word to anyone… (At least it’s common if you want to be jobless the next day…)
While Jandi and Woobin haul their butts out of the porridge shop… Yijung and Gaeul finally have their moment… and once again, they talk about fires and clay… (You know the normal stuff that you talk about when you’re in love?
Me: You know what? I’m like a clay that gets stronger as I get burned in the fire…
donnapie’s boyfriend: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
*thinks about it*
Ummm… ok… maybe not…)
So Yijung tells Gaeul that he’s moving to Sweden for four years (probably because he’s all emo’d out in Korea and would like to take his drama queen act there…) but the good news is, he promises he’d come looking for GaEul once he gets back if he still has not found her soulmate yet… (Judging from GaEul’s taste for resident jerks like Soon Pyo… I bet my grandmother that Yijung and her would end up together… Well, even if Yijung is a miser and a JERK, at least he still is a HOT, RICH miser jerk…)
You wanna know what the bad news is? NOBODY IS LEFT TO TEND TO THE PORRIDGE HOUSE BECAUSE Jandi and Gaeul are out gallivanting with their boytoys… Master must change his recruitment policy like ASAP…tsk, tsk, tsk…
OH HELL NO… now we’re back to irritating Umi… with her star gazing and acting like a hostess and making Jandi feel like an outsider… Why the hell did Junpyo bring her home when she’s not even a pet? (although I have a feeling she’d totally act like a dog if only he’d ask her to…) … WHERE IS EVIL MAMA WHEN YOU NEED HER?
AND Junpyo why do you keep on asking Jandi to go back to Jihoo? (Darn it Jandi… Now is the time for the Sex tape… I’ve been telling you since episode 16 to make a sex tape with Jihoo and send it to Junpyo…Let’s see if he won’t regain his memory faster than a flash of lightning if he sees you getting hot and heavy with the person he absolutely goes ballistic with jealousy for…you just never listen girl!)
Well, well, well… speak of the devil… I guess the Jihoo alarm still works even if he’s been rejected coz look who just arrived at Junpyo’s home when Jandi was just leaving… (all together now) … JIHOO… Ahhh… the scriptwriter has taught us well…
(DARN… that alarm was a pretty good investment… I guess it comes with a warranty…)
Go Jihoo… go drag Jandi to where Junpyo is and french right in front of him just to spite him! And Junpyo has the nerve to sleep??? WITH THAT BISH ON HIS SHOULDERS???
)*I_)*_)&)(^*^*&%^&$^&$*&… PLEASEEEEEEEEEE… SOMEBODY…. I NEED MIGRAINE MEDICATION AND A GRENADE LAUNCHER RIGHT AT THIS VERY MINUTE…
After that hypertension inducing scene, Jandi walks around the streets of Seoul lost and dejected and who else should follow her but… (all together now, once again)… JIHOO! (Great… just what I need, with only 45 minutes left before this show ends… MORE JIHOO-JANDI MOMENTS! Move it along Ms.Scriptwriter, move it along… we’ve had HOURS AND HOURS OF THAT FOR THIS WHOLE SERIES ALREADY… Other than grow wings and fly Jandi up to the heavens, we already get how much of a SAINT towards Jandi, Jihoo is…)
Ok… can you just forget I said that? I’d rather have HooDi than dumb bimbo Umi…and HAHAHAHAHA! What’s up with her Junpyo rice? Is it Junpyo that she had as inspiration while making it or the Hunchback of Notre Dame?
As Junpyo takes a bite of Umi’s rice of deceit… Junpyo suddenly notices that something is amiss and confronts Umi about it… (Right Junpyo, what she’s feeding you is POISON… POISON… You know why it does not taste the same? It does not have the essence of JANDI…) and as if the word ANNOYING was really made specifically for her, Umi starts crying… (SERIOUSLY, where did this Psycho come from? Why is she crying that Junpyo thinks about Jandi and that Jihoo hates her? Get this dumbface… Jihoo hates you because I bet even your own mother finds you irritating and Junpyo thinks about Jandi coz they’ve been getting down and dirty even before the writers invented your reign of evil… INTIENDES?)
OMG! YOU WIN BISH! YOU WIN… Yes, I’d just kill myself rather than kill you if only you’d stop with your pathetic whining…
It’s about darned time…*breathes a sigh of relief when there was no Umi on screen*
So the F4 goes to visit Jandi in school and gives her an invitation from Junpyo and Umi… (FETCH! Like they are freakin’ Mr. And Mrs. Obama) and just because we know very well how much a sucker for parties and a free makeover Jandi is … she goes… And Umi plays the harp and once again, continues with her reign of annoyance…
“BUT YUMI LIKES JUNPYO OPPA…so much that I can’t break up with him…”
WHEN IN HELL DID YOU EVEN GET TOGETHER?
“Oppa LIKES Yumi too…”
In your dreams you twit! IN YOUR DREAMS!
(gets a chainsaw and starts hacking Umi with it…)
After Umi announces about Junpyo’s and her plan of leaving and studying in the US (I thought Junpyo was just amnesiac? When did he suffer from becoming an idiot and what is he just standing around there for while Umi makes that announcement?) Jandi can’t take anymore and decides to gather her thoughts by the pool…
Just as Jihoo leaves…(but not before putting his jacket on her to further elevate him to GODLY status…) Junpyo arrives… and JANDI kicks @ss trying to make Junpyo remember her by throwing the necklace Junpyo gave her, describing himself to him the way she knows him, and finally throwing herself into the pool, forcing Junpyo to trigger his memories so that he can save her…
FINALLY MS SCRIPTWRITER, A scene worthy of a farewell episode… DARN IT… I’m crying like a baby… Where are those tissues? Even if it’s Lovers in Paris much the lines are still Brilliant and we get EVEN MORE BRILLIANT ACTING FROM MINHO and HYESUN… JUNDI FOR THE WIN!
(However, for a minute there, I was seriously worried over the amount of time that Jandi spent underwater… I thought that it would be another twist and now she’d be braindead instead of Junpyo’s dad…. Wehehehe!)
In your face idiotic Bish…WHAT THE? Umi leaves just like that? Feed her to the lions I say! Darn it… this girl should meet Hannibal Lecter on the way home and get her comeuppance that way…
But the OTP is together and THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS… Wars would stop, crime rates would go down, Chris Brown would stop bashing Rihanna… It’s LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all around…
So Jandi’s graduation is coming round and she talks with her mom about how she’s not going when she suddenly gets a text message… from JUNPYO who else… (now I can finally say that with confidence)… the next scene had me grinning like a loony as Junpyo meets Jandi for a late night tryst… as they go about flirting… Ms. Scriptwriter recycles the date invitation scene, but instead of an airplane, a motorcycle drowns out Junpyo’s words this time around … (I would have gladly sat through recycled scenes from Episodes 1-12 in a heartbeat, instead of the crap that was the second season)
Anyways, F4 arrives at Shinhwa’s graduation party amidst screaming and Jandi was shown in uniform at Grandpa’s clinic throwing garbage… (what a way to end your high school… Others are all dressed up in a hotel ballroom having a party… Jandi is in uniform, throwing toxic waste…) But alas, the Jihoo stalker antenna is unparalleled so right at the minute that Jandi stepped out of the clinic, a white limo pulls up and Jandi gets in unquestioningly… (now we wonder why she gets kidnapped by Haje, almost held up and sold to white slavery in Macau and had her boyfriend almost snatched by Umi and Jaekyung … She’s just too darned trusting! Watch the news Jandi… Watch the news…)
Good thing the limo only came from the F3 who wanted the chance to grope ummm… I mean dance with Jandi before she gets hitched to Junpyo for good…
(Sheesh… As the F3 dances with Jandi and she had those voiceovers, my acerbic comments are slowly running out… I am truly getting melancholic at the thought of this show ending…and this scene reeks too much of goodbye… Darn it… where’s that tissue box again… Goodbye Jihoo and Jandi… Goodbye… there were times that you made me want to jump ships too many times… But my JunDi spirit was too strong to be totally swayed… Thank you Jihoo for being there for Jandi at times when Junpyo can’t…)
Finally, Jandi realizes that Mr. Pama was missing and she runs off to Namsan towers as she realizes that what he wanted to ask for last night was presumably a date among many others… (it’s prom night Jandi! What do you give up during prom night? Mr. Pama would want that… wahahaha!)
It seems like Jandi was right on since Junpyo was waiting and what happens next is the stuff that my BOF dreams are made of… the same kind of scenes and feelings that made me crazy over this show… (the same stuff that would make me look over the fact that Junpyo is wearing a huge ribbon on his neck…)
Junpyo prepared a lights show for Jandi and rented out the whole Namsan tower to reminisce over their first date together… (SEE THAT YIJUNG? That’s how you date and impress girls… not a dollar and 50 fries)
AND SINCE IT IS THE LAST EPISODE, JUNPYO AND JANDI MAKES OUT TORRIDLY AND DOES THE JIGGY…
NOTTTTTTTT!!!
As if the PD would allow that? Remember People, he thrives on disappointing us, viewers… so instead… we get Junpyo proposing and telling Jandi that he’s leaving for the US to be a better man, how he’d want her to go with him and all that stuff so why don’t she marry him… but Jandi tells him she has her own dreams too and that she’d much rather stay in Korea and she’d think back on the proposal when he comes back… So they agreed to go long distance and then they kissed… (now show us some tongue… OKAYYYYYYY… *rolls eyeballs* SERIOUSLY PD? That’s your goodbye kiss? They would not be seeing each other for four years and they kiss like THAT? Crap… I pity your wife whoever she might be…)
After four years which is just like equivalent to 1 minute, Junpyo comes back successful as evidenced by a tv interview and with a haircut that made him look like an ahjussi… A HOT Ajusshi but still an ajusshi…
As he speaks about how he has carried the thought of only one person in his heart all throughout the four years… (I would seriously go on a rampage if at this point, camera pans and either Jaekyung or Umi was standing in the sidelines… I would not doubt that the PD can do that…) we see that Darth Mama has been abducted by aliens for a bodysnatchers experiment as she feeds Junpyo’s now magically well Father whose presence we could have altogether done without… (WTH… why is Kang Mama all domesticated all of a sudden?)…Junhee is now presiding over the Shinhwa empire (I have no doubt that Junhee would also turn into a BISH just like Goo Mama a few years down the road… good thing Jandi already has her okay…), GaEul is now a kindergarten teacher who lies about her relationship status and Yijung has turned metrosexual who immediately went to GaEul’s workplace from the airport to get some… So who’s missing? ISN’T WOOBIN DESERVING OF AN ENDING… CAN’T THEY HAVE AT LEAST SHOWN HIM IN THAT BRIDGE THAT HE ATTEMPTED TO JUMP OFF SMILING?
As for Jihoo, well… he has honed his stalking tendencies and turned it up a notch higher by adopting Jandi’s dream too… YESSIREE… Jihoo is now a doctor and from the looks of it… still making the moves on Jandi… (whats up with that “It’s not the only reason?” seriously, Junpyo is the one who’s a saint for putting up with a friend who is only waiting for him to make a mistake to pounce on his girl at any given minute… wehehe!)
And Jandi? Well, she’s still a bumbling, clumsy tough weed trying to be a doctor, but with the worst extensions ever….
So we get Junpyo coming back and making an entrance via helicopter… He summons Jandi in front of a beach and they HUG each other…(HUGGING? WAHAHAHA!AFTER FOUR YEARS OF NOT SEEING EACH OTHER? If this were real life… they would be rolling around in the sand, kissing like there is no tomorrow amidst heavy breathing… ala Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant in AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER…HELL… That is a 1959 film and there was more making out than in this series)…
So Junpyo kneels down, proposes to Jandi and before she can even answer, the F3 comes objecting… They look out to sea, smile and….the next scene… shows… THE END…
(donnapie stops typing… rewinds the video and THE END…)
WHAT KOREA? WHYYYYYYYYYY??? What the hell did we do to you to make you think that we deserve this? We’ve taken the bad with the good even if lately it was more bad than good so whyyyyyyyyyyyy???
We’ve put up with fainting spells, fake Fiancee’s, Evil Bish Demon Mothers, Fathers who come back from the dead, Second leads turned best friends turned soulmates with more screentime than the lead and all that bull… so why can’t you be good to us this one last time and give us our well deserved JunDi ending? You gave it to us all right but not before you put our hopes up high and crushed it completely…
I am soooooooo disappointed over this ending that I swear I’m going to cut someone after I finish writing this, pretty badly… (the PD and scriptwriter most probably)
I don’t even think I’d have the power to write another recap and be funny because I’m just so doggone pi$$ed over how you treated our most awaited JUNDI ending… And you call yourselves filmmakers? WE WANT A WEDDING, EVEN JUST PICTURES OF A WEDDING AND NOT AN EFFIN’ SANDSTORM…
Darn it PD and Miss scriptwriter… I’d sue you for zapping out the funny in me… I swear I will…
But what can I do? I can rant, rave and turn violent all I want but it would still not change the fact that you’d be rolling in dough for producing a moneymaker and a ratings chart topper… Thanks to the well casted actors on your sucky second season rather than your talents… and I’m still here typing at my computer, taking in the crap that you decide to offer to me…
FETCH THAT! BOF ENDS FOR ME AT EPISODE 12…
Now excuse me while I drown my sorrows in vodka and write all of my fantasies into my fanfiction and be happy and loony in my imagination… just like CRAZY UMI…
DANG IT!
Hello Fellow BOF LOVERS!
Guess what? Today, I will be vying for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person who was able to summarize a one hour episode drama in 40 seconds…
I’m glad I’m able to share this glorious moment with you and just to prove to you that I can do it… I say hold your breath, start counting and HERE WE GOOOOOOO….
ANGST, ANGST, ANGST… OH LOOK! EVEN MORE ANGST… BEEYATCH ON THE LOOSE… KILL HER… ANGST…. ANGST… FINALLY A HAPPY MO… and even before I finish typing that let’s have what we’ve been missing this entire episode which is… You guess it! EVEN MORE ANGST and THE END!
So how’d I do? *smiles expectantly*
What? I’m a second off the mark? DAMMIT… WHAT THE HECK! Then let’s go to town on this recap…
Episode 24 kicks off with Jandi having a heart to heart talk with her Omma… As you very well know, I can’t understand a word of Korean, but I have a feeling Mama Geum is once again pimpin’ Jandi to Junpyo in exchange for meat and the chance to grocery shop without coupons…
So Yijung looks for Gaeul in the porridge shop and treats her to FAST FOOD thereafter.… (Yijung! Shame on you for being such a cheapskate … You call yourself a player and you treat your girl to over the counter fare? With that money? Or is it because *gasp* Gaeul is poor that you feel she’s not deserving of fine dining?)
The SoEul couple then talk about Jandi and her possible whereabouts as they feast on value meals (which I think Yijung did not even have the decency to upsize)… and they then proceeded to transfer to the Namsan steps to continue their date on a budget…
Finally, the couple talks about their relationship and it seems like Gaeul had a change of heart and the date ended with GaEul REJECTING Yijung! (Take that Casanova! That’s what you get for not spending more than 10 dollars on her… that and the screaming! The screaming with the crying! I hope you learnt your lesson well…)
As Junhee noona worries about a Junpyo who’s on hunger strike, Secretary Jung reveals the twist in this story, (that is not so much of a twist anymore since we ALL KNOW ABOUT IT… HELLO?) That of their dad being hidden in a secret room in their mansion, hooked to a respirator, in a coma… and not dead as we have all been led to believe (Well… the secret room in the same house is an addition on my part, but wouldn’t that kick serious @ss if that were the case? In your face, melodrama…)
So we get Junhee in her Baeksang moment of glory and after wailing at her comatose father, she now turns her vocal cords on Darth Mama in… YOU GUESS IT! Even more screaming and shouting and guilt tripping… And well, well, well… who else should walk in at that exact moment to discover the same thing but Junpyo himself ? So now we get Junpyo in his Baeksang moment of glory as he walks in on his vegetable father… and we get the same thing that we just had a couple of minutes ago, although in the male version…
While Junpyo drives off towards beejus knows where… We get Jihoo acting like an old man who has Alzheimer’s, looking over the fake wedding photographs of him and Jandi then imagining her beside him even if she’s not there! (Easy on the Zoloft Jihoo… Easy! But can I just say that Jihoo with spectacles makes me think of naughty thoughts? very, very naughty!)
So after realizing that sleeping Jandi is but a figment of his imagination, Jihoo tunes in to none other than the JANDI Channel… where you can always find Jandi even if she’s dating at the zoo or escaping to a fishing village… (They should have tuned in earlier to find her! So word to Jihoo: NEXT TIME JANDI GOES MISSING, TURN ON THE TV…)
Anyways, You know the 4th commandment? The one about honoring your mother and your father? Well, Junpyo finally realized that that only applies if your mother is not SATAN herself… and so in a rebellious moment, Junpyo finally stands up to Darth Mama and so now, we all know who’s going to be written off the will come judgment day…
As F4 convinces Junpyo to see Jandi and Junpyo refuses, Jihoo tells Junpyo to do whatever he wants and leaves Jandi’s address (although us JunDi shippers know that even as he does that, he’s already in his cute little white car traveling towards where Jandi is while Junpyo sits there eating his dust…DARN IT JUNPYO! WTH??? This is episode 24! one more episode and you’d have no more time to make it up… GO! DARN IT! GO!)
On second thought… WHY DON’T YOU LEAVE A LITTLE BIT LATER? Like 5 minutes before the show ends… Let me just bask in all of your shirtless glory while you sit there with Woobin in that sauna all bare chested and sweaty… WHAT? LEAVING SO SOON? *sigh* (mumbles) if you hafta…
And what is this? Why is there an ajumma rally right in front of Jandi’s fishing village house? Is the village out of perm lotion or Floral Dusters? Why the commotion? Ahhh… it seems like Mom’s little white lie has finally caught up and the February edition of Rich Kids elite last year with Junpyo and Jaekyung on it has finally reached the boondocks… Naturally, knowing that Jandi is not really the fiancee’ of Shinhwa’s heir sent all hell breaking loose with the Ajumma party… (in another note, anyone else think that Jandi is such a cutie with that sucker in her mouth? I DO!) BUT… BUT… just when we thought all else is FAIL, who else should arrive to save the day? YA GUESS IT! IT’S NOBODY ELSE BUT PRINCE JIHOO! (here he comes to save the day! Man, we’re getting good at this now that we’re at the 24th episode)
As Crazy guy in a suit foretells of ominous things to come, Jihoo and Jandi go out for a stroll and Jandi asks Jihoo how he knew where she was (Jihoo: OF COURSE, I’d know… I’m your stalker… you should know that by now…) In reality what Jihoo tells Jandi was that he heard her because he kept watch every night… (What did I say? STALKERRRRRR… WOOHOO!!!)
And while Jihoo and Jandi are having their moment, the law of Kdrama dictates that Junpyo should be there to witness it in all of it’s painful glory… AND WTH??? I know it’s coming, but seriously PD!!! It’s the 24th hour and you can’t let our OTP just be together? You can’t just leave Jihoo alone and let him be happy? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE JIHOO PROPOSE and HAVE HIM REJECTED? WHYYYYYYY??? We know Jandi loves Junpyo… We know they’re meant to be together… but must we hurt Jihoo again and again and again? PD… you really amaze me!
Ok… now that I’ve all calmed down…Seriously… Crazy car banger guy should have his eyes checked along with his mental state… How could he have mistaken Junpyo for Jihoo? Ummm… lemme think… let’s start with the hair… what part of Brownish blonde is anywhere near Junpyo-ish? HELLOOOOOOO??? Read the papers LOONY!
As Junpyo is rushed to the hospital and Darth Mama (drops my jaw in amazement) SHEDS TEARS… (REPENT ALL YOU SINNERS! THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR!) Junhee once again goes on her Mama Bashing frenzy… but unfortunately, Darth Mama is late for a meeting and sadly, she did not get to finish Junhee’s prepared speech (now she works while her son is DYING … You should have done that when the merger with JK failed… ever heard of prioritization Darth Mama?)… and ok… props to Jandi for even speaking to that BISH! I would slap her to kingdom come if that were me… But oh well… Jandi’s scoring points with the in laws so what the heck!
After Mama Kang leaves, Jihoo arrives to comfort Jandi in an effort to position himself as next boyfriend candidate should Junpyo fail to make it through operation… Mama Kang is later on shown to be driving around on the streets, watching a father and son bond over those fish thingies which she only knew now was Junpyo’s favorite… (FAVORITE? HOW CAN THAT BE HIS FAVORITE WHEN HE ONLY TASTED IT ON EPISODE 9… HELLO? I don’t know what you call them but seriously, I would have FREAKED OUT if Darth Mama gets out of her car and starts eating those sons of a bishes the way that Junpyo did…) As Mama Kang tears up and gets her moment of redemption, I was thinking that I’d really like her number just to tell her that it would take more than just tears to mend her relationship with her children… like some serious THERAPY… CALL DR. PHIL Darth Mama… or if you don’t have time, watch OPRAH… that will set you straight…
As if we don’t have enough of abandoned Jihoo, rejected Jihoo, desolate Jihoo and depressed Jihoo all throughout the 24 episodes of this show, we now get GUILTY Jihoo to add on to that list and even grandpa is all emo over that thought…the next scene shows Jandi sitting beside an unconscious Junpyo willing him to wake up as she held his hands and shed tears… (Ahhh… I get it… this is the reason why Secretary Jung let Jandi take care of Junpyo’s comatose father… FOR PRACTICE… wehehehe…Seriously, I am going to BAWL at this portion once this is subbed… I just know it!) and after seeing Jandi all depressed and blue, the next scene shows her being absolutely chipper… (Jandi, by any chance are you bipolar?)
So Junpyo finally wakes up and what is supposed to be a happy day was ruined by the fact that Junpyo cannot remember JANDI… AT ALL! (I just knew it! What did I say last episode? THIS IS THE TIME WHEN THAT KAMA SUTRA WOULD HAVE COME IN HANDY!… Tsk… tsk… you should have listened to me Jandi…) and even if the fact that Junpyo has rejected Jandi’s apples and called her Jihoo’s girlfriend countless of times has already gotten me in a serious funk, (enough to kill kitties)… WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WOULD IRRITATE ME SO MUCH… ENOUGH TO GO ON A KILLING SPREE, WORTHY OF ONE SEASON WORTH OF CSI (and I’m talking all versions… Miami, Las Vegas and New york)…
OH LOOK, It’s UMI! HOW TIMELY! Jandi should have kicked her and not the vending machine while she still had the chance…
)@I$)_@I%+)#O%+|#O%+_#O%+#O%+#%O_# Just seeing her on my screen is making my blood pressure shoot up enough for me to pop a vein… I can just imagine the hate mail flying into her inbox… woohoo!
Seriously girl, STOP TOUCHING JANDI’S MAN AND CALLING HIM OPPA before I cut you! You must have called him that 10 times in the span of 20 seconds… (Is this girl competing for my Guinness world record title?) DIE YOU BISH… DIEEEEEEEEEEEE… *stabbity, stab, stab*
And you, Junpyo, you are not any better… Jandi should not have just shoved an ice cream cone in your face but a baseball bat to make you learn your lesson…that roundhouse kick should have at least bashed your face in even just a little… (Word to Jandi: Don’t go around sticking your phone number on Amnesiac boyfriends forehead if you want to cure him in no time… Try a topless picture of you… I’m sure that would make him remember… FAST!)
Just when I am still giggling over the F3’s expression over Jandi’s kicking attempt to make Junpyo remember… Here comes nails grating on a chalkboard voice UMI… But of course ever so dependable Jihoo can’t be fooled unlike BABO Junpyo… OWN HER Jihoo… OWN HER and push her down some steps while you’re at it… I’d highly encourage hitting her with her own crutches too…
Why do you get airtime BISH! Hospital couple my @ss! This girl has seriously been admitted to the wrong hospital… SHE SHOULD BE IN A MENTAL HOSPITAL and not a regular one…
And Yes Jihoo, beat some sense into Junpyo… if I am not so invested in my ship right now, I am seriously thinking of jumping over once more… Okayyyyy… forget I said that… What’s with the HooDi moment again PD? Up to the last minute? (SERIOUSLY… Miss scriptwriter has a shrine of Jihoo that she kneels down to every night at her home…)
As we get another HooDi moment and NO JunDi moment for this episode… I am thinking that tomorrow would be better… Call me a gullible sucker but I still believe in happy endings and I just know that my JUNDI ending would OWN the ending of all endings…
PS: Jandi, make Junpyo beg and grovel for some sexy time for a longgggg time when you finally get together… That would teach him to drink memory pills to remember you all the time…
After watching countless episodes of my JUNDI ship being together for only a couple of minutes before they are yet torn apart again for what feels like eternity… I think I am starting to unravel what the twist in this entire version of Hana Yori Dango is… I think… I think… (Drumroll please…) THAT THE PD AND THE SCRIPTWRITER OF BOF IS ACTUALLY MADAM KANG IN DISGUISE! Woooohhhhh !!! (shock all around, gasping, heartclutching as realization sinks in…)
Who else would be so evil as to think of giving someone a moment of happiness only to take it all back and then some in the next minute? Why can’t you even let us be happy for just one freakin’ episode Mr. PD and Miss Scriptwriter? WHYYYYYYYYYY??? Would it hurt to give us what we want when it is obvious that audiences around the globe are clamoring for more JunDi moments?
SADISTIC PLEASURE I TELL YOU… SADISTIC PLEASURE…
The episode started out with so much promise as Jandi and Junpyo continue on their zoo date… As I begin blissfully imagining how much better the storyline of this show would have been if only Jandi gets pregnant and gives birth to a little JunDi (and along with that HOW MUCH, MUCH BETTER IT WOULD really be if only they show the process of how they go about making it)… I also get a dark sense of foreboding of how much Devil PD will charge me back in terms of heartbreak and angst for this moment of giddy happiness with other scenes later on in the episode…
Alas! I would not have to wait for long to find out, since Secretary Jung is already calling Junpyo to report back to the mother ship… As Junpyo turns over a sleeping cute Chan to Jandi and goes on his way before Mama Kang sends the hounds of hell loose on him… Jandi and Junpyo both turn around to look at each other in goodbye lovingly before parting ways… (WAHAHAHA! THIS SERIES IS REALLY MAKING ME LAUGH… NOT EVEN A KISS PD? A DOGGONE PECK? A SMACK? WHAT ABOUT A HANDSHAKE? They barely see each other and all they can do is… LOOK AT EACH OTHER? C’mon! Even socialites who beeyatch around each others back give each other air kisses when they part ways… Where did all their teenage hormones go? Oh! I forgot… Maybe it doesn’t exist in ANGSTYLAND…)
Moving on, we see Yijung’s and first love’s dragged about storyline flash on screen as Kim Bum showed the acting chops that he is soooo famous for (we get it Bummie! You can act… yes you can… no need to shout…) As Darth Mama reads the daily paper (probably to read up on how other tycoons eliminate plucky teenage girls from their sons lives…) She gets the shock of her life seeing Jandi and Junpyo on their date in the zoo accidentally caught on a documentary on TV, complete with SMILES! ( I knew it… it was the smile that did it… I bet her reaction would not have been as drastic if they showed somber expressions instead of *heaven forbid* that of enjoyment… Note to Junpyo and Jandi: KEEP YOUR SMILES TO YOURSELF… Remember Junpyo, how miserable you looked during that failed wedding? THAT IS THE EXPRESSION THAT DARTH MAMA likes… Just look at her look on you lovingly during that oh sooo happy event…)
While Jandi is giving Jihoo even more reasons to pine for her by cooking for him and his gramps as they go about fishing and putting closure to old grievances… (Seriously, I’m surprised that Jihoo is not under psychological therapy yet with all that he’s went through and is going through) Darth Mama is already putting her plans of world domination and doomsday into action by hitting Jandi where it hurts most…
Since Darth Mama started off on Jihoo’s family business first, Gramps suffered a heart attack as an effect and Jihoo worries about his source of income from now on… errr… about gramps condition… yeah… about that…
I then start to smell darkness and evil in the air, and before I knew it, the very next scene shows evil herself… Darth Mama sitting behind her desk… As Madam Kang discussed pulling out roots once again to Secretary Jung… (Seriously, what does this lady have against PLANTS? She keeps on talking about pulling out roots and taking out weeds and stepping on grass… Did a gardener do her wrong in her past life?) Junpyo walks in just then to show us that he has finally found his balls and bargains with his mom not to harrm Jandi in exchange for him not seeing her nor talking to her… (Ahhh… just what any girl wants… a long distance relationship without the distance… and without even the talking… heck… come to think of it, without even the relationship! Just the thought that somebody loves me and me not having the chance to entertain other suitors the rest of my life… HOW IDEAL! — I’m being sarcastic if you don’t notice…) Thank Heavens Halmonnie is there to talk sense into Junpyo to teach him how it’s done and to give light to him to stop talking bull…
As Jandi discovers Gramps things and shows to Jihoo how Gramps started the stalking program in Shinhwa U, through the drawings he has of Jihoo from grade school to present. ..GaEul cries her heart out over Dad’s sudden forced resignation which was obviously plan B of Darth Mama’s terroristic campaign …
Finding reasons to perhaps alleviate her guilt a little Jandi pays a visit to Gramps who in his state can still play matchmaker (yeah, gramps… give your grandson even more reason to angst…) and Jihoo and Jandi ONCE AGAIN SPEND TIME TOGETHER… ( Miss Scriptwriter, I swear there have been far more scenes of Jihoo and Jandi’s relationship already in this series all together and even down to the homestretch you’re still milking this for all it’s worth… Just a reminder that the title of the show is BOYS OVER FLOWERS and it is definitely not JIHOO IS LONELY, LOOK HOW MISERABLE HIS LIFE IS…)
AND OH NOOOOOOOOOO… DON’ T TELL ME THAT’S A PIANO I SEE? (Please, please, please… don’t let Jihoo see it, don’t let Jihoo see it… Dang! He sees it!) As Jihoo sits down to once again prove to Jandi what a musical genius he is… I hit the fast forward button since I could compile all of Jihoo’s musical scene for this whole series and I bet my @ss that it could make up one entire episode of this show… After the musical extravaganza and while ill gramps is left to fend for himself…Jandi and Jihoo take a walk along the Han river… Jihoo then confesses to Jandi about his feelings once again only for it to be thwarted by FOUNTAINS THIS TIME, NO LESS… (What did I say about Jihoo’s timing? IT SUCKS… BIG TIME! Give it up boy… give it up…When a girl is more interested in fountains than in what you have to say, maybe just maybe… she’s not just into you as you are into her… )
As Jandi pours out her thoughts of giving up on Junpyo to comatose vegetable patient and after saying goodbye to him and telling him to get well (although I don’t know how comatose patient can do that when he’s LYING IN A VEGETATIVE state and is not even awake…) The moment of reckoning has come… Jandi goes to see Darth Mama in enemy territory…
However, we are left hanging as to what has taken place, (although I already know that this is once again DEVIL PD’s moment of ecstasy before the heartbreak) , as we see Jandi going around the Goo’s mansion, making small talks to the help as if they were in a cocktail party and shouting for Junpyo as if she has just been appointed as mistress of the house and not somebody whom Darth Mama has put under her persona non grata list on the front gate…
AND NOW WE’RE TALKING… Finally, after more than 30 minutes of crappy waiting, we see our OTP back in business… (DANGGGGG…. Jandi! Your Boyfriend is totally hot… TOTALLY! Darn it!)
Well, well, well… seems like Miss Scriptwriter had some problems putting dialogues into OTP’s scene together and she has soooo much to say during Jandi and Jihoo’s moments… But WTH… I am too giddy now to even care… SCREW EVERYTHING… I will enjoy every sugary sweet moment of this FANTABULOUS SCENE… I deserve it after the 30 minutes of snoozefest that I went through just to get here…
So there goes my OTP… Driving around smiling, head touching, feeding each other, bike riding, cheek pinching … SQUEEEEEEE… (How pathetic am i? I’m so giddy and yet I feel as if I’m making a commentary of my 12 year old cousin’s 6th grade date and not that of two lovebirds who are almost in their 20’s or in their 20’s… but like I said… I’M TOO ECSTATIC TO EVEN CAREEEEEEEEEE… I AM lapping up every PRECIOUS second of this…EVERY SINGLE ONE…YESSIREE…)
WTH? Why am I even crying when Jandi told Junpyo that she likes him? I am sooo doggone in love with this pair that it kills me… And… And… there’s the longer lip pressing and just like that it’s over…(Kids, ever heard of petting?)
3 minutes of BLISS before we’re back to more angst and misery…
We get a flashback of what went on between Mama Kang and Jandi when she went and paid her a visit…So it seems like Jandi made a deal with the devil and asked for that date in exchange for her giving up on Junpyo totally… (CLICHÉ, CLICHÉ, CLICHÉ…Lovers in Paris Much?
Seriously, at that moment, Jandi should have come equipped with a cross and holy water and tried to exorcise Darth Mama while she’s at it… Either that or at least drove a stake through her heart so that she can stop her regime of evil right then and there…)
While my heart felt like it was held in a vise as I see Junpyo driving around happily and blissfully ignorant of what he’d face the next minute… Jandi asked Junpyo to park and stop driving… (I bet Junpyo was thinking “ASSA! Now we can make out…” ) But sadly, Jandi just asked him to do so, so she can get off the car without rolling on the streets and to deliver the saddest words that Junpyo would get to hear in his moment of ecstasy… DUN, DU-DU-DUN… THE BREAK UP…
As Jandi tells Junpyo that she suddenly realized how they can never be together because they are worlds apart ( Really Jandi? When you just told him you liked him? Ahhh… It must be the BMW X5 that Junpyo’s driving…either that or you’ve just been hit with the worst possible case of PMS on the way home…) She then delivers the biggest blow that Junpyo would ever receive when in her self sacrificing tirade, he asked her if she’s even thought of him as just one man and not Shinhwa’s Goo Junpyo which she answered with a resounding NO… (at this point,. I was expecting Jandi to laugh and say: “Remember Macau when you said I was a stain you want to erase? HAHAHA! Now we’re even…Now that that’s over and done with… come here and kiss me…) But alas, Ms.Scriptwriter is not gifted with a sense of humor…
(On the other hand, I was thinking that if I were in Jandi’s shoes and would want to leave Junpyo with a wonderful memory, I would have probably rented a hotel room, do the 37 positions of the Kama Sutra with him and then leave him while he’s wiped out sleeping… NOW LET’S SEE IF HE WOULD NOT TURN HELL OVER TO FIND ME after that… But *sigh* how can I forget that this series takes place in Fantasyland Korea where teenagers never get horny and overly in love couples are contented with lip pressing… If this were 90210 or Gossip Girl, someone would have probably been pregnant or talking about contraception by now…)
Jandi then boards a bus while Junpyo gives chase and I try to find humor in this situation where Jandi sacrifices her one true love for world peace, only to find none since it is just soooo sad… DAMN IT!
Jandi arrives at the fishing village and learns from Mama Geum that the family situation has not changed at all… Yijung and Woobin spend quality time bonding over mocha frappuccinos like ladies who lunch, at a nearby café and gossip about their friends situations (and probably thank the heavens silently that they’re not as close to Jandi for Darth Mama to keep them under her radar…) Jihoo on the other hand misses Jandi like crazy but he has started work on the art center so that’s keeping him busy…
And Junpyo? Junpyo misses Jandi too… BADLY… but unlike Jihoo who becomes productive in his pain… he turns to drinking, orgies and stuffed toy machine breaking to cover the emptiness he feels over her loss… (I was seriously laughing while he was picking stuffed toys in that machine since he was sooo drunk he can barely walk straight and he EFFIN’ BELIEVES THAT HE CAN WIN At that game? HECK! I play that game SOBER and I have not even once owned anything from that coin grabbing contraption…)
So we close the episode with Junpyo spending jail time in a cell without rails for public disturbance, as he flashbacks on happy moments spent with Jandi while Jun hee and Secretary Jung looks on as his life spirals out of control… DARTH MAMA MUST BE SOOO PROUD…
Other comments:
1. Why does Yijung and Junpyo always shout whenever they’re crying? WHY?
2. Seeing Minho with that kid sent my biological clock ticking… AND I DON’T EVEN PLAN ON HAVING KIDS… wahahaha!
3. Seriously, tell me now… This is not really a remake of Hana Yori Dango right? It must be the Fifth installment of the overly dramatic seasons series (Autumn in my heart, Winter Sonata, Summer Scent and Spring Waltz?)
This installment could be entitled Rainy Day Showers and renamed Boys over Flowers to trick us…
Remember how I said previously that Mama Kang worked under Lucifer?
Well, well … in this episode we learnt that Mama Kang has just been promoted… You heard it…Uh-huh… she just rose up the corporate ladder of the pits of hell a few notches higher… She is not just working for the devil anymore but she has become the DEVIL INCARNATE… WOWWWWWW!!!! Applause, applause, congratulations all around!
And in line with this Joyous and momentous occasion, Mama Kang is inviting the whole world to her congratulatory party which is going to be fun and cheery and everything that a party should be… WHAT? YOU DON’ T BELIEVE ME? How could you not? But Mama Kang’s strength is event organization and planning… Just look at the wedding of Junpyo and Jaekyung which is complete with the attendance of loving friends and happy thoughts anddddd… (flower pot falters off as she turns to look at her computer screen)…
Oh…Okay… never mind…
Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 352 ] - Click to view full image
After Madam Kang has added KIDNAPPER, by kidnapping Jandi, to her already growing list of impressive skills in her resume (which mind you, already includes controlling, sadistic mother and manipulative blackmailer)… We see Junpyo and Jaekyung’s wedding proceed as planned except that the happy faces of the bride and groom are nowhere to be found… (You know how one looks if the doctor announced that they have a life threatening disease and it’s not curable? Go on… refresh your memories… Now, THAT is how the bride and groom looked like…)
In a sea of gloomy faces, there is however one person who was all smiles and the epitome of cheery sunshine in the wedding hall, and surprise, surprise who else can it be but the Dark Lady herself , Darth Mama who is taking some kind of sadistic pleasure over the thought of feeding off someone else’s misery…her son’s no less… (Seriously, she’s never looked more like a witch in my eyes at this moment… I was just waiting for her to stand up and give a huge loud cackle to reveal a one toothed grin…)
But lo and behold, just when Darth Mama was imagining the lifetime of torture that Junpyo would get by getting married to a girl he does not love and enjoying every single moment of it… Jaekyung pulls off a dramatic showstopper to bring a halt to the farce of a wedding, which the F3 fully echoed and supported…. and WHOA! I think I just turned blind… WTH is Woobin wearing? (Woobie, the 80’s called… they totally want that jacket back…)
Darth Mama looked shock and disbelieving at the thought that Jandi and Junpyo was able to pull a quick one over her even without them knowing… That she only walked off with a disbelieving smirk, perhaps to return to the mother ship in order to look back on her evil “VILLAIN HANDBOOK OF MISDOINGS” possibly just to see what other forms of heartbreak she can inflict on her son and the woman who would bear all her grandchildren… (THAT IS IF THEY EVER GET AROUND TO HAVING SEX if only this DAMNED PD and Scriptwriter would allow them…)
Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 352 ] - Click to view full image
As the guests walked out along with Mama Kang (WTH is wrong with these guests? I would have stayed if only for the chance to gossip… “Ohhh… why is there a lot of people protesting this wedding?”), Junpyo rushes off to meet Jandi whom Jaekyung asked her bodyguards to rescue from the Siths evil clutches… Once Junpyo is aboard the yacht where Jandi was at… we get some staring and then, oh the disappointment! about 5 measly seconds of hugging… (Tsk… tsk… LAME PD! LAME! If this was real life, Junpyo would probably have Jandi out of that hideous sack of a dress even before she can stand up and his lips absolutely ravaging hers… Ok… ok… that might be what I wish for… but A HUG PD? A HUG? SERIOUSLY? AFTER ALL THE TIME THEY SPENT APART AND ALL THE TRIALS THEY WENT THROUGH? And it’s not even the kind where they envelop each other in a GREAT BEAR HUG as if they don’t want to let go but the type where they just embrace each other as if they were close friends who met accidentally at a PTA meeting… But what can I say? It must be the MinSun factor…you throw us a bone and we absolutely lap it up … LAP UP EVERY SECOND of it… We take what we can because this is how much chemistry this pair has and you have not maximized it to it’s full potential… Shame on you PD… Shame on you for relegating us to shippers who would spazz just at the thought of our OTP just being in the same scene together because we’re just so doggone deprived…)
Anyways as I rant but still smile like a loony at how sweetly Junpyo is pulling Jandi close to him…Yijung and Gaeul are talking about another story arc that has been dragged off for too long… that of Yijung’s angst and first love… We then see Jihoo channeling the Nutcracker in his riding gear and as usual looking as if the world has lost all hope and making us go back to the time when a smile has not yet been invented… (we get the point that Jihoo’s life is lonely but must that fact be rubbed in our face every minute? Why not just change his name to Doom while we’re at it…) As he reminisced about how he almost had his chance with Jandi and as he rode his poor horse to death over his unrequited love, Jaekyung makes an appearance to recruit him into her new found organization called THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB… (Although how Jaekyung knows where Jihoo could have been at that moment beats me but what can I say? Shinhwa really has the best stalking program… EVER!) While Jaekyung and Jihoo were busy bonding over what could have beens… the subject of their conversation was already whisked away to a honeymoon hideaway to celebrate their getting back together (Okayyyy… NOW WE’RE TALKING! And what is this I see? Heart shaped rose petals on crisp white linens… OHHHHHHH… SEXY! This Jaekyung really knows what she’s doing…Ok kids… time to learn about the birds and the bees and better make all of our waiting worth it… hehehe!)
Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 352 ] - Click to view full image
But of course before getting down and dirty, we see Junpyo making the moves on Jandi in order to score… Plying her with food (which is seriously the only thing that can make Jandi weaker at the knees more than Junpyo except if Junpyo shows her some LOVIN’ that would totally trump food and forget about the bottomless pit which also goes by the name of her stomach) and asking her to dance a slow waltz under the moonlight… CHEESY, YES! But sweet? YES, YES, YES! And as Junpyo says that he has looks, money and status but he only needs Geum Jandi… I was already calling my lawyer and asking him for requirements on how to go about doing a name change… possibly to GEUM JANDI… wahahaha! After that shuffling around on the gardens which is otherwise known as slow dancing… we have the next thing on the agenda which is normally done in all dates across the world which is STARGAZING… (NO? You haven’t done that on a date? Me either! hehe! The most that I got close enough to a star is when I read my horoscope on a daily newspaper…) As Jandi takes the chance to name stars with Junpyo on the date as a chance to also review for her future science tests… (Naming stars? ZZZZZZZZZ… Good thing Junpyo’s good looks is enough to keep Jandi awake…)
Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 352 ] - Click to view full image
Once again, we get a lot of talk about how miserable Junpyo’s childhood was, growing up with parents who were barely there… (Miss Scriptwriter, we’ve been through this angle soooooo many times already like EPISODE 9? Remember? Before that kiss scene on the swing? WHY, OH WHY CAN’ T YOU HAVE TAKEN OUR MOST AWAITED OPPORTUNITY TO AT LEAST HAVE JUNPYO and JANDI TALK ABOUT HOW BEING APART HAS ALMOST KILLED THEM??? WHYYYYYYYY??? Are you taking lessons from Madam Kang on torture and using us JunDi Shippers as guinea pigs?) But, what’s this? Junpyo’s saying sorry and saying *gasp* I LOVE YOU? And what more he’s leaning in for a kiss, A KISS! Well, well, miss scriptwriter maybe there is some hope left for you… (and we get a kiss then…fade to black)
ERRR… OR MAYBE NOT!
(However, your stinginess over JunDi scenes would not stop me from getting what I want from that scene … Who else here thinks that it was implied that Junpyo and Jandi did the deed on that night? Text YES and send to 1-800-Virgin no more if you feel that they did it and TEXT NO to 1-800-Celibacy-Rules if you think that they didn’t … In my imagination they did and that you have no control over… so take that Miss Scriptwriter…)
The following day, the F4 came crashing in on tbe two lovebirds who were busy playing flower football while getting a footsoak and decided to spend the day with them along with GaEul… ( Why Jihoo, you sneaky boy you… I bet this was at your insistence and suggestion… hehehe! If I were Junpyo, I would not be sitting there smiling but shooing off everyone with a broomstick for ruining a day which is supposed to be just for me and the girl I love and which has been a long time coming…) As Jihoo and Jandi spent a leisurely walk in the gardens (probably while Junpyo is at the restroom and not looking)… Jihoo took the opportunity to return Jandi’s necklace which Jaekyung returned and to inform her that Jaekyung’s leaving…
Anyways , since the OTP is back, Jandi goes zipping around in that red sports car on the way to the airport with Junpyo…(Yes Junpyo and not Jihoo…and it’s about damned time.. ) Once there, Jandi and Jaekyung share a tearful moment before she leaves… and I teared up too… YES, YES… you heard me… I cried… turned on my waterworks…softened against the enemy…so shoot me… As we get yet another flashback of Junpyo and Jaekyung’s moments together (as if we could have forgotten the nightmare…) We see Jaekyung keeping the shoes that Junpyo bought for Jandi and taking it with her… (yes, monkey girl! Take it with you… those shoes are cursed… cursed I tell you… that is where the misery began and I say good riddance…)
While Junpyo is all locked up at home and imprisoned… Darth Mama decided to once again mingle with the peons and paid a royal visit to Jandi at the porridge shop to be… YOU GUESSED IT… a royal pain in the bum… (well, at least she had the courtesy to return Jandi’s things… I would have thought she would have thrown it into the furnace or something and made a bonfire out of it…) As Darth Mama updates Jandi on business news and current affairs and starts blaming her once again for all the crap that is happening in her otherwise money grubbing life… (Seriously Darth Mama… SPEND MORE TIME IN THE OFFICE… LOG SOME HOURS AT WORK and see how business picks up thereafter…) Jihoo’s grandfather appears at just the right moment and saves Jandi from her dressing down… (HOLY COW! The alarm works! NOT JUST FOR JIHOO BUT FOR GRAMPS AS WELL… IT MUST BE IN THE GENES…), knowing that Jandi is homeless, gramps brings her home to Jihoo (who was “supposedly her husband to be” as liar ex-President Doctor gramps put it… No wonder he didn’t win the next election…) who was all shocked but I bet already thinking of ways on how he can jump Jandi while she sleeps next door…
The next scene shows Secretary Jung picking up Jandi from school and before anyone else thinks that this is another one of Darth Mama’s ploys… Secretary Jung brings Jandi to see a patient in a comatose condition whom he asks her to take care of (as if Jandi is not busy enough with all her part time jobs) AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT A SHOCKER OF A REVELATION THIS PATIENT WOULD TURN OUT TO BE IN THE NEXT EPISODES…
As if we don’t have enough of flashbacks, we see Junpyo have one of his own which only happened ahhhhh… just two episodes ago? We are once again reminded of the time when Jandi and him played master and maid… (ahhhh… if only it was as kinky as that sounded…) and he learns from Secretary Jung that Jandi is staying at Jihoo’s…Junpyo then sends Jihoo a text message saying how he’s at peace that Jandi’s staying with him (which is actually codespeak for “THE CHICK IS MINE, KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF OR I’LL BREAK THEM OFF…”) which is probably the reason why Jihoo said he was afraid…
Meanwhile, Jandi wanders around campus grounds listlessly looking for her boyfriend (*giggles* you know how giddy that makes me feel? When I say that Junpyo is Jandi’s BOYFRIEND… *giggles*) Woobin meets Jandi and talks about skin care and how everyone else is miserable except for him… (Oh woobie! We’re glad you’re not miserable… You’re our only ray of sunshine in this otherwise, melodramatic epic… Please stay that way and don’t go around jumping bridges anymore…)
Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 352 ] - Click to view full image
Moving on, we see another ode of the scriptwriter to the Jihoo-Jandi pairing… What with the Haircutting and the carwash and the poetry reading… Miss Scriptwriter CAN I JUST SAY? It used to be touching…but now that OTP is back It’s just plain hmmm… how do we say it UNNECESSARY? We get it that you might be harboring secret feelings for Jihoo and you’re channeling your thoughts unto Jandi’s character of the things you’d want him to do to you but we already have that… WE ARE LIVING OUR LIVES VICARIOUSLY ALREADY THROUGH JANDI BECAUSE OF JUNPYO and we may have little screen time but whose fault is that? Seriously, live your thoughts somewhere else, perhaps through Secretary Jung and just please give our OTP the time that it deserves now that we’re down to the final 3 epis… On the other hand, the scenes that Jihoo and Jandi shared were quite cute and I would have greatly appreciated it if the circumstances were different…
But really, what can Jihoo NOT do? HE’S NOW EVEN AN EFFIN’S TYLIST? How intimate is that that he’s cutting Jandi’s hair? I bet if Junpyo were present he would have found other ways for those scisssors…hmmm… most probably to stab Jihoo with it… hehehe! And what’s with the I LOVE YOU? I know it’s supposed to be heartwarming but why now Jihoo? Why now? You could have won me over during the time when Junpyo was being an @ss but WHY JUST NOW? No wonder you’re lonely… YOU SUCK AT TIMING…
Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 352 ] - Click to view full image
As Woobin once again made me laugh over his gangsta ways and gangsta English, trying to help Junpyo to escape to be able to meet with Jandi…(Why is it that whenever thug like approaches are necessary Woobin is the person to call? Wahahaha!) The next and last scene totally reminded me why I have stuck with this series for this long… We might have UPS, we might have DOWNS… but oh my effin gosh… It is these moments that we are all living for… MOMENTS LIKE THESE THAT MAKE US SAY… Yes, BOF is worth giving a second, third, countless times to no matter how disappointed we may have become… As I giggled giddily over Junpyo’s harsh treatment of the cutest Korean kid ever just to get to Jandi in that zoo date… part of me was thinking where Minho and Hyesun ends and Jandi and Junpyo begins… the chemistry is soooo palpable that I’m seriously praying as I type this that they get another project which would allow them to have more sweet moments together… I think during some parts they were just acting along withouth a script anymore and seriously just playing around on set…
As the episode ends on a high note, I am already anticipating the havoc that Darth Mama would wreak on the episode that was aired tonight which I’ve yet to see and the heartbreak that goes along with Jandi and Junpyo’s break up… as they say, you win some you lose some…. But Mr. PD… Please I’m begging… make the next two episodes worth our time and I would forget the nightmare that was season 2 of this series…
Other comments:
1. Doesn’t Yijung know that sucking blood is unsanitary? Sexy… yes but unsanitary… Ever heard of a band-aid Yijung?
2. When did Hana Yori Dango become a melodrama? And when was it all about the supporting characters as well as the LEAD characters? I have no beef about the subplots of the story of the Korean series but I think the scriptwriter missed out on the keyword which was sub since it seems like the subplots have been getting more airtime lately
3. I DEMAND FOR MORE JUNDI moments… nuff said!
I really thought that the happy times on Episode 20 were too good to be true… Just when I was starting to think that Ms. Scriptwriter had a change of heart, she one ups me and gives me all the angst that she didn’t get to include in the previous episode… (DARN IT Ms. Scriptwriter… and just when we’re starting to get close)
In this episode, the crap hits the fan… And by crap I meant Jaekyung and Mama Kang… I would just like to clue in those who have not watched Episode 21 yet… Before you settle down in front of your PC’s, TV’s and laptops consider yourselves warned.. Jaekyung has absolutely lost her mind in this installment… She has totally channeled Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, and I’m totally sure that she would have cooked Jandi’s pet rabbit while acting friendly, if only Jandi had one, … (and while we’re on the subject, I just want to tell Jaekyung that Hyun Young called… she wants her voice back…)
Just when it was getting good and Junpyo and Jandi were getting all kissy-kissy and huggy-huggy in HIS bed, mind you… Jaekyung appears to ruin the mood, among many other things including my viewing pleasure…But wait… it gets better (and the sarcasm begins HERE)… As if the fun was not enough, Mama Kang appears right on the heels of her apprentice from hell and what do you know… discovers that Jandi is on her payroll…
Of course this realization sends Mama Kang once again into a menopausal frenzy complete with laser beams shooting pointblank out of her eyes…Good thing Grandma Housekeeper arrives! Grammy then goes into a power struggle with Mama Kang worthy of an Obama and Clinton debate over Jandi,… and…. WHAT? Grammy WINS? Over mama Kang? WHY, GRAMMY… You impressed me! (Yoda one point… Darth Mama… zero… I would not really be surprised if it was explained that the reason why Mama Kang gave way to Grandma Housekeeper is because she REALLY is her OWN grandmother and she just turned her into a maid…With her sunny disposition, I would not even question it…)
After Grammy owned Mama Kang and totally won me over on her side, my blood pressure just shot up a couple of notches higher when Jaekyung enters Jandi’s room and talked to her AS IF JANDI OWES HER SOMETHING! She then goes about telling Jandi how she’s her friend and all that bull but that she can’t give up on Junpyo even if that’s the case…(If I were Jandi, I would have told her to take her friendship and shove it where the sun don’t shine…)
Jaekyung! You are an embarrassment to all primates from your species… King Kong must be hanging his head in shame… How can you say that you’re a friend when even the head maid knows that you’re getting in the way of your friend and your “forced” boyfriend’s OTP? I’ve seen you plenty of times and I’m sure you’re aware how their being apart, with you in the picture is hurting them so… BUT THE WORST PART THERE IS THAT YOU PRETEND THAT YOU DON’T KNOW…
I think I would have appreciated it more if you just gave it to Jandi straight and told her that she’s a S-L-U-T for lusting after your fiancee’, while taking back all of the things that you bought her previously … That’s how it should be done… You don’t go around telling someone “WE’RE FRIENDS…” and then go about trying to destroy the one true love that they’ve ever had in their entire life for all eternity… You either choose one and lose one… You can’t have your cake and eat it too! It’s a different case if Junpyo is in love with you and you’re in love with him…then you can do so in the spirit of fair play… But the problem is YOU ARE… HE’S NOT…
*sigh* If I only have Shigeru and Xiao Tze’s number, I would have given it to you! You should take some tips from them on how to be a really good FRIEND… (however, I seriously have doubts if they’d want to be associated with you…)
After that heartwarming and absolutely OH SO FRIENDLY CHAT…Jaekyung then went to Mama Kang right after and invited herself as a guest to their household to which Mama Kang of course, accepted in delight… (OH JAEKYUNG… YOU BRILLIANT GIRL…Mama Kang and you can totally star in your own sequel of Cinderella…. You be the evil stepdaughter and she’d be the evil stepmother… However, in this version… the shoes that you fit, turns out to be that of Dorothy and you are transported not to Oz but somewhere far away, hopefully, Antartica…)
While Yijung emotes and cries over his spilt milk (Or should it be coffee, coz it’s obvious that elder brother and first love are flirting much over latte’s?) Mama Kang gloats over her victory… (I just wanted to pick those chopsticks up and stab her with it…) But Jaekyung’s FRIENDLINESS knows no bounds, she then connives with Mama Kang and her parents to bring her wedding date with Junpyo to a much nearer date because she is sooo looking forward to it… (which is BUT… another code name for Desperation)…Upon hearing this, Junpyo was so overwhelmed with love and excitement that he positively looked as if he was on death row and just about to meet his sentence through the electric chair …
THERE’S MORE! Just like any other SPITEFUL, UNDERHANDED “FRIEND”… Jaekyung shows off in front of Jandi in full wedding regalia and ASKS HER TO BE HER BRIDESMAID…(WOW JAEKYUNG! I NOW CROWN YOU MS. CONGENIALITY… Beeyatches everywhere are looking on at you proudly… I admit that I pick on you most of the time coz you’re an easy target… but this is just plain mean… Enjoy your dress while you have the time because the only dress that you’d get to wear after this would be one for mourning…)
Moving on… LOOK! It’s a TV commercial! Ohhhhh… and Jaekyung and Junpyo look blissfully happy… NOT!
While Grandpa and Jihoo turned me into a sniveling, sobbing mess (Finally… a good thing that happened in this episode) … Junpyo sat at the F4 headquarters while his commercial with Jaekyung is shown on TV (their CF made me LMAO… it was soooo awkward that I would have thought they’re selling service for a funeral parlor… I bet Shinhwa’s marketing team is due for some @sswhooping and F4 is due for another remote control …wahahaha!)… As Junpyo showed some of the Darth Mama blood that flows in his veins by flying into a rage over his impending marriage otherwise known as doom… Jandi mopes around while wiping tables… (c’mon Jandi! Where’s the spunk that you showed when you asked grandpa to transfer to Jihoo’s? You can do it! FIGHTING!)
Anyways, we get yet another reminder of why Jandi and Jihoo can be beautiful if only Junpyo was not around… This part where they joined the photo contest at the park was actually bittersweet for me because it is a reminder of what Jihoo needs to be absolutely happy… but can never have… (see? It only takes one episode to sail my JunDi ship to the highest seas…OKAY… OKAY… maybe this part shook my ship just a little… hehehe! on a side note… I would kill for Goo Hyesun’s legs…)
As Jihoo and Jandi posed for Fabulous pictures and Jandi gave Jihoo that peck on the cheek …I, on the other hand, was secretly wishing that Junpyo gets a hold of this photo so that he wakes up and remember that the time to get Jandi back is NOW… (THAT and that he would totally go find her to molest her in order to forget the nightmares that he sure would have just from that image of Jandi in a wedding gown with Jihoo beside her… wahahaha!)
Jihoo’s expression after Jandi hugged her and while looking at those rings and their photos? HEARTBREAKING… I totally felt my throat closed up at the sheer oxymoron of this scene … he’s contemplating their future and yet we all know what would happen… (Miss scriptwriter how can you be so cruel?) I would not be surprised if during the next time we see Jihoo’s house, that pagoda outside would have been replaced already by a lifesize portrait of that faux wedding photo… Nosiree!
In the next scene, we get to see the F4 and Gaeul and Jandi fly first class to Jeju (Poor babies… no private planes this time because there’s no Junpyo…) after they land, the boys with the two girls zip around in their cool sports cars and had a contest as to who revs the engine loudest… THIS IS NOT CRUCIAL TO THE PLOT AND I DON’T EVEN HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT THIS BUT I DON’T CAREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Hot guys with hot cars? Oh heart be still! And why is poor Woobie zipping around in that car alone when he’s lookin’ all smokin’??? He got a bimbo for Caledonia, why not for Jeju? Or does his taste tend to go more international?
What’s this? Is Junpyo contemplating jumping to his death rather than be tied down for a lifetime to Monkey girl? Ahhhh … no, it’s only the F4 looking even HOTTER with their side profiles on screen and I bet fangirls everywhere are just DYING! As the boys talk about the impending marriage and Jihoo tells Junpyo how it affects Jandi, Jaekyung busies herself with yet another meeting with Jandi … (Wow… this girl sure has a lot of free time on her hands… and can I just say, what a happy occasion this wedding is… Everybody’s looking so festive! And chipper! Now try to find the opposite of that in the dictionary…)
AND AFTER SO MANY CLUES, Jaekyung finally gets it! Somebody give this girl a medal for being soooo perceptive… (hope you still have that dictionary open coz yes, you’d be looking for the opposite of that once again…) Okayyy… so maybe I was touched just a little by Jaekyung’s tearful confession but at this point, I just want Jandi to fight for what’s hers that honestly I just want all these drama to be over and done with… (WTH is wrong WITH THAT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND? I feel as if I’m watching a hardcore soap opera… Darn it…)
And just to wash the angst of the past couple of scenes away, we get the boys playing soccer and looking… you guessed it… HOT ONCE AGAIN! (Testosterone pumped boys playing physical sports? Goodlooking men in athletic attire? Man, this scriptwriter really knows how to make it up to the fangirls…) Once again… not really crucial to the story BUT I DON’T CAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! (rewinds the scene over and over)
(After 10 minutes of rewinding…) JIHOOOOOOOOOO!!! I will pray that you find someone… someone nice and funny and who would make you laugh and give you sexy time in the drama world… YOU SOOOO DESERVE IT! Out of all the 2nd male leads in all the kdramas that I got to watch in my lifetime, not one of them can measure up to how much you deserve the lead girl as much as the lead guy does… as cruel as Jandi’s rejection might have seemed… I just want to say that it’s about TIME… It’s about time that she stepped back and give it to you straight so that you can move on and stop pining… I know that in the next couple of episodes the dynamics between Jandi and you would have totally changed but let me stand in my seat and applaud you Jihoo… I would miss you swaying me over to jump over to your ship and away from my OTP but Jihoo please be happy… Be totally happy with grandpa… We are also afraid that after Jandi goes back to Junpyo, you’d never smile again but I hope you find a ton of ways to always, always smile… *hugs Jihoo*
And just when I was starting to soften up against Monkey girl… that grin that she has on over the Family Dinner just made me change my mind again… She looked absolutely GLOWING… Like she’s a Cheshire cat who just got the cream (in this case, the guy…) Where is the remorse over your so called friendship with Jandi which you just cried a bucket for in the last scene? And Junpyo! WTH are you doing toasting to your marriage for? You should have taken that wineglass and splashed all of it’s contents on Mama Kang’s overly Botoxed face while you’re at it…
Ohhh… the elevator scene… INTENSE! My heart totally stopped beating for a couple of seconds as Jandi looked on at Junpyo (accusingly?) while Junpyo turned away guiltily… Once again it’s Jihoo to the rescue and you really have to give it to the guy for being soooo caring even up to the last minute…..As Junhee Noona gives Junpyo a good talking to… (That’s it Noona! Whack him with your magic stick! Make him wake up and come to his senses!) I get another scene which I absolutely loved which was Junpyo’s confrontation with Jihoo… Just two guys manning it up and Junpyo baring his soul to the guy who is his competition but also his best friend… BEAUTIFUL…
As Jaekyung once again exhibited her “concealed” mean streak by trying on wedding gowns in front of Jandi, Junpyo finally got his balls back and asked to talk to Jaekyung…
While I was LMAO once again over Jaekyung’s innate insensitivity as she practices her vows beside an unyielding Junpyo … Junpyo tells her that he just can’t go through with the wedding and gave us the most beautiful line to ever come out of a kdrama… As I was a teensy bit swayed when I once again saw a glimpse of the human side of Jaekyung… (I like her when she’s straight up and not spouting crap pretending that everything’s alright even If it wasn’t…I can sympathize with her like this…), OH MAHHHHHHHHHH GOOD LAWD JUNPYOOOOOOOOOO!!! THE JUNPYO THAT WE ALL KNOW WITH ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS JUST MADE IT’S RELAUNCH… (It was not the kneeling and his girl that I like line that did me in but the fact that he’s begging FOR JANDI… Jaekyung, give the guy an effin’ break… know when to call it quits honey… while I am still not as mean like I was about you…)
The following day and after Jaekyung once again went inside her loony world of happiness, we get the supposed GRAND wedding of the century in it’s simplest form (WHAT THE? Even commoners have grander weddings than this? On second thought… Save the grand wedding for Junpyo and Jandi… I’m cool with this…)
And so this episode wraps up with Jaekyung absolutely looking as if she’s about to be court marshaled, Junpyo looking as if he was about to meet death himself and the cliffhangers of all cliffhangers for this series which was Junpyo asking Jandi to tell him not to go…
As for me, I am definitely counting the days till Monday when I get my JunDi fix once again and find what Jandi’s answer is to Junpyo’s request.…
I think the JunDi angel finally apparated in front of Miss Scriptwriter during her sleep and so we have this gem of an episode that has been a long time coming… Kudos Miss Scriptwriter for seeing the light… It’s about darned time you realize that Mangaka Yoko Kamio intended this story to be lighthearded, fun, uber romantic with a little bit of drama thrown in and not a veritable contest of whose life can be more miserable in the next five minutes…
However, before you get all excited and expect that this episode is saccharine sweet, you must remember that in this version… with the bliss comes the angst… This episode would not have been in keeping with the past 7 BOF episodes previously, without the drama, but of course!
Today’s episode started with Yijung going through his usual schizophrenic happy one moment, bug eyed with anger the next…Days of our Lives moments with poor GaEul bearing the brunt of it…Just like these past few episodes when Yijung had been a very attractive jerk… GaEul just sits there wordlessly and takes it…(My…this GaEul really has a penchant for bad boys! Hell girl! If he keeps being like that to you even before you’re married, I congratulate you on a lifetime of marital bliss for the duration of the one year that you’ll be married…wehehehe!)
As GaEul flashbacks on Miss Potter giving her words of wisdom worthy of Yoda to his Jedi follower … she finally realized that Miss Potter and her have the hots for the same guy who spend drunken nights passing away time not on a bed but just lying down on his workbench spouting words of emo-ness…
After too much drama than I would have ever cared to watch… I finally breathed a sigh of relief to see Jandi walking around aimlessly in circles with nowhere to go…(because that is what normal out of home people do…REALLY… except they do it in really tattered clothes and with unkempt hair and not with a stroller bag and really glossy hair like one just stepped out of the arrival area of the First Class lounge of Korean Air… ) So Jandi calls someone and WHAT’S THIS? (flower pot rewinds and can’t believe what she’s seeing…) JIHOO’S PHONE IS TURNED OFF? (I’m assuming that it was Jihoo whom Jandi called) … I DON’T EFFIN’ BELIEVE IT… WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO? BUT JIHOO HAS SUPER STALKER POWERS… (whines in disbelief) he should have been waiting at that highway even before Jandi called him… OTTOKE? but alas, I guess even stalker lover boys who pine sadly away after the lead girl every possible minute also needs a rest day… and he’s now spending that rest day blissfully pining sadly away and stalking another in the person of doctor grandfather… (Can you just imagine what Jihoo’s life would be like if pining away and stalking would not have been invented? He would have spent it sleeping…)
And so we continue with Jandi’s journey and just for the PD to be able to showcase the spanking new OST… we are gifted with almost ten minutes of MTV of Jihoo and Jandi both wallowing in misery over their separate problems… (I personally think that Miss Scriptwriter encountered a writers block at this moment and just wrote down on her script “Jandi walks, Jihoo emotes for a solid five minutes until I can think of what to write next again…And while I’m at it… let’s all have Junhee noona join in on the fray because after all, What is misery without a little company?”) So with Mama Kang’s plans of conquering the universe and world domination… we are given a glimpse of the torture that she let Junhee noona go through before she started to prey on Junpyo…
After Jandi faints (YET AGAIN… Can’t they just make her weak or cold or hungry or something without fainting? My gosh! Seriously… Jandi should ask Jihoo’s gramps to give her a thorough physical once she has the time…coz that is what? The 10th time that she fainted in this series? Song Hye Gyo fainted even less in Autumn in my Heart and she had friggin’ cancer!) she woke up to find herself safe once again and Junhee noona urging her to stay in their house instead due to her present predicament… After defying logic as to how she can live in a house where her sworn enemy also resides ( I guess logic flies out the window when hunger strikes you…) Jandi accepts but tells Junhee that she will pay for the free board with her service and that she will work for them as a maid (Ahhhh… what is good old slavery among ex lovers and friends?)
Oh who else thought that Jandi was just soooooo cute in that maids uniform? I just wanted to hug her and squeeze her and put her in my pocket then squeeze her some more… (although those white tights really make me shudder… I swear just making someone wear that is a just cause for resignation…and what’s with the heels? How can maids go run around if they are wearing heels? Or is that for “AFTER HOURS” wahahaha!)
After a much spirited introduction to her co-peons… I mean workers… We get to meet Butler Lee’s love interest who is Grandma Head Housekeeper (What? They’re not in that kind of a relationship? Too bad… that’s a lost opportunity for another ship… No wonder grandma is grumpy…) Grandma then trains Jandi on the protocols of fine dining and Jandi gets to learn that there are other dishes that exist in the world aside from ramyun and kimchi… (AHHHSS-PA-RA- GUSSS…LMAO)
As Junpyo reads THE FINANCIAL TIMES… (Yeah…. Righttttttt!), Jandi serves him his dinner and he gets to learn that Jandi is now his personal maid… (Junpyo, you naughty boy you… I bet you’re thinking about the kinkiness of it… wahahaha!) From this moment on, a smile had been permanently pasted on my face…
AND MY GOO JUN PYO IS BACK! Milking that walkie talkie for all it’s worth and with that cheeky smile and leg shaking… I came to realize… Oh, GOO JUN PYO how I missed you… This is what you ought to be and not the sniveling, dumb puppet that that Bimbo Jaekyung has changed you into… Fangirls everywhere are rejoicing and I bet gifs are being made all over the world of this scene even before I can strike another key in my keyboard … JANDI REALLY MAKES YOU HAPPY CAN’T YOU SEE? And despite her nagging and protesting, I bet Jandi knows that you make her really happy too… (fangirl, spazz, spazz…)
On a sidenote: Who else here thinks that Minho’s smile was more special in this episode than in previous episodes? I bet he finds Hyesun really cute in that uniform too… WAHHHHH!!!
So after Jundi turned me into a giggly mess, with their cute bickering worthy of an episode of The Presidential Debate, OTP made me die with Junpyo’s tenderness as he looked on at Jandi while she lied there sleeping… (I swear there must be a course in Shinhwa dedicated to stalking… the boys have all perfected it!)
My heart, oh my rapidly beating heart… OH SHIP I’M GLAD THAT I HAVE NOT FORSAKEN YOU… I STILL HAVE MY TICKET AND I AM GOING ON THE ROUND TRIP… THE OTP IS BACK IN BUSINESS AND WE ARE GOING FOR GOLD! ALL ABOARD! (Junpyo, what are you doing sitting there staring? Cmon take advantage… wahahaha! Give us what we’ve been craving for these past few episodes…)
And how cute is it when Jandi was waking Junpyo up? She totally pawned him… wahahaha! All her angst about him leaving her was channeled in that yellow feather duster… Go Jandi! Whip that boy into shape and while you’re at it why not make him do fifty push ups too? Wehehe!
(Why is it that when Jaekyung pulls Junpyo around on a leash, it always makes me throw up a little in my mouth and yet Jandi does the same and I TOTALLY LOVE IT! Oh, probably because she’s the lead character in the series, which is what you should also remember Miss Scriptwriter…
So remember, our lesson for today is: Jandi is the lead NOT Jaekyung… Junpyo is the male lead NOT Jihoo! REPEAT AFTER ME… Good… if you’d just kindly remember that because we’d totally have a quiz right after…)
Speaking of the monkey girl (Sheesh! I should have gone through a ritual for warding away bad vibes when I mentioned her… She should come with alarm bells too so that I could totally fast forward when she’s coming…), this girl seriously needs a lesson in sense… She just never knows when to quit it… Junpyo is pretending to be sick just to get away from her and she doesn’t even get it… *sigh*
If I were the scriptwriter of this series, the dialogue in this scene would be like this:
Monkey girl: Jun pyo you’re sick? (in that nasally irritating voice)
Junpyo: TOTALLY… OF YOU!
And then she leaves bawling and goes back to Macau where she belongs and is never heard from again until anthropologists dig up her bones thousands of years from now…
I like that Jandi’s spunk is totally back and that she’s doing something for Jihoo in return… However, I wish that with Grandpa in the picture Jihoo can be happier and stop being broody… Lord knows he totally deserves it… (Please lord bejesus… let Jihoo end up happy… )
Now back to my OTP, Hooray for horror movies and Junpyo being a scaredy cat… (although PD, that hug really leaves so much to be desired… IT WAS LAME! We need kick@ss hugging…but at least you got my OTP back together for this epi so I guess it’s still thanks…)
Just when things are getting better, Monkey girl comes a-knocking… (Junpyo should have just gotten Jandi buff naked then totally make out with her as monkey girl watches… Maybe then she’d finally get the picture… or maybe NOT… Oh, monkey girl, how the hell do I get rid of you? You should have resigned from this show like two episodes ago…)
AND WHAT THE? Are you taking advantage of Junpyo? MONKEY GIRL, you better keep your hands to yourself… lower your hands and take a few steps back from the hottie… That’s Jandi’s you pinkberry! WHAT? And You really kissed him? You have some nerve I say…
OMO! Can I just say that the way Junpyo looks at Jandi absolutely makes me want to cry… his stares are enough to make anybody’s heart melt… GOSH! I FORGIVE YOU JUNPYO… I DOOOOO!!! WAHHH!!! KISS JANDI GODDAMIT… KISS HERRRRRRRRRRR!!! And erase the memory of that monkey leaving that mark on your delectable lips… (on the other hand, Jandi might have rabies so better gargle first…)
And this episode would have ended where Jandi is where she rightfully belongs which is in Junpyo’s arms but Monkey girl just has to arrive and ruin things once again when It was getting good…
So in this episode we learnt that putting blankets on a person sleeping is equivalent to true love… that being a maid is not a bad deal after all and that in the end of it all… IT WILL STILL BE A JUNPYO-JANDI ending… *smiles* till tomorrow’s epi!
Other notes:
1. When will we have the smiley Yijung back? I totally miss him… Woobin seems lonely too without him…
2. I don’t know who’s more in love with Jandi now… Jihoo or his grandfather… but seriously, I feel happy that there is something good that’s happening to Jihoo for a change… I wish he’d be happy with his grandfather… He also seems to forget how hung up he is on Jandi whenever his grandfather is around so it’s all good…
3. That scene where Junpyo stares at Jandi inside the cabinet while she’s sleeping touched me so… I MUST HAVE WATCHED IT TWENTY TIMES OVER! Wahhh…. More of that please!
It’s no secret that Boys Over Flowers is my current series addiction… Since i’ve been doing reviews of the series since episode 1… i thought it best to post all my recaps from Episodes 1-19 here in my blog… To those who will just start out with this drama or who have not seen it yet… A DEFINITE MUST WATCH… Happy reading!
EPISODE 1- PILOT (05 Jan 2009)
AND I MADE IT OUT ALIVE!
I was almost about to flatline in a couple of scenes because of too much fangirling but Thank God my willpower to savor more of the boys hotness revived me… (And by boys i mean Minho and Hyun Joong!)
Can i just say that I LOVEDDDDDDDD EVERY MINUTE of the first episode? The critics and haters can say whatever they want to say for all i care… but sheesh! I’m not watching Boys Over Flower to increase my brain power nor to stretch my grey matter (I can just watch National Geographic or Discovery Channel if that’s what i wanted)… I am watching this show to be entertained… and on that aspect, Kkotboda Namja really delivered… even more than what i expected…
Goo Hye Sun agreeably was a welcome surprise… Her mannerisms and characterization of Geum Jandi might be a tad overacting at times but it’s not the kind that would annoy you… The more i watched her, the more accustomed i grew to her portrayal of a loud, brash, proud commoner who would stand up for her rights if she felt that it was being stepped upon… she made me chuckle out loud in a couple of scenes because of her lip curls, wide eyes and over the top expression … and somehow touched my heart also with her tearful helplessness when she became the victim of the dreaded red card…
As for Hyun Joong, I think he is receiving the short end of the stick at present, because of comparisons with Oguri Shun who played the role of Rui in the Japanese version to perfection… but given the context of it being his first big acting role and looking at Ji Hoo from a mindset that the character was not previously done … i think Boylet did pretty well for this initial episode… I felt his sensitivity, the quiet sadness that hides behind his eyes and his mischievous side at times also while watching this episode and it is a mean feat to do that… I think Joongie’s role is the hardest to act out because Rui’s role does not really call for a lot of dialogue and he really mostly conveys his feelings via facial expressions and body language so KUDOS JOONGIE! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK… FIGHTING!
I was waiting for a breakthrough for Joongie the moment that i started watching and it came in the form of this scene between him and Jandi…
Contrary to others, The chemistry for me was evident… not really that blatant yet but i know once it’s played out, it’s going to be there… (Or was it just his chemistry with me? wahahaha! I literally gasped for air when i saw him smile!)
And Minho? OH HOW TO DESCRIBE MINHO? I think the song “I KNEW I LOVED YOU BEFORE I MET YOU’ was made as my ode to him… but i can now say I LOVE HIM EVEN MORE now that i’ve seen him in action… Jerry Yan would of course be always Dao Ming Sz in our hearts but Lee Minho made Goo Jun Pyo all his own… That swagger, that voice, that ooomph whenever he stares people down… I would cower if i were in his path…
But despite the POWER aura written all over JP, Minho makes his cute and boyish side appear too during the scenes where he expresses surprise at the way Jandi treats him and whenever he goofs around with the rest of F4… he is a jerk, a brat, an immatured, spoilt, filthy rich b@stard… but OH MY GOD (channeling Ginger here!) HOW HE MADE ME LOVE BAD BOYS EVEN MORE!
So to Minho… *donnapie sings*
I knew i loved you before i met you
I think i dreamed you into life
I knew i loved you before i met you
I have been waiting all my life…
Not really much of an opinion yet on the other two boys (Kim Bum and Kim Joon) but i can now see why a lot of the girls are gaga over Kim Bum… he’s super cute especially when he smiles (although he has too much of a good boy vibe going on for me to really LIKE him) and Kim Joon… i agree his ** mama! dialogues just ruin some scenes for me but i think he’s channeling VANNESS in all his AmBoy glory…( however… Vanness is really an AmBoy so the way he comes across is comical more than being farcical wehehehe!)
Other things that i loved in the show:
- I love the way the character introduction was done… It was direct to the point and made in a believable manner without the need to go too much into explanation and details why they have reached the status that they have right now (INTERNET/NEWS)…
- The explanation why Jandi is studying in the FAB Shinhwa school when she was a commoner through and through (I’ve always wondered about that in the Japanese and Taiwanese version)
- The sheer OPULENCE of the environment that F4 lives in… i’m enjoying the whole kitsch factor of imagining a school with a gourmet cafeteria, students going to school in golf carts and on horseback (and on a helicopter) and the overly accessorized, straight out of a manga hairstyles and uniforms on the girls… This F4 makes the Taiwanese and Japanese version look like middle class people.
- I love the Mean Girls! Most of my funny Jandi moments are whenever she’s interacting with them… Ginger’s Oh My God and the crazy antics of Sunny and Miranda might be too much for comfort sometimes but it is also an indirect jab or a spoof to me of how some people thinks so high and mightily of themselves that they all just come across as being funny instead of “upper class”
- The good looking people… If one can transform even Kim Sam Soon’s former hoodlum looking co-worker in My Name is Kim Sam Soon to a decent looking restaurant owner… then something has to be said about how good looking the people in this show are…
Yes, the show is not perfect and i doubt if it will win a Daesang or be hailed in critics circle anytime in this lifetime… but i loved every single fluffy, highschool drama, cottoncandy, over the top moment of it…
I don’t need metaphors, i don’t need deep storylines… i don’t even need dialogues! hahaha! Just the pure, sheer bliss of basking in a familiar storyline and seeing things that are known to me in a whole new light and perspective… To say that i’m looking forward to succeeding episodes is nothing short of an understatement…
EPISODE 2 (06 Jan 2009)
GEUM JANDI… I AM STARTING TO LOVE THIS GIRL!
She made me laugh so many times on episode 2 and that all camouflaging herself behind the bushes while running away from Joon Pyo’s henchmen was CLASSIC! 
And can i just say that i almost jumped off my seat to cheer her on when she gave that much deserved flying kick to Junpyo…ALL HAIL GIRL POWER!
I love Minho’s dumbstruck expression at that instance… he’s so cute when he’s acting like a fool! AND I ABSOLUTELY, ABSOLUTELY ADORE how he can switch between arrogant to extremely childish whenever things don’t play out the way he expects it to… wehehehe! 
And yes, bias aside… Joongie has more shining moments in episode 2… My heart really moved for him at this moment…
I can really feel his longing for HCY’s character in this scene and and there’s just something about his expression here that made me just want to cradle him close to me and comfort him and say “I’m here… everything’s alright…” wehehehe!
I’m looking forward to episode 3 to see boylet angry and SHOUTING! OMO! Shining moment ahead!
After watching 2 episodes, i now have a small gripe with the show… Joongie does not really seem to be a part of the F4 at times whenever they’re shown hanging out together… He’s always far removed from the 3 and always busy with something else by himself… therefore limiting his screen time … 
But oh well, i guess that’s how Rui’s personality was really moulded to be… A lot of people are saying that Joongie’s acting can still improve because he does not show much expression in his eyes… but i think he’s playing the part of a poker faced, fairly reserved, aloof character just right… It could improve yes… but so far, i’m satisfied… (Or is that me playing favorites again?)
Han Chae Young could not be more well casted as Min Suh Hyeon and Hyun Joong’s first love… SHE IS GORGEOUS!
EPISODE 3 (12 Jan 2009)
Can i just say that with every Jealous/angry scene that Jun Pyo has the more i fall in love with him?
Gosh! I literally almost had tears in my eyes because of how he looked when Ji Hoo and Jandi took to the dance floor… and that walk out scene by the swimming pool? The mixed emotions on his face, the frustration… Gosh! I just want to be there for him and tell him… there are plenty of fishes in the sea… we’re here! Wahahaha!
And don’t get me started on his cute, dense moments… HE IS TO DIE FOR! (and while i’m on it let me say that the creativity that he put into his pranks vs Jandi in this episode made me appreciate his witty side too…) I also love the facial expressions that Jandi and him make when they faced off at the party… so childish but so adorable! And here it goes i’m slowly getting onboard the JunDi ship… the bar scene made me all giddy.. but there are still moments that my heart just moves for JiHoo and Jandi…
As for Ji Hoo, i love how he showed some emotion in this episode… you can call me shallow if you’d want to, but there’s no denying i’m affected! wahahaha! If i were in Jandi’s shoes, i will also tend to him the way that she did… I love that scene by the bench again… (i wonder what these benches have that i really love it whenever they shoot their scenes in one?)
and no matter what happens… HYUN JOONG has got to be the prettiest man i’ve ever seen in my entire lifetime… SUPER! I love those tight, close up shots of him!
He reminded me so much of SDY on Spring Waltz in this episode when he was playing violin in the snow … They both have the reserved, calm facial expression and yet there is sadness all around them… Goes to show that HJ was able to convey the emotion needed for that part since he was not saying anything and yet you can just feel how he felt at that moment…
word of warning… skip 15 seconds from the 4 minute mark if you absolutely hated Minho going sissy on bugs… i guess the director is having too much of a good time turning him into a bug hating tough guy…(although i think this premise was built in so that they’d have a justifiable reason to bring in the following scene after that.. and oh how i love that next scene… )
I just hated the take on the rape scene… it was too short… too conservative and Minho’s too tall thats why his lips barely touched Hye Sun’s wahaha! I missed DMS’s fire and passion…
But overall, this version just gets better and better… the magic of Hana Yori Dango is really all consuming… I AM ADDICTED!
PHOTOSHOP ME HERE… wahahaha!
EPISODE 4 (13 Jan 2009)
Just watched Episode 4 and my heart goes out to both Jun Pyo and Jandi in this episode… I was giddy and laughing like crazy one moment and the next my heart is aching for both of them…
Minho is such a GOOD actor! My gosh! You can almost feel his pain in this episode when he was so happy and cute and excited sucking on that lolly in his uniform and newly straightened hair then his world crashes down on him over Jandi’s “supposed” betrayal… I could almost believe that he was in love with Hye Sun for real…
Sigh! To be loved the way that Makino was loved by Doumyoji or in this case, Jun Pyo to Jandi… i will never ask for anything more…
As for Ji Hoo, he has his moments in this episode too… i appreciated the scene where he confronted Jandi and that airport scene where he gave her that peck on the forehead was pretty tender too…
Hyun Joong is indeed improving little by little in each episode… (and can i say he’d never looked more manly than while he was full of angst and speeding on that bike… i would give my left arm to just be riding shotgun behind him holding on tightly to his waist… wahahaha!)
I just noticed how this version is indeed super fast… not that i’m griping or anything but i just hope that they could have focused on some key moments longer… like the confrontation between Jun Pyo and Jandi in yesterday’s episode when he learned about her meeting Ji Hoo secretly and then their first date today… I wanna bask in that happy glow that these scenes bring but the transition is sooo fast that i have just started spazzing and yet the next moment it’s over…
Anyways, i felt that the episode left me hanging today… i don’t think i can wait another six days for what would happen next (although we all very well know what would…)
Sharing caps from Episode 4
Double S lovers, they made their guest appearance today on HYD too… so another good thing to look forward to…
EPISODE 5 (19 Jan 2009)
OH MY EFFIN GAWD! (Channeling Ginger here)
What was supposed to be a one hour episode of Kkotboda Namja turned out to be 2 hours for me, since i kept on replaying and replaying some scenes from this episode…
It just gets BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER…
I’ve been a big fan of the Taiwanese Meteor Garden and i’d forever be thankful to it for opening my doors to the world of Asian Dramas… but even if this version did some revisions from the TW one and there were a few deviations from the manga… I’m LOVING EACH AND EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF IT!
Jun Pyo playing that video game and Jandi covering the screen, Jun Pyo hitting the fire alarm of the mall so they can shop alone, Jun Pyo throwing the coin to get Jandi’s attention… These scenes are not really a major part of the series and yet the impact on me was quite huge… I LOVEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDD IT!
Everything seems brand new to my eyes and my senses even if i’ve watched both the Taiwanese and Japanese versions countless of times…
In this episode i cried, i laughed, i giggled like a schoolgirl, i sighed and i spazzed non-stop over JunPyo… HOW PERFECT IS THIS GUY? JUNPYO HOW I LOVE YOU! 
I love the backdrop of all the locations that this episode was shot in… I can never get enough of the grandeur and opulence and luxury of the life that F4 lives… Everything just reeks of MONEY…
This series really caters to every woman’s fantasy… THAT TO BE LOVED WITHOUT PRIDE, WITHOUT MEASURE and UNABANDONLY by a Tall, super handsome, filthy rich guy who will give up everything just to be with the woman he loves… and it is working… I am officially IN LOVE WITH JUN PYO (and MINHO too!)
I can understand Jandi’s fascination with Ji Hoo though… in her heart, he is her savior… the person who sheltered her at a time when she needed it most… and i think, i will just be a teeny weeny bit disappointed if she immediately switches her attention to Jun Pyo just because he’s being kind to her…
However, as she gets to know Jun Pyo better, i can also see her initial perceptions about him changing… her feelings wavering as she begins to weigh if what she felt for Ji Hoo was love or if she’s feeling something more for Jun Pyo…
I think this version will present an even greater dillema than that of the previous versions when it comes to that love triangle since it seems like Ji Hoo had admitted to Jandi from previews that he is beginning to like her too… (Isn’t it so that in the TW version Lei said that “he wishes he can like San Cai instead” when they kissed which means that he’s still hung up on Chin and just seeking comfort from San Cai but in the Kversion Ji Hoo is already asking himself out loud, how he had begun to like a girl like Jandi which is almost an admission…)
Lei/Rui in the previous versions was more of a friend… somebody who kept his feelings for San Cai/Makino locked inside himself but with the complete and utter understanding that it is Dao/Doumyoji who really owns her… I wonder if they’d make this version any different…
As for the real actors, Kudos to Hyun Joong since he is slowly improving… I can see him growing more comfortable in his role and more relaxed now that he’s not so dark and broody… I am looking forward to future episodes wherein he’d get the chance to let his character shine…
As for Minho… BRILLIANT ACTOR! I love his facial nuances, his gestures, his walk, his swagger, his arrogance and his soft side… the tenderness that he has on his face whenever he looks at Jandi makes me believe that he is really soooo much in love with Hye Sun… He is really JUN PYO come to life… I thought the same thing when it was Jerry Yan but he brought something else into the role that was also different from those who had previously done it…
He is sooooo believable as the heir of a worldwide conglomerate that i feel a sense of awe whenever he’s onscreen… like i would like to genuflect or bow from my waist when i see him… hahaha!
Anyways, sorry for the long post but i think I have already found my most loved series for 2009…i know it’s too soon to tell but one thing’s for sure… I AM AT THE EDGE OF MY SEAT WAITING FOR EPISODE 6 tomorrow…
Sharing caps for EPISODE 5 although in LQ
I am also starting to like the Yi Jung - Ga Eul pairing… Unlike other series where my interest for secondary pairings are just that… SECONDARY… I have the same amount of interest over the development of this relationship just as much as i have with the Jun Pyo - Jandi - Ji Hoo love triangle…
Also, I was not really a Kim Bum fan when i first watched the series (i thought he looked too much of a nice boy…) but i am starting to see why a lot of girls fall for him… HE IS GOOD LOOKING and his smile is KILLER!
EPISODE 6 (20 Jan 2009)
I was able to watch Kkotboda Namja’s episode 6 last night and i have to agree with other people’s comment about how Jun Pyo in this version is sooo touchy feely with other girls even if Jandi is around…
I noticed that not just during the volleyball scene but also in the scene where they were dancing after the fireworks display…
However, despite that slight deviation and observation, i am still enjoying every single minute and every single scene of this series…
Maybe it’s the sentimentalist in me that just finds the story of Hana Yori Dango irresistible no matter what… Even if there are tons of versions already that came out or may still come out, I have no doubt that i’d still get to enjoy each and every one of them for it’s entirety… More than the actors and the production values, i guess it’s really the storyline that gives me the giddy high school feeling that i get whenever i watch it… IT JUST NEVER GETS OLD…
(but maybe i’m speaking way too ahead of myself since i am now cringing at the thought of a Filipino version… hahaha! LOL)
Despite it’s imperfections and flaws, i still give the Korean version a two thumbs up… Hye Sun might be old looking but she’s a fairly good actress… I’ve watched some of her work on Pure 19 and probably that’s where i get a point of comparison as to how differently she portrayed herself as a High School girl compared to a 19 year old woman who got married at an early age…
Of course, there’s no denying that the attraction of this version lies mostly on the eye candy but aside from good looks… Lee Minho can really, really act! My heart aches for him every time he looks at Ji Hoo and Jandi together… That scene where he went kayaking just to compete with Ji Hoo (albeit unknowingly) was full of repressed competitiveness and frustration that it is somehow funny but also heart tugging…
I love how he’s sooooo forcefully quiet when he found Ji Hoo and Jandi kissing that even i was shaking in my boots… You can feel him holding on to his violent tendencies because it is his best friend and the girl he loves in front of him but heaven forbid if it were any lesser mortal…
Another noteworthy thing to mention are the side glances and the hidden smiles that he throws Jandi whenever he does something for her… as if he’s a kid hungry for her approval that even a simple nod from her would really, really make his day… He had nailed down the expression of hope and pride too whenever he does that…
Again, Hyun Joong’s acting for this episode greatly improved… I can sympathize with him, feel my heart going out to him… Not bad for a newbie…I’ve been a staunch believer of Hyun Joong since day one and even more so now… aside from that of course, he’s NEVER BEEN MORE GOOD LOOKING than on episode 6… (gosh! Those scenes by the stairwell and when he walked up to Jandi at the cafeteria literally made my heart stop… How can someone so feminine looking be that manly? BE STILL MY HEART!)
Kim Bum also showed some of his acting chops during the part where he was talking to Ji Hoo about betraying Jun Pyo and their friendship… he might always be the smiley, happy go lucky guy but this is the scene where he shows where that hidden arrogance as a rich heir has been hiding all this time… The contrast between the Yi Jung that is laidback and the transformation to a firm protector for Jun Pyo in this episode was absolutely amazing…
Looking forward to succeeding episodes and more break out scenes after this episode… Monday can’t come soon enough! *sigh*
EPISODE 7 (26 Jan 2009)
OMO! I just finished watching episode 7 of Kkotboda Namja and it was a heck of an episode…
Call me biased or maybe i’m really bitten by the BOF bug big time but it was one testosterone pumped, adrenaline rushing, hormone inducing episode…
What can be hotter than the boys doing horseback riding and car racing? BE STILL MY HEART! I thought i’d gone to jock heaven! (i never thought i’d say this in my entire life but this is the only time i wish that i was born as a horse… hahaha! The sight of Minho and Hyun Joong riding that horse was just ohhhh soooo sexy, i think i’d dream of it tonight… wahahaha!)
But seriously, this could have been the most boring episode ever and i’d still love every single minute of it… MINHO and HYUN JOONG are absolutely DIVINEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
I think Kim Hyun Joo played the part of Goo Jun Pyo’s sister pretty well and she is believable as a down to earth socialite… I am just a little concerned and at the edge of my seat, since in this episode, JiHoo and Jandi appeared to be getting closer and on the verge of developing a real relationship and i wonder where the director or scriptwriter is taking that storyline…
One must remember that in MG, San Cai did get closer to Lei during these parts but her thoughts are still with Dao Ming Sz and i don’t think there’s much of that shown for this version… (although who knows? maybe i need subs since i don’t understand Korean…)
Anyways, sharing caps of Minho for this episode in all his absolute cuteness…
One of my most favorite scene for today’s episode:
AND THIS? THIS ALMOST KILLED ME… THAT BROWN LEATHER JACKET IS MAGIC… WIZARDRY… WITCHCRAFT… I’VE NEVER FOUND HYUN JOONG HOTTER…
*stares, swoons and flatlines…*
DEFIIIBBBBbbbbb…. hehehehe!
EPISODE 8 (27 Jan 2009)
Ok… ok… call me overacting but i just watched Episode 8 of Kkotboda Namja and i found this episode extremely touching as much as it was funny…
Anybody else who got choked up when Jandi and Jihoo went on that date and all she can remember was JunPyo? *me raises hand*
There were a lot of things that were changed from this episode that was not in the previous version or were omitted from the previous versions and i don’t have much to say about it… I have remained unbiased and neutral in terms of comparison to other versions that i watched while watching this series and i found out that it is perhaps the reason why i am enjoying the show as much and looking at it with an altogether different outlook and a new perspective… so since it works… i ain’t fixin’ what ain’t broken…
On this episode, The Stalker Jun Pyo touched my heart… like a fool who adds salt to his already gaping wound, he tortures himself with images of Jandi and Jihoo together on their date… Can’t say i blame the guy, coz if i were in his shoes and i have resources like his at my disposal, i’d be dying of curiosity too and would want to know what i’m up against so i’d also scope out the competition… hehehe!
As much as i’m happy that finally JunPyo and Jandi have come to realize the extent of their feelings after playing the push and pull game… My heart breaks for JiHoo tremendously… having to go through the pain of a love that remained unreciprocated with Suh Hyeon and then meeting Jandi who gave him a teeny weeny ray of hope that perhaps, it is probable for him to fall in love again and like someone the same way that he did with his first love and that person like him back… Fate would not even let him have a break…it is a case of history repeating itself… except this time, he has the added burden of seeing the girl he had grown to like play sweet music with his best friend and act as confidant whenever they have their love problems… (TORTURE ANYONE?)
*Sigh* I’ve seen all three versions and i know the outcome of JiHoo’s love angle but i just wish he’d get a break… NO WONDER THE POOR GUY IS ALWAYS DEPRESSED! HE NEEDS A GIRL! *coughs… ME…coughs* Wahahaha!
Again, the hockey game almost had me breathless… this show is really capitalizing on my obsession about sweaty, hot guys in uniform playing physical, bodybreaking sports… I can forgive any flaw that the scriptwriter and the PD had done just keep these scenes coming… hahaha!
The second half of the show had me in stitches over JunPyo and Jandi’s budding relationship… that date at the golf course had me LOLing and the sashimi dinner was too funny for me (since Jandi is just too country bumpkin i swear!) so at the end of it all i was like a crazy lunatic crying my eyes out then laughing wholeheartedly… hahaha!
Caps from today’s episode:
So the pen went in handy during that cable car date… and Junpyo wrote…
Junpyo (heart) Jandi… First night together…
AWWWW!!! Nothing like good ole vandalism to bring you that lovin feeling… hehehe!
So guys… i therefore conclude… it is not the brown Jacket yesterday… coz he was wearing white today and this checkered shirt and it still gave me that swooning feeling…IT MUST BE HYUN JOONG… hehehe!
I’ve seen him like this countless of times, but please oh please… can you make Minho be jealous more and more? He’s just soooo hot when he’s bitten by the green eyed monster…
I swear this kid makes me want to go up to Minho and ask him to be the father of my child… wahahaha! (me and 5 Million others!)
Another week of waiting… *sigh*
EPISODE 9 (02 February 2009)
OTTOKE! WHAT TO DO?
I just finished rewatching Boys Before Flowers episode for tonight and i am seriously going nuts, crazy, loonie, dead on addicted to this series…
It started out as mere curiosity but it had gradually ingrained itself deep into my heart and now… NOW…I AM FRIGGIN’ IN LOVE WITH IT…
To anybody else out there who might ask where Romance is hiding… IT IS IN KKOTBODA NAMJA…Satiate yourself they have plenty…
This episode started out with Junpyo waking up in Jandi’s family home… Obviously, he woke up irritated and nonplussed…unused to the unfamiliar sorroundings… but by the end of this scene… we can see him having the grandest ole time of his life…
Like a kid who had been deprived of candy all his life and who was finally asked to gorge himself inside a sweets shop… he was curious and overwhelmed by the deep sense of family that the Geums have and which he never experienced… (which does not come as a shock anymore having been raised or rather virtually raised by a beeyatch of a mother…) At the end of it all, i am rather curious as to whom he is more in love with… Geum Jandi or the comic tandem of her father and brother…
But what’s romance without conflict? We see the beginnings of a storm brewing with Junpyo’s mom raising hell over the fact that he’s nowehere to be found and the lovebirds had their first commoner date which was a double with GaEul and her jerk of a boyfriend… (that’s what you get when you go with someone who just walks up to you on the street, taps you on the shoulder and ask you to see a movie…) Which of course, we very well know ended in disaster from previous versions…
But that’s where the familiarity end… We wondered at the beginning where Jandi and Junpyo’s chemistry was and i am now telling you… THEY SAVED IT FOR THIS EPISODE… the screen was pretty much crackling with the electricity and heat that this pairing generated that even the simple act of Jandi feeding Kimchi to Junpyo and Junpyo tugging on the sleeves of her sweats to bring her hands closer to her mouth had me grinning like crazy… What more the hand holding? The arm grabbing? The sweet words that they exchanged (although embarassingly)… I was giggling like a schoolgirl in all of those moments…
But more than that… it was the kiss of course that brought me to spazz heaven… It was not the kiss itself which i went crazy over but the tenderness in Minho’s face before that act… the kiss was a lip press (again) but my gosh! LEE MINHO! What an actor! I could drown in his stares and melt on his lips… I seriously had tears in my eyes the moment that he stooped down in front of her because i can feel how sincerely he loves Jandi… How deep and wide the extent of his heart is for her and it just moves me… Seeing this proud person brought down to his knees by a mere scrap of a girl whom he would just like to give his whole life to…
i just kept on thinking to myself that “GEUM JANDI… YOU MUST START SINGING PRAISES AND WALK ON THE AISLE OF EVERY POSSIBLE CHURCH YOU SEE KNEELING TO THANK THE GOOD HEAVENS FOR THIS GEM OF A PERSON WHO LOVES YOU BAR NONE…”
Other things that i absolutely adored from this episode:
1. The iceskating scene
2. Junpyo pretending not to know who Jandi is when she called even if he got excited just reading her name on his phone
3. Junpyo again pretending to just appear on the date coincidentally when it was his intention to really go
4. Jandi’s leap kick to GaEul’s jerky ex… (i seriously laughed at her thuglike approach)
5. Jandi apologizing to Junpyo and Junpyo wanting her to call him oppa
6. Jihoo taking a bite out of Jandi’s apple of apology much to Junpyo’s ire (Boylet was seriously soooooooo cute in this scene)
As much as i loved this episode of course there is a dull ache that stirs within my heart whenever i see JiHoo… His sacrifice may be noble but oh my gosh! i can just imagine the pain he’s going through having to see Junpyo and Jandi happy… he is happy to see them happy but i’m sure it must still hurt… i don’t think i have the guts to be as self sacrificing as this guy… (and why oh why do they have to play that oh so lonely piano music whenever he’s on… are they tearing my heart to shreds?)
Please somebody get this guy a girl at the end of the show ASAP… If there’s none… THERE’S ME… wahahaha!
I am also now starting to appreciate the YiJeong-GaEul scenes and Kim Bum can really turn whatever vehicle he goes on to an acting piece… Again, the sax playing to me was a little corny but let’s give it to them since they want to portray Yijeong as “savvy”…
I just find it a little funny that GaEul’s makeover was wayyyyyyyy better than that of Jandi’s and i’m wishing they could have given her the same kind of effort…
Overall, this episode would again make me dream of Junpyo in my sleep and perhaps be able to give comfort to Jihoo even just in my dreams…
Goodnight everyone! Till episode 10 tomorrow…
Somebody’s been working out… OH YEAH! A far cry from the lean frame that we saw on episode 6 during the Caledonia trip… LOOK AT EM ABS!
EPISODE 10 (03 Feb 2009)
So… disappointing kiss aside… the episode today was still something worth watching… it may not have been as great as the episode yesterday but to me, it is a turning point for Junpyo and Jandi’s relationship since the evil witch of a mom is now bent on making the life of Jandi and those close to her a living hell…
(I seriously had difficulty breathing in that scene where Jandi had this harebrained idea of having Jun Pyo join a mall contest for a cellphone in one of THEIR establishments and his mom arrived… I had to pause and take a deep breath coz i felt as if my heart was about to leap out of my chest and i’ve never been as scared watching any horror flick in the past… Seriously, the actress who plays Jun Pyo’s mom makes a great villainess from the likes of Ursula from the Little Mermaid and Cruella DuVille from 101 Dalmatians… wahahaha!
If Lee Minho’s stares towards Jandi in that kiss scene yesterday would make her melt… i was just waiting for Jandi to turn to stone today from that icy, cold glare that his mom directed towards her…)
The cookie scene had always been one of my favorite scenes in any version of this drama and this one, though not as sweet as the Taiwanese one was still able to stir my heart… The painstaking care that Jandi put into the thought of making those cookies and the elaborate design that she placed on those facial expressions was somehow a slight glimpse and a brief revelation to me, of how deeply JunPyo has now wormed his way into her heart… Junpyo as always did not disappoint with his excited way of receiving that gift from Jandi as if she had just given him a brand new car… perhaps we could all really learn from Junpyo that it is indeed the thought that counts rather than the value of the thought… (On the other hand… that’s easy to do and to say if you have EVERYTHING already just like Junpyo…wahahaha!)
And Jihoo, Jihoo, Jihoo… is this guy born with the right sense of timing or did he seriously plant a GPS on Jandi that he can be there whenever and wherever she’s in need? How i wish i had a friend like him… I’ve always been a Dao-San Cai/Makino-Doumyouji shipper but seeing how they’ve made Jihoo out to be such an all around nice guy in this series… i really would not mind if Jandi ends up with him in the end… (well, maybe i’m exaggerating because i’d definitely mind but what i meant was that either of Junpyo and Jihoo would make for such a great boyfriend given how dedicated they are to the woman they love…)
On this note, this is another area where Junpyo earns my admiration because even if Jihoo and Jandi sort of had a thing in the past (which caused him so much heartache)… he still has no issues about letting them hang out together… If i were in his shoes, i will tie Jandi up at home and declare Jihoo as a stay 500 meters away territory… hehehe!
But in fairness to Jihoo, he really does not take advantage of the situation and is very helpful in resolving the problems between the couple… I guess it is best for Jandi to confide in Jihoo too among others since he knows Junpyo very well knowing the close friendship that they’ve had for years…
As for Yijung and Gaeul… my heart broke into little pieces for Gaeul because of the terrible let down that she has experienced in this episode… just when her perception of Yijung has changed and she thought that there could be something more between them, Yijung gave her a big let down and just when Gaeul is most vulnerable… again… another lesson to be learned from this episode which is to never take things at face value and never assume! If in doubt… ASK!
But kidding aside, i sincerely hope that there’d be a happy ending to their story… i’ve always loved this angle from both versions and i feel so shortchanged about how it ended… maybe this version will give us that much needed closure…
I would not rave that much about Junpyo anymore since i always do that no matter what the circumstances are… but for me, a man who can stand up to his snobbish, elitist, snooty, beeyatch of a mother to fight for the woman he loves is a man worth loving indeed…
So yes… the actual kiss might have been a bit of a downer…
but there is more than enough that helped me get through this episode… just like the way that Minho took charge and weaved his way towards Jandi to plant that smackeroo in front of his mom and that crowd? for someone like Junpyo to profess his love like that? to prove that action does speak louder than words?
THAT ACT TO ME, IS MORE SPINE TINGLING, MORE MIND NUMBING, MORE EARTH SHAKING, MORE OVERWHELMING THAN ANY OTHER PASSIONATE KISS… (yes, i’m grasping at straws here and trying to cure myself from disappointment so just help me out please… wahahaha!)
And if all else fails… i would still tune in if only to see Hyun Joong with those dark rimmed glasses on, that ponytail, sky blue button down polo, dark rinse jeans and white sneakers that made me seriously… say ONE MORE TIME and i’d take this BOY OVER FLOWERS anyday…
PS: I just have to say that Hyun Joong made me laugh so much in the NG… especially when he talked to the horse and said “really? you want to die?” when it was not cooperating… wahahaha! That’s so him! He’s really more Junpyo in real life than Jihoo…
Minho and Kim Bum were such cuties… ADORKABLE! I wish there’s more…
Episode 11 (09 Feb 2009)
BOF Monday is over and as we ponder over the episode that was shown yesterday, i know that we’re already twiddling our thumbs in anticipation for the final episode for this week later…
However, since we’re still on the topic of Episode 11, allow me to give my rants and raves for yesterdays episode as i have just been able to fully comprehend what was happening since i just saw it today with subtitles…
Like most of you, I’m quite confused with Jandi’s attitude towards Jun Pyo in this episode too… I have forgiven her time and again for being indecisive about Jihoo and Junpyo in the past since Kdramas are normally big on blowing love triangles out of proportion… Somehow, if a heroine gets confused between two men who are vying for her attention, boy do they really get confused and do they really tend to give mixed signals!
But seriously… this time… what was the scriptwriter thinking? I know that Jandi might have been pressured from all the problems that are now resting on her shoulders from what’s happening with her family but SERIOUSLY… if i have a guy like Jun Pyo and a best friend like Ji Hoo, i would have leaned on these people instead of a stranger whom she’s only gotten to know from God Knows Where…
I’m kind of thinking that this might be the effect of the show being rushed and being pushed from shoot to show… there is not much room to see how the relationships are built between characters (In MG, we can understand San Cai for siding with the guy she befriends since it was shown that they’ve become workmates first and that the guy was really able to gain her trust over a period of time before she became really close with him unlike in this version…)
Also just when we’re beginning to see progress in JunPyo and Jandi’s relationship, that angle was again relegated to the backburner since the story has to tackle another storyline or plotline from the manga hence difficulties once again arises between the couple just when they are beginning to resolve something… It’s as if everything that’s supposed to happen over a couple of episodes is being squeezed into one episode hence we see a weak Jandi instead of someone who is slowly coming to a realization of what Junpyo really means to her…
Actually, I was thinking that in this episode, the intention of the scriptwriter for that scene where Jandi told Junpyo that she’s tired is not really to show that she’s suffocated with the relationship but rather to show how they obviously still have very big TRUST issues with each other… Jandi that Jun Pyo can support her in her quest to resolve things by herself and Jun Pyo that Jandi would not really leave him because of her problems which obviously stem from him…
But WTH? how would we know? There was really no explanation given… just those dialogues which you can take at face value without really getting an idea why they say and do those things when obviously they are already together… I guess this is the time when voiceovers really come in handy…
But all is not lost… i also think that the scriptwriter made Jandi react that way so that we can feel the impact of her realization of how much Junpyo now means to her when she was conversing with Jaeha (So at least i was celebrating over that, that finally! It came from her mouth that Junpyo means something to her now…) and at least now in this episode we now see the F4 bond that had been missing for quite a time and it really made me envious to see how close these friends are… that if one is in trouble, the others would drop everything just to come to the rescue…
Again… Jihoo took my breath away for this episode… such a noble friend! That scene where he told Jandi that he backed off because of Junpyo… i don’t know if it was a confession to her about his real feelings too but i almost got up from my seat to applaud him on how much he’s looking out for Junpyo…
All in all, we know that today is gonna be another lovey-dovey day between Junpyo and Jandi, so let’s see where the PD and the scriptwriter of this series will take us… we still have 12 more episodes left to go and hopefully, there is a purpose and a reason why they made the characters as such… I guess we’d only get to know in the succeeding episodes since they said they’re really doing their own take for the second half of this series so i’m looking forward to that…
Rants aside, i’m still enjoying the show to the fullest although as early as now… i can say that Episode 11 falls into the category of one of my least favorite episodes for the series…
EPISODE 12 - END SEASON 1 (10 Feb 2009)
Okay… now that i’ve finally gotten a hold of my senses and i was able to watch the previous parts that i missed from today’s episode, allow me to give my first impressions about Episode 12 of Boys Before Flowers… the unsubbed version… (hehehe!)
Call it brilliant marketing ploy or what i personally call “whet your appetite” advertising but seriously, i think the production of Boys Before Flowers should win some sort of medal for the psychological warfare that they are bombarding loyal fans of the show with…
I absolutely credit the think tanks of this show because of the push and pull strategy that they have employed in creating this series and i think that’s precisely the reason why ratings are soaring… People are tuning in because they really want to know what would happen even if some of us already know the story like the back of our hands…
Just when you’re about to give up and you start to question the strength of characters and the believability of the storyline for some parts of this series, the PD comes up with another episode which is just chockfull of the very things that you were griping about on the previous episode and voila! You’re hooked once again… (I’m speaking from my own personal experience)
The start of this episode alone already activated my waterworks The scene where Junpyo was beaten up by Jaeha’s gang was well played by both Goo Hyesun and Lee Minho that you can’t really help but feel for them at that exact moment… Jandi’s love for Junpyo had never been more evident than in that scene when she’s looking on helplessly while Junpyo gets beaten to a pulp… it was all quiet tears and silent pleadings from Jandi that you felt that really, she does not need to shout just for the audience to feel the silent torment that she might be feeling at that exact moment… and when she threw herself in front of that chair to take the hit for Junpyo? The moment that happened… all my trust issues regarding Jandi’s character flew out the window… I mean it was expected since it is the way it is in the manga and in previous predecessors but actually seeing her do it? The effect was absolutely overwhelming… like I just want to straight out jump out of my seat and say… finally! THAT’S HOW YOU SHOW YOUR LOVE, WOMAN!
I also felt the importance of every single scene of this episode… there was not a scene that was included just for comic relief or to add on to an already overburdened storyline… The scene where the two mothers faced off was absolutely needed in order for the next scene when Jandi returned the money be played with much more conviction… I’ve never stopped raving about how well casted JunPyo’s mom is for this series and it is proven again in this episode… She exudes quiet elegance and graceful calm but underneath that cool exterior lies the soul of a calculating, shrewd businesswoman who would sacrifice everything for the sake of their family name… It is a welcome change also to see Jandi’s dad in all seriousness and we are given somewhat a glimpse into the father-daughter dynamics that Jandi and him share… and somehow it makes the viewer empathize more towards the flaws that Jandi’s family have… they may be poor but always, even if they appear silly or plain money grubbers at times… they always have their child’s best interest at heart and maybe that is just the way they express themselves…
As for Jandi, let me count the ways that she vindicated herself in this episode… She returned the “blood money” that Junpyo’s mom was offering (which would surely solve all of her family’s financial problems in exchange for Junpyo) and she bravely took Kang President on… this is such a bold and brazen move for someone whom people first describe as indecisive or fickle… I’ve never seen her more determined than at that moment… next, she does not shy away from Junpyo’s advances now but rather initiates it… (She asked him to huddle together with her inside the coat… not once but TWICE! I think she even showed some disappointment in that part where Junpyo sneezed instead of giving her a kiss)… Third, she looked for that necklace in that snowstorm, proving that she does not want to do anything more that might hurt Junpyo (not intentionally anyway) and lastly… that lunchbox date and the way she cried over Junpyo’s leaving absolutely broke my heart into a million pieces… IT WAS A LONG TIME COMING BUT BOY! When Jandi finally sees the light, she basks in it! All that waiting for her to express her feelings was absolutely worth it…She loves Junpyo not in a half baked way and not in an unsure kind of way but the kind where it took her awhile to realize and when it hit her… THERE’S NO TURNING BACK… Makes me want to look on at her like one proud momma and say… My, Jandi how you’ve grown from yesterday’s episode… wahahaha! 
And Jihoo? How long will the guy suffer in silence? I’ve never stopped raving about how good of a friend he is to both Jandi and Junpyo to sacrifice personal feelings over those of the people he loved but acting wise… Hyun Joong has really come to terms with this character… He expresses his feelings in a very calm Rui like way (which is very hard to act out, IMHO) and yet he is able to convey the depth of the emotions that he wants to portray at that exact moment… the way that he glared at Ginger when he realized that she’s the one who took the necklace, stopped me in my tracks and made me freeze in terror… You can somehow feel his power seething underneath the calmness of his voice… that he could crush people if he’d only choose to… the anxiety that’s present on his face when Jandi got lost in the snowstorm and the silent battle with himself when Woobin and Yijung was stopping him from leaving and looking for Jandi had me mesmerized… I can see the internal struggle between wanting to be there for the girl he loves and yet he can’t because his friend is the rightful person who should rescue her and not himself… and that ending scene when Jandi was crying on his shoulders after Junpyo left? I don’t know whether my heart breaks more for Jandi or him at that point…
Now, we have that text preview to think about and the possibilities seem endless as to what would really happen from this episode forward… I AM ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT and awaiting for more surprises that this show had to give on it’s last 12 episodes…
SEVEN DAYS SEEM LIKE A LIFETIME TO WAIT…
EPISODE 13- SEASON 2 PILOT (16 Feb 2009)
Just finished watching Episode 13 of BOF today via Live streaming and Word of Warning: TO ALL JUNPYO LOVERS, this is not a good episode… He barely appeared on the screen for five minutes and somehow, i feel as if majority of this episode was full of fillers rather than a solid plotline or storyline that would help in the series’s progression especially now that we’re moving on to the meat of what this story is all about…
After one week of waiting, CAN I JUST SAY MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT…
There were a lot of scenes spent on MTV like moments and a Macau travelogue which could have been put to good use by seeing more of Junpyo and his real feelings and perhaps a hint of an explanation as to why he is behaving such an arse over the girl he almost exchanged his life for… (HELLO JUNPYO? THIS IS JANDI… REMEMBER?)
If there’s anybody who had more than their two minutes of fame for today’s episode it’s none other than Jihoo… seriously, i was waiting for Hyun Joong to grow wings and announce to Jandi that he is an angel sent down to Earth to take care of her and to erase her worries away… The scenes that he spent with Jandi were pretty touching and heartwarming and quite easy to watch too… but somehow you can’t help but wish that the same focus be given to Junpyo since BOF is a Jandi-Junpyo lovestory rather than a Jihoo-Jandi story… Somehow, i was left wanting to see more interactions between the main leads… Jerky attitude or Loving attitude notwithstanding, i don’t care… Just give me more of Junpyo and Jandi screentime…
There were some scenes that i felt myself seeing the BOF spirit and where i find myself tearing up as these scenes shone through…like that scene when JD was talking to the stuffed toy that she’s making and pretending that it was JP… that video message that JH asked JD to send JP and her trying to smile over her tears and that part where she had her last swim while the F3 and Gaeul watches… of course, i also felt as if my heart was literally being gripped by a vise when Junpyo just looked over her when they met… That moment of sadness in JP’s eyes before it was replace by hardness and firm resolve? Gosh, it made me catch my breath in agony…
These highlights aside though, were overshadowed by the almost repetitive scenes that are again present in the episode. like Jandi being attacked by a robber and gang members on the streets of Macau… Either Jandi really does not learn her lesson or she’s just one lucky girl to have been saved from such similar circumstances again and again and again… (Cmon PD and Ms. Scriptwriter… give us something new!)
I have always been a big fan of BOF and before i get misunderstood, i am just venting my thoughts right now as an audience rather than whining… I still remain a staunch believer in this series and just like Episode 11, i’d just put this episode down to a lapse in judgment of the PD and the scriptwriter and i am just hoping against hope that tomorrow’s episode would more than make up for this episode today…
Luckily, i was able to catch the previews uploaded this weekend and a Jihoo-Jandi-Junpyo triangle is sounding more attractive to me at this point, rather than an episode without Junpyo at all…
Wow us tomorrow PD-nim! BOF Fighting!
EPISODE 14 (17 Feb 2009)
TUESDAYS YOU NEVER FAIL ME…
No matter how disappointed i might have been with previous episodes of BOF at the start of the week, something happens in the storyline the following day that makes me say once again that “YES… BOF is a series worth getting crazy for…” and this day is absolutely no exception…
The confrontations, the angst, the serious conversations and the camaraderie between Jandi and the F3 are just some of my favorite things from this series and they’re all present TONIGHT!
It’s major emotion overload for Episode 14… Even if that hide and seek scene with the masks on between Jandi and F3 was a little creepy and a little too prolonged, i still enjoyed it to the fullest… Somehow i sort of felt that that segment holds a kind of symbolism as to how Jihoo, Jandi and Junpyo are hiding their real emotions behind a facade or a mask of pretension for things that obviously they have more feelings about…
Although this episode is such that one would really need subtitles to fully appreciate… (What did Junpyo say to the F3 during that basketball scene that got Yijung mad enough to punch him? How did the conversation between Junpyo and Jihoo go? What did Jandi say to Jihoo before she left for Macau? and other such questions that i’m sure all of my fellow non-korean speakers are also antsy for answers for…) There is no words necessary to convey the sadness and emptiness that each of the person in this messy triangle is feeling… Language barrier aside, i’m sure that that is an emotion that all of us fully understand…
Jandi for her feelings of being abandoned… of finally admitting and finding the love of her life in a person whom she believed wholeheartedly and sacrificed so much for, yet who seemed as if he’s also the one who left her in a middle of a fight that he himself made her promise not to leave him for…
Junpyo for the suffocating wealth of emotions that he must now be feeling, choosing to turn his back on everything near and dear to him including the girl he loves for the breadth of the responsibility that falls on his shoulder…
And Jihoo… Jihoo is sinking… he’s a man who’s into deep already with his feelings for someone whom he’s trying desperately not to love and no matter how hard he tries to stop himself… it’s like a trainwreck just waiting to happen…
Gosh… my heart aches just thinking about how hard the situation all three of them are at right now… But these are moments that make BOF, BOF… AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!
No matter what the odds, i know that in the end the lesson for this drama would still be the same… THAT TRUE LOVE PREVAILS but the road going towards that realization is sure worthy of all the time that we’ve spent on this series…
This is truly one episode that i will be waiting for subtitles for with much anticipation…
EPISODE 15 (23 Feb 2009)
WHOA! I just watched the unsubbed version of Episode 15 of Boys Over Flowers and for a moment there i had to check my calendar if it was a Tuesday… THIS EPISODE ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF…
I honestly can say that watching this episode drove me a little crazy… It made me laugh with the old BOF sense of humor that had been missing for quite some time already and cry the next moment and then cry some more…
The scenes between Junpyo and Jandi had me breathless with the extent and depth of emotion that they feel towards each other…
Wow… i almost can feel physically how much pain they are feeling right now because of a separation that did not happen because they fell out of love or because they can’t get along or because of THEM… They had to separate because of other people… And truly, this is the kind of break up that hurts the most…
At some parts of the episode today, i can see how much of the old Junpyo is still present… that scene at the airport was a classic example… He wants to let Jandi go and though he’s being self sacrificing as to go to the extent of hurting her just to make her forget him, he still can’t bear to see her with other people… Jihoo, most of all…
At that point i understand both Jihoo and Jandi’s anger because what Junpyo’s doing, to Jandi’s point of view is quite confusing… It’s as if he had already let her go and yet here he is still acting jealous and proprietary… kind of unfair if you’d ask me … but well, that makes Junpyo, Junpyo…
The breakdown scene at the airport of Junpyo drove daggers into my heart… I know he’s going through hell letting the only girl he love slip through his fingers but i bet being a complete @ss to her in the process is also an issue that’s driving him insane…
As i said previously, i know Junpyo might be hurting Jandi because he knows how much pride she has… She also knows that she is the type to never back down and if she knew the real reason why he broke up with her, he knows her well enough to know that she would insist on fighting for their love together and Junpyo is just protecting her at this point, the best way he knows how…
As for Jandi, her pride and her heart had taken a beating… it took her long and hard to decide if she will indeed get involved with Junpyo because she knows all of the consequences that she would face if ever she does… she put her complete trust and love in Junpyo knowing that he’d always be there for her that’s probably the reason why acceptance comes slowly… Also, who hasn’t been in her shoes? When one’s in love… you tend to get hurt yes but deep inside there’s still a part of you that struggles not to move on and we all know what they went through that’s why it’s a little harder… (that piano playing scene… my gosh! I was sobbing while watching it…)
Now, we even have a previously unknown of fiancee’ making her appearance and that makes things even more complicated for Junpyo and Jandi this time around…
And Jihoo? Oh where to start with Jihoo… my heart aches so much for this man… he deserves someone good and someone warm and someone who can be completely HIS… He’s always had the short end of the stick when it comes to relationships… he shared Suh Hyeon previously with her ambition and now he’s sharing Jandi with one of his best friends…
I know most of the scenes that Jandi and Jihoo shared in this episode was kind of sweet and romantic but to me, it’s also sad… He is really trying his best to make Jandi happy and to cure her broken heart but if only it was that easy… It hurts to see how good they are together and yet there’s also a certainty that this is all they could ever be… Jandi might have Junpyo at the end of it all but man… Jihoo would have to go through a whole different level of heartbreak again once they get back together… Jandi and him are closer now and they shared a lot of things without Junpyo around… Forgetting this time around would be doubly hard than when he openly accepted that Jandi’s feelings for him was nothing more but an infatuation and letting her go to Junpyo who is her one true love…
(in fairness to Jandi, after the botched date that she had with Jihoo, she had always made it clear to him that it’s only Junpyo that’s really in her heart… so to me, she might have been ambiguous at the start but once she’s decided on Junpyo… she stuck to her guns…)
At the end of it all, i felt as if my heart was chopped into pieces, minced, went through a meat grinder and made into hamburger because of the degree of hurt that was so obvious between this two and yet they are the only ones who don’t know how much the other is hurting… As much as i’m enjoying the angst and the agony, my heart can only take so much… I really believe in the saying that True love waits but there is also saying that Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. But the only thing that matters are reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count. SO TO JUNPYO, QUIT MAKING EXCUSES… if you really, really love her, for heavens sake DO SOMETHING!
Mr. PD Man and Ms. Scriptwriter…make him do something… SOON! hehehe!
PS: My only gripe for this episode? They should have let Hyun Joong finish singing Waiting in Macau instead of putting his version of I AM STUPID on… somehow, i feel the scene would have been more touching that way, as if he was really singing to Jandi… but the scene afterwards was fantastic (that scene where they were just staring at each other with all the lights on behind them)and struck a profound chore in my heart… as if it was the first time Jandi was seeing him in a new light and wishing that like him in the past, she could will her heart to love him instead…
EPISODE 16 (24 February 2009)
So let me give my initial impression on todays Episode of BOF…
And what do you know? Jandi now has a new stalker in the identity of Jae Kyung… Doesn’t this girl have any friends? She sure knows how to barrel her way in into other peoples lives… She’s really a mini me of Goo Jun Pyo albeit a little more grating and irritating…
The only time i think where i appreciated Jaekyung and her big mouth was when she announced for all to hear that Jihoo is the guy that Jandi liked… I’ll never get enough of Junpyo’s jealous look right after… NEVER! Junpyo’s jealousy really makes my day… even if it is just over Woobin… Yessiree … you heard it right, WOOBIN… (Wahahaha! I love the whole stare and grab approach that Junpyo took when Woobin demonstated his playboy techniques on Jandi)
As for Jandi, i think that along with the break up, Junpyo must have taken with him a bit of her spirit… Otherwise, i don’t think she will easily let herself be steamrolled into playing BFF with Jae Kyung just because she said so… (that and no girl in her right mind would refuse the offer of a free manicure, Jandi and GaEul not excluded…)
I think Jandi and her family are just naturally good-natured (too much so…) that even the thought of accepting her ex’s fiancee’ to spend the night in her house had become acceptable practice… and to play lovecoach? WTH was that! If i were in her shoes, i’d tell my ex’s fiancee’ to go shove it! (Way to go Jandi in making sure that you pour more salt into the now gaping, open wound located in your chest that once upon a time was called your heart before it turned to ground meat… )
I know that it’s keeping true to the manga and all but i’ve always had this kind of reaction towards this part of the story no matter what version i got to see and i’m happy to say that for the third time around, my sentiments remain the same…
On the other hand, how i wish that Junpyo’s mom took a bit of a parenting lesson from Jaekyung’s ‘rents since Jaekyung seems to have no restrictions at all when it comes to sampling the commoner’s life…Ahhh… if only it was the case… Jandi would probably be spending her nights blissfully with Junpyo instead of engaging in a slumber party with JaeKyung…
As for Junpyo, i can’t help but give a small squeal of delight over how much of a lovesick puppy he really is over Jandi… Following her around… making excuses to see her… ANYTHING just as long as he’d get to be around her… He’s torturing himself with her presence and yet i bet deep inside himself he gets a bittersweet sense of satisfaction just being able to be in the same place where she’s at… I love the whole “i need to stay away but no matter how hard i try i just can’t” factor that’s played out in all of their scenes of Jandi together for this epi… Add to that the turmoil of entrusting Jandi to the only person closest to him who is Jihoo and yet knowing that he’s giving all the chances in the world for his best friend to just snatch his girl away from him while he is standing there, helpless… OH THE AGONY!
I guess of all things that is there to be thankful for in this episode that is the fact that Jihoo’s Jandi distress signal seems to be broken… Otherwise, we would not have those delicious moments of Junpyo and Jandi together once again thanks to the ingenious ploy of Woobin and Yijung complete with GaEul’s participation (which I’m sure she’s MORE THAN HAPPY to give…hehehe!)… I mean I am certifiably torn between the Jihoo-Jandi and Junpyo-Jandi pairing but lately I’ve had enough of Jihoo-Jandi being together and I just need my Joondi fix… Thank God Mr. PD gave that to me today… and I enjoyed every minute of it…
Just one question though? Why did Jandi scream when she saw Junpyo half naked? Shouldn’t she be used to that by now since they spent the night together at that barn? I mean she didn’t just see it… but she touched it surely when they shared that kiss… wahahaha!
In closing, i’d like to add a little shout out to Woobin for cracking me up big time with his antics in this episode… his mimicking the chicken feet that JK gave him, dancing to Paradise like some provincial hick, doing a taekwondo demonstration for JK complete with that sleazy wink… This guy sure adds a whole new dimension to this show that the other F3 can not give…
As for Junpyo’s evil witch of a uterus… (I wouldn’t even call her his mother since all that she did IMHO for Junpyo was to bore him…) I would not even waste precious time in trying to write about her other than to say that I want her to meet her comeuppance in the cruelest way possible… like running a blade all over her then pouring alcohol over it a little at a time…THERE! wehehehe!
All in all, it was really not an exceptional episode for me but i still enjoyed every minute of it… I love how there are a lot of Junpyo-Jandi scenes in this episode… I didn’t realize how much i miss them together until i saw them sharing the screen today… I like how the old BOF humor presented itself in a lot of scenes for this episode and how there is a balanced mix of angst and good times all thrown together for good measure…
It’s another week of waiting and I’m sure the best is yet to come… JIHOO-JUNPYO Official Showdown anyone? But before that let me just make one last plea to Ms. Scriptwriter… Ma’am… we can never get enough of Minho’s topless scenes and please, oh please can’t you just write a little snippet into the next episode how Madam Kang would simply disappear from the face of the earth and die… Thank you…
PS: Disregard all of my thoughts above but not how HOT Minho looked wet from the shower in that robe and with his hair unkempt all over his face…
Just watched BOF Episode 17 without subs and just want to share my first impressions regarding the episode for tonight in all it’s RAW format… wehehehe!
What? No ALMOST PARADISE today? I can’t believe i’d say this but i kind of miss the old soundtrack, the moments are not quite the same without Lucky and Starlight tears playing in the background, although there are some pretty good pieces from the new OST too and i’m looking forward to the next LSS moment with this selection just how Lucky plays in my mind everytime i finish a new episode of BOF…
The angst of this episode, oh the angst (and bad editing…which is forgivable given Hyesun’s accident…)
Why don’t you just kill me now?
My MinSun and JunDi ship is sailing but OH MY GAWDDDDDDDDDD JIHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO… Why do you have to be so freakin’ sweet and nice and everything any girl would ever want for in a guy except perhaps Jandi… *me cries*
There’s something about the act of Jandi and Jihoo cleaning those windows together that just got to me… there were no words exchanged and the act was pretty everyday but i swear at that moment i just want to cry because of how good Jihoo is to Jandi… I bet Jihoo had never scrubbed anything other than his own body in his whole life and here he is cleaning windows and driving mop cars all for the sake of the girl who’s driving him mad with L-O-V-E…
That hand kissing scene was a little too coincidental for my taste (and i just have to say that i really LOL’d at one comment in liveblog which goes “What? Jihoo does not have a doorbell?” when Junpyo was just suddenly there all teary eyed and muddled with jealousy about Jihoo making the moves on His girl…hehehe!)
But i savored every little moment of it and must have rewound the scene a thousand times just to see the look of longing on Jihoo’s face and the look of unconstrained rage and sadness on Junpyo’s….(can i just say that Minho looked absolutely delicious in this scene?)
He was soooo mad and almost CRAZY INSANE with jealousy that i absolutely bet my life that he would have shoved Jihoo’s violin up his woohoo if his lips landed anywhere else other than Jandi’s hands… wahahaha!
Geum Jandi! I can almost swear you’re just pretend sleeping at that point for the attention… (i know i would…)
And word of advice while you’re at it, how about having a thorough medical check up girl? Those fainting spells are coming just about every other day now coupled with nosebleeds… good thing your name isn’t Song Hye Gyo (an actress who’s well known for having cancer or dying in her dramas) or i would be worried! hahaha!
But seriously Junpyo and Jandi meeting in the stairwell while she’s bleeding broke my heart… what self restraint must Junpyo have put himself through to avoid from sweeping Jandi into his arms and just taking care of her (and we all know how much he’s DYING to do that…) KDrama you sure know how to squeeze someone’s heart!
I thought i have prepared and steeled myself enough for the kiss scene of Junpyo and Jaekyung by torturing myself with images of it every single chance that i get… but seeing it in action felt as if i received a blow to my chest… (and to think my name’s not even Geum Jandi… wahahaha!)
Good thing Jihoo was there to keep her safe or i might have come to Jaekyung and Junpyo at that point myself with claws bared, consumed with anger and screaming like a banshee… wahahaha!
The only good thing that came out of this kiss is that i gained a little appreciation for Junpyo and Jandi’s kisses because it is tender and soft and loving (even if the PD won’t give us what we wanted which is HOT and PASSIONATE) … However, this kiss with Jaekyung is an example of a PERFECT LIP PRESS… wahahaha! If you can even call it a press… i don’t even think there’s any sort of pressure there…
On a serious note, i love the oxymoron of that scene… How cold and unfeeling Junpyo was in that kiss he gave Jaekyung vs. Jihoo’s tender hold on Jandi to shield her from harm… BRILLIANT!
(but somehow the moment Junpyo kissed monkey girl i was somehow thinking that Jihoo probably should have REALLY dragged Jandi beside them and kiss her hardcore… wahahaha! MAN! That would do it for Junpyo… wehehehe!)
If there is one thing that i am grateful to Monkey girl for, it is how she throws Junpyo and Jandi together unconsciously which cause them to be more aware of each other, in very awkward circumstances perhaps, but together nonetheless…
(I swear they may be apart but everytime they look at each other i can feel the air crackling with electricity… i was afraid my computers gonna just bust out into flames… At one point all that staring made me just want to shout at them to just LET ALL THAT ANGST OUT AND GO MAKE OUT WITH EACH OTHER… wahahaha!)
Everytime Junpyo stares at Jihoo with his ill attempts of concealing his jealousy… i swear my JunDi fangirl dances a little dance inside my chest and the butterflies in my stomach just comes alive…
That restaurant scene was funny for me…Jihoo looked as if he’s seen a ghost when Junpyo arrived (his guilty look as if his hand was caught inside the cookie jar just gets to me and yes Jihoo… Jandi is Junpyo’s cookie… hehehe!) while Junpyo just probably want to punch him… i also cracked up at the look of horror Jihoo threw Jaekyung when she ate all that noodles by herself as if she was the freakiest thing he’s ever seen… wahahaha!
(BTW, is this the scene that Hyesun shot yesterday? She barely spoke in this scene…)
That cooking scene between the boys was a welcome addition… ON THE HOTNESS METER that’s a 10… (uber pretty boys who fixes your meal? Who wouldn’t salivate at the thought of that… although in the end i don’t know which i’d rather have… their food or THEM…wahahaha!)
I’m just a little confused how Junpyo can be chummy chummy with Jihoo alone after everything that’s happened… I was thinking they really wouldn’t be at each others throats but they wouldn’t be that HAPPY either… (and what no vicious glare from Junpyo when Jihoo just fed Jandi right in front of him? although that scene where Jihoo cut Jandi’s food for her and Junpyo stared more than made up for it… ) *Jundi cheerleaders dances their crazy dance*
Again, this is not a BOF episode if Jandi did not need some kind of rescuing… and yes, Mr. PD thought of a new accident which is …. DROWNING! (oh… yeah… we’ve seen it in New Caledonia before…hehehe!)
BUT… BUT… the fact that Junpyo saved her and said how he can’t afford to have her drown again and have another man saved her… MELTED MY HEART… TURNED IT TO MUSH… TRANSFORMED ME INTO A PUDDLE… I can forgive you Mr. PD for the damsel in distress act done almost ten times… you sure as know how to put us viewers into the center of your palms… (and how adorkable is Junpyo learning to swim? SOOOO CUTE!)
Although i wish this moment was longer but just seeing 5 seconds of a JunDi scene is enough to make me smile a bittersweet smile (and Jihoo foiled all of Junpyo’s plan in the end because he still gets to help Jandi… which is kind of sad really if you think about it since he went through all that trouble to learn to swim to SAVE HER and in the end Jihoo still steals his thunder by taking charge of Jandi too…)
Overall, it’s an action packed episode… I have a feeling that they squeezed all the shot scenes that’s supposed to be shown for episode 18 in this episode because of the accident…
I’m loving the angst, but too much more and i think i would go loony… i just wish Jandi and Junpyo would get back together soon and make us spazz once again like crazy (but OH NO! what about JIHOOOOOO??? Well, that deserves another entry…)
Another week of waiting… I just hope Hyesun is all better and in the best of health so that Geum Jandi can really come back FIGHTING…
BOF really is my addiction…
Some other comments:
* I just realized that the number of kisses that Junpyo and Jandi shared in this entire drama can fit a 20 second flashback when Junpyo did just that… ALERT! WE NEED MORE JANDI-JUNPYO KISSES PD!
* If i was merely annoyed with JaeKyung before… i’m happy to announce that… I’m even more annoyed with her now… WAHAHAHA!
I hated how she got to do things with Junpyo that he has never even done with Jandi before! Now when they get back together and watch a movie and Jandi feeds him popcorn or go to a bear museum …those times will be tainted with bad memories that he shared with this girl…
Good thing Jandi and him went to the cable car first together… IN YOUR FACE Monkey girl! BLECH!
*Woobin is really a man after my heart with his nonchalant and “i can’t stand her” expression after meeting Jaekyung in that blatant promotion for Anycall that was disguised as a scene in the drama…
* I miss seeing YiJung being playful… i love him more when he’s smiley than when he’s emo… But boy! Do these F4 kids start young… hahaha! Yijung with his first love and Jihoo with Suh Hyeon… when i was at that age all i can think about were my Barbies and how boys are smelly… wahahaha!
* And Mama Kang! Can’t you be human for once and let your maternal instincts take over and just allow Jandi and Junpyo to be together? If you really like Jaekyung that much, why don’t you date her? I want my sweet JunDi moments! We’re dying here! wahahaha!
EPISODE 18 (09 Mar 2009)
WARNING: MAJOR JAEKYUNG RANTING AHEAD SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK…
(This review is meant to be humorous so take it with a grain of salt…)
It’s that time of the week again and we all know what that means…
It’s another BOF day and it’s time once again to share my thoughts regarding the episode that was shown tonight, albeit in it’s unsubbed glory when i only rely on my powers of deduction and a few spoilers to fully comprehend what the actors are saying… (what can i say? There’s no excuse for being an addict…)
Thanks to lyptika’s kind heart (Bless her!), i was able to watch tonight’s episode only a few minutes later than those on streaming did… So this recap is not just brought to you by me but by lyptika’s youtube account as well and by the letters Y, R, S, P, M, O and J for You’re Really Starting to Piss me Off Jaekyung…
Let me start this recap with a word of advice to monkey girl..
Monkey Girl, when a normal hot blooded male who’s supposed to be your fiancee’ looks at you as if you’re a pariah even if you rub your scantily clad body all over him… BE ALARMED…
That reaction is NOT normal and maybe, just maybe there is still a logical part of your stubborn head where you can get it in that guys who tell you that they’re not INTO you may be meaning just that and it is not a secret code for “I FIND YOU SO LOVELY, THAT’S WHY I WILL TELL YOU THIS UNFEELINGLY AND MEAN THE OPPOSITE…”
Reality check… that meaning might only be your interpretation and you might just have had that understanding from a part of your brain that is labelled “WISHFUL THINKING” otherwise known as “DREAM ON…”
I also want to tell you that even if you cover your ears and start speaking in Parseltongue like some far removed descendant of Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter… there is no way that THAT can change and with that act, you’ve only managed to show how much of a brat you can be…
No respect from me there monkey girl… no respect at all…
Aside from that, how could you have called Jandi a friend and lied straight to her face about your illusion of spending the night with Junpyo? I could have forgiven you at first when you had no inkling at all about their real relationship and you were just being your normal, tactless self…. but now that you have a vague idea that Junpyo is Jandi’s ex… you have crossed the line and you just turned into a total BIATCH who hurts a friend and causes her unhappiness…
Oh wow! With Friends like you around, i might not need enemies… HOW LUCKY… (i’m being sarcastic here just in case you still need some explaining coz you seem to be a little slow on the uptake most of the time… which is by the way, another thing that irritates me about you…)
Please take note also that there is a fine line between trying to change your beloved’s mind about accepting you and being DESPERATE… Stalking him everywhere he goes and doing things for him like calling him Husband or fixing his food for him or lying down on his bed even if he OBVIOUSLY does not appreciate it, sadly falls into the category of the latter…
You seem like a decent girl, you came from a good family and you’re pretty in your own way… Somewhere out there, i’m sure there is a masochist who can appreciate your nasally grating voice, your penchant for eating jumbo ramens which can feed a starving family for days by yourself and your oh so attractive virtue of being thickfaced…
Can’t you just look for that man and start sacrificing for Jandi as a friend as early as now? I promise i won’t be as mean if that happens…
However in the spirit of being fair, i truly give you an A for effort for being resilient and for trying so hard… emphasis on TRYING HARD… Man, nothing really fazes you nor humiliates you… not rejection in any way, form or kind or a refusal that is sooo obvious that the only thing lacking is for it to be shoved down your throat… NOSIRREEE…SUPER!
Why don’t you try a career in selling insurance? I’m sure you would be top seller in no time! Or better yet… why don’t you drug Junpyo and torture him into liking you? I’m sure he’d appreciate that… SUPER!
And Junpyo, Junpyo, Junpyo… why is it that everytime i steel myself against you and tell myself that i’ve had enough of your self-pity and wallowing in your Jandi deprived moments, i still can’t abandon you?
There’s just a pushover chord in me that you touch with your abundance of flashbacks and recollection of times gone by that sometimes i marvel at your photographic memory…
There was something inside me that just wanted to shout IN YOUR FACE when you learned about Jandi’s injury and i admit that the JunDi butterflies inside my stomach did a little flip when you once again broke down beside the swimming pool…
CRY, JUNPYO, CRY… (on second thought DON’T since it just makes me want to comfort you…hehehe!)
And it’s about time you did something in order to get Jandi back… Your moments together for this episode might have been short but just seeing you two together in one scene is enough to bring a smile to my face… (NOW… KISS TORRIDLY and MAKE OUT… i mean MAKE UP…)
Moving on, I’d be saying this for the first time, but i was thinking maybe Jihoo needs to be given something else to do… Let him play the violin once again or conduct an orchestra or rest his cheeks against posters on a bus stop like some crazy obsessed stalker but please do not give him more free time to spend with Jandi… Honestly, the more that Jihoo gets to know her and falls in love with her, the more he breaks my heart…
Heaven knows that my JunDi ship is desperately trying to stay afloat despite the recent going ons but the more i see Jihoo with Jandi, the more i wish that i can do a King Solomon and split Jandi into two so that Jihoo and Junpyo can get a piece each… Jihoo deserves Jandi as much as Junpyo does and it just frustrates me to no end how in the end, he would still not get what he deserves…
When i see Jandi and Jihoo together there’s just a cold place in my heart that was left with the JunDi breakup that suddenly gets warm and toasty and PEACEFUL…
If this was the real world and Jihoo was real… I have no doubt in my mind that his name would have already been sent to the Vatican for canonization or otherwise to the producers of THE BACHELOR for a possible stint… wehehehe!
(Who among you here squealed like a fangirl when he held Jandi’s hand and waited for her in the library *me jumps up and down while raising my hands*)
As for Jandi, Hurrah for getting your spunk back and going all Womens Lib on Junpyo’s butt for this episode… The time for getting all sappy and teary eyed is over and it is time to fight back… you gutsy girl, you… (I still wished that she kicked him out of her house and poured the ramen all over his head but her answering Junpyo back with her usual sarcastic wit is enough for me right now…)
However, sarcastic facade aside, there is no denying that we, women are suckers for love and despite the heartbreak that Jandi went through at Junpyo’s hands, i was still very touched when she kept him company while sleeping and put that blanket over his sleeping form… (Oh the discipline of this girl… if my Boyfriend was as hot as Junpyo and it’s obvious that he’s still into me, i would make an excuse to Kang San about delivering newspapers in the middle of the night to BUSAN perhaps and spend the night getting cozy with him… wehehehe!)
PS: Jandi, No need to drop your fork when JaeKyung tells you how she spent the night with Junpyo… Now’s the time to act… don’t get sad… GET EVEN…
I would love to see you get down and dirty with Junpyo, make a video out of it and send it to Jaekyung while giving a blow by blow account of how much Junpyo enjoyed your sexy time together…
Maybe then Jaekyung’s blood pressure would shoot up to 200/180 and she’d pop a vein and that would be the end of her story (or at least get her to shut her trap up…)… PUAHAHAHA!
Other Comments:
* WTH? Don’t we have enough angst in the show that even Woobin turned emo? I love him when he’s funny so give us more of that PD… I know that there are some complaints about him getting almost zero airtime but please don’t just do a lame subplot just because you want to give in to the clamor of the fans…
Give me back Woobin with his chicken feet and Oh Yeah and dorky dance and leave all the emo moments to the F3…
I, however thought that he was absolutely hot during the bar fight scene so i am drawing a truce with that scene you made of him wanting to jump off the bridge in exchange for that…
* Loving the second OST to bits i swear!
* I adore the pottery making session recollection of Yijung with Eun Jae… how i wish that it was with Gaeul but that scene was totally cute… (Why oh why does the F4 have such sucky lovelives?)
* Thank God Mama Kang decided fly away to focus on the family business this time, instead of giving all her attention to ruining her son’s life… Is there anywhere written in future scripts where she is involved and a plane crash would happen? Episode 19 perhaps? Please Lord let there be one… hahaha!
I hope tomorrow’s episode would have more JunDi Lovin’… It’s about darned time…
EPISODE 19 (10 Mar 2009)
And once again, it is a Tuesday… another day to satisfy BOF addicts like ourselves and a time to give us a dosage of our weekly fix which is only good for another seven days…
Just like before, i am sharing my reactions to this epic melodrama and if yesterday’s episode was brought to us by the words You’re starting to piss me off Jaekyung… Today’s episode is brought to us by NASA’s rocketship… coz that’s where i want to tie Mama Kang outside of so that she can finally disappear from the face of the earth (and hopefully Jaekyung packs her bags and goes with her)…
So we start off today’s episode where we left off… No, not with me wanting to drag Jaekyung out of Junpyo’s bed by the roots of her hair kicking and screaming but with Monkey girl asking Junpyo if he wanted to make a bet with her which Junpyo MUST HAVE been wishing for all his life judging from how quickly he ran away from her…
However, just when i was about to applaud Junpyo’s tenacity in keeping away from Jaekyung, the next scene showed them playing video games as if they have been exchanging beauty tips and fashion secrets all their lives…
WTH, GOO JUN PYO, HOW COULD YOU? Since when did you start getting chummy chummy with THAT GIRL?
When you know that someone is hung up on you and you are TOTALLY not into her… YOU DISS HER… D-I-S-S! You don’t go around supermarket shopping with them good-naturedly and smiling like you are having the grandest, good, ole time of your life… You definitely don’t go power tripping over who gets the most noodles in the cart and feeding each other sample ham from the food counter just like (Oh no… dare i say the word?) you are *gasp* Flirting! Dammit… didn’t they teach you that in rich heir school?
And why, oh why must the PD taint that ramen scene which was the only ray of sunshine to my otherwise bleak Jundi life yesterday by having the same thing happen with Monkey girl? WHYYYYYYYYYYY??? *shouts out to the heavens*
I wish the ham that Jaekyung and Junpyo have both eaten had been left in that counter for weeks on end and that they’d get kickass diarrhea as their comeuppance! HA! That would teach them!
On the other hand, JIHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Why don’t you just take a knife and drive it straight through my heart? You poor boy, you… Why don’t you just kiss and make up with gramps? It’s obvious that you miss each other so…
Heck, your walking around lost in the rain makes me just want to give you MY grandfather so that you can call him your own… However, if you don’t want that, i could also give you a family just like Jandi could… and i mean that in a way that i’m sure that monk does not mean it… 
(I am available anytime… just give me a text from your uber cute Haptic phone…)hehehe!
But what’s that? Is that a big fat splash and a honk that i’m hearing? I think that is the sound of my Jundi ship sinking even more and my HooDi ship temptingly inviting me to come over… How sweet was it when Jandi was just standing there in the rain waiting for Jihoo wordlessly at his time of need, just like what he has done so many times for her?… These guys make me want to get wet myself with my better half while it’s pouring, threat of acid rain and leptospirosis be damned…
OMO! and Jihoo in Jandi’s embrace and his bed, drawing Jandi and her hand close to him as if he doesn’t want to let go? *swoons, melts and dies* And just when I was almost convinced that they really are meant to be together, it doesn’t just end there… is that… is that Jandi’s face softening just like she is starting to grow tender feelings for Jihoo again? *tears in my eyes, tightening in my chest then waves goodbye to jump to the HooDi ship… BAH-BYE GUYS!*
But oh no! Why is Junpyo, pacing around restlessly, waiting for Jandi to come home with that worried expression on his face? GAHHHH!!!! I am lassoed back in… ABANDON TRANSFER…ABANDON TRANSFER… back to the JunDi ship… (I swear this series is turning me inside out that there would come a time that all this shipshifting between JunDi and HooDi would just make me shortcircuit and die…)
DARN IT PD! You sure do know how to pull our strings…However, there is still a sadistic part of me that wishes that Junpyo knows that Jandi is taking care of and cooking like a WIFE for Jihoo at his home that would make him throw a rage and just kiss Jandi to kingdom come to make her realize that he,Junpyo, still rules… (OH YEAH! *said ala Woobin*)…
And so morning came and is my wish coming true? Alas, but no… it is only Junpyo raging at Jandi like a naggy wife about her not coming home the night before… Tell him off Jandi! Tell him Off! Darn it Junpyo… you made a fool out of her in Macau and now you expect her to come home just because you tell her to… Read my lips… SERVES YOU RIGHT and BUGGER OFF! (actually, I have words far more stronger than this but I might offend others in this forum… hehehe!)
However, just like in the past… Junpyo always has a redeeming factor and for this scene it is his brotherly love and pizza buying spree for Gang San that got to me… (yeah right… when all else fails and you can’t woo the sister… use her family… Boy… this Junpyo sure knows what he’s doing…)
And how cute was he when he was eating those noodles raw and trying to cook from his turned off stove? AHHHHH… no wonder Jandi can’t get over him…
Moving along, Mama Kang comes home from a trip from hell where she checked in on her boss named Lucifer… What? Ahhhh… it’s just Vancouver… (sorry about that guys I thought that’s where she’s from… ) And just for us to get to know her a little bit better, it seems like Mama Kang’s really into espionage and photography as her past time… I swear the FBI needs someone like her on their team… If she can get pictures like these of Jandi wherever she goes, I swear we’d never have any more problems with Wanted fugitives…
Using her extraordinary hound like tracking abilities, Darth Mama sends her mininons to where Junpyo is slumming it and interrupts him in the middle of his “I would eat this ramen like chips snack spree”… I would have already cursed the TV at that point due to frustration but that scene where Junpyo was being dragged and was shooting lasers from his eyes at Jihoo made me totally squeal like a fangirl (I swear Jandi’s hair is sooo long for having these two hot guys always fight over her that we could have made a freeway out of it going straight from LA to San Francisco…)
Jihoo seeing the commotion and being his normal, noble Prince Charming self somehow sensed trouble and invited the F2 to Jandi’s place for some bonding activities, which is really a cover up for what he really wanted to tell her which is “The Siths are coming so we’re here to go all Jedi on you”…
Anyways, Mama Kang once again took time out of her busy schedule as CEO extraordinaire to hoof it where Jandi lives just to be able to call her a H-O-O-C-H-I-E… (Yeah, yeah… we’ve heard that before… takes one to know one…widen your vocabulary Darth Mama there are other words to call her by…you should have saved on gas and just texted her…) So Jandi took it like a woman and with the support of F3 was able to make it without breaking down in front of the enemy…
The next day, Jandi went home to find GaEul and the F3 once again at her rooftop home … After an inquisitive stare and some explaining they have relayed that they will help her make over her home to cheer her up… (Because there is nothing in this world that would cheer you up like the smell and fumes of Drying Paint… GOOD TIMES…) It’s also a good thing that YiJung was sober otherwise, he might have rained on their parade and botched up the color scheme judging from how he’s been acting lately… heaven forbid!
Okay… and so we see… WTF? WHY THE HELL IS LYPTIKA’S ACCOUNT SUSPENDED? DID MAMA KANG’S MINIONS TRACKED THAT DOWN TOO? And just when I was in the middle of watching… Darn you mama kang! Darn you!
(after much angsting and searching we’re once again back to regular viewing … thanks to viiki… TAKE THAT KBS! WE ADDICTS FIND WAYS!)
So going on with this recap, Monkey girl is once again at Junpyo’s home (doesn’t she ever go home? What the… where in the world does this girl live?) while Secretary Jung looks on as his mind probably calculates his pension (right hand man’s days are numbered since Mama Kang found out that he is standing president of the JunDi fans club)…
And so Jaekyung opens her mouth to once again reveal that her IQ has gotten another few points lower as she suggests to Junpyo to have a date at Jandi’s home… (HELLO? Ever heard of a mall? Or a park?) …
Any which way, Jaekyung along with Junpyo, who grabs at the opportunity in his desire to see Jandi (I hope… and not just because he wants to spend time with monkey girl any way he could)… make their way to Jandi’s home, just in time to see GaEul suggest a game of truth or dare which Jaekyung excitedly said that they would join… (GaEul, you fox! I bet you just want to lie through your teeth to YiJung so that he can kiss you… hehehe!)
Judging from the F3, Gaeul and Jandi’s reaction upon Jaekyung and Junpyo’s arrival … this is exactly what they were looking forward to just like how they look forward to going to the dentist when they are scheduled for root canals… However, the game must go on and it begins… AND I LOVE every single angsty moment of it! (Subs, where are you?)
To name a few, Woobin suggesting that a French kiss should be the punishment (he should have been the PD of this show…), Jihoo’s answer of “I’m thinking about it” while looking at Jandi tenderly when asked by Yijung if he’d love anyone else like Suh-Hyeon… (superglues self to JunDi ship and chants… MUST NOT BE SWAYED… MUST NOT BE SWAYED…) Jihoo asking Junpyo if he would let go of the one he loves if he’s hurting her? (Struggles from JunDi shackles and tries to cut it loose) Junpyo’s answer of no and that HE WILL HOLD ON… (scrambles to tie herself tight to the ship once again…) but what killed me was when Junpyo asked Jandi if she kept her promise by the highway and she answered “No…coz that person no longer exists…” *heartstab… angst… woe… * Take that from the stain you want to erase Junpyo…seems like she had you whipped at the erasing part…LOVE IT!
Another thing that came out well from that game is how Jaekyung is seemingly coming back to her senses… asking Junpyo to choose between love and friendship, Junpyo should have given her two choices too which are “BEAT IT or EAT IT?” and by those choices he means the ground… wahahaha!
So with Mama Kang’s tip number 107 from her evilness handbook which is to drive your enemies out of house and home by wrecking it down and Kang San finally joining his parents and telling Jandi that Junpyo still likes her which according to KDrama cliché number 481, Jandi of course, does not hear …another episode ends and we get another seven days of waiting…
Other Comments:
1. Whenever Yijung comes on, i have to rewind and check if i am still watching Boys Over Flowers… the drama is so much East of Eden that i am starting to think that he is not a part of the Flower Four but rather the Emo Four… and way to go about embarassing GaEul during their date… That is the WAY to go if he really wants to be different from his wuss of a dad… NOT!
2. I AM SCARED… VERY, VERY SCARED at the route this version is taking… I used to be confident about Junpyo and Jandi ending up together for this Kversion but with the way Junpyo is starting to get comfortable with Jaekyung and the way Jandi is starting to soften against Jihoo… i don’t even know where this drama is heading… One thing’s for sure… I would advise KBS to prepare armed guards and a moat should there be no Junpyo-Jandi ending…
I’ve always been a movie buff… whether it be on DVD or the big screen, nothing excites me more than the thought of spending a weekend watching something that absolutely catches my fancy…
The idea of an hour or two (or sometimes more) of being lost in the fantasy of never before seen characters, places i’ve never been and situations that are sometimes familiar or unfamiliar, had always been appealing and attractive to me… Some people go to the movies to be entertained but for me, watching something onscreen (same with reading) is always an opportunity to learn something different… It can go from something as menial as learning a new catch phrase or gushing at the latest fashion to something as profound and deep as exploring the depths and intricacies of the human emotion…
I’ve always looked at going to the movies as something that helps me bond with the people i love the most too… When Alvin and i first started seeing each other, we learnt so much about one another over the time we spent having dinner and watching movies… my officemates and i would reward ourselves after months of stress by bonding a little while catching the latest flick… My friends and i would always revert to the tried and tested movie time when we get tired of clubbing or drinking and would just want to spend some quiet time together … I used to go a lot with Mama to the movies too, as well as with my brother, Darwin and i’ve never felt closer to them than during these times… perhaps because it is the only time when we can spend hours together without any fear that we might argue and we can just spend some quality time, enjoying ourselves, while basking in each other’s company…
With the so many constraints that I now have with my schedule (and the people mentioned above as well)… i somehow find myself resorting more to buying films on DVD instead of watching it on the big screen… but somehow i think doing so truly defeats the purpose of going to the movies… That of the effort you take the time in dressing up and going to the theatre so that you can watch it with people who matter… nothing beats the idea of catching dinner before seeing a film, buying popcorn and plopping down on a loveseat while snuggled closely to someone you love and laughing and crying along with strangers, in a dimly lit movie theater with stereo sound… enjoying what they’re watching (or sometimes dissing it) just like you do…
As part of our resolution for 2009, Alvin and i promised that we’d really make time for ourselves by means of reviving movie date nights during weekends… I was soooo excited and hyped up over the thought that i made a list of upcoming films for 2009… I’d now like to share this list in my blog in hopes that you can use these films in bonding with someone you love too and enjoying the experience of truly, what some time with Movie Magic can bring to our lives…
Chick Flicks/Romance
He’s just not that into you
Full Cast
Drew Barrymore
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Aniston
Kevin Connolly
Scarlett Johansson
Bradley Cooper
Justin Long
Ben Affleck
Ginnifer Goodwin
Synopsis:
Screenwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein team to adapt writing duo Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s best-selling book concerning the ever-widening gap between genders and the misunderstandings that often arise between couples. In the film, a woman who can’t seem to get a grip on the men in her life pursues an advice columnist who never quite knew what he wanted in a relationship. Prolific television director Ken Kwapis (Freaks and Geeks and The Office) helms a romantic comedy produced by and starring Drew Barrymore. The ensemble also includes Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, and Ginnifer Goodwin.
He’s just not that into you trailer
New in Town
Starring:
Renée Zellweger,
Harry Connick Jr.
Frances Conroy
Synopsis:
Renée Zellweger stars as a career woman from Miami who gets transplanted to the Minnesota boondocks in this fish-out-of-water comedy from Lionsgate and Gold Circle Films. Harry Connick Jr. co-stars in the Jonas Elmer-helmed feature, scripted by Ken Rance and C. Jay Cox.
PREVIEW:
The Ugly Truth
Starring:
Katherine Heigl
Gerard Butler
Cheryl Hines
Synopsis:
Katherine Heigl stars as a lovelorn television producer who’s made to run a gauntlet of romantic exploits by a pig-headed morning-show host (played by Gerard Butler) as a way to prove whose romantic methods are more accurate in this Lakeshore Entertainment production. Legally Blonde’s Robert Luketic directs from a script by Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith, and Nicole Eastman
PREVIEW
The Accidental Husband
Starring:
Uma Thurman
Justina Machado
Colin Firth
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Synopsis:
A radio talk-show host who specializes in repairing damaged relationships finds her life suddenly turned upside down when a listener who took her advice and later regretted doing so resolves to take revenge on the misguided love doctor. Uma Thurman, Colin Firth, Sam Shepard, and Isabella Rossellini star in a romantic comedy directed by Griffin Dunne
Preview
The Accidental Husband Trailer
Confessions of a Shopaholic
(Love the book! Self confessed Fan! I’m looking forward to the movie!)
Starring:
Isla Fisher
Hugh Dancy
Krysten Ritter
Synopsis:
A Manhattan shopaholic (Isla Fisher) whose buying sprees have buried her in immense debt lands a columnist gig dishing out financial advice in this Touchstone comedy based on Sophie Kinsella’s series of books. P.J. Hogan (My Best Friend’s Wedding) directs, with producing duties being handled by Jerry Bruckheimer. Rebecca Bloomwood (Fisher) can’t seem to break her habit for making impulsive purchases, and while she’s always decked out in the latest styles, her credit card bills are as thick as a telephone book. If Rebecca could somehow manage to land her dream job at a high-profile fashion magazine, perhaps she could transform what is now a simple addiction into something that could really benefit her professionally. When Rebecca becomes an advice columnist at a financial magazine published by the same company as her favorite fashion magazine, her fresh approach strikes a chord with readers and she quickly becomes the toast of the town. Meanwhile, her bank account is still bone dry, wreaking havoc on her love life and placing her career in jeopardy. As Rebecca teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, she gradually begins to reassess her priorities in life. Joan Cusack, John Goodman, Hugh Dancy, and Krysten Ritter co-star in the Touchstone Pictures production.
Preview:
Confessions of a Shopaholic Trailer
Bride Wars
Starring:
Anne Hathaway
Kate Hudson
Candice Bergen
Synopsis:
Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson go head-to-head in Bride Wars, a romantic comedy that follows two best-friend brides who find they’ve scheduled their wedding dates on the same day. 13 Going on 30’s Gary Winick directs the 20th Century Fox production.
Preview:
Bride Wars Trailer
Comedy
The Yes Man
Starring:
Jim Carrey
Zooey Deschanel
Bradley Cooper
Synopsis:
Based on Danny Wallace’s autobiographical book, Jim Carrey stars as a man who decides to spice up his life by saying yes to everything in his life that he would normally say no to. Fun With Dick and Jane’s creative team of director Peyton Reed and writer Nick Stoller head up the production. Zooey Deschanel co-stars as the romantic interest, with Bradley Cooper appearing as Carrey’s best friend.
Preview:
17 Again
Starring:
Zac Efron
Leslie Mann
Matthew Perry
Synopsis:
Matthew Perry plays a family man whose life is thrown into disarray when he finds that he’s mysteriously reverted back to the age of 17 (in the form of High School Musical’s Zac Efron) in this New Line Cinema comedy. Hijinks ensue as the teen enlists in the same school as his children so that he can keep an eye on them. Knocked Up’s Leslie Mann co-stars in the Burr Steers-helmed production, written by Jason Filardi (Bringing Down the House)
Preview:
17 Again Trailer
Bruno
Starring:
Sacha Baron Cohen
Trishelle Cannatella
Synopsis:
Borat trickster Sasha Baron Cohen returns to the big screen to offer yet another stinging dose of sociopolitical satire in this comedy that finds him assuming the persona of gay fashionmonger Bruno, the self-proclaimed “voice of Austrian youth TV.” Originally conceived as part of Cohen’s cult television series Da Ali G Show, the character of Bruno offered a cleverly-costumed Cohen the opportunity to highlight the absurdities of the fashion industry by interviewing unsuspecting fashion icons and other haute couture hangers-on.
Preview:
Bruno movie crashes fashion show
DRAMA
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
(I’ve searched everywhere for the book, but i can’t find it… Please tell me if i can get it somewhere… thanks! The trailer alone made me cry)
Starring:
Asa Butterfield
Jack Scanlon
Amber Beattie
Synopsis
Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, and Asa Butterfield star in Little Voice writer/director Mark Herman’s adaptation of John Boyne’s novel concerning the forbidden friendship that between an eight-year-old German boy and a Jewish concentration camp prisoner in World War II-era Germany. The innocent son of a high-ranking Nazi commandant, Bruno has been largely shielded from the harsh realities of the war. When Bruno discovers that his father has been promoted and that their family will be moving from Berlin into the countryside, he doesn’t take the news well. Increasingly bored in his sprawling yet dreary country abode and forbidden by his mother from exploring the backyard, young Bruno searches for something to do while his older sister plays with dolls and vies for the attention of handsome Lieutenant Kotler (Rupert Friend). One day, bored and gazing out his bedroom window, Bruno spies what first appears to be a nearby farm; his parents refuse to discuss it, and all of the inhabitants there are curiously clad in striped pajamas. But while Bruno’s mother naïvely believes the “farm” to be an internment camp, her husband has sworn under oath never to reveal that it is in fact an extermination camp specifically designed to help the Nazis achieve their horrific “Final Solution.” Eventually defying his mother’s rules and venturing out beyond the backyard, Bruno arrives at a barbed wire fence to find a young boy just his age emptying rubble from a wheel barrel. Like Pavel, the kitchen worker who cooks all of Bruno’s meals, the young boy is wearing striped pajamas. His name is Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), and before long the two young boys become fast friends. But the closer these two boys grow, the more Bruno becomes awakened to the horrors unfolding all around them. His mother is catching on quickly as well, a fact that causes great tension in her marriage to Bruno’s father. Later, after Bruno swipes a piece of cake for Shmuel, Lt. Kotler accuses the Jewish boy of stealing and delivers a swift punishment. When Bruno’s father announces that the young boy and his mother will be going to live with their aunt in Heidelberg, Bruno grabs a shovel and makes his way to the camp, setting into motion a tragic and devastating sequence of events
Preview:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Trailer
Horror/Suspense/Thriller/Mystery
Possession
(remake of Korean film Addicted)
Starring:
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Lee Pace
Michael Landes
Synopsis:
An adaptation of the 2002 Korean film Addicted, this thriller stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as a young woman whose husband and brother-in-law each fall into comas. When the brother-in-law comes back to consciousness first, he acts as if he is her husband, making her more and more uncomfortable. Soon she begins to suspect that unnatural forces are working against her.
Preview
The Uninvited
(remake of Korean movie: A tale of two sisters)
Starring:
Emily Browning
Elizabeth Banks
David Strathairn
Synopsis:
This American remake of Kim Jee-woon’s 2003 Korean film of the same name tells the haunting story of two sisters who are plagued by gruesome visions and a possibly even more gruesome reality when their father remarries following their mother’s suicide. The original story is based on the popular Korean folktale “Jangha and Hongryun.”
Preview:
Angels and Demons
(my most favorite Dan Brown Book… yes… miles ahead of Da Vinci Code in my opinion)
Starring:
Tom Hanks
Ayelet Zurer
Ewan McGregor
Synopsis:
Angels and Demons re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code. Although the book Angels and Demons was written before the novel The Da Vinci Code, the movie transpires after the events of the earlier movie. Hanks stars as professor Robert Langdon, the most respected symbologist in the United States, who uses his knowledge in order to decode a symbol on the skin of a murder victim. The clues put him on the trail of an international conspiracy involving the catholic church
Preview:
Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Night at the Museum: Battle of The Smithsonian
Starring:
Ben Stiller
Amy Adams
Hank Azaria
Synopsis:
Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the unfortunate night watchman who continues to encounter living and breathing museum exhibits in Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian, 20th Century Fox’s tent-pole sequel from director Shawn Levy. Scott Frank, Robert Ben Garant, and Thomas Lennon provide the script, with Chris Columbus returning to handle producing duties. Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Hank Azaria join the returning cast of Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, and Owen Wilson in the 1492
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
(this volume made me cry buckets when i read it… super matured bigla si harry and his friends in this volume… the beginning of the end for hogwarts…)
Starring:
Daniel Radcliffe
Rupert Grint
Emma Watson
Synopsis:
Adolescent wizard-in-training Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for another year of schooling and learns more about the dark past of the boy who grew up to become Lord Voldemort in this, the sixth installment of the film series that originated from the writings of author J.K. Rowling.
Preview:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Trailer
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Starring:
Hugh Jackman
Liev Schreiber
Danny Huston
Synopsis:
The gruff, steel-clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine strikes out on his own in this X-Men spin-off starring series regular Hugh Jackman. The film is set up as an origin tale for the character, and will find him sharing the screen with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), John Wraith (will.i.am), Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), and Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston).
Preview:
(Watch out for Dan Henney at 0:50)
Xmen Origins: Wolverine Trailer
SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES!
