HANA YORI DANGO

It started from an anime HANA YORI DANGO, Due to its immense popularity, Hana Yori Dango has been adapted into TV series by Taiwan, Japan and also, most recently Korea. Currently, there are also adaptations of the story in work by Mainland China (the show will be called Meteor Shower or Meteor Rain).

Following TV Adaptations
* Meteor Garden (TAIWAN)2001
* Hana Yori Dango (JAPAN)2005
* Boys Over Flowers (KOREA)2009
* Meteor Shower (CHINA)2009

Tsukino Makino:poor girl Doumyouji Tsukasa: the leader, a high-tempered, selfish and arrogant guy Hanazawa Rui: the most quiet one, a kind-hearted and very cool guy Mimasaka Akira: smiles often (especially to the ladies), and loves older women Nishikado Soujirou: a playboy Hana Yori Dango is a Japanese television drama series, broadcast on TBS in 2005. It was one of the most popular dramas of the year and won many major awards. It is the live action version of popular manga Boys Over Flowers.

CAST

Mao Inoue as Tsukushi Makino

Jun Matsumoto as Tsukasa Domyoji

Shun Oguri as Rui Hanazawa

Shota Matsuda as Sojirou Nishikado

Tsuyoshi Abe as Akira Mimasaka

Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by Flower 4 or F4,


The Story Season 1

Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by Flower 4 or F4, a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families: Domyoji Tsukasa, the leader and heir of the Domyoji World Finance Group; Hanazawa Rui, the introverted son of a large company; Nishikado Sojiro, a player who is the heir of a tea ceremony school; and Mimasaka Akira, a madam killer with ties to the underground. If a student gets on the F4’s bad side, he/she gets a red notice and is bullied and driven out of school.

Makino hopes to pass her days quietly-- without drawing any attention to herself-- but one day, she stands up to Domyoji in defense of her friend. The next day, Makino gets the dreaded red notice. Even though she is harassed, Makino decides to keep going to school because she is a “tough weed”. She declares war right back on the F4. Her resolve gets the attention of her crush Hanazawa Rui and oddly enough, rouses romantic feelings in her worst enemy, Domyoji Tsukasa.


The Story Season 2

This second season of Hana Yori Dango picks up right after Domyoji leaves for New York. After confessing to Domyoji, Makino has not spoken to him for a year. Rui and the other members of F4 try and help Makino meet Domyoji again by going to New York for the christmas holidays. Though F4 and Makino meet Domyoji again, he has become a completely different person, and so they leave for Japan.

Some time later, Domyoji's mother annouces that they will be returning to Japan. There, they hold a giant super-rich and classy birthday party for Domyoji and announce something very important. Domyoji, like in the first season, is engaged to a rich girl and heir. The only difference is that they are to be wed soon.

On the side, Rui begins to fall in love with Makino... but will let go for his friend.

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METEOR GARDEN

A Taiwanese drama adaptation of Hana Yori Dango. Started the F4 fever in Asia.It stars Barbie Xu,Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Vaness Wu , Ken Zhu. Meteor Garden was very popular in Asia. Due to the popularity of the series throughout Asia, two sequels, Meteor Rain and Meteor Garden II, were produced. This was the first asianovela that captures the highest popularity.

The story centers on a plain and poor teenage girl called Shan Cai, who goes to university for rich people, forced upon her by her parents. The university is dominated by a gang of handsome but arrogant students called F4, who are the heirs of the most influential families in Taiwan.

CAST:

Barbie Xu as Shan Cai

Jerry Yan as Dao Ming Si

Vic Zhou as Hua Ze Lei

Vaness Wu as Mei Zuo Ling

Ken Zhu as Xi Men

The Story

In the beginning, Dao Ming Si, the gang leader, hates Shan Cai so much that he makes everyone in the university play tricks on her. However, Shan Cai's persistence gradually gains Si's respect and later he falls in love with her. Like many other TV series, the lovers end up getting together after going through a series of painful challenges.

Difference from other versions

• Hana Yori Dango has a more concrete ending than the first season of Meteor Garden, events include Doumyoji and Tsukushi being together, and Rui reunites with his first love which did not happened in Meteor Garden.
• Shan Cai's Japanese counterpart, Tsukushi, had a younger brother in Hana Yori Dango who played a small part in the story.

METEOR GARDEN II

F4 graduates from Ying De Xue Yuan. Dao Ming Si invites Shan Cai to go on F4's graduation trip with them to Spain, which is actually F4's way of letting Shan Cai and Dao Ming Si spend some time alone. Dao Ming Si and Shan Cai becomes inseparable during the trip. Just before Shan Cai and Si leave for Spain, Hua Ze Lei gave Ah Si an envelope with a "smart advice" in it. When Ah Si opens the envelope, he finds that the advice from Hua Ze Lei was to ask Shan Cai to marry him in an old church with a legend. Dao Ming Si buys a "Meteor Ring" which Shan Cai had her eyes on, and prepares to propose to her in a church that had special meanings of "love".

However, on the way to the church, Dao Ming Si gets into a car accident which had causes him to lose his memory. He met Ye Sha at that time, who helps him and looks after him. The sudden disappearance of Ah Si causes Shan Cai to worry, so she asks Jing to help her. The other three members of F4 also came to Spain immediately after they hear the news.

What follows is a story full of ups and downs as Shan Cai tries to find Dao Ming Si and help him regain his memory.

In this continued story of Meteor Garden, the love story of Xi Men and Mei Zuo are shown. The reason why Xi Men is such a playboy is revealed, as well as Mei Zuo's own love story since he was in elementary school.

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BOYS OVER FLOWERS

KOREAN VERSION

Boys over Flowers a Korean drama adaptation of the Japanese Manga Hana Yori Dango. This is the third television drama adaptation of the popular Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango after the success of Taiwanese and Japanese Version.

CAST

Goo Hye Sun Geum as Jan Di

From a poor family with a fierce and weed-like determination. She is a cleaner's daughter and sometimes works in her family business and works hard at many other jobs. One day, while making a delivery, she stumbles upon a boy about to jump off a building from being severely bullied at Shinwa High. She rescues the boy and gets a full scholarship to attend Shinwa High. A group of 4 rich, handsome boys called F4 rule the school and are idolized by all the girls. Ignoring F4's power over the school, Jan Di stands up to the leader, Gu Jun Pyo, numerous times. She starts getting bullied by getting a "Red Card" from F4 which makes everyone else in the school automatically bully you. Yun Ji Hoo often helps her and rescues her when she is in danger, which made her fall in love with him. Gu Jun Pyo later falls in love with Jan Di and expresses his love to her. As the series goes on, she realizes she has two different people in her life; her soulmate and her husband.

F4 of KOREA

Lee Min Ho as Gu Jun Pyo

The hot-headed leader of F4.He is the heir of Shinhwa Group, and after his father [supposedly] passes away, he inherits and begins to run the Shinhwa Group along with his mother. When he was eight,he was kidnapped by his own driver. The car crashed and plunged into a lake, and from then on Jun Pyo had been afraid of swimming. Exasperated by Jan Di's act of defiance, he makes her a target of bullying.But as time passes, he begins to admire Jan di's determination and falls in love with her.

Kim Hyun Joong as Yun Ji Hoo

A calm and soft-spoken boy who likes to play the violin, piano and guitar and conduct an orchestra. Seo Hyeon was Ji Hoo's first love, after she helped him overcome trauma after the death of his parents when he was little. He attempts to fight for Seo Hyeon's love by following her to France. But then he realizes his love for Seo Hyeon was just worshipping her.When he comes back, he realized that he had fallen for Jan Di. However, Jun Pyo has already announced his love of Jan Di. Ji Hoo decides not to betray his friend by trying to fight for Jan Di. He is a grandson of Korea's former president.

Kim Bum as So Yi Jeong

F4's perennial playboy. Handsome and gifted with a brilliant smile. Yi Jeong also has a habit for making every girl fall for him. Even Geum Jan Di's friend, Chu Ga Eul could not escape his charming ways. He is from a family of well-known artists,and is a reputed potter himself. His family owns an art gallery that exhibits national treasures. He is known for his "5 second kill" which is a technique that leads girls to fall in love with him and kiss him in 5 seconds. According to Ji Hoo, "F4's Casanova".

Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin

Their origin in the underground, his family now runs a prominent construction business. The family owns real estate throughout the country. He is also the very good friend of Yi Jung and a kind hearted person even though he is known as a playboy himself. Aside from his handsomeness, Woo Bin can talk American hip hop very well which, and adds a plus in his charms to the ladies. Sometimes, he is seen betting with Yi Jeong for cellphone numbers of various girls. Ji Hoo calls him "F4's Don Juan".

The Story

While delivering a student’s dry cleaning, Geum Jan Di saves the life of a student at the most prestigious school in Korea. Her actions soon become public and exposes the bullying within the school. To silence the public’s attention, Jan Di is offered a swimming scholarship to Shinhwa which she declines but her family forces her to attend.

During her first day at Shinhwa, Jan Di learns of the famous F4 and of the other students' adoration and fixation with the boys in the group. Gu Jun Pyo, Yoon Ji Hoo, So Yi Jung, and Song Woo Bin are the richest and most powerful kids within Shinhwa and Korea. Subsequently, they use their power to terrorize weaker students or those they do not like. Jan Di, instead of being impressed, becomes enraged and fantasizes about confronting Gu Jun Pyo, the leader and initiator of many of the bullying acts. She gains courage to confront him when a friend accidentally spills ice cream on his shoes and he demands the girl lick it off. Jan Di defends her friend and attempts to reason with Jun Pyo’s tyrannical demand. When he refuses to relent, Jan Di turns violent, knocking Jun Pyo to the ground. Engaged by this, Gu Jun Pyo declares war on Jan Di and encourages the other students to bully her. Jan Di, however, is resistant, refusing to apologize to Gu Jun Pyo, and stands by her decision to fight him.

Ironically, Gu Jun Pyo, having never been stood up to, begins to develop feelings for her. He tries unsuccessfully to woo her as she slowly begins to spend more time with Jun Pyo and his friends. Jan Di teaches Jun Pyo that money cannot buy everything and in order to have real friends, he himself must be real or use his heart, but Gu Jun Pyo still does not understand why someone like Jan Di should dislike him. As the story progresses, Jun Pyo falls deeper in love with Jan Di and she learns how to open herself to his love as well.

As love begins to blossom, Jun Pyo’s mother discovers them and deems it unsuitable. She does everything in her power to keep the two apart, even arranging a marriage for Jun Pyo. Other factors keep arising as another member of the group falls in love with Jan Di and in a twist of fate, Jun Pyo loses his memory. In the end, however, Gu Jun Pyo and Jan Di learn that love conquers all and that they are truly soul mates.

Differences from manga version

* In the manga, the characters are in high school in season 1, but F4 (minus Domyoji) attend Eitoku University in season 2. In the Korean version, the characters are also in high school, but the F4 move on to Shinhwa University from episode 13 onwards. Shinhwa High School and Shinhwa University are located within the same campus..
* The relationship between the two characters: Sojiroh and Yuki (also known as Yi Jung and Ga Eul in the Korean version) is merely hinted. But in the Korean version, the relationship between these two gradually develops throughout the series, having their own significant plotline instead of acting as a subplot.
* Ji Hoo has a more significant role in Jan Di's life than the Taiwanese and Japanese versions, more strongly depicted as a romantic companion for most of the drama.
* Woobin's family does not appear in this version, nor is he only interested in older women.
* How Jan Di came to attend the same school as F4 is changed completely. In the manga and Japanese version, Makino had admired Shizuka Todo being a student there, and worked hard to be accepted. Yet in the Korean version, Jan Di saves a student from committing suicide while delivering laundry (her family owns a dry-cleaning business), and she is given a scholarship to the school. Jan Di was also initially reluctant to attend, but complied because of the school swimming pool, another trait absent from the manga.

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