In the Kdrama, Boys Over Flowers, Ku Hye-sun plays friendly and kind Geum Jan-di who ends up at a high school for the very wealthy. The F4 (Flower 4), a tight knit group of four boys run the show at the school. The leader of the F4 is Goo Joon-pyo played by Lee Min-ho (The King: Eternal Monarch, Heirs/Inheritors), the heir to one of the largest corporations in South Korea. It’s Joon-pyo who spearheads the bullying of other students including Jan-di. Joon-pyo’s best friend is the soulful, stoic Yoon Ji-hoo, played by singer/song-writer Kim Hyun-joong. The F4 is rounded out by Kim Bum (Law School, Tale of the Nine Tailed) as So Yi-jung, a renowned potter and ladies’ man, and Kim Joon as Song Woo-bin, the heir to a Korean mafia family. Kim So-eun is Jan-di’s best friend Chu Ga-eul and is often brought along for adventures with Jan-di and the F4.
- Series Title: Boys Over Flowers (Korean: 꽃보다 남자)
- Starring: Ku Hye-Sun, Lee Min-ho, Kim Hyun Joong, Kim Bum and Kim Joon
- Written by: Yoon Ji-ryun
- Directed by: Jeon Ki-sang
- Network: KBS2
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
- Year Released: 2009
- # of episodes: 25
- KafeNook Rating: 4.7 sips
Boys Over Flowers Review – !!Spoilers Ahead!!
After watching The King: Eternal Monarch, I searched for other Lee Min-ho projects and kept coming across the 2009 Korean version of Boys Over Flowers. There are many versions of Boys Over Flowers including a more recent Chinese show called Meteor Garden, but most reviews I read indicated that Boys Over Flowers is the one to watch. The first time I tried to watch it, I got about 10 minutes in and stopped. The production seemed somewhat dated. A few weeks later, with only my IPAD available to watch shows, I went back to Boys Over Flowers. I figured the production value of the show wouldn’t suffer as much on a small screen. I’m glad I gave it another shot.
I have to admit that the bullying and abuse in the first few episodes were difficult to watch. However, there is something about Geum Jan-di and the F4 boys that, like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away from. I watched the entire series in four days and thought about the show for long after that- songs from the soundtrack playing over and over in my head. So what kept me thinking about this show? Here’s what I came up with.
A favorite book series – The Infernal Devices
My youngest daughter and I started reading the same young adult books when she was teenager. We have very similar tastes in books and enjoy sharing our love of books with each other. One of our favorite series is The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare – part of her Shadowhunter collection. The series takes place in 1878 at the London Shadowhunter Institute. It revolves around two young shadowhunters (people with angelic heritage who hunt demons), Will Herondale and James “Jem” Carstairs. Will and James are parbatai – a rare, ritual bond that enhances feelings of love and friendship. Tessa Grey, a teenage girl with a mysterious heritage, shows up at the London Institute needing help. Naturally, Will and Jem both fall for her.
Will has a secret that keeps him from revealing how much he cares for Tessa. Jem also has a secret related to his health but that doesn’t stop him from getting close to Tessa. Tessa comes to care for them both. She falls in love with Will but is conflicted by his behavior and as a result, ends up accepting a proposal from Jem. The Herondale genealogy provided in other books show that Tessa ends up with Will but the The Infernal Devices presents a convoluted and complicated road getting there. Will and Jem will do anything for each other including stepping aside to let the other have their happiness with Tessa. Each of the trio make sacrifices for one of the others – often with unintended results. The relationship between this trio in this series pretty much broke my heart because I knew that someone would lose out.
Back to Boys Over Flowers
The relationship between F4 leader, Joon-pyo, his best friend, Ji-hoo and heroin, Jan-di, reminds me of the aching three-some from The Infernal Devices: three characters who love, or come to love each other, but get hurt or hurt each other along the way. That is the central story of Boys Over Flowers that makes it worth watching.
The core events that occur between the brash Joon-pyo, the stoic Ji-hoo and the heart of gold Jan-di go something like this: Joon-pyo bullies Jan-di because she stands up to him. Ji-hoo comes to her rescue. Jan-di falls for Ji-hoo (her emergency bell), but he is in love with Min Seo-hyun, the woman who is like an older sister to him. When Seo-hyun leaves Korea, Jan-di encourages Ji-hoo to go after her. He follows Jan-di’s advice and in the process, Jan-di let’s go of her romantic feelings for him – her first love. This makes way for her to start developing feelings for Joon-pyo who has come to realize that he likes Jan-di exactly because she stands up to him.
Unfortunately, Joon-pyo’s mother does literally everything she can to keep Joon-pyo and Jan-di apart. Even though Joon-pyo tries to both protect and rescue Jan-di, he usually makes it worse for her. Ji-hoo, in the meantime is back in Korea haven given up his first love. Where Joon-pyo cannot protect or rescue Jan-di, Ji-hoo (or sometimes the remaining F3) step in. In the process, Ji-hoo develops feelings for Jan-di but he holds himself back because Joon-pyo is his best friend.
Boys Over Flowers Ending
When Ji-hoo proposes to Jan-di, it did not surprise me that Jan-di rejected his proposal because she can’t let her feelings go for Joon-pyo. My heart broke as, afterwards, Ji-hoo weeps in his grandfather’s clinic. Ultimately, the fortune teller’s somewhat confusing prophecy to Jan-di comes true. There are two men in her life – one who will be her husband and one who is her soul mate. In a voice over by Jan-di, we learn that she considers Ji-hoo, her emergency bell, to be her soul mate but (presumably) in a platonic way.
The show ends on a good note. Joon-pyo proposes but Jan-di initially rejects him and tells him that he needs to go out in the world and make himself worthy of her. Ji-hoo, who has always been worthy of her, has opened himself up because of his relationship with her. Jan-di made the biggest impact on Joon-pyo, however, and he is the one who grows the most because of it. Three years after Joon-pyo leaves – seemingly without being in contact with Jan-di (do they not have cell phones?) – Jan-di and Ji-hoo are going to medical school, showing that their friendship is as strong as ever. Joon-pyo returns after proving his worth to proposes again, only to have Jan-di’s response interrupted when the F3 arrive and say their approval is needed first. The artful ending of the five of them standing on the beach looking out at the ocean beautifully captured the core of the series.
Random Things I liked
Jan-di and Joon-pyo in the shed after he rescues her from the mountain. This is the first time they seem like a real couple and have a chance.
Pretty much every time a member of F4 is on screen – but especially when they are all together. They are simply walking pieces of art. The attention to detail on each F4 member — the clothing, the hair, and the jewelry – the way they carried themselves. Each member of F4 is distinct and unique. The sum of them is even better. No wonder this has been such a popular drama for so many years.
The wedding competition with Jan-di and Ji-hoo. They look fabulous together and its sweet how Ji-hoo obviously wants to kiss Jan-di when they were egged on by the crowd but its Jan-di who kisses him on the cheek.
Supporting Storylines
A nice relationship builds between potter, Yi-jung, and everyone’s best girlfriend Ga-eul. (Can I just say here that Kim Beum has one of the most incredible smiles I have ever seen. Holy cow!) In spite of Yi-jung being a ladies’ man, he always seems to be there for Ga-eul and treats her well. Ga-eul is down to earth and caring. When it becomes clear that she has feeling for Yi-jung, its heartbreaking to see that he is instead harboring feeling for a lost love who comes back into his life. He also explains his rules about not dating nice girls or his friend’s friends, both of which apply to Ga-eul. Deep down, though, Yi-jung doesn’t believe that he deserves someone with as pure a soul as Ga-eul.
There are some wonderful scenes of Ga-eul trying to determine the message that Yi-jung’s former love wanted to tell him. One of the best tear-jerker scenes in the show comes when she succeeds in finding it and after showing it to Yi-jung, he breaks down as he realizes that he missed his opportunity with his first love. By the final episode, when Yi-jung decides to leave the country for three years, he makes a promise to Ga-eul that she will be the first person he will look for when he gets back. (Seriously – no cell phones people?) When he does come back, he visits her in the classroom where she is teaching young children. It’s so cute how one of the kids blurts out that he is Ga-eul’s boyfriend. Clearly, Ga-eul has not lost her feelings for Yi-jung and has been talking about him to her students.
Best Tear-jerker Moments
Some of the best moments in Boys Over Flowers come between Ji-hoo and Joon-pyo when they talk about (or fight about) Jan-di:
- When Joon-pyo once again pushes Jan-di away in order to protect here, Ji-hoo has had enough and says “Because you were my friend, I gave in to you. Because she was my friend’s girl, I let her go. I gave you every opportunity until the very end. I’m not going to tolerate it any longer.”
- Ji-hoo approaches Joon-pyo standing by the pool and Joon-pyo tells Ji-hoo that he is his brother both in the past and in the future, but he can’t let Jan-di go. “Even though I always make things hard for her, I sometimes thought it might be better to let her go to you. I don’t even want to think about it but if I had to, I thought you should be the one. I thought I would only give her to you, Ji-hoo. ”
- Joon-pyo saves Ji-hoo from getting hit by a car and gets hit in the process. As he lays there, he says to Ji-hoo, “I told you so didn’t I. If not you, no one else.”
One of the hardest scenes on the heart happens after Jan-di lets herself have one last, perfect day with Joon-pyo, but then gets on a bus to leave him. She cries on the bus as he chases after. Joon-pyo then cries in the street as he realizes that she is leaving him forever. Sob.
Unanswered Questions
Where did the butler go? He disappears around episode 19 and is replaced by the “grandmother” we haven’t seen before. (Played by the exceptional Kim Young-ok). This seemed random. It would have been nice if grandma had been around from the beginning.
Boys Over Flowers Soundtrack
There were so many good songs on the original soundtrack for Boys Over Flowers. From this show, I discovered the music of Kim Hyun-joong (Ji-hoo) including one of his latest and most beautiful songs, My Sun (check out my review of the My Sun music video). From this soundtrack, I loved his song Because I’m stupid though it can be hard to find the acoustic version which my favorite parts. The song, Love You, by HowL is also a big winner.
