Boys Over Flowers

A woman at the library has become friends with me because we share the same taste in YA books.  Once a week she comes in, finds me in my office, and we share whether or not the books we read over the past few days were any good or not.  After establishing our bond, I introduced her to manga.  She was skeptical at first, then fell totally in love with it.

Last week she approached me with some trepidation and admitted that she was hooked on something new.  Korean TV dramas!  I was skeptical, but I found one that she recommended on Netflix.  I'm ten episodes into Boys Over Flowers (near as I can tell, that's the Korean equivalent of "bros before hos"), and I LOVE IT.

It's real actors, let me say that straight up so you can picture it correctly.  This show cracks me up.  Like, twice today I've cackled loudly at something ridiculous that Goo Jung Pyo does.  The premise is that there's this crazy rich school in Korea that is run by F4--four best friends who are the richest, handsomest, most athletic boys in the whole world.  They fly to islands that they own for the weekend.  If they dislike someone, they get the whole school to beat them up until they either commit suicide or quit the school.

It gets intense up in thur.

Enter our heroine!  A commoner who does something heroic while delivering laundry and is given a scholarship to the school.  She speaks her mind and stands up to F4, which makes them exert all their forces of hatred upon her.  But she doesn't back down!  And in fact karate kicks Goo Jung Pyo in the face!  Obviously, two of the group fall in love with her!

HAHAHAHA.  It's total fantasy, but I love it.

First Jan Di falls in love with the brooding guy who sits around contemplatively, being angsty and quiet.  Ugh.  He's so boring, and I hate him.

But Goo Jung Pyo has a huge crush on Jan Di, which she is not having.  He is the ultimate in spoiled little rich boys used to getting everything he wants.  I was not sure about the show until Goo Jung Pyo kidnapped Jan Di and spent $100,000 forcing a makeover on her.  He declared her pretty enough to date him after the transformation, and she promptly tore off the jewelry and scrubbed off the makeup and left him.  He couldn't understand why she was mad.

That is when I fell in love, both with Goo Jung Pyo and with the show at large.

Ten episodes in, they are in a weird relationship made of equal parts frustration and adoration.  For instance, there was a big misunderstanding and it ended up that Jan Di was in the wrong.

Jan Di:  I'm so sorry. 
Goo Jung Pyo:  Sorry isn't enough.  Otherwise there wouldn't be laws.
Jan Di:  Then what can I do?
Goo Jung Pyo:  Grant me three wishes!
Jan Di:  What!? No!
Goo Jung Pyo:  Yes, or we're breaking up.
Jan Di:  Fine.  ...But you have to think of them in one minute!
Goo Jung Pyo:  No!  That's not fair!
Jan Di:  One.  Two.  Three.
Goo Jung Pyo:  STOP.  Stop!
Jan Di:  Sixty.  Hah.

I love this show.  Banter and love/hate?  Two of my favorite things.