Boys Over Flowers
꽃보다 남자
Plot:
- Preposteriously handsome rich kid Jun-Pyo falls for spunky poor girl Jan-Di and the rest is history.
Cast:
Episodes:
- 101: Episode 01
The bullying at ShinHwa school has gotten completely out of hand. At the behest of the F4 "flower boys" (Jun-Pyo, Ji-Hu, Yi-Jung and Woo-Bin), the students have driven a rebel (Min-Ha) to near suicide. Jan-Di, a poor girl delivering Min-Ha's dry cleaning, saves him from his jump and is granted a swimming scholarship to the school. She develops a crush on sensitive musican Ji-Hu and a loathing towards the successor to the ShinHwa fortune, Jun-Pyo. Jun-Pyo deserves the scorn: he's smashed a cake into the face of one of his female admirerers, insisted that either Jan-Di or her friend Min-Ji lick ice cream off his expensive shoes and sicced three rape-minded boys on Jan-Di after her swimming practice.
- 102: Episode 02
Ji-Hu rescues Jan-Di (sort of) from the attempted rape. Jan-Di develops a crush on him, and while he's way cute and looks like Shaun Cassidy, he's also in love with an older woman, Seo-Hyun. He's so infatuated with Seo-Hyun that he hugs and caresses her bus stop poster. Weird. Meanwhile, Jun-Pyo is spreading rumors that Jan-Di's pregnant (she's never been kissed) , so she confronts him in front of F4 and delivers a smashing round-house kick to his face with her Doc Martens. Instant love. Jun-Pyo kidnaps Jan-Di, gives her a forced makeover and gallantly says that they can date after school only when no one else is around. Jan-Di storms out of his mansion. Jun-Pyo confronts her the next day ("What do you hate about me? I'm good-looking, tall, smart, rich" - dude's got a point), so she breaks down all the reasons she loathes him. This does not deter Jun-Pyo, who hijacks an entire class trip to Scandanavia to get closer to Jan-Di and her best friend, Ga-Eul. Ji-Hu joins them, with his crush Seo-Hyun in tow. Seo-Hyun invites everyone to her welcome back party and is an absolute sweetheart to Jan-Di, whose heart is broken.
- 103: Episode 03
Jan-Di dances with Ji-Hu, then saves Jun-Pyo from drowning (he can't swim), delivering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Uh-oh. Jun-Pyo is even more in love and fills her swimming pool with baby ducklings. The three evil wenches ("Ginger! Sunny! And Miranda!") sow dissent by snapping photos of Jan-Di apparently giving Ji-Hu a blowjob and sending them to Jun-Pyo. He confronts Jan-Di and tries to force her to kiss him. Not cool, dude. Both of them are invited to Seo-Hyun's birthday party, where she tells everyone that she's returning to France forever. Ji-Hu hunts down Seo-Hyun and they start making out, just when Jan-Di bursts in. Jun-Pyo, opportunistic lurker, whisks Jan-Di away to a bar, where she accidentally downs an entire glass of clear liquor. Seriously, girl, what's up with that? Water and vodka taste nothing alike. She flirts shamelessly with Jun-Pyo (oops) and vomits all over his lovely designer suit. He takes her to his mansion to sober up. The next morning, his psychotically evil mom, CEO extraordinaire, Hee-Soo, returns home. The F4 boys successfully hide Jan-Di (this time) and Jun-Pyo buys her swimming goggles at an auction (it's actually really sweet). Jan-Di begs Seo-Hyun to stay in Seoul for Ji-Hu's sake. Ji-Hu overhears this and walks away in disgust
- 104: Episode 04
Ji-Hu has a change of heart and follows Seo-Hyun to France. Jun-Pyo sents up a date with Jan-Di, but the time and location are drowned out. Instead of just asking him to repeat himself (seriously, just ask!), she forgets about the date until four hours in. He's still waiting. I'm not sure if they're both braindead right now. They get locked onto a viewing platform overnight and huddle together in the cold. Jun-Pyo takes a marker out and writes something on the cable car. We won't find out until a later episode, but it's a note saying that they slept together on that date. Heh. They sort of did. News of their date ("date") has hit the school and Jan-Di's friend Min-Ji is oddly quiet. She takes Jan-Di out for drinks and dancing and has her friend drug Jan-Di (seriously, hon, stop drinking random drinks!). Jan-Di wakes up in a strange hotel bed with tons of scandalous photos and a mysterious message ("Thank you for last night") written in lipstick on the mirror. Jun-Pyo goes ballistic, while F2 (Yi-Jung and Woo-Bin) team up with Jan-Di to try to figure out what really happened. It's weird. The school decides to throw a "tomato party" for Jan-Di, which isn't about pelting her with tomatoes, but about beating her up enough that she has red welts and scrapes like tomatoes all over her body. Jan-Di collapses, covered in blood, begging for help.
- 105: Episode 05
Jun-Pyo has figured out that it was Jan-Di's friend, Min-Ji, who arranged the scandalous photos and tomato party. Min-Ji was an ugly kid with a crush on Jun-Pyo, who underwent extensive plastic surgery to get him to like her. If she was really serious, she should have licked the ice cream off his shoes back in Episode 1. Jun-Pyo carries Jan-Di back to his mansion and tends her wounds. He tells the entire school that he's dating her and to mess with Jan-Di is to mess with him. Ji-Hu returns from France to object (jokingly, sort of, not really) about their relationship. In order to cheer her up and cement their new relationship, Jun-Pyo takes Jan-Di, her kinder friend Ga-Eul and the entire F4 gang to New Caledonia for a vacation. Probably should have left Ji-Hu behind. Just sayin' . Ga-Eul is developing romanting feelings for teen potter and ladykiller Yi-Jung and Jan-Di had a dream prediction about her future husband and her soulmate being two separate people. Uh-oh.
- 106: Episode 06
Jun-Pyo arranges lunch on the beach and bares his perfect chest and still Jan-Di is squeamish about making out with him. He doesn't take it seriously. Later, she almost drowns (!?!?!?) in a couple feet of water. Jun-Pyo stands helplessly by (he can't swim, even in two feet of water) as Ji-Hu rescues her. And this is the start of when I really started to dislike Jan-Di. Jun-Pyo plans a special dinner and (secretly) starts taking swimming lessons so that this never happens again. He gives Jan-Di an ankle bracelet ("Don't lose this!") which she promptly loses after spending the night comforting Ji-Hu. Jun-Pyo tries to give her the benefit of the doubt, but catches her kissing Ji-Hu the next night. He leaves the next day in a huff. And all of this reminds me of the line in Guys and Dolls: "Stick with me baby, I'm the fellow you came in with..." I know Jan-Di's young and never asked for Jun-Pyo to take her on vacation in New Caledonia, but he was footing the bill for her good time and it seems really lousy to make out with his best friend instead. Not cool, Jan-Di. Not cool. Also, it's never a chore to make out with a guy as fantastically good-looking as Lee Min-Ho
- 107: Episode 07
Jan-Di tries apologizing to Jun-Pyo back in Korea and runs into his knockout sister, Jun-Hee. Jun-Hee takes Jan-Di's side in the argument and forces Jun-Pyo to agree to a battle of sports with Ji-Hu to settle everything (Jun-Pyo wants to expel both Jan-Di and Ji-Hu from school for dating). Much sporty stuff occurs (Horseback racing! Car racing! ) before they end with the final swim relay (Jan-Di vs. Yi-Jung). The night before the swimming race, Jun-Pyo meets with Jan-Di and said he'd call it all off ("It's not too late. Just once...say that you like me. Just once"). She doesn't, and walks off. Race is on!
- 108: Episode 08
Jun-Pyo decides to be the larger party and cuts the lights at the end of the swim race, leaving the victor undecided. Jan-Di and Ji-Hu go on a date, but she starts to realize that she really misses dating Jun-Pyo. Sigh. And from here on out, Jan-Di is totally worthless. Gone is the spunky girl who kicked Jun-Pyo in the face for his bullying, and it's a crying shame. Pour one out for the old Jan-Di. Ji-Hu realizes that Jan-Di wants to be with Jun-Pyo so the F4 guys stage a "Jun-Pyo is dying! Tell him what you always wanted to!" hospital prank that actually works. Jun-Pyo and Jan-Di are dating again! Could have saved us all a lot of trouble, Jan-Di, if you had just thought this one through first. Jun-Pyo decides to spend the night with Jan-Di's entire family to celebrate, much to their (and his) absolute delight.
- 109: Episode 09
Jun-Pyo delights in regular household chores, including making kimchi and heading to the public bath house for cleaning. He devours his entire weight in grilled fishcakes and has a wonderful time. Which is good, since his thoroughly evil, batshit crazy mother is starting to get wise to his romantic attachment to Jan-Di. Things are going to turn very nasty very soon. In other news, Ga-Eul is on a double-date with Jan-Di & Jun-Pyo that goes spectacularly poorly. Enter ladykiller Yi-Jung to save Ga-Eul's dignity and kindle a fierce crush in her that will last the rest of the season. You go, girl. You're my new Jan-Di.
- 110: Episode 10
A strange gentleman visits the congee shop where Jan-Di and Ga-Eul work. Unbeknownst to them, this is the former president of Korea and Ji-Hu's estranged grandfather. He's a jerk about the food, but ends up being a really cool guy, so I'm not sure why the fake-out here and why no one recognizes him. It's like if Bill Clinton walked into your restaurant and you just thought he was another cranky customer. In other news, Jan-Di and Ga-Eul make chocolates for their respective boyfriends. Jan-Di makes Jun-Pyo enter a dating contest for a cell phone at his family's hotel. His mother is not amused. Ga-Eul delivers chocolates to Yi-Jung, who is on a date with two other women (Jan-Di - take note!). He tells her, kind of meanly, to leave them on the table with the rest of the gifts and then tells her he never dates nice girls. Jun-Pyo's mom, who I'm going to start calling Madame Kang, visits Jan-Di's family and offers them $300,000 (or more) if Jan-Di stops dating her son. Jan-Di's mom refuses the offer (she thinks the marriage would be worth more) and dumps salt on Madame Kang. Bad move. Really, really bad move. Jan-Di's family loses their dry cleaning business and are forced to sell snacks by the roadside to cars to make ends meet. Madame Kang brings her son by to see the humiliation, but it fails when Jun-Pyo exits the car, runs to Jan-Di and kisses her in front of everyone. Thugs come by (possibly because of Madame Kang, possibly not) and trash the rest of the snack stand, leaving the family without a second job. Jan-Di takes on a handful of other jobs to make ends meet, but they're taking a toll on her, physically.
- 111: Episode 11
Boys Over Flowers - you crazy, crazy show! Jan-Di follows up a lead on a modeling gig and ends up at a sleazy photographer's home studio with bondage bears and an equally lecherous assistant. About the time she's cowering on the bed, minutes away from molestation, her saviour bursts in - a famous model and bespectacled student at her school called Jae-Ha. She steals his ramen and bonds with him over the mean kids in school. They both get red letters from F4 (hmm) and are both almost killed by the F4 guys (double hmm). Instead of just checking with F4 to see what's up, she takes Jae-Ha's side and goes on a modeling gig with him, where they're dressed up as sexy vampire and victim. It's kind of awesome. The sexy model pictures annoy Jun-Pyo, who's beats up Jae-Ha (not the face, Jun-Pyo! As one male model to another, you should know - never punch the face!). Jan-Di is gassed out and taken (abducted) to Jae-Ha's fancy apartment. Turns out he was working with Madame Kang *and* he's the brother of the suicidal guy Min-Ha from the first episode (same actor). He really wants Jan-Di to fall in love with him, but will settle for forced sex. When that doesn't work, he drugs her, ties her up in a desolate warehouse and sends a letter with her lock of hair to Jun-Pyo to meet them there. A fine, sleazy episode!
- 112: Episode 12
Jun-Pyo enters the warehouse and gets the crap beaten out of him by Jae-Ha and his disgruntled thugs. Jan-Di throws herself over Jun-Pyo just as a chair breaks over the both of them. The rest of the F4 gang takes care of the gang, but the damage is already done. While Jan-Di and Jun-Pyo recover in the hospital, Jan-Di's mom pays Madame Kang a visit, dumping salt on herself and taking the bribe. Jan-Di returns the money to Madame Kang and asks if you can put a price on love. F4 takes Jan-Di and Ga-Eul skiing and Jun-Pyo gives Jan-Di a special necklace: a moon inside a star - one of a kind. It's promptly stolen by the three wicked wenches,and Jan-Di freezes on the slopes looking for it. Jun-Pyo rescues her, finds an abandoned cabin and waits out the the winter storm with her, sharing a sweet, semi-naked kiss. The next day, she makes him an adorable lunch box, but he never shows. Ji-Hu swings by to tell her that Jun-Pyo's dad collapsed in Bejing and it's pretty serious. They rush to the airport, but the plane has already left. Jun-Pyo texts her: "I'll return, no matter what. Just stay there and wait for me."
- 113: Episode 13
Six months have passed, and there's still no news from Jun-Pyo. His father has died (or has he? more on that later) and he's taken over the ShinHwa dynasty. Ji-Hu has given her mom a job at his symphony as a cleaner, but wants to keep it a secret from Jan-Di. Jan-Di 's shoulder is getting worse - turns out having a chair break over your back protecting your boyfriend isn't great for your bones. She's told she'll never be able to swim again.The F3 boys hold a ceremony for her swimming skills. Learning that Jun-Pyo will be in Macau, Jan-Di decides to save money for a ticket to visit him. Er, might not be the best idea. She flies to Macau and isn't allowed to see Jun-Pyo. While out shopping, she runs into the adorable and awesome Jae-Kyung, who protects her from pick-pocketers and bonds with her. Jan-Di finally manages to see Jun-Pyo, who recognizes her... and completely ignores her. Despondent, she wanders the streets of Macao and gets her luggage stolen... only to be saved by the remainder of the F3 guys. Turns out Woo-Bin's ties to the mafia through his father comes in quite handy in Macao.
- 114: Episode 14
Jun-Pyo continues to ignore Jan-Di, even to the F3 guys. F3 takes Jan-Di out for hide-and-seek in Macao, but that only makes her gloomier. As a favor to Ji-Hu, Jun-Pyo meets Jan-Di on a bridge and tells her that he views her as an obnoxious stain that needs to be removed. Jerk. But it's all a big fake-out - Jun-Pyo is trying to put his mom off his scent. Could have just told Jan-Di. He meets cute with the awesome Jae-Kyung while buying shoes for Jan-Di, and, seriously, these two have some sparkling chemistry together. I'm now supporting Jan-Di/Ji-Hu and Jun-Pyo/Jae-Kyung as official romantic pairings.
- 115: Episode 15
Everyone returns to Seoul and pretends nothing's wrong. Madame Kang invites Jan-Di to Jun-Pyo's birthday party (whub-whoah), and makes Jan-Di play the piano and sing for the birthday boy. Very Pride and Prejudice of her! Jan-D sings beautifully and Madame Kang, unsettled, announces the engagement of her son Jun-Pyo to Jae-Kyung, much to everyone's surprise and dismay. She knows how to throw one hell of a birthday party, that Madame Kang.
- 116: Episode 16
Turns out that the adorabe Jae-Kyung actually likes Jun-Pyo and wants Jan-Di to be happy for both of them. She's clueless, but harmless and I think it's a less toxic relationship than Jun-Pyo and Jan-Di has been. I am in the minority, though, and everyone who is in love moons over the one they can't have.
- 117: Episode 17
Jae-Kyung has invited Ji-Hu and Jan-Di out on vacation with her and Jun-Pyo to celebrate their engagement. Jan-Di falls sadly into the hotel pool and sinks to the bottom. Jun-Pyo saves her, but she drops her beloved one-of-a-kind necklace, which Jae-Kyung picks up. She's starting to put everything together.
- 118: Episode 18
Jan-Di's parents have moved to a small fishing village, leaving her and her brother to fend for themselves. Is this something that's done a lot in Korea? City Hunter also has a plot line where a parent abandons their kids to find a better living elsewhere. Jae-Kyung is putting on a good face with the Jan-Di/Jun-Pyo news. Meanwhile, hot potter Yi-Jung and best friend Ga-Eul are sort of falling in love, much to their denial and dismay.
- 119: Episode 19
Everyone has a great time decorating Jan-Di's rooftop apartment, up until the time that Madame Kang decides to bulldoze it down. Madame Kang just sucks.
- 120: Episode 20
Jan-Di is homeless in Seoul. Instead of living with any of the Flower Boys, she stays up all night and faints in the road. Seriously, Jan-Di, you kicked Jun-Pyo in the face for much, much less. Jun-Hee sees her and takes her to the mansion. Refusing charity housing (?!?!), Jan-Di insists on working as maid... for Jun-Pyo. This is cuter than it sounds.
- 121: Episode 21
Jan-Di and Jun-Pyo continue to hang out together under the disguise as servant and master. Jae-Kyung is starting to settle on a date for marriage to Jun-Pyo
- 122: Episode 22
The wedding day is here! Jun-Pyo is desperately trying to figure out how to get out of the wedding and Jan-Di... is doing not a goddamned thing to stop it. Finally Jae-Kyung calls the whole thing off, saying she's not ready to settle down yet (although really it's for Jun-Pyo and Jan-Di's sake). Classy move, sister! Jan-Di and Jun-Pyo go on a date with a small boy to celebrate.
- 123: Episode 23
Madame Kang is pissed off at the dissolution of a highly favorable wedding and partnership, so she starts going after Jan-Di's friends. You think it wouldn't be so easy to take down the former president of Korea and his non-profit foundation, but apparently it is. This is the final straw for Jan-Di, who strikes a deal with Madame Kang, goes on a single perfect date with Jun-Pyo, and breaks up with him forever, returning to the small fishing village where her mom and brother live.
- 124: Episode 24
Jun-Pyo, heartbroken, finds out that his dad has been alive and in a coma all this time and that Madame Kang was keeping him hidden from the public. Ji-Hu finds out where Jan-Di has fled to, and tries to convince her to move back to Seoul. A disgruntled ShinHwa worker tries to run over Ji-Hu, thinking he's Jun-Pyo, but Jun-Pyo jumps in the way and is badly injured. Madame Kang starts rethinking her awful, awful ways.
- 125: Episode 25
Final Episode Amnesia! What are the odds? Jun-Pyo doesn't remember a damn thing about Jan-Di and the thought that they might end the series this way tickles me to the extreme. But it was not to be. I mean, final episode, right? Jan-Di triggers Jun-Pyo's memory by sinking to the bottom of his swimming pool... and just staying there before he dives in and rescues her. Memory restored! She graduates high school and three years pass before they all meet up again, ready to take up their romance where it left off. Happy endings all around (except for Ji-Hu... and Jae-Kyung... and Min-Ji... and is Madame Kang really O.K. with all of this now?!)
Thoughts:
- Filmed at Yangpyeong Camp, where BTS's War of Hormone will later film
- Based on manga Hana Yori Dango
- Also known as Boys Before Flowers
- Same storyline as Taiwan's Meteor Garden (2001) and Shanghai's Meteor Garden (2018)
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