BE WARNED THAT THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS
SYNOPSIS: The story centers around a group called the F4, they are four rich young men, who enjoy all the finer things in life and know nothing of the struggles of the common people. Enter Geum Jan Di, after saving the life of a student at the renowned Shinhwa High School where all the rich people send there kids. Jan Di is given a scholarship to attend Shinhwa High School. There she meets the F4, Yoon Ji Hoo, So Ee Jung, Song Woo Bin and their leader Goo Jun Pyo. At first Jun Pyo tries he's best to make Jan Di leave school after she stands up to him. However slowly he finds himself falling in love with her, the only problem is that Jan Di has started to fall for Yoon Ji Hoo.
MAIN CHARACTERS:
Koo Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di [Jan Di is a normal girl who finds herself thrust into a world of the rich and famous and no quite sure what to do with herself. At first she is a butt kicking girl who stands up for what she believes and refuses to let the F4 bully others. However after she gets to know the F4, I find that her character becomes really dependent on them way to much, especially Ji Hoo. She also has a very odd love-hate relationship with Jun Pyo.]
Lee Min Hoo as Goo Jun Pyo [Jun Pyo grew up never knowing the word "No" everything he has ever wanted he's gotten. The only thing his life seems to lack is a supportive and loving family. He really is a child in a man's body at first, however after certain serious events his character matures.]
Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo [Ji Hoo is very talented musically, however he lacks warmth in his personality and never really opens up to other people. That changes when Jan Di comes and begins to help break him away from his icy ways. He eventually falls in love with Jan Di, however he is willing to not pursue her as a favor to his best friend Jun Pyo.]
Kim Bum as So Yi Jung [A handsome pottery making playboy, Yi Jung always seems to have a new woman on his arm. However he does care deeply for his friends, and through a course of chance meetings begins to have feeling for Jan Di's friend Ga Eul.]
Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin [The fighter of the F4, he has connection to the underground and always has thugs ready at his disposal. He is a very underutilized character who unfortunately is given very little back story or love interest.]
SUPPORTING CAST:
Kim So Eun as Cha Ga Eul [Ga Eul is Jan Di's best friend and works with her at the porridge shop. She often finds herself being dragged along with Jan Di whenever the F4 wants to go somewhere and she often helps the F4 out when they are trying to better Jan Di and Jun Pyo's relationship. She is very innocent yet wise girl, and frankly her relationship with Yi Jung is by far the healthiest in the whole series.]
Kim Hyun Joo as Goo Jun Hee [Jun Hee is Jun Pyo's older sister, she loves her brother very much and is a big supporter of Jun Pyo and Jan Di's relationship. She helps the two of them fight against her mother, hoping to prevent Jun Pyo from being forced into a loveless marriage like she was.]
Lee Hye Young as Kang Hee Soo [She Jun Pyo's mother and is also the chairman of Shinhwa company. She despises the fact that Jun Pyo would like a poor nameless girl like Jan Di and does every thing in her power to separate the two. The vast majority of problems the main characters face stem from something caused by her.]
Lee Min Jung as Ha Jae Kyung [She is the wealthy daughter of the a company which Chairman Kang wishes to form an alliance with the Shinhwa group. Jae Kyung actually meets Jan Di by chance and the two hit it off. Jae Kyung is forced into an arranged marriage with Jun Pyo at first, however after a while she begins to form feelings for him she is all for the marriage even though she know that Jun Pyo does not love her.]
ACTING:
The acting was hit and a miss, Lee Min Ho deserves a lot of credit, he manages to really show his characters inter-struggle and express his sadness and love very well. However Koo Hye Sun really seemed to be lacking for me, I felt like at first she was on the right path, acting righteous and self assured, and its like permeant depression stayed over her character the rest of the show which really did not give her character much depth. At first Kim Hyun Joong I found disappointing, however as he character slowly became a more open and loving person (and he smiled more) I changed my opinion and I would he actually did quite well. Kim Bum and Kim Joon were great at their parts I have no complaints. Also Lee Hye Young as Jun Pyo's mother was brilliant I really hated her character so she portrayed her well.
PLOT OVERVIEW:
The plot really was one big mess, honestly the show should have been just fifteen episodes at the most twenty, but by making it twenety-five episodes they ended up having way to many internal plots that they would start and never finish.
For those who don't know, whenever I watch a k-drama I have a note pad next to me and each episode I will write little comments about what I like and don't like. The very first thing I wrote was how I liked that Jan Di was going to be a strong female lead, boy could I have not been more wrong. The second Jun Pyo left the country she lost all character depth and was then left with the fate of being a character who constatnly had to rely on Ji Hoo, and even worse the fact that Ji Hoo really never gets over that he's in love with Jan Di is just torture. Mainly because (as I know many people think this way) that Jan Di and Ji Hoo seem like they would make a much better couple. However I think that's only because they 1. Spend more time together and 2. Act lovingly towards one another. With Jun Pyo and Jan Di it's like the first half of the show Jan Di hates Jun Pyo so whenever he tries to be nice to her or be romantic she shots him down, and then the second half of the show is Jan Di loving Jun Pyo and Jun Pyo acting indifferent towards her and it gets so damn annoying.
Also what is with the randomly having half the cast of supporting/minor characters just disapear. For instants, the Master at the porridge shop, Jan Di's father, the trio of mean girls, Butler Lee, Min Seo Hyun(Ji Hoo's first love). Many of these characters just never show up again, some are kind of given a reason for leaving, however they way they portray it makes with seem like there was a fight with the writers or director and so they just replaced them with someone more famous or no one at all.
Ok so here are the last of my random observations, 1. If she first got to attend school under a swimming scholarship, then won't she not be able to attend anymore if she can't swim. 2. It's not played up in the drama but in the manga Ji Hoo has a fear of driving cars since the accident yet he's shown driving a car very early on in the series. However when it comes time for him to race Jun Pyo they end up making it a big deal like he's afaird to drive out of the blue. 3. Honestly I feel like Jun Pyo put a lot more time and effort into the relationship then Jan Di, it really does seem odd that she says she like him so much yet they did not have all that many times together when they weren't fighting with each other. 4. I really hated the appearance of so many "Love Rivals" I can bear the men who chase after Jan Di, however adding Ha Jae Kyung and later Jang Yu Mi (chic from the hospital) just made two many problems, I really wished they would have just focused on the lead couple standing up and fighting against his mom. 5. Also to have Jun Pyo go from completely ignoring her and telling her their whole relationship was a lie and then to turn around and pretty much act like nothing happen when he got back to Korea made no sense. 6. Losing his memory of her at the end was way over the top and totally not needed. 7. There was no point in her meeting Jun Pyo's dad since they never ended up interacting with each other.
ENDING:
I really didn't like the ending I felt like it left so many thing unresolved, which for a twenty-five episode show that should never happen. The show should have ended with her graduating from med school, him purposing, and them getting married. Instead they make seem like she will flunk out of med school they don't even get to get married, and Ga Eul and Yi Jung never even got to kiss. Also I had hoped they would have at least shown that Ji Hoo got over his feelings of love for Jan Di and only wanted to look after her as an older brother, yet they left the poor guy without a love interest and still looking very much in love with her. Also did anyone else feel like his mother got off way to easy, because I certainly did.
SOUNDTRACK:
The soundtrack at the beginning of the show made me want to pull my hair out, I swear if I hear Paradise one more time i'm going to lose it! It got better in the second half of the series when they started adding in ballads. But I swear just to piss me off they had to add Paradise in at the last seconds of the last episode.
RATING:
Ok time to rate this, now when I rate a show I try and be completely objective and look at the show for its many different elements. So on a scale from 1 to 10 with on being the worst drama i've ever seen and 10 being a show I could watch ever day of my life I have to give it a 6. I really felt that Jan Di's character went from being a strong willed woman who protected those who were being taken advantage of, to a really weak character who had to have other fight her battles. Also the constant "I love you, then I hate, and then I love you again" between Jun Pyo and Jan Di was just to much to bare, and lastly not giving a satisfying ending for all the main characters really bugged me.
As always I encourage everyone to form their own opinion about a show or movie, these are simply my views and reflections of what I felt about this drama.
love u junpyo.................. <3 <3 <3
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