No.of Epis: 25Year/TV Station: 2009/KBS
Cast:
Koo Hye Sun ~ Geum Jan Di
Lee Min Ho ~ Goo Joon Pyo
Kim Hyun Joong ~ Yoon Ji Hoo
Kim Bum ~ So Yi Jung
Kim Joon ~ Song Woo Bin
Kim So Eun ~ Chu Ga Eul
Lee Min Jung ~ Ha Jae Kyung
Kim Hyun Joo ~ Goo Joon Hee
Han Chae Young ~ Min Seo Hyun
Synopsis: (edited from Dramawiki)
Jan Di is an average girl whose family owns a dry cleaning store located near the luxurious and well known Shin Hwa College. Jan Di meets the four richest and most spoilt boys known as the F4. After saving a boy from jumping off the balcony in Shinhwa High School, she is admitted into the school on a swimming scholarship. Jan Di tries to avoid confrontation with F4 at all cost because she knows what happens to those that stand against them. However, when Jan Di's friend, Oh Min Ji, accidentally dirtied the leader of the F4's shoes, she's forced to declare war on the leader of the F4, Goo Joon Pyo.
Slacker's review:
The Korean F4s are creating a storm asiawide. (It's coming to Channel U soon.) Anyway, this would be my last F4 drama after watching the Taiwanese and Japanese versions. The storyline was slightly different as compared to Tw & Jpn versions, but the ending was still the same. So don't worry if you're sick of the story, there would be "new incidents" that happened to or b/w the characters. Basically, I welcomed the changes, but the screenwriter seemed to focus more on Ji Hoo on the later part, with him showing his feelings to Jan Di, while Joon Pyo seemed to be secondary. I personally felt that the screenwriter shld remain focus on Jan Di & Joon Pyo instead. Ji Hoo should be reserved with his feelings and continued to support his buddy, instead of confessing to Jan Di, and indirectly competing with Joon Pyo when the couple couldn't get together. The plot was moving quite fast in the first few epis, and because of that, there's a lack of chemistry b/w the F4s. The bond b/w the 4 of them was highly lacking. Luckily, things picked up as the drama moved on. Yi Jung & Ga Eul's romance plot was also quite different from other versions. The couple were given more focus too, and I liked how their stories developed. There was more details of Ji Hoo & Yi Jung's family background, which I think the other versions didn't include. Overall, the plot was rather balanced in various aspects.
Koo Hye Sun was the most experienced actress among the main cast, and she's older than the 4 guys. I have no problem with her acting, though she had to act exaggerated with her expressions. KHS's version of "Makino" was the only one without long hair, but I liked to see her in short hair as KHS looked younger with it. Her chemistry with the cast was great, though initially, I thought it was too fast for Joon Pyo to be interested in Jan Di, as the plot progressed too fast. (Their chemistry have not built up...)
Lee Min Ho was surprisingly good for his role. His acting was natural and convincing. He did a nice job when doing emotional scenes, and his expressions were vivid. He is probably my favourite guy for the role "Domyoji". Joon Pyo's hairstyle was curly most of the time, and I still wondered why Jerry Yan's version couldn't do the same? Haha! LMH with KHS was great, though their sweet love scenes seemed abit lacking? (Can't get enough la~) I liked to see Joon Pyo bickering with Jae Kyung too...what a surprised.
Kim Hyun Joong seemed to be the weakest link among F4. His acting was very raw, but he had improved alot as the drama progressed. KHJ was quite perfect as Ji Hoo la, got those emo look on his face. I didn't expect much of him since he's a singer, but anyway, I liked Ji Hoo after KHJ's acting was on the track. Hehe! Though I didn't like how Ji Hoo progressed on the later part of the drama, I thought he's was a great support for Jan Di. KHJ's chemistry with KHS was equally good too.
Kim Bum was the most well-known actor among the four, but sadly he wasn't cast as the main characters here. Kim Bum looked very boyish as compared to the rest, but I think he managed to pull it off. His performance was not bad, though I thought he didn't handle some emotional scenes well enough. Chemistry with Kim So Eun was great, and this couple was as interesting as Di-Pyo. There's more focus on Yi Jung's family background, and his first love. I thought it's a nice development for the character la.
I didn't know who Kim Joon was before the drama, so he's another singer from another kpop group. Woo Bin was probably "left out" in the sense that all the versions didn't focus on him. His scenes were very few compared to the other F3s. Anyway, his performance was alright for a newbie.
Kim So Eun and Lee Min Jung were the next-most-impt female cast after KHS. I thought their acting was great too. KSE was a very sweet-looking girl, and I liked her scenes with Kim Bum. LMJ's Jae Kyung was irritating at first, but she's really a nice girl deep down la. Couldn't hate her afterall. Lolz!
Nice to see the inclusion of A-listers, such as Kim Hyun Joo & Han Chae Young, though their characters were not that important.
And thumbs up to the support cast. Joon Pyo's mum was really evil. As for Jan Di's family, they were alright, but definitely not as funny as the tw version.
BOF got two & a half OSTs, and many songs were from Kpop groups. Theme song was "Paradise" by T-Max (which Kim Joon belongs to), and there were many nice insert songs, such as "Because I'm Stupid" & "Making A Lover" by SS501 (which Kim Hyun Joong belongs to); "Stand By Me" by SHINee; "Say Yes"& "Fight the Bad Feeling" by T-Max; "Yearning Heart" by A'ST1; "Love is Fire" by Kara etc.
Well, I didn't do much comparisons with other versions this time round, but personally I enjoyed the Korean version more than the Japanese one. Though the Taiwan version had problems with acting and stuffs, the drama was still an enjoyable one, as I preferred the development of the tw plot, and the OST was a classic too.
