of Rain/Bi (the lead actor of the series), nor any of the other actors/actresses, despite their being all cute and funny and talented. I guess,
For one, it's the only drama I've seen that's very much
character-driven. I mean, a lot of dramas have great characters, but most of their stories move because of the
events happening around--character
death,
burglary, or the ever-present revenge-seeking manipulative
antagonists. This had none of those things. Maybe hints of them every now and then, but it was
overall really only about the main characters, and nothing else.
Earlier this week, a friend was telling me why he liked
Meteor Garden more than any other drama--because the story never lost
focus on the relationship between Dao Ming Sz and San Cai, he said that because all the events were related on making/breaking their
relationship, and it didn't have those long annoying
conflicts involving the
other characters that weren't really needed, well then, that was just
great.
I
agreed of course, he wasn't talking about
Meteor Garden II after all, but it got me to thinking while I was watching this drama, how, there was hardly any (if there were any at all) scene
without at least one of the main characters in it. I was actually reminded of how in
Dawson's Creek there would be some episodes where Dawson would only appear for 2 minutes of the whole hour that it was playing.
And then my
sister said something while she was watching some parts--she noticed how
excessive the number of scenes were where Young-jae and Ji-Eun were
eating at the dining table, and how many times both of them had to
wait for the other outside the house they lived in. She said, "
It's several episodes of the exact same scenes."
I suppose she said it as
criticism to the series, but I actually saw it as a
good thing. Because despite the events being the same:
1)
Young-jae would tell Ji-Eun they'd have dinner;
2)
Hye-won would call Young-jae and he'd rush to her;
3)
Ji-Eun would get stood up, but Min-hyuk would ask her out the next day;
4)
Min-hyuk would make Young-jae jealous and he'd ask Ji-Eun to have dinner with him again
Well, their dialogue are always
different, you find out something
new about the characters, and that's how the story actually moves. You had to have seen how
many times Ji-Eun had to wait for Young-jae, to understand how Young-jae's feelings for her
developed, and why she felt so appreciated when Min-hyuk was around. And you had to have seen how much Young-jae would also wait, to
understand why Ji-Eun still likes him, even if he was treating her badly.
I think it's really
impressive how the writers were able to get the characters to not get together for so long a time, despite their lives already being "routine". It was so great how, it wasn't
obvious at a
ll when one of them fell for the other such that when they'd
first said "I love you," the scenes were actually
relevant, and not just something to get over with.
Anyway, I won't explain any more details and
please don't tell me all about how it was so
unlikely that they sat beside each other in the plane, because if Young-jae really was a famous actor, he'd probably be beside a manager or a bodyguard, or all the other
flaws of the drama.
Nothing is perfect, and I never said this was. I guess, all I'm saying is that, I am deliriously happy, that this was
not something that
disappointed me, because, well, that kind of thing's hard to find nowadays, right?
the reason why I absolutely loved it was because it had the elements of a good show, and it was unlike most of the dramas around.
