Lazy Unnie’s Couch: F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers

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If you are an Asian drama watcher, there is no way you haven’t heard of Boys Over Flowers. It is such a staple that I’m pretty sure that it will have an adaptation in every country by the time I’m 60. This year it was Thailand’s turn and I have to say that they really took the mantle. This was my third adaptation to watch and I have to say that it was my favorite. The story was the same; poor girl basically infiltrating the rich and elite circle that is known as F4 and the mean leader falls head over heels and starts to change for her. Throw in some typical soap opera plot twists like an arranged marriage, a couple of love triangles and a disapproving mother. All of that was still in this version but let me tell you what I think worked and didn’t.

For one, gone is the horrible hair of Lee Min Ho and Dylan Wang. Thailand’s F4 was stylish and you really could tell that they were the rulers of the school. Also, the cinemtography of this wasn’t cheesy. Everything looked super sexy and really made you see the stark differences between that world and Gorya’s world. Speaking of Gorya, I loved her. Until I didn’t. In the beginning, she was amazing. You really got a sense that she gave no fucks about these rich kids. But as the show went on, all she did was scream and fight with Thyme. And honestly, even till the end I didn’t believe she loved Thyme at all but that is more about their chemistry. Which she definitely had with the second lead, Ren. I loved the dynamic between all the F4 members with each other and mostly with Gorya but I just couldn’t believe the love with her and Thyme.

Another difference that I thought that made this show stand out amongst the others was their version of the red card bullying. It was so visious that it made it believeable that it would drive someone to kill themselves. It felt darker and gave the show a bit of an edge. It was uncomfortable but good drama. For most of the show I was rocking with it. But by the time we got three-quarters in, it started to lose steam and a lot of things were unanswered. I loved how evil Thyme’s mother was and she legit went way beyond any other of the evil moms but by the end, I didn’t really see her end game. It all got muddled with her need to control Thyme’s life. By the end, I was just pushing through episodes to see how all this would end.

Even though I went into this knowing how it would all end, a lot of the time I was wishing they would switch something up. I was over the weak chemistry between Thyme and Gorya and the overkill of product placement. The shallow bitch in me loved this because all of F4 was doing it for me but from a story point of view, it didn’t bring all new things to the table but it was smart to make it not last 20 million episodes like its predecesors.