Boys Over Flowers is a 2009 Korean drama staring Gu Hye Seon, Lee Min Ho, Kim Hyun Joong, Kim Bum, and Kim Joon. It is one of a handful of adaptations of the manga Hana Yori Dango written by Yoko Kamio.
It follows the character Geum JanDi who is given a scholarship to an exclusive school for privileged children from rich families after she saves a student who was bullied to almost commit suicide.
She tried to stay under the radar as four of the richest kids, Goo JoonPyo, Yoon Ji Hoo, So Yi Jung, Song Woo Bin, decide who gets bullied. Until her friend accidentally falls and drops ice cream on the shoes of Gu JunPyo, the leader of the group known as F4. She stands up to him and gets "the red card".
Gu JunPyo is angry and wants to force JanDi to quite the school so he gets different students to bully her in a variety of ways. She perseveres and finally confronts him putting him in his place and inadvertently makes him fall in love with her.
Being that he is the heir of a major conglomerate his mother will not allow him to be with her and makes things difficult for her by putting obstacles in her way and causing JanDi's parents to lose their business and eventually move in with relatives in a fishing village.
This is far from the evil that Chairwoman Kang commits just to prevent her son's interactions with a lowly common girl.
There are love triangles and intrigue.
This series has 25 episodes, each just over an hour long. I have seen most of the first episode of the Japanese version and think the Korean one is much better (better acting, better actors and better writers). From some of what I have read about the book this version sticks more closely to the original with minor variations. Since I have not yet looked for the book series I'm unsure of exactly how close the Korean adaptation is.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this series and highly recommend you watch it.
I know the last time I reviewed an Asian drama I mentioned another Zhou LuSi series and that is coming soon.
