Jardín de meteoros (2018)

Was nice but extremely long

I watched this series many years ago. I have heard of Meteor Garden, but never watched the original one. This is my 1st Meteor Garden series watching. Firstly, I would have to say, I extremely love the soundtrack / OST of this series. They are indeed beautifully paired with the movie. Next, the casts all did a very good job including all the main actors and actresses. Length wise, I would say that the 50 episodes are very very long, especially the "remembering the past" bits, after a while gets quite tiresome. The "drama" is also quite the killer, sometimes I feel like dragging that rich woman (DMS's mom)'s hair just to torture her xD It is definitely good to watch at least once, but ..... rewatch? I would think twice.... if I would want to go thru all the unnecessary drama, long windedness etc ;)

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Surprising Great

I was surprised when China took on the re-make of this Drama. I literally watched all the versions out there. Surprisingly in my opinion this was the best version out of all of them. One can argue that the male leads behavior exhibits violence, anger and cruelty. But have in mind, this is just one of the most common traits in behavior in manga's and dramas. It's one of those common school dramas. In this one it it starts off with your happy go lucky main girl who starts college with her friends. She ends up have a bad first meeting with the male lead and lands herself out of favor with the male lead of the F4. She ends up with common the red card notice. The male lead exhibits his cruel bullying behavior, especially towards the main girl who challenges him. But in this version, it's more watered down compared to the Korean and Japanese version. She later on shows him that she's not going to take his crap and high kicks his face which triggers the 'oh she's different and interesting.' Proceeds to be in denial at first but realizes he actually likes her. One of the common manga storylines of a love hate relationship. Every version has their own way of telling the story, but it was refreshing that instead of going with the cheesy high school start, they went with college, a more appropriate setting for the mature like content. For me it helped with all the adult themes that the F4 were exhibiting with the drinking, women, etc. Also in this version, the students were different, just more indifferent and less toxic which was more logical . Overall the the characters fit their age, progressively matures and have good endings. A couple things for me to pick on was the picking of the same few songs going on over and over for 50 episodes. A few sung by the male cast. They were good, but used too much. There could have been more neutral music for the mood direction of parts. Another is I wish the main girl had a bit more justice like the Japanese version 'Hana Yori Dango.' Overall, this drama is my favorite version. I'm sure many can disagree or might enjoy it, but that's why we all have our own opinions of favorites. I hope you take a chance to watch and judge it for yourself and if you don't like it, that's fine. Enjoy.

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Simple, feel-good generic university love

I watched this in a few days as background while studying and I enjoyed it because for most of the time it's pretty simple so you don't have to stay 100% concentrated at all times.

Plot is rather simple and typical. I'm not going to lie, it was a bit slow in the beginning as expected and the conflicts were the same over and over again until episode 30 I would say. Got a bit tiring after a while, but it slowly got better and the characters started to grow on me too, although I originally really found Si rather despicable. I did however fully enjoy the small side plots and the backstories of Lei, Meizuo and Ximen. Xiaoyou is the sweetest character too! Really like Jing and Xiaogeng as well!

Not the best, and you could definitely skip it, but it's still rather sweet and feel-good. I do not regret finishing this show and it truly made me miss Shanghai a lot.

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a rollercoaster of emotions!!

Meteor garden became my all time comfort drama just when i started watching it. I do agree that this is unnecessarily long and a bit cringe too. But for me, this was everything. The way the scenes flowed was crazy. The unbreakable love between Si and Shancai made them to never give up on each other. Daoming Si is like the biggest red flag guy ever but the way he loves Shancai made him greener than a green flag. I was so hooked up on the drama. Other love stories was beautiful too. I sometimes cried, smiled, laughed and thrilled. That was a literal rollercoaster. I will never get enough of those mixed emotions. The actors did a great job! And the osts were so amazing i still listen to em. Whenever i have a free time, i rewatch it. This drama made a huge impact on me.
I do recommend it but i cant make sure that you will love it.

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Amazing ML boring FL

I loved the storyline (partially), I loved the actors, especially Dylan Wang, amazing acting. But Shancai, girl... So dull, so boring, i do not like how the actress portrayed the character. if it was a different plot, or actress maybe it would be better. Also, him being super rich and leading one kind of life, would never work in real life, because she is just so basic... Boring in a way. She does not need anything, does not do anything, and at some point, they even give her money to help her... I do not know... I really need a different story (a little bit changed). Also when Dylan acts that he is in a relationship with someone else... Like it needs more of this drama. And the ending...
Switch Shancai's role for someone else, change the plot a bit and you have perfect series.

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To long of a show

I have a very hard time with this show. It kind of dragged a lot! So much could have been cut out.

The acting was ok. Dylan Wang I think did the best job. Shen Yue did ok. I felt that her part and Darren Chen’s part kind of got on my nerves. I get he was “helping” but it drug on to long and got to the point of being boring.

I sort of liked Boys over Flowers, but same as this show... the FL was to slow to accept their love for each other. Or accept her own feelings for him. I think that is my biggest pet peeve about the Boys Over Flowers shows. Also, the mother’s interface in their love life. Those kind of show get on my nerves and I lose interest in them fast.

Now the music! Oh I love the entire OST! I had to buy it in MP3. It is one of the MANY Asian drama soundtracks I listen to at night. I think that is the true highlight of the entire show for me.

Rewatch? Ya if I am really bored and have a strong desire to watch it again but sad to say I will skip a lot of parts!

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I loved this show a lot ... I haven’t read the novel nor have I watched the Taiwanese meteor garden to compare to it but I did watch boys over flowers the Korean version tbh I prefer this over that for sure .The main lead Dylan wang (doaming si) is extremely good looking and his acting skills aren't amazingly woah but it is definitely very good for a rookie actor and the actress shancai (I don’t remember her name ) is also really good and the chemistry also was amazing I didn’t like the acting of meizo and ximen and even the older sister of doaming si that’s y I rated the acting and casting a little low it was good to watch it coz the friendship in this was shown well compared to the Korean one there it seemed like the other 2 friends were his side kicks here it seemed like true friendship between the 4 and the fact that in this university was for elite students which is good rather than a university just for rich kids in bof was annoying .. The only problem is I thought the show was dragged a little longer with all the extra drama which I didn’t think was even necessary but overall this drama was fab it’s a must watch it’s really good I’ve watched it like 100 times lol coz I loved the chemistry so much it’s too but ( but only the kissing scenes were too off for me I didn’t get the feeling in it but it’s k coz almost all Chinese dramas have very off kissing scenes but romance was very good ) especially the necktie scene was too cute loved it

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What in the LSD trip did i just watch

It started off pretty solid. I immediately felt the chemistry between the actors was on par especially F4s friendship. Daoming Si is portrayed as a bad boy but not was entertaining. I laughed when they said they were polite to females when in fact they really werent. Huaze lei was pretty rude to well. Everyone. Daoming si literally threw a cake in a girls face, on top of force kissing, insulting, pushing and other things to shancai. Ximen was a literal playboy. Dropping women quick after leading them on. Disregarding peoples feelings when he acknowledged he led them on etc. The only half gentleman was Meizou but i kind of got stalker vibes from him.

The plot started off hilarious. The face kick scene then following mummy scene still makes me giggle. The roses was very romantic and made me jealous no ones ever given me 520 roses but i feel that would probably be extremely expensive and a waste of money if im being honest. The show did drag on in the middle. We could have did without the whole cooking show part since it didnt even matter to DS's mom since she didnt come in first and lets be honest, even if she did it probably wouldnt have mattered.

I feel a lot of the misunderstandings could have been avoided with communication. Why is this a recurring theme in dramas? Lack of communication causing unnecessary problems. Like i get it, if you didnt have the argument or what ever the plot wouldnt move forward but its so reliant on the lack of communication aspect i feel a better show could be produced if we didnt have that whole thing going on.

The whole parent breaking up relationship issue is probably cultural to me. Also not born in that class to understand so while it annoys me, i probably just dont understand enough to go into it.

Music choice. Could have had a few options other than the one sad song (say something). The other sings used were nice but say something im giving up on you was just overplayed to the point of annoyance when it started to play.

I liked the relationship between shancai and the housekeeper (her name is lost to me at the moment) and how the housekeeper had the kids wellbeing in mind more than mom did. I just wanted to lock mom in a room and torture her for all eternity but thats cause she was a b who meddled too much.

London was a mess.. who would forgive people who stole your phone and a very important item from your love? Like seriously. An apology and shes perfectly fine? We got food and booze? Alls well!? No. Not even close. Plus her money / cards. Etc. I dont know what she brought money wise but logic dictates you dont bring cash to a foreign country and only have cash. Plus she was smart enough to hide her passport, she would /should have been smart enough to hide some spare money or cards. Ive been to other countries, went to the pitpocket capital of the world in 2017 (barcelona spain) and i took precautions and did research on the country i was going to prior to going. So maybe this just falls on a dumb and niave female lead, but her friends had been in other countries so you would think they would warn her. Maybe im just putting too much logic into this.

The kidnapping island thing was cute and i appreciated their attempt however having a backpack with a fishing rod and water? Lol. Also why did they just abandon the two of them but everyone else had tents food etc? Did the friend want them to suffer? What if they didnt search for anything? Why was someone sneaking around taking pictures? What happened to those photos? So much undisclosed info. Survival instinct would have me looking for a fresh water source almost immediately. Then shelter. Also if you didnt know, in most instances wildlife cant climb. So if you are ever in an instance where you are stuck in the woods or on an island. Climb a freaking tree to sleep. Find vines or build a temporary platform out of branches but get off the ground. If you cant, and you have fire starter or know how to start a fire build a massive fire. It will keep predators away. Keep that baby well stocked. Water is #1 priortity though. You can live a while without food but as stated above not so long without water.

Then there is the ending.... im still not 100% certain i didnt take some hallucinogen or something that made me dream of that ending. Lets gloss over the fact most humans cant live without water for more than average 3 days. On top of that you cant physically stand for that many days without collapsing. I think the world record of standing was like under 40 hours and thats super dangerous because blood will pool in your feet and can cause blood clots etc. Im still not sure if they just glossed over the whole food and water strike of ds and sc and thats why mom slept for 7 days and maybe the dr they had visit mom took care of the kids or the kids died and it was their crazed brains happy ending before nothingness. But lets say that happened. Did mom pee the bed, get ivs, have compression socks etc during that time? Am i putting too much logic into things because again. Cant live usually more than 3 days without water... and if they have ivs your kidneys and intestines still function in that time.... lets move on.. then the whole walk into someone and pass out thing after the prank of ds getting married to someone else and moving to london prank. Just to get her in a wedding dress (strong as hell drugs apparently) and then the dance scene?!!?!? Let alone inviting people to the weddind that made no sense. Thomas? Uhg.

Overall i loved the show mostly for wang hedi but it had its flaws. I had to google an ending and read tons of peoples take on it and im still not 100% sure about it. This was the first show ive ever had to google an ending for.

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I have never watched any versions of Meteor Garden before, and this is my first ever Cdrama I watched. I managed to watch the whole series in less than a week.

The drama started off really well.
The story line is like any other drama with a female lead and 2 boys that falls for her, but I thought the male lead fell for Dong Cai too quickly. The leads have really good chemistry together. Si is funny and doesn't know how to express his love for DongCai. The second male lead didn't have much chemistry with the ShanCai, so it's not one of those dramas where you would feel bad for the second male lead.

The acting and cast is perfect. All the boys in F4 are so handsome. Si is so brave, funny and bold. Lei is cute, quite and funny. Lei has to be my favorite, his eyes and teeth when he smiles melts my heart. The female lead ShanCai is cute and natural. She portrayed her character really well, but in the middle of the series she lost a lot of confidence in herself, and isn't like her character in the start, she cries too much ://
I can't believe all the main cast are rookie actors. Dylan did so well acting in his first drama, I'm so surprised he's only 19!

The music is spot on. Every time I hear the song "River" all I can imagine is F4 walking towards the camera. But I think they over played "Say something I'm giving up on you" sometimes it just doesn't suit the moment. I liked all of the chinese OST, even though I didn't understand the lyrics. lol.

Rewatch value
I would say 10, but towards the end it dragged along, and got confusing. But if the end was more better I would definitely say 10!

From here there's gonna be spoilers

Negatives;
Why the heck did they add in the sub story of Terence and Caina!!! I think when they came in the series got boring. Terence gave me the creeps tbh. They were such a waste of time. They could have used that time to give Ximen and Xiaoyo more chemistry.
Other than that I think all the other scenes were super fun to watch!

Positives;
I really like Zhuang (Si sister). She is so funny. She portrayed her character really well, I hope to see her in more dramas. She slayed her dancing scene.

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First ever Mandarin Series..

So Here's a confession, I have never watched read or anything manga, I have no clue about what this drama was when I went to watch it, so for me, it was a fresh start.
This is also my first Asian Series, Here is my take.

Casting: - All the guys were solid lookers and had the right attitude, Loved Shen Yue, Dylan Wang to bits and actually crushed on Darren Chen for his smile. Come to think of them as newcomers, they have done a fairly good job

Soundtrack: - Rivers and Say something tracks were played at the right moments, I don't know much of the mandarin songs, but seemed right too, however, the best was the soundtracks when F4 was up to some mischief

Chemistry: - Lead Chemistry mesmerizing, the initial hate, then slowly changing to like, then love was quite the journey. I got hooked to the series, becoz of the flying kick...
Darren Chen and Shen Yue - chemistry which changed was shown beautifully too
F4 Teams chemistry and coordination was awesome in the beginning, however nothing in the middle and came back together towards the end
The friendship chemistry of Dylan Wang & Darren Chen was good, but nothing compared to Ceaser Wu and Leon Leong, their comic timings and mimicry at crucial times were a saving grace
The brother-sister chemistry was very entertaining too
And last but not the least Shancai's parents had a good arc

Acting: - Loved the arrogant bad boy with Rivers playing in the background and the pineapple head. He was immature, to say the least fiercely loyal, and crazy tempered, though never a big bully, his pranks were childish except for the cake scene and occasional bumping off people.
Enjoyed the doe-eyed innocent looking naive girl, with so many random and simplistic thoughts, it felt like she belonged to school rather than college and had a sheltered life, though her crying skills can put professionals to shame.
Darren Chen - I can write a sonnet on his smile... enough said.

Best Scenes - The flying Kick for sure, Teaching Dao Ming Si to Date, Throwing the joker card to Hau zei lei, Getting beaten up by Gangs, to save Shancai, the scene that made me come to tears was the London date scene and the conversation with the door in between. Loved Dee Hsu's dance on Rivers.

Could have been better - The female Antagonist Wang Ling wasn't scary enough, she did too many behind the scene activities but nothing very direct. More focus on F4's achievements.

Disliked the product placements for sure, but nothing like the last episode, it was plain pathetic, could have made it at par the other episodes, MeiZuo and Caina's story line, wasn't needed at all

Overall I would say, I am a big-time Crime and thriller person, who has no interest in Teen drama at all, and for me to be hooked to the scene and watching the dialogues in subtitles and still enjoying enough to write a review, deserve serious kudos to new bees...

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