Time To Move Over Boys Over Flowers
Today’s article idea was courtesy my conversation with a fellow Kdrama fan on Instagram. Our conversation veered towards problematic depictions of romantic relationships and we ended up discussing THE famous Kdrama Boys Over Flowers.
This post might get me a lot of hate, but nah, I refuse to bow down. When you are no longer a starry eyed teenager or young adult, you realise how common it is in popular culture to glamourise abusive relationships. Since I hopped onto the Kdrama fandom quite late, I was never enamoured by Boys Over Flowers (BOF). And honestly, I tried, I really did, especially since I adore Lee Min-Ho, but even his curly poodle hairstyle couldn’t hide the fact that the premise of the show is wholly problematic.
On reading about the drama, I learnt that the story is based on a Shojo manga series called BOF. The series was launched in 1992 and ended in 2004. Shojo manga series usually target young teen girls, which explains why the female lead is depicted as a pepped up character and frankly, I found her characterisation quite annoying and irritating (no girls, even her behaviour is not always right). The first adaptation of the manga was in the form of a feature film titled Hana Yori Dango in Japan, released in the year 1995. The story gained widespread popularity in 2001 with the TV adaptation Meteor Garden in Taiwan. And then in 2009 the South Korean adaptation brought Lee Min-Ho into the limelight. Currently, there’s an ongoing broadcast of Thailand’s TV series adaptation of the story and is available on Youtube. There have been other adaptations in Indonesia (Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta, 2002 and 2017), China (Meteor Garden, 2018) and India (Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan, 2014-18) as well.
Given the number of adaptations from the original manga series, and three decades interspersing the numerous adaptations, the story has held sway in Asian popular culture. I have not read the original source, so I cannot speak to that, but having watched the Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean versions, the plot remains more or less the same. A headstrong girl who has a run in with four rich, popular and powerful boys in her university, only to eventually become friends with them and become romantically involved with the leader of the boy gang. Sounds straightforward, but a few episodes down the line and you figure out how the boys are essentially bullies, and the girl too naive and innocent to the point of being vexatious.
My first brush with the cult story was via Meteor Garden, the Chinese drama from 2018. At the time I was watching it, I remember being horrified at the physical assault scene by the male lead against the female lead. The girl looked terrified, and yet as viewers we were expected to ship this couple!! I was really hoping all the time that the girl ends up with the guy whom she initially liked, who is kind-hearted and sensitive. But since the trope of a cold hearted, arrogant male lead always wins the show, I knew my wish would never come true.
The Kdrama version of BOF is no better, with the male lead being downright patronising and dismissive of the girl throughout, whereas the girl is constantly apologetic about her actions. I mean I get the guys are good looking and rich, but really?! that is no excuse for being abusive and emotionally manipulative. Yes, yes, I am aware a lot of Kdramas can be like that and I am supposed to suspend logic and reality, but I guess the reason why BOF irked me so much is because the derogatory behaviour is so in your face that it is hard to ignore.
BOF was also surprising to me since Kdramas in the past few years have evolved their storylines and the one thing I love is their depiction of men who are kind, sensitive and cry openly. It is so different from what I am used to, like for instance, I always rewatch some scenes from Strong Girl Bong-Soon where the male lead is eagerly waiting for the text from the girl he likes and goes into euphoria when she sends a voice recording of herself giving him a nickname. It is so cute and endearing to see a man behave like that, my heart melted. Or in While You Were Sleeping, when the female lead kisses the male lead, he touches his lips later to check if it was real and goes into a puddle; I live for such scenes.
BOF’s enduring popularity made me think of how the image of the Byronic hero is pervasive in popular media. Named after the works of Lord Byron, the Byronic hero is mostly a male, is mysterious, intelligent, known to be moody, quite often rich, appears aloof but has a soft side, highly principled and struggles from internal conflict due to some past trauma or misdeed. The internal conflict is often romanticised and used as a fair excuse for his disparaging behaviour, and then in sweeps a chirpy or subservient woman who brings out the warmer side of him and ‘heals’ him. I mean, the man here need therapy, not a woman, but hey, since generations women have been doing the thankless job of providing unpaid therapy labour for men in their lives, so no big deal right??
In the Indian context, Bollywood films also romanticise Byronic hero characteristics and I can recall the acerbic debates around the 2019 film Kabir Singh. For those not familiar with the film, it’s the story of a surgeon who becomes an alcoholic and spirals into self-destruction because his girlfriend gets married to someone else. The plot is straightforward, but the film thrives on glamourising toxic masculinity. I won’t go into more details regarding this, but suffice it to say that toxic masculinity is more often than not celebrated in popular media, and I do have a problem with that.
I am not sure if a revamped BOF Kdrama in 2022 will make the cut or not, but it is worthwhile to consider as audiences that a way to counter such problematic shows is by demanding more complex stories and characters as viewers and not lapping up whatever we are provided with blindly. These are some of the debates and spaces where fandom and fan power can be really useful, and that is your food of thought for today.
Thank you for reading :)