Last night, Cathy started watching Boys Over Flowers, the hottest Asian telenovela airing on local shores. The show revolves around a young, independently strong female student who becomes the object of attention of the most powerful student in the most exclusive school in Korea. He attempts, together with his two best friends – there is a third, to complete the foursome known as F4, but he does not participate – in making this girl’s stay in their school a living nightmare.
We’ve viewed three episodes so far, and I am not pleased. I dislike the way the schoolkids treat this young lady; it seems almost unnatural that an entire class can gang up on one student. Obviously, the real world can work like this, but it doesn’t appeal to me. If I wanted to be stressed out by aggression and violence, I’d watch a suspense-thriller, not a soap opera.
The flow of the soap is also quite slow; I find it dragging, especially if I compare it to Cathy’s two previous soap opera dalliances, My Queen and Fated to Love You. The girl is not pretty enough to tempt me; the four boys annoy me by reminding me that I am neither young nor fit. The sensitive young man is almost effeminate in his manner; the protagonist male is largely a ham actor at best. Jerry Yan of F4 years gone by would swallow this pretender up in two bites.
I have no desire to continue watching this show. As soon as I get a copy, I fully intend to move onto either Mad Men or Medium, a DVD copy of which I have at home gathering dust. Two successive entries on Asian soap operas? I’d better move onto more manly pursuits or risk losing my ManCard.