Meteor Garden I & 2

I just finished Meteor Garden (流星花園), both the first and the second seasons, the Taiwanese version of Hana Yori Dango (there are also two other versions, the currently ongoing Korean version [Boys over Flowers] and there's a mainland Chinese version planned). I actually really liked the Japanese version so I FINALLY decided to watch the Taiwanese version. It stars Jerry Yan, Barbie Xu, Vic Zhou, Ken Zhu, Vanness Wu, along with Rainie Yang. The summary is as follows:

Shan Cai,whose parents are far from wealthy, attends Ying De University, the private school established exclusively for rich students. Besides being looked down by rich classmates, she has angered the leader of F4, Dao Ming Si. F4 comprises of Dao Ming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Xi Men, and Mei Zuo, who are the heirs to the four richest families. Their families are the founder of the school and nobody dares to cross them. Shan Cai isn't afraid to stand up to DMS, an act that nobody has done before, and sparks Dao Ming Si's interest in her. However, his constant torture of her has made her miserable while she falls in love with the gentle Hua Ze Lei, who comes to her rescue. Can Dao Ming Si win her love despite his cold and cruel exterior? What happens when his mother decides to use every trick there is to keep them apart? Can they adjust to each other's differences due to their vastly incompatible social status?

I actually didn't think it was all that bad - just a bit stretched. I mean, the first installment has a total of 27 episodes and the second part has a total of 31 episodes coming to the grand total of 58 episodes. I found myself fast forwarding through some parts that I deemed not as important to what I needed to watch to get the plot but it was cute. I think the fast-forwarding only really started when I got to the second season. I suppose it's because even though I liked it, and I usually make a point to watch everything through, it was just too much Meteor Garden. Plus, the entire second season was on one section of Shancai and Ah Si's story was actually about one episode long in Hana Yori Dango.

SPOILERS BELOW

Other than that, just like when I watched the Japanese version, I felt for Hanazawa Rui/Hua Ze Lei, except the Taiwanese version had Lei play a bigger part in Shancai's love life. I mean, they were pretty much going out at some points and it was really adorable. It made me wonder if I was her, who would I have picked. O_o Anyway, that has nothing to do with how I felt about this so I'll stop before I ramble on about their ups and downs. Another funny thing: Shancai has no younger brother in this drama - only her parents. Minor little detail, but just something that popped out at me. She is an interesting character though and pretty much everything else is on par with the Japanese version. Then again, I like how they each were their own individual versions - otherwise it would have been very boring. The Japanese version might as well be dubbed if it came to them being identical but with different actors speaking with different languages.

Well! I watched it here and here.

I also apologise for excessively comparing with Hana Yori Dango - my sister never watched the Japanese version but she did watch Meteor Garden and she loved it. :)