Boys Over Flowers

This my not be your cup of tea, but I've recently been sucked into the blackhole that is called "Hallyu" for the second or third or bazillionth time. For those of you who are unfamiliar with "Hallyu", it's best you not know until you're well prepared for the consequences. You'll be cooped up in your room, rotting away for days at your computer chair. You may question your taste in television entertainment but not be able to look away. You may witness unspeakable acts of cuteness. You may feel an irrestible impulse to buy a plane ticket to Korea so that you can find yourself a hot man.

For days on end, I have watched episode after episode of "Boys Over Flowers," a Korean drama series based on the popular Japanese manga, obsessing over the love triangle that is Goo Joon Pyo loves Geum Jan Di loves Yoon Ji Hoo. It's kind of like Gossip Girl because it's set in an academy where all the rich kids go, but there's a lot more physical violence (in addition to the expected social cruelty) plus tons of cliche moments/tv tropes/guilty pleasures like makeover transformations (which I personally thought were for the worse), social class differences, Austenian pride vs. prejudice, costume at a non-costume party, that scene from Sandlot where the kid fakes drowning so he can kiss the hot lifeguard. All the good stuff.


And best of all, hot men. Better than that, hot, WELL-DRESSED men. The fashion for men in this show can be kind of out there, but I wish more men would dress like these guys in real life.


So if you have your life a weekend to spare, here's a high-quality, English-subbed video for the first ten minutes of episode 1 (it gets better later in the episode):



Don't say I didn't warn you when you find yourself days later sucked into this series which resembles The Hills with a nine-member girl group, while simultaneously catching up with old episodes of Full House and My Girl.