Review: To The Beautiful You

To the Beautiful You/For You In Full Blossom/Beautiful You
Aired: 2012
Starring:
Choi Sulli as Gu Jae Hee
Choi Minho as Kang Tae Joon
Lee Hyun Woo as Cha Eun Gyeol
Plot: The fourth adaptation based on the shojo manga Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (For You In Full Blossom). It tells the story of how Gu Jae Hee sees Kang Tae Joon jump on television and idolizes him as a result. When Tae Joon has an accident and stops jumping, she heads to Korea and disguises herself as a boy to enter his school with the hopes of helping him jump again. But will she be able to hide her gender in an all boys school?

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I’ve seen every version of Hana Kimi that’s been done now, so I figure it’s probably about time I write a review on one. Eventually I’ll make my way through reviews for all of them. Starting with the most recent one, here we go!

I have to say the Korean Hana Kimi is without a doubt my favorite. I was entirely caught up in it from the start, and that’s saying something. Normally it takes quite a bit before I’m fully interested in a drama, most of the time the entire first episode. With To the Beautiful You, I was hooked within ten minutes. It had nothing to do with the fact that I love SHINee and Choi Minho. Nor did it have to do with my being a big f(x) fan. I wiped those slates clean before I sat down to start watching the show. My opinion is based entirely upon the story, music, and acting.

To start, I love how well they seemed to stick to the major points present in the Hana Kimi storyline. They added just enough to keep it interesting, and while some people have said they felt it dragged on through the sixteen episodes, I love how they organized it. I would rather have it stretch over all those episodes than end at eleven episodes. I always felt the Japanese versions needed a little more to them, though I’m still a big fan of Oguri Shun and Maki Horikita’s Hana Kimi.

Choi Minho was perfect for the role of Kang Tae Joon. Apart from being drop dead gorgeous, his acting was superb. I’ve never been able to picture Minho as a prickly, arrogant man before. Now I can, quite easily. He took the role and made it his own. Let’s not even get me started on his ability to cry. ( -rips her own heart out- “I don’t need THIS anymore!” ) I am eager to see that man in many more dramas. Let’s see what else he can tackle, shall we?

Sulli was a very pleasant surprise. I admit, while I had been excited about the Korean version from the second they announced it, when I found out that Sulli was going to play the female lead I was more or less “Meh..” about it. It wasn’t that I didn’t’ like Sulli, but I wasn’t sure how well she’d live up to her role. Now that I’ve seen the entirety of the drama, I admit I should have given her the benefit of belief right off the bat. Well done, Sulli. Really. I’ve never had anyone wrench tears out of me as easily as Sulli, especially when she and Minho are both crying. Talk about heart wrenching. I thought I was going to die.

There were a lot of comedic moments throughout the drama, and they were well balanced with the angst. I absolutely adored Lee Hyun Woo as Cha Eun Gyeol. He’s hilarious, and while I spent the better part of the first half of the drama wanting to cut his hair out of that ridiculous mushroom-like ‘do, he was endearingly bubbly and sweet. Never in all of my times of rewatching the other versions of Hana Kimi have I rooted so much for the second male lead to get the girl. It was very difficult. I was constantly torn between cheering for him and cheering for Tae Joon, and felt guilty each time I cheered for either of them.

The rest of the cast was very well chosen. I loved them all. Each character was unique, whereas in some of the versions of Hana Kimi there have been few I’d been able to actually recall by face and name.

As for the music… Let me just take a moment to fall in a puddle of happy goo on the floor right now. I love it! J-Min’s ‘Stand Up’ was perfectly matched, and when you add in ‘Butterfly’, Onew’s and Taemin’s solos… Oh yum. I have the soundtrack on repeat on my ipod even as we speak. Total love for this soundtrack.

I’d definitely recommend to anyone that watching To the Beautiful You is more than worth the time. I’ve already rewatched it four times myself. And for all you EXO fans out there, take a good look at the poster for the drama. Your boys are in it.

This week’s news post

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the world of Kpop, chock full of news. Between revealed comeback dates, debuts, and scandals, it’s a wonder netizens know which way is up at this point. I admit, even I’ve had trouble keeping up with all the juicy tidbits doled out to us by the media. I’ve seen a lot of different responses from netizens to articles from the media outlets, and I figured it was about time I weighed in with my own take on things in some cases.

SHINee’s surprising comeback

SHINee’s back!! Straight out of Vogue.

It’s the third one this year and the news put noonas everywhere into squealing fan girl mode. In true SHINee fashion, the boys riled up their fans with the daily releases of their individual teasers for the mini-album. As a noona fan myself, I am not the least bit embarrassed to lump myself into the squealing category. Between the colorful uniforms and black and whites, their teasers oozed sexiness. Their album is due to be released on the 14th, with their first performance at M!Countdown on the 10th and their comeback special streaming live through Youtube tomorrow, Oct. 6 at 8pm KST. As with all the boys’ releases this year, ‘Everybody’ promises to be an exciting album.

Hyuna & Hyunseung to make their return as the sexy duo ‘Trouble Maker’

Peekaboo, we can still see you!

If you’re anything like me (a raging B2uty and diehard Hyunseung fan), or even if you’re just a fan of the duo’s previous release, you probably freaked as much as I did when Cube released a photo of Hyuna and Hyunseung at Cube. Even with the two covering their faces, it was easy for netizens to tell who they were, and suspicions about a comeback for the duo exploded on fan sites everywhere.
Cube, thank you for not cruelly teasing us.
That’s right. Trouble Maker is making a comeback. While the date for their album release and the name of said album has not been revealed yet, Cube has released the date of their comeback performance. On Oct. 24, Trouble Maker will make their return on M!Countdown. {Warning: Fangirl moment pending} I’M SO EXCITED!!!!

IU’s return with ‘Modern Times’

Goodbye poofy skirts and the days of ‘marshmallow’

Okay, all you Uncle fans. Your beloved angel is set to drop her album on the 7th. Our adorable little fairy has been teasing fans with videos and pictures for days now, and by the looks of it will be returning to the scene with a more mature image. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m eager to see exactly what is in store for us.

Heechul’s military discharge and return to Super Junior, variety shows

Yup, you read correctly all you Lady Heehee fans. Our Heedictator is out of the military and making his anxiously awaited return to the industry.
Granted, he was discharged at the end of August, but I didn’t have the opportunity to post about it then.
It didn’t take long for our selca prince to go on a picture spree on instagram, delighting fans with the fresh images of their idol. In no time at all, fans were treated to his playful personality as he uploaded pictures of not only himself, but also with f(x)’s Sulli, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon, BEAST’s Junhyung and JYJ’s Jaejoong. He even declared himself an INFINITE fan boy, uploading a video of himself driving with Infinite’s ‘Be Mine’ playing in the background and teasing leader Sunggyu by stating that every time Sunggyu greeted him with a 90 degree bow, he wanted to hop on his back.
Heechul has also made his reentry into variety as one of the hosts of Ssul Jeon. Welcome back Heechul!