The legendary rom-com Boys Over Flowers is getting yet one more remake. This time, it greets the viewers within the type of a Thai drama, which not too long ago dropped its first episode on Viu.
The Thai model of F4 is made up of Thyme (Vivid Vachirawit), Ren (Dew Jirawat), Kavin (Win Metawin) and MJ (Nani Hirunkit), who’re Tsukasa Domyoji, Rui Hanazawa, Sojiro Nishikado, and Akira Mimasaka respectively within the unique manga. Taking up the feminine lead as Gorya, or Tsukushi Makino, is Tu Tontawan.
Whereas the story stays largely the identical, right here’s how F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers is completely different from the opposite remakes. For a greater perspective, the next factors are primarily based on the impressions of the Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean remakes.
1. It turns up the dial on bullying in class.
As a substitute of specializing in the rom-com parts, F4 Thailand takes a barely extra severe strategy by exploring the social concern of bullying. Because the story incorporates a extra fashionable setting with the usage of social media, Thyme mentioned that F4 didn’t instigate the bullying, however merely supplied a manner for individuals to “have nameless accounts in actual life,” referencing the existence of keyboard warriors. The small pranks seen in different remakes have been vastly blown up right into a considerably maniacal recreation.
2. It loses the shojo essence and turns into extra lifelike.
Whereas the opposite remakes painting a extra dreamy and unbelievable setting, F4 Thailand adopts one thing extra down-to-earth and relatable as an alternative. The unique Makino’s household saves up some huge cash to ship her to the celebrated faculty that solely the extraordinarily rich can enter. However Gorya will get into the varsity via a scholarship. Nonetheless, her poor household nonetheless has to bear with miscellaneous excessive prices, reminiscent of textbooks and uniforms. Nevertheless, with out the fluffy and fanciful setting that usually makes up a shojo (focused at teen females) manga, the attract of the drama is diminished.
3. F4 just isn’t swag sufficient.
Within the different remakes, F4 has idol-like qualities that make the opposite college students flock in direction of them. Other than commanding the concern of getting a pink card, F4 additionally has a fascinating aura that makes individuals adore and in some sense, worship them. However these traits appear to be missing from F4 Thailand.
That is attainable as a result of the actors are comparatively younger and can’t emanate the cool vanity that F4 ideally has. Nevertheless, the hopes are nonetheless excessive for Vivid as Thyme and Win as Kavin, because the duo had gained worldwide fame from the 2gether collection, a well-liked Thai boys’ love drama.
4. It has not talked about Gorya’s similarity to Thyme’s sister.
Within the Japanese remake, one of the vital iconic scenes is when Makino jumps together with her fists in place, and launches a punch in direction of Domyoji’s face. It additionally marks the pivotal second when Domyoji begins to develop an curiosity in her, as she reminds him of his sister. However F4 Thailand didn’t point out this resemblance, or at the least not but. The story can be troublesome to progress with out this revelation, so hopefully, we’ll see one thing within the second episode.
Tu makes her performing debut with F4 Thailand. However her portrayal of Gorya, partly additionally because of the script, sadly lacks the tenacity and boldness that the character ought to have. The younger actress couldn’t current sure nuances of the character, one thing she’s going to do higher with extra years of expertise.
F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers is now streaming on Viu, with new episodes each Saturday.
