Original Name:流星花園
Romaji: Liu Xing Hua Yuan
English Translation: Meteor Garden 1
Year: 2001 to 2002
Episodes: 27
Genre: Live Action/Romance/Comedy
Cast: Barbie Xu, Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Ken Chu, Vanness Wu, Rainie Yang
Language: Taiwanese
Subtitles: Hardsub English
Synopsis
For those who have watched the Japanese drama 'Hana Yori Dango' you will be please to know this show is similar. Yay! However, the plot does differ greatly than it's Japanese counterpart.
Taiwanese vrs. Japanese names:
Shan Cai / Makino Tsukushi
Dao Ming Si / Doumyouji Tsukasa
Hua Ze Lei / Hanazawa Rui
Mei Zuo / Mimisaka Akira
Xiao You / Matsuoka Yuuki
Meteor Garden is the Taiwanese version of the very famous Japanese manga series called 'Hana Yori Dango'.
Shan Cai (Tsukushi) is attending an elite University where only the rich and famous attend. The only problem is of course - she is neither rich nor famous! Her family has given up everything in order for her to have a chance at a good education and possibly marry a rich man (how thoughtful of her parents!). Shan Cai doesn't have many friends at school, but she doesn't let that detour her - she is counting down the days she has left until she graduates. However, there is a group of boys that will make her school days all the more harder! They are the F4 - a group of 4 very rich and powerful (and of course o-so-good-looking) men that have permission to play terrors in university since they fond most of its costs. The F4 place Red Flags in peoples lockers that they don't like...and of course these Red Flags are symbolic of war! If you get one you're probably not going to be attending the school for more than a week longer. And Bam! Shan Cai opens her locker one day (which by the way in her school the lockers aren't locked! Wow!) and notices a Red Flag! Hehehe.. Shan Cai, although in the Taiwanese version, cries a lot - she is much stronger than the Japanese Tsukushi. From this point in the series Shan Cai will kick ass! And of course she will end up falling in love with Dao Ming Si (Doumyouji).
I found the first episode hard to get by - in fact I skippe through most of it and went on to episode 2. Then I was addicted. Not as much money went into Meteor Garden as in Hana Yori Dango, but more effort went into it. Meteor Garden will follow the manga series a bit more in depth with the charecters. Lei (Hanazawa Rui) will actually be autistic, like the manga described. Shan Cai will actually be beaten up a number of times before Dao Ming Si (Doumyouji) comes to rescue her. This series lasted for 27 episodes so you will actually be able to understand some of whats happening - rather than in Hana Yori Dango when in episode 1 they hated each other and by episode 3 were dating! Season 2 of Metoer Garden is also very different from its Japanese counterpart so you won't feel like your watching things all over again - just in a different language!
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