I almost forgot to blog about this!
A few months ago (I think around February or March), my cousin went to Hongkong for a vacation. And while she was there, she texted me saying that she saw INOUE MAO outside her hotel shooting a film! Yes, Inoue Mao, as in THE Inoue Mao who played Makino Tsukushi in the J-drama adaptation of Hana Yori Dango! I was very surprised, and she later sent me the pic she secretly took of the young actress. She told me that since security was tight, they were not allowed to take photos of the shoot, and hence, obtaining an autograph was also impossible. But my cousin jokingly told me that I should keep an eye out for this movie/drama, since we might see her loitering at the background. XD
I scrutinized the pic and noticed that Inoue Mao is sporting the same hairstyle as her character in HanaDan. (She had a different look in her other drama, First Kiss). So with great curiosity I browsed through DramaWiki and learned that there is an upcoming Hana Yori Dango movie, which will serve as the finale of the previous two seasons. That time, there was no set date for airing yet, but it was absolutely great news for me! I felt so excited! \(^o^)/
As most of my friends know, I'm quite an avid fan of Hana Yori Dango. ("Avid" isn't even the right word, since I'm more like obsessed with it! It's my absolute-st favorite-st shoujo story!!!). And well, this is how it all began...
[] The fandom started when I first read about it in an old Questor issue.
[] It then proceeded on to an excessive hype over Meteor Garden when it was first aired in CTS and my mom "accidentally discovered" it. Ah, those were the days when googling for "Meteor Garden" would only yield search results related to flowers and astronomy, and getting the original CDs meant persistently annoying an uncle working in Taiwan to buy them for you. XD
[] After a year, I met a new friend/textmate online who is from Manila, and I got hold of the anime, all 51 + 1 episodes recorded into precious VHS tapes (since CD writers and blank CDs were still quite expensive back then).
[] And when the F4 craze arrived in the Philippines, I then became some sort of a HanaDan guru in class, and all new converts (most especially my friend Hya) would gather around me during breaks and I would be telling them the story, equipped with notes I painstakingly wrote over the years. There were no DVD/subtitled copies of Meteor Garden back then, and since my VCD copy is raw, I had to translate all 20 episodes VERBALLY to my friends when they requested to watch it (I think I did that at least 3-4 times!).
[] A few years later, I was able to acquire a copy of the complete scanlations (I had to "order" it from Manila), which Hya and I perused page by page, over and over.
[] And then we totally went bonkers when we got hold of the first season of the J-drama, not quite liking MatsuJun at first because of his curly hair (but yah, I know Doumyouji has curly hair XD) but eventually falling for his charms anyway!
[] And when the sequel "returned", we had to bribe someone (itago nalang natin sya sa pangalang suoh XD) to download it for us, and when I'm off duty, I had to travel from Pedro Gil to 5th Avenue, carrying Hya's bulky external DVD-writer, to pick up every episode, and then go back again to PGH. And even when Hya is so tired or she's on duty or no matter how toxic she is, she will always make watching the episodes her priority.
I can't help but smile to myself whenever I remember these many mis(adventures) from the past. Hehehe
I really really LOVE Hana Yori Dango... Thank You so much Ms Yoko Kamio!!!
HANA YORI DANGO FINAL : Already out last June 28!!!
trailer one
trailer two
trailer three
And if that isn't enough, at the end of this year, we might be looking at another set of F4, this time from Korea...
Yes... Yes... Apparently the koreans will make their own version of the story too and it will run for around 24 episodes. You can read more about it from dramabeans.
I think I will just end my rant here for now. Because I might start talking endlessly.... XD
P.S.
BTW, there's also a 1995 Japanese movie version of Hana Yori Dango, starring Naohito Fujiki, but it's difficult to get a copy.
One fansub group though has already listed it as one of their upcoming projects, so we'll just wait for that! (^o^)v
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