Hana Kimi

So a while back, I was talking to a friend of mine in New York who revealed that he was sneakily watching Japanese dramas to brush up on his language skills. He recommended that I watch this drama called "Hanazakari no Kimitachi". To be completely honest, I didn't really pay that much attention to the recommendation - I am a total T-drama fan and have no time for J-dramas :P

A couple days later, I was looking up dramas that my favourite T-actor, Wu Chun of Farenheit, has been in, and came across a recent drama in the forums called "Hana Kimi". It also starred Jiro Wang of Farenheit, and Ella of S.H.E. - two other people I love, and so I immediately started watching it.
So this drama is based on a manga - as many good dramas are! - and features a fat girl, Ruixi (Ella), who sheds 30 pounds after watching a special feature about a high-jumper in Taiwan whose main characteristics are determination and perseverance. Against her best friend's (Julia) wishes, she returns to Taiwan to enroll in his college so that she can see him high-jump live. The catch? The high-jumper, Jian (Wu Chun), goes to an all-boys athletic college. On her first day at college, Ruixi meets Xiuyi (Jiro Wang), a soccer star and incredibly friendly person, who introduces her about the school and helps her settle in as she tries to fulfil her goal. But Jian has quit high jumping, and looks unlikely to return to it...Meanwhile, within her first week on campus, Ruixi is involved in a small accident; Jian sees her (they're roommates so they're together a lot), and carries her to the doctor's office. He realizes that she's a girl, but decides not to expose her until he figures out her purpose at the school. The doctor realizes the same, and becomes Ruixi's confidant at the school.

As time passes, Xiuyi starts feeling attracted to Ruixi, and struggles with his sexual identity in a hilarious way - is he gay? Jian and Ruixi become close friends, and Ruixi motivates Jian to start high jumping again. Lots of things happen, and we watch how relationships develop. Xiuyi confesses his love for Ruixi (to the doctor's amusement. The doctor is actually gay), and Jian starts becoming extremely protective of Ruixi. Julia comes from the US to stir things up, and in the resulting fallout, Xiuyi falls in love with Julia and Jian admits (to Julia) that he's known Ruixi's true identity since her first week and won't expose her because then the two of them (Jian and Ruixi) will have to separate. After some more drama, Jian and Ruixi decide to reveal their secrets to each other (hers is that she's a girl, his is that he knows and likes her), but in the end, nothing happens. The series ends here. The ending is pretty crappy, but that was because a part 2 was planned and the producers meant to resolve things in the sequel. "Hana Kimi" became one of the most highly rated and watched dramas in Taiwan, and everyone looked forward to the sequel...

But then the Japanese decided to produce their own Hana Kimi - the version that my friend from NYC watched. They strayed from the manga a little more, and ended their Part I with everyone knowing about Ruixi's secret and with Ruixi returning to the US. However, in the last 20 seconds of the drama, they reveal that her all-boys school is coming to California for a field trip, paving the way for Part II. Due to the success of the J-drama and other factors, the copyrights for Part 2 of the manga and script have been denied in Taiwan - resulting in a cancellation of the sequel to the T-drama. NOOOOOOOO! I was absolutely devastated when I found out!!!

So I decided to watch some of the J-drama to see if it was something I could get into - then at least if they made part 2 of only the J-drama, I could still have something to look forward to. But the J-drama is quite different from the T-drama. Storylines are much more condensed, and characters seem barely developed as compared to the T-version. J-dramas are generally much shorter than T-dramas, which is one probable reason for the lack of character development and sub-plots. Character interactions also feel a lot more shallow than in T-dramas and so watchers of J-dramas just don't get to know the characters well. I suppose that if I had started out watching J-dramas, I would feel that T-dramas went into too much detail and had meandering plots, but now I live for the subtleties of T-dramas and am amused by most of the sub-plots. The almost abruptness of J-dramas just don't sit well with me anymore - I am almost more interested in watching the characters live and interact than knowing what happens. Seeing the chemistry of the actors slowly develop heightens the enjoyment in a series, I suppose. And so I am deeply disappointed in the Japanese Hana Kimi, and am extremely upset that there will be no Taiwanese sequel. Even so - Hana Kimi was wonderful to watch, and even faced with no prospect of a sequel, I would watch it again, crappy ending and all :)