Comments on Boys Before Flowers, Ep 9 &10

Some passing thoughts as I watched episodes 9 and 10 of Boys Before Flowers, the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango:

1) there seem to be a lot of allusions to the Chivalric Court, Chivalric codes of conduct, and the love triangle between Launcelot du Lake, Guinevere, and King Arthur. recall for instance the scene wherein ji hoo's response to geum jan di when she says he always appears when she presses the emergency button in her heart: he hopes that he can always be her honorary firefighter. i use this particular instance to illustrate both points. in la morte du arthur, launcelot is not only guinevere's personal knight who always defends her honor, he is also the person with whom she commits adultery. in courtly love however, the lady's knight remains her platonic paramour, the two never really consummate their love. i guess ji hoo will remain jan di's knight in shining armor, her soul mate, the two destined to not unite at least in this lifetime. ohhhh spare me anachronistic chivalric posturing.... but i guess there is a lot of that in this show...it is a collection of many old-fashioned anachronistic relations and posturing...hybridized with many modern elements to make it somewhat understandable.


2) rigidity of tribal, class, social divides. goo jun pyo is not simply a scion of a wealthy family whose realm of power is limited to Korea only, he is a plutocrat whose power extends across the globe. in this over-the-top drama we see real indications of what the world is like. you need to be able to discern between froth and substance but it is there if you know what to look for. it is not trivial when goo's mother tells jan di's parents that her son is necessary to the whole world, upholds the whole world. the concept of emperor is common to orient but i wasn't expecting to see it here. goo's mother obviously thinks of herself and her family as empress and ruling family. i think what i am struck by with this scene is how the real wealthy and powerful of the world are not limited to their respective countries. rather there are long standing ties between all those in real power.

the tiff between a world emperor's mother and a local chieftain over the mating of their respective children is predictable and not particularly noteworthy. jan di 's mother gives as good as she gets. she may be a puny local chieftain, but she is every bit as calculating and power hungry as goo's mother. the sheer calculation in her eyes and face as she compares in her mind the difference between the actual worth of the shin wa group and the measly 300 million won she is offered to have her daughter stop seeing goo jun pyo is very well acted by the actress who play's jan di's mother. we almost don't need the lines she later utters where she explicitly states this comparison. i guess the director felt the need to include this scene and lines in case audience members failed to understand her motivation in pouring salt on her rival. why settle for 300 million won when you can have the whole world???? goodness gracious the more i watch boys before flowers i am reminded of korean historical court dramas - boys before flowers has to be yi san parading as some sort of teenage girl trash lit.

aside from historical court drama masquerading as high school romance, boys before flowers also highlights a troubling aspect of much of the world: the chasm that separates the have's from the have-not's. if there is one thing that is coming through loud and clear after watching a bunch of asian dramas and movies is the charmed existence of the rich and the horrid existence of the poor. i guess if you are born poor you die poor. upward mobility is only possible through some fantasy of a rich spouse. i can only speculate..but it is unfortunate that so many have nothing and so few have everything.

what is funny and tragic is that those who are depicted as having everything in the media in fact are not the real power and wealth holders. the real power and wealth holders are invisible. those who are visible are the fall-guys, the whipping boys....oh well....c'est la vie c'est la vum that's the way life is....

3) it is easy to become captivated by the story and gloss over details that don't really have a place in my world or way of being. but if i stop to consider my responses, i notice that a lot of the physical sensations that the drama evokes in me are uncomfortable, disagreeable and unpleasant. one thing i know for certain, i don't share the same mating habits depicted in the show. i don't like geum jan di's relation to ji hoo and jun pyo and the constant bickering and verbal sparring and mock/real battle between jan di and jun pyo. i can only assume this sparring is some sort of sexual turn on and a prelude to actual physical intercourse. all of this is really beside the point for me.

i find i am more hooked by that sense of yearning for something that is lost. i see shards of it here and there in the show: in the relation of the older females with geum jan di, the chivalric code, etc.

4) i wonder to what extent the posturing of these hapless youths is actually reflective of their actual emotional maturity. if i compare the storyline with other korean melodramas, the age of the main characters doesn't seem to matter. does this mean that kids and adults do the same things? i wonder to what extent what we see jun pyo and jan di enacting is a reflection of the old fogey's behind the show. in other words do we simply have beautiful young things acting the cheesy tastes and lifestyle of these people - how they envision themselves?

sort of like playing with dolls. these actors are nothing more than the vision of some people who are really old and out of date. i wonder if real young people are even interested in the things and acting the ways the young actors in this drama are made to act.

the clothes, the interiors, the way the supposed high school students behave, is all really unbelievable. i guess old timers don't get with their time -i.e. there is no maturation, growing old with wisdom and grace. they are still living in their high school and living out their high school fantasies. except now they have money and backers and a global audience so their fantasy is a little more flush. in terroir there is an older character who hires a young man to find a rare and precious bottle of wine for him. the actor who plays this role is all dolled up and carefully coiffed in the manner of a teen idol actor. it is when i remember this character that i have questions about what i am seeing. in boys before flowers do we simply have young actors serving as attractive place holders for how ahjummas and ahjussis live?


5) the final thing i am curious about is the original story that has given rise to so many spinoffs. based on jan di's mother, jun pyo's mother, jan di herself, the original story had a lot of strong female characters living perhaps in a female centered world. i wonder if boys before flowers hearkens to a very potent tale set in a matrilineal, matrilocal, matriarchal society? and this whole love triangle business, with its resemblance to the king arthur story mentioned above, seems to lend further credibility to an ancient story that i know only through the arthurian cycle, eleanor of aquitaine and her court of love, and the lais of marie de france. i wonder how these are connected?

Analysis of Boys Before Flowers

episodes 1 through 6

the basic story thus far seems to be the following:

there is a school for the children of the uber wealthy elite of korea, shinwa school, serving students in grades pre-k through university. it is an integrated unit and institution of the world of the wealthy. the students going to this school continue to be part of a clique, an enclave of exclusive families that live by their own rules of the jungle, have their own motivations, problems, culture and so forth. they don't associate with those outside their class except insofar as those outside their class exist to serve them. even these servants belong to an exclusive group. in general, outsiders are not permitted easy entry into a group that prohibits inclusion at
a genetic level whether at the level of servant or master. even if an outsider were to gain admittance to the school through some chance, they would never be integrated into the world of the wealthy. they would pass through the school, not comprehending whatever they do see. usually they are blinded by their own genetic expectations, their own cultural norms so that they don't perceive anything. they leave the school and system undamaged, the status quo undisrupted. for the wealthy who go to shinwa school alongside these few outsiders, these few anomalies are specimens at best, non-entities, or exploitable commodities at worst.

the power structures that exist outside the school inform the power structures inside the school. if an oligarch runs korea his scion, his son rules the school. both rule their respective spheres with the same domineering ruthlessness and brutality that informs the rules of the jungle in which they exist. the school exists almost as a test bed, a training ground for the scions of the elite: how to behave amongst themselves and how to behave with the rest of the world. they
learn pecking order, power structures in school and abide by them both in and out of school. marriages, freindships and any other alliances are determined here - they come into being, evolve, transform, disintegrate or endure.


the f4 is the acknowledged leaders of the school. actually, f4 is really a moniker to identify the "prince" and three closest retainers, servants. goo jun pyo is the prince. his servants are yoon ji hoo, song woo bin, and so yi jung. these three are the next wealthiest, most powerful students in the school. just as goo jun pyo is the scion of the shinwa group which runs korea, these three
represent similarly powerful families. yoon ji hoo is the son of the former prime minister of the country. similarly woo bin represents a family with deep connections into the world of finance perhaps and yi jung the world of arts and aesthetics. in short however they are all thugs whose wealth and power gives them the veneer of something attractive. they don't have to live in filth. they can arrange things gracefully. they are the arbiters of what is considered attractive. for an outsider, there is the initial shock at what wealth and power can achieve. but true refinement is not present.

each depiction of the story on which boys before flowers is based, hana yori dango a japanese comic book written for teenage girls, shows what is considered wealthy, what is powerful at the time of the filming. and each depiction is even more grand than what came before. but each
production will eventually become dated and to some extent derided. what is fashionable now will fall out of favor. what marks the wealthy now will mark the fool later. as such, the drama is a commercial vehicle loaded with propaganda and marketing for brands and an entire lifestyle to lure the foolish who succumb to this seductive vision. the typical viewer is never really allowed to answer for himself what constitutes true wealth and well-being.

if we focus on the story that drives the drama viewers can see that for all their wealth, their world is as riddled with pettiness, fights, grief, grievances, love ache, hatred, ugliness, injustice, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and death. all the gilt and appurtenances of wealth the sponsors would like the viewer to associate with wealth, cannot cover forever the true nature of reality.
and reality comes riding in to shinwa school in the form of geum jan di making a drycleaning delivery.

geum jan di belongs to a different jungle and abides by its laws and culture. she is immediately pulled into an exhibition of f4's power. her customer is a boy who has come under the censure of f4. as such he has endured non stop physical violence so that by the time geum jan di reaches him he is standing on at the edge of a roof on one of the school buildings about to commit suicide. when he does not listen to her reconsider and jumps off she immediately throws herself to grab hold of him and thus saves his life. even after becoming a student at the school she continues to resist and rebuff and challenge f4 policies and actions.


geum jan di does not accept the existing power structure; she does not accept the rules that govern the system and she does not necessarily see any reason to be afraid of challenging it. in many ways she is a queen. she is challenging the existing status quo because she has a different vision. she wants to live by her vision and she want to enforce her vision. however much she may chafe at the existing power structure, she has no real reason to disrupt the status quo. so
she simmers in her dissatisfaction. this is not unusual. if there is one geum jan di, silent objectors, there are others in the school and in the system. this is why goo jun pyo has to be as ruthless as he is in order to retain his position at the top. he cannot afford to be any other way.
the dissent has even entered his circle. yoon ji hoo does not agree with goo jun pyo's vision but he has neither interest nor motivation to really challenge goo jun pyo. he is not interested in exerting himself. he doesn't have the requisite energy. and finally he has no reason to motivate him to transcend whatever limitations he may have. we see him acquiring this motivation in episode 6 when goo jun pyo has geum jan di expelled from school.

unlike the other silent dissenters in the school and in the system, she is clear about her dissatisfaction but does not really have any opportunity to really do anything about it short of forcing a confrontation. this is soon rectified. in her short time at the school she picks up a "friend' oh min ji who becomes an unwitting spearhead for action. when min ji slips and falls and spoils the bespoke shoe crafted by an italian shoemaker with her ice cream, the chance to really do something about her dissatisfaction presents itself to geum jan di. and she takes the opportunity with both hands. thus begins the struggle for power between geum jan di and goo
jun pyo.


in the confrontations that ensue to beat geum jan di into submitting to the existing power structure she finds unexpected support from yoon ji hoo. he may not intend to overtly assist geum jan di but viewers repeatedly see him in a position to assist geum jan di. and he does even though he makes sure to disown his acts or downplay any real responsibility. perhaps the irresistible attraction that draws his attention to geum jan di has its basis in an inchoate recognition of someone who is powerful enough to do something about the dissatisfaction about
the existing power structure in place at shinwa school.


but these are kids. this means they are the young of the animals that run their world. they are still coming into their own. they need to mature. and all five of these players are still in the process of developing and sorting themselves out. yoon ji hoo believes himself to be in love with min seo hyun, a young woman who belongs to their circle. but the truth of the matter is yoon ji hoo is not particularly interested in living. his love for min seo hyun is a romantic fiction, an excuse he can hide behind. he may not agree with goo jun pyo's policies or actions but he is not interested in exerting himself to do anything about it. he exists in a state of stupor. all he does is sleep...forever looking for out-of-the-way nooks where he can be by himself and loose himself in his book or his naps or his violin playing. he finds himself drawn to geum jan di but does not try to understand his attraction. he takes various actions to help her by trying to dissuade goo jun pyo from his attack vendetta against geum jan di and directly when she is in need. already this is a lot for someone like him as his love interest min seo hyun points out before returning to france.


geum jan di may be a queen. she may have clarity about how she wants to be and how she wants to live, the energy to fight for it. but she does not have the mental resources/maturity to negotiate all the decisions that need to be made. "rescued", shown unwitting compassion she finds herself falling into a bond with yoon ji hoo. she comes to care about him and assumes she loves him. she does not know what to do when she discovers yoon ji hoo loves min seo hyun. she cannot stop her attachment to him. and she doesn't know how to proceed to resolve the matter.


on the other side of the battle lines, goo jun pyo finds himself falling in love with geum jan di. he finds her a worthy opponent and his equal. and proceeds to do what princes do: appropiates geum jan di as his girlfriend. he fails to ask her if she would like to be his girlfriend. he just tells her she is his girlfriend.


geum jan di is mired in sorting through her quagmire of questions regarding yoon ji hoo. the questions slowly take on a different slant, become far more intense when goo jun pyo declares his interest in her:

initially her questions are all about her and yoon ji hoo: should she confess her feelings to yoon ji hoo? if you love someone shouldn't you wish the best for that person? if the person you love loves another, shouldn't you let that person alone?....allow the person you love to love whomsoever they select and live their life? and what do you do when the person you love is in love with someone you admire, idolize, understand very well and like?

later on as goo jun pyo slowly creeps into her affections without her knowledge, new questions emerge: what is the extent of her concern for yoon ji hoo? does she in fact love yoon ji hoo? can she really be satisfied by yoon ji hoo?...not because he has loved another person first and she is not his first love, but because of who he is as a person? certainly she finds him attractive. she is grateful to him for his assistance in her moments of need. and they share a bond. but what is the nature of this bond?

what about her own happiness, her love, her well-being? what does she want for herself? what sort of person is compatible with her? who can she love? she is propelled into love triangle. she is not quite sure what to do with either man.

i guess what we will see her discover as the drama unfolds is that the man she ultimately chooses will be comparable to her in drive, in motivations, and so forth. and in this regard, right off the bat, it becomes obvious, that goo jun pyo is her fit mate. while she shares a very special bond with yoon ji hoo, he is a very different sort of person. ultimately geum jan di has to resolve for herself if this difference can be overcome and whether or not she can have a satisfying relationship with yoon ji hoo. for those who have watched hana yori dango, both yoon ji hoo and geum jan di come to understand that while they can never be mates/lovers they nevertheless share a very special bond of friendship.

it seems that the process of seeking a mate is really a process of self-discovery. it is a path to self-realization. as viewers of Boys Before Flowers, we are allowed to trace this evolution of the principal characters in the drama.


Geum Jan Di is a queen in her own pool. Before she is cast into a wealthier pool, she and her family represent the top of the chain for the majority of the working and poor classes. this
pool is densely populated since the wealth of the world is held in the hands of a very very very few. insofar as geum jan di comes from a family capable of owning a drycleaning establishment that provides sufficient income to meet the needs of her family, she represents a regular well-to-do person. maybe this sort of financial level is not so glamorous. the masses rarely recognize such individuals and families because the media defines as wealthy whomever they feature in their programming and magazines.

in many ways geum jan di as a person is far more wealthy than most of the students who attend shinwa school. despite her relatively mundane financial status, she is allowed the space to flourish without having to toady unduly to anyone in her schools and classes. she fights back when there are bullies. she enjoys a certain dignity as a person that the students in shinwa, including the three who are goo jun pyo's attendants in f4, for all their wealth don't have. these students for all their wealth don't seem to display healthy characteristics that is a result of a sort of personal freedom where they see themselves solely, without having to constantly measure themselves against and manage themselves in the context of the world dictated by the shinwa heir, goo jun pyo. all of these students seem to be handicapped as a result of living in world that is unduly poisoned by fear and other negative factors.


until her insertion into the shinwa school, geum jan di enjoyed the freedom of growing up with nothing looming over her. she stood more or less in a space where she could look up at the sky without worrying about the powers and institutions that existed in the distance. with her entry and enrollment in shinwa that changes. but her characteristics of groundedness, fearlessnes, courage that were allowed to blossom in her during her childhood is not going to disappear or change because of her new circumstance. perhaps it is an unconscious recognition of this that drives the fury of geum jan di's tormentors at shinwa school. she joins the shinwa student body with the personal resources and willingness to challenge the f4, goo jun pyo, and to meet
the subsequent confrontations engendered by her position with some resilience of spirit.


however this does not mean that she is not above wishing for allies and assistants and as she runs low on her reserves even someone to shield her from what she initiates. but this does not mean she changes her mind or her position with regard to f4. she is certainly not intimidated by the f4. she is not cowed by their physical attractiveness, power or wealth. there is a sense of wonder and pleasure at all she sees. there is even a sense of bafflement as she struggles to understand all that is wrought by their wealth. she does not pass judgement - she is just simply
struck by the lifestyle. she doesn't loose herself, she pauses to take in and assess what she is seeing.

what she sees does not unmoor her from her firm grip on reality, on the issues of death, disease, old age, hunger, heartache, and other problems. what she sees of the world f4 lives in is deemed pretty and interesting but beside the point. and it is in this regard that ultimately even
goo jun pyo has to curtsey and bow before geum jan di. in her firm grip on reality, in her, in her willingness and capacity to guide her actions accordingly, in her ability to see through the trappings of wealth, in her ability to appreciate but ultimately put aside the baubles of wealth, her focus on what matters and how she conducts herself not according to some fantasy but according to her best understanding of the world as she sees it, she towers over the f4. she wins not only goo jun pyo's love and loyalty, in the end she wins over all the members of f4. ultimately she is adorable and irresistible to everyone around her - boys, girls, men, women, friend, foe, and viewers of the drama. it is this characteristic of geum jan di that makes boys before flowers and the japanese original hana yori dango so powerful and potent despite the number of times it has been filmed - a true goddess story in the grand asian tradition.