Falling star
Latest remake of popular TV series ‘Meteor Garden’ debuts to low reviews in China
Years ago, the story of four handsome boys and a tough girl swept through Asia earning droves of fans: Meteor Garden.
Several versions of the TV series, based on the Japanese shojo manga series Boys Over Flowers, have been produced and seen success throughout Asia over the years, so expectations were high when it was announced that a new Chinese mainland version produced by Taiwan’s Angie Chai, the producer behind the hugely successful 2001 version, would be released in July. However, since the show’s debut, it has garnered some of the poorest reviews in the Meteor Garden franchise.
The 48-episode drama, of which 16 episodes have aired so far, has a 3.1/10 on Chinese media review site Douban – far lower than the 8.2 held by the 2001 Taiwan version, the 2005 Japanese version’s 8.0 and the 2009 South Korean version’s 7.3.
Storm of criticism
Though the drama – which stars young actors and actresses Shen Yue, Dylan Wang, Darren Chen, Connor Leong and Caesar Wu – has earned more than 1.85 billion views on Chinese streaming platform Mango TV, reviews on social media have been increasingly negative. Criticism has focused on the “rustic” setting, unfashionable clothing and the “disappointing” acting skills of the main cast, especially that of Yue, who plays the female protagonist Shancai.
“Compared with the Japanese or South Korean versions, what the characters wear in this drama is really unpresentable. It ruins the joy of seeing new fashions while watching TV series,” Liu Kairui, a university student in her early 20s who has watched all the versions of the drama, told the Global Times.
Given the mainland’s rapid economic development and huge improvement when it comes to quality of life, Liu was surprised to see the characters wear “very plain and rustic” clothing,” especially since the show takes place in one of China’s leading fashion hubs – Shanghai.
Liu’s opinion echoes that of many Chinese netizens who jokingly refer to the show as the newest version of Countryside Love Story, a classic Chinese comedy series about a group
of young people living in a rural village. Meanwhile, the once stylish male characters, once dubbed the “Flower Four,” are now being called the “Countryboy Four.”
Numerous netizens have placed the blame for these fashion choices on the production crew being out of touch with the mainland’s development.
“Hey crew, do you still believe that the mainland is still a poor place?” posted netizen Dabiaoge in a comment which got 185 likes on Douban.
Meanwhile, the female protagonist has drawn an equal amount of criticism for being “too dumb” and “too plain.”
While many fans were impressed with Taiwan actress Barbie Hsu’s excellent performance as the pretty and tough Shancai in the 2001’s version, they are disappointed with how Yue’s version is portrayed as a dumpy ordinary-looking girl who comes across as sweet but a bit dumb.
This unattractive portrayal of Shancai has earned the character a new nickname: “thick-leg girl.”
Changing tastes
Experts have pointed to the improved standards and tastes of young Chinese as the main factors behind the criticism aimed at the show.
During an interview with new media platform Entertainment Capital, celebrated Chinese playwright Wang Haili noted that since many of today’s younger generation have consumed far more dramas than their older counterparts, they have far less patience for cliché storylines with little creativity or imagination. Moreover, as these young viewers have grown up in a diverse pop cultural environment, they often find traditional go-to plots very “childish.”
It’s worth noting, however, that audiences overseas seem to be enjoying the show, which is available on Netflix with English subtitles, far more than Chinese fans. Numerous positive comments asking when the next episode will air can be found on Facebook and Twitter.
“It is so intriguing and the chemistry between Shancai and Si is amazing… It’s a shame that our British or American directors cannot come up with such an enticing storyline,” commented Internet user “destineewright31_429” on viki.com.
So far the show has a 8.8/10 on Viki, a popular online platform where Asian TV series are available with different language subtitles.