Meteor Garden

For other uses, see Boys Over Flowers (disambiguation).

Meteor Garden
Meteor Garden DVD cover
Also known as	流星花園 Liúxīng Huāyuán
Genre	Romance, Drama, Comedy
Format	Television series
Directed by	Cai Yuexun (蔡岳勳)
Starring	Barbie Hsu Jerry Yan Vic Zhou Vanness Wu Ken Chu
Opening theme	"情非得已" (Cant Help Falling In Love With You) by Harlem Yu
Ending theme	"你要的愛" (The Love You Want) by Penny Dai
Country of origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
Language(s)	Mandarin, Taiwanese
No. of episodes	19
Production
Producer(s)	Angie Chai (柴智屏)
Location(s)	Taipei, Taiwan
Production company(s)	Comic Ritz International Production
Broadcast
Original channel	Chinese Television System (CTS)
Original run	12 April 2001 (2001-04-12) – 16 August 2001 (2001-08-16)
Chronology
Followed by	Meteor Rain (supplementary series) Meteor Garden II (sequel)
Related shows	Boys Over Flowers (manga)
External links
CTS homepage

Meteor Garden (Chinese: 流星花園; pinyin: Liúxīng Huāyuán) is a 2001 Taiwanese drama starring Barbie Hsu, Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Vanness Wu and Ken Chu. It is based on Japanese shōjo manga series, Boys Over Flowers (花より男子, Hana Yori Dango^?), written by Yoko Kamio. It was produced by Comic Ritz International Production (可米瑞智國際藝能有限公司) with Angie Chai (柴智屏) as producer and directed by Cai Yuexun (蔡岳勳).

The series was first broadcast in Taiwan on free-to-air Chinese Television System (CTS) (華視) from 12 April 2001 to 16 August 2001. A supplementary mini-series, Meteor Rain was produced in April 2001 and the sequel Meteor Garden II was broadcasted from 11 November 2002 to 25 December 2002. The series is the first live-action television adaptation of the manga, followed by its sequel Meteor Garden II and Japanese Hana Yori Dango, its sequel Hana Yori Dango Returns and South Korean Boys Over Flowers.

At the conclusion of the series, F4 Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Vanness Wu and Ken Chu continued to perform together and released three studio albums as quartet boy band F4. They ceased the use of the name "F4" in 2007 at the objection of Japanese publisher Shueisha, who owns the copyright to Hana Yori Dango, to avoid any confusion with the Japanese and South Korean version of the live-action adaptations of the manga.^[1] The group has since been re-named "JVKV", from the first initial of the quartet in order of descending age.^[2]

Synopsis

The story centers around a poor teenage girl named Shan Cai (Barbie Hsu), who at the insistence of her parents goes to a university for rich people. The university is dominated by Dao Ming Si (Jerry Yan), Hua Ze Lei (Vic Zhou), Mei Zuo (Vanness Wu) and Xi Men (Ken Chu), four rich and handsome but arrogant students collectively known as 'F4', short for 'Flower 4'. They are heirs to four rich and influential families in Taiwan. They terrorize the school by handing out red cards to those they do not like, which allows other students to bully the victims until they leave the school.

After one of Shan Cai's friends receives the wrath of F4's leader, Dao Ming Si, and receives a red card, Shan Cai stands up to Dao Ming Si and slaps him, which in turn results in a red card of her own. However, Shan Cai's persistence in standing up for what is right gradually gains F4's respect and Dao Ming Si falls in love with her.

Characters

Major characters

Drama character	Actor	Manga character	Characteristics
Shan Cai (董杉菜)	Barbie Hsu	Tsukushi Makino	She is a hardworking, tough girl who always defends the weak. She first likes Hua Ze Lei, but then starts to have feelings for Dao Ming Su. As her life gets tougher, she just keeps enduring, earning the respect of all the F4 boys.
Dao Ming Si (道明寺)	Jerry Yan	Tsukasa Doumyouji	He is stubborn, hot-headed leader of F4, and distrustful of everyone but his three childhood friends. He thinks money can solve anything. He is at first is angry at Shan Cai for her defiance but, over time, he comes to love her.
Hua Ze Lei (花澤類)	Vic Chou	Rui Hanazawa	He is a soft-spoken and kind boy whose opinion Dao Ming Si relies on. His friendship with Dao Ming Si almost ends over Shan Cai. He loves his childhood friend, Jing. He becomes Shan Cai's protector and close friend, and later falls in love with her.
Xi Men (西門)	Ken Chu	Soujiro Nishikado	He is a fun-loving playboy of F4 that only date girls no longer than a week and close to Zuoling. Whom Xiaoyou is attracted to.
Mei Zuo (美作)	Vanness Wu	Akira Mimasaka	He is the other playboy who is very loyal to his group of friends.

Minor characters

Drama character	Actor	Manga character	Characteristics
Shan Cai's mother (杉菜母)	Wang Yue (王月)	Keiko Makino	While a loving mother, is desperate to get Shancai married to a rich man. She is the one who uses some contacts she has to get Shancai into the F4's school.
Shan Cai's father (杉菜父)	Dong Zhicheng (董至成)	Haruo Makino	He is always sneaking food and seems to have no luck with his job which he later loses. He seems to always cause the family financial problems.
Xiao You (小優)	Rainie Yang	Yuki Matsuoka	She is Shancai's best friend and has romantic feelings towards Xi Men.
Teng Tang Jing (藤堂靜)	Winnie Qian (錢韋杉)	Shizuka Todou	She is very close to Lei. While he loves her, she seems to see him as a younger brother most of the time.
Li zhen (李真)	Ye An Tin (葉安婷)	Sakurako Sanjou	She at first seems to be Shancai's only friend at school, but later betrays her.
Chen Qing He (陳青和)	Edward Ou	Kazuya Aoike	He is a childhood school friend of Shancai whose father gains a sudden fortune and joins her school. He is also in love with Shancai but is willing to stay her friend only.
Dao Ming Zhuang (道明莊)	Mary Hsu (徐華鳳)	Tsubaki Domyouji	She is Dao Ming Si's older sister.
Daoming Feng (道明楓)	Zhen Xiu (甄秀珍)	Kaede Domyouji	She is Dao Ming Si's controlling mother.
He Yuan Zi (何原滋)	Ke Huan Ru (柯奐如)	Shigeru Ookawahara	She is a strong-willed girl who is engaged to Si by their parents to merge companies. She asks to be Shancai's friend and Shancai cannot say no as she likes Xiaozi despite being engaged to Si. Xiaozi does all she can to get Si to love her, but gives up when she knows that Si will always love Shancai.
Bai He (百合)	Zheng Mei Dai
Qian Hui (千惠)	Zhang Ruo Zhen

Difference from other versions

• Shan Chai's Japanese and Korean counterparts, Tsukushi and Jan Di, had a younger brother who played a small part in the story.

• Meteor Garden was set in a university while the Japanese and Korean versions occurred in a high school (escalator) school.
• Shancai's bestfriend, Qinghe, is not shown in the Japanese and Korean counterparts

Music

• Opening theme song: "情非得已" Qing Fei De Yi (Can't Help Falling for You) by Harlem Yu
• Ending theme song: "你要的愛" (The Love You Want) by Penny Dai

The track, "情非得已" (Cant Help Falling In Love With You) is listed at number 21 on Hit Fm Taiwan's Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart (Hit-Fm年度百首單曲) for 2001.^[3]

Meteor Garden Original Soundtrack (流星花園 電視原聲帶)^[4]

• Released: 14 August 2001
• Label: EMI
• Language: Mandarin and English
• Format: Soundtrack album (CD)
• Genre: Mandopop

Track listing

1. "道明寺傷心之歌" (Love of My Life - Queen)
2. "情非得已" Qing Fei De Yi (Can't Help Falling in You) by Harlem Yu
3. "杉菜與花澤類之歌" (Perfect Moment - Martine McCutheon)
4. "花澤類的成全" (And I Love You So - Don McLean)
5. "告白" (I Love You, Honestly I Love You - Olivia Newton-John)
6. "道明寺的初戀進行曲" (When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman - Dr Hook)
7. "西門的約會" (Loving You - Minnie Ripperton)
8. "我是雜草杉菜" (Never Surrender - Corey Hart)
9. "BYE BYE! 花澤類" (Almost Over You - Sheena Easton)
10. "杉菜的傷心之歌" (Settling - Tara MacLean)
11. "分手" (I'll Never Fall in Love Again - Emma)
12. "流星項鍊" 鄭鈞╱流星
13. "你要的愛" (The Love You Want) by Penny Dai

International broadcasts

• Indonesia: broadcast on Indosiar then rerun on Trans TV and Trans7. Meteor Garden was hugely successful and set Asian drama phenomenon in the country at that time.^[5]
• Philippines: broadcast on ABS-CBN, Cinema One, GMA Network and Q TV. In 2003, when it was first broadcast on ABS-CBN, its reached a 57.4% peak rating with an average rating of 42.9% in mega Manila and a peak of 73.0% nationwide with an average of 62.0%.
• Hong Kong: on ATV World and TVB Pearl
• Xing Kong (STAR TV General Mandarin Channel): broadcast Meteor Garden on 2 June 2009 as part of Boys Over Flowers Trilogy along with Japanese and South Korean adaptations.

References

1. ^ Boy band changes name F4 into JVKV 29 April 2007. Retrieved 2011-01-18
2. ^ News: Boys over Flowers Forces F4 Idol Band to Rename Itself 14 May 2007. Retrieved 2011-01-18
3. ^ (Chinese) 2001 Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart (#1 to 50) Retrieved 2011-04-16
4. ^ Yesasia.com Meteor Garden OST album info 14 August 2001. Retrieved 2011-01-18
5. ^ "Perjalanan Meteor Garden di Indonesia" (in Indonesian). Indosiar. http://www.indosiar.com/gossip/6297/function.require. Retrieved 2011-05-09. 

External links

• (Chinese) CTS Meteor Garden official homepage