Meteor Garden Review

Drama: Meteor Garden
Alternate Titles: 流星花園 / Liu Xing Hua Yuan
Genre: Drama
Language: Taiwanese
Number of Episodes: 27
Film Date: April 2001
My Favorite Episode: 14
My Rating: 4/5


Main Cast: Barbie Xu as Shan Cai
Jerry Yan as Dao Ming Si
Vic Zhou as Hua Ze Lei
Ken Chu as Xi Men
Vanness Wu as Mei Zuo

Introduction/Description of Main Characters:
Shan Cai - An ordinary girl with a strong and kind personality, she has no siblings but two parents who are always longing to see their daughter marry a rich man. She has a few best friends, Qing He, Xiao You and Li Zhen. She is also Dao Ming Si's love interest.
Dao Ming Si - The obnoxious leader of F4, he thinks that money can buy anything until he meets Shan Cai and realizes that he cannot 'buy' Shan Cai. He used to have a fiery temper and almost killed someone in the past. However, Shan Cai is the only one who can make him control his temper.

Hua Ze Lei - The quiet one in F4, he is the kindest one out of the four and is a very good friend. His first love interest is Jing but they had no good ending. In the middle of the series, he falls for Shan Cai but remains a good friend because he knows that Dao Ming Si really loves Shan Cai.

Xi Men - The womanizer of the four. He has a new girlfriend every single week. However, when a courageous Xiao You confesses her love for him, he sort of changes for a while. But at the end, he is still the 'womanizer'.

Mei Zuo - The joker of the four, he's similar to Xi Men except that there's no female character for him. He is also a very loyal friend.

My Favorite Songs: Qing Fei Di Yi, Ne Yao Di Ai


Synopsis: Shan Cai, a lower middle class citizen, is attending Ying De University, the private school made exclusively for rich students. Besides being looked down upon by rich classmates, she has angered the leader of F4, Dao Ming Si. F4 comprises of Dao Ming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Xi Men, and Mei Zuo, who are the heirs of the four richest families who also donated a lot of money to the school, so nobody dares to challenge them. This poor girl dared to attack Dao Ming Si, which nobody has done before, making Dao Ming Si sprout an interest towards her. However, his constant torture of her has made her hate him, but has also made her fall in love with Hua Ze Lei, who helped her during Dao Ming Si’s torturing. Can Dao Ming Si get her love through his cold and cruel exterior? Will their love last when everyone is trying to break them up? What happens when his fiancée comes and his mother has used all the worst ways to keep her from him?



Review: In my opinion, Meteor Garden was very good. Although it's a very old drama, it's one of the first Taiwanese dramas EVER that started the new line of even more Taiwanese dramas! The beginning was interesting, and the drama flowed nicely from conflict to conflict, since there were many small conflicts in addition to a larger conflict, which is ultimately the relationship between Dao Ming Si and Shan Cai. This drama did not get a 5/5 from me though, because I found that F4 weren't as scary as they were supposed to be. They were supposed to be frightening, but in the beginning, they didn't even do much harm to anyone, yet the whole school fears them. The reason I liked this drama is because it was so interesting and kept me watching it. Unlike some other dramas, this one didn't have any boring parts; it was all well planned and kept me watching it. I especially know that this was a good drama because at the end, I was very sad. When you're sad after watching a drama, then you know it's a good one. And if the beginning of the drama hooks you, then that's even more proof that it's a good drama to watch! Meteor Garden, although old, was very good and acceptable. The plot is unlike one that I've ever seen before where the man can't be with the woman because of their different financial status's. This review isn't as long as some of my previous ones because there isn't much to say on how good it is or how bad it is. Like Full House, this isn't one of my favorite dramas, but one to consider if you want a longer drama with many small conflicts and problems in between.

~Source for character descriptions and synopsis: www.mysoju.com/meteor-garden, http://www.spcnet.tv/Taiwanese-TV-Series/Meteor-Garden-review-r1530.html