Meteor Garden
Apr. 29th, 2007 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreSo, I've been watching Meteor Garden, the taiwanese version of Hana Yori Dango, off and on for about 2 months now, but I think I have to put it aside for a bit and watch a couple other doramas before getting back to it. (I was thinking Yoshitsune, but I think I want a shorter story first, so either a jdorama or Strange Tales of Liao Zhai as it's actually 6 stories which are 6 episodes each.)
ETA(because I just realized in the comments that I never really made this clear in the original post): I have not read the manga or seen the anime, just the live action shows(and only 3 episodes of HYD2 because I wanted to be able to binge and watch it on its own without my being caught up in the mass hype and squees, though I quite liked the mass hype and squees) Back to the original post...
Now, I LIKE Meteor Garden, quite a bit, don't get me wrong. Granted, a large part of my love for HYD is my near blind love for Oguri Shun's Hanizawa Rui(sorry Lei, you're prettier, and you get a lot of leeway for being Vic Zhou's first role-and it may be a different case if he'd had more experience under his belt-but you have nothing resembling the presence or charisma of Rui) but really, I love the story and I love Domyoji/Makino, and the rest of the cast(and Kaede? Downright sinster. She doesn't get villainous theme music to convince us she's evil and scary, she gets the theme music because TPTB are too scared of her to NOT give it to her. In comparison, Si's mom is just a control freak, though more than evil enough to get the bad guy role)
But here's the thing. In HYD, it's made clear that Domyoji will NEVER hurt Makino. He'll scream at her(and she'll scream right back) until he loses his voice, he'll throw smash and punch anyone and everyone in sight, but he will never, ever hurt HER. The worst he could ever do to her is grab her too hard by the shoulders, and then he'd feel like the most horrible, evil wretch in the world.
But Si? He hit Shan Cai. Hard. As in, so hard I had to double check to make sure it wasn't a punch. Yeah, it was obvious he saw it as the worst thing he'd ever done or ever could do and felt horribly guilty, and that after that, his overall violence was toned down, and I get that we're supposed to see it as "oh my God I hurt the person I care about and I can never forgive myself" but it was never DEALT with. We got a bit of him feeling guilty, an internal monologue from Shan Cai that sounded disturbingly like an abused woman making excuses for her abusor(which I am not in the least saying is what it is) and then a quick apology, then it was basically swept under the rug. But it was never directly addessed or dealt with. If it had been, if they'd talked about it, or even if there had just been a more pronounced apology and a promise it wouldn't happen again, I could move past it easily. I'd still have problems that they had him hit her that hard(esp. since Jerry Yan is a pretty good sized guy and Barbie Xu, while never really striking me as tiny or frail, is considerably smaller than him, and fairly slight)
As it is, even though, in the term of the story, I KNOW this isn't the case or what would happen, I can't help but think that one of the ways abusive cycles start is: guy gets angry. guy hits. guy looks and feels guilty. girl takes him back and forgives him. guy realizes he doesn't have to pay a penalty for it and does it again.
(and that's another thing...everything else she gives him hell for, but this she makes excuses for and then forgives and forgets?)
The case in HYD/MG? NO WAY! The case in real life? All too often. And, because it's not dealt with, even though I'm several episodes farther than that now, I can help but return to it...it's something that needs closure, but it's obviously not going to GET closure, so I think I need some distance from it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on it(if I was, I'd just stop watching and hope everyone remembering that I'm watching either forgot or assumed I finished and didn't say anything about it...by posting, I know several of you will make sure I finish it eventually) just needing some distance to maybe forget about that part.
ETA: It was just pointed out that I forgot to say this, but I still adore Si-a little more than Domyoji, actually-it's just the handling of that event that I have a problem with.
Now, I LIKE Meteor Garden, quite a bit, don't get me wrong. Granted, a large part of my love for HYD is my near blind love for Oguri Shun's Hanizawa Rui(sorry Lei, you're prettier, and you get a lot of leeway for being Vic Zhou's first role-and it may be a different case if he'd had more experience under his belt-but you have nothing resembling the presence or charisma of Rui) but really, I love the story and I love Domyoji/Makino, and the rest of the cast(and Kaede? Downright sinster. She doesn't get villainous theme music to convince us she's evil and scary, she gets the theme music because TPTB are too scared of her to NOT give it to her. In comparison, Si's mom is just a control freak, though more than evil enough to get the bad guy role)
But here's the thing. In HYD, it's made clear that Domyoji will NEVER hurt Makino. He'll scream at her(and she'll scream right back) until he loses his voice, he'll throw smash and punch anyone and everyone in sight, but he will never, ever hurt HER. The worst he could ever do to her is grab her too hard by the shoulders, and then he'd feel like the most horrible, evil wretch in the world.
But Si? He hit Shan Cai. Hard. As in, so hard I had to double check to make sure it wasn't a punch. Yeah, it was obvious he saw it as the worst thing he'd ever done or ever could do and felt horribly guilty, and that after that, his overall violence was toned down, and I get that we're supposed to see it as "oh my God I hurt the person I care about and I can never forgive myself" but it was never DEALT with. We got a bit of him feeling guilty, an internal monologue from Shan Cai that sounded disturbingly like an abused woman making excuses for her abusor(which I am not in the least saying is what it is) and then a quick apology, then it was basically swept under the rug. But it was never directly addessed or dealt with. If it had been, if they'd talked about it, or even if there had just been a more pronounced apology and a promise it wouldn't happen again, I could move past it easily. I'd still have problems that they had him hit her that hard(esp. since Jerry Yan is a pretty good sized guy and Barbie Xu, while never really striking me as tiny or frail, is considerably smaller than him, and fairly slight)
As it is, even though, in the term of the story, I KNOW this isn't the case or what would happen, I can't help but think that one of the ways abusive cycles start is: guy gets angry. guy hits. guy looks and feels guilty. girl takes him back and forgives him. guy realizes he doesn't have to pay a penalty for it and does it again.
(and that's another thing...everything else she gives him hell for, but this she makes excuses for and then forgives and forgets?)
The case in HYD/MG? NO WAY! The case in real life? All too often. And, because it's not dealt with, even though I'm several episodes farther than that now, I can help but return to it...it's something that needs closure, but it's obviously not going to GET closure, so I think I need some distance from it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on it(if I was, I'd just stop watching and hope everyone remembering that I'm watching either forgot or assumed I finished and didn't say anything about it...by posting, I know several of you will make sure I finish it eventually) just needing some distance to maybe forget about that part.
ETA: It was just pointed out that I forgot to say this, but I still adore Si-a little more than Domyoji, actually-it's just the handling of that event that I have a problem with.