tw Hana Kimi: The End

[meganbmoore]

Frankly: I feel cheated.

I love the thing, but the ending, and lack of resolution to virtually every major plotline makes me mad.

I can't help but think that, somewhere in the filming of ep 13, they learned they were probably getting a sequel or something and just wrapped it up to save plotlines for the sequel.  The only thing resolved is that Rui Xi knows that Quan knows she's a girl.  Never mind that they left 3 major plotlines unresolved.

1.  No one else knows, and not in a "she got through it all without anyone finding out" way, but in a "we just won't worry about it" way.  I'm not overly worried about whether or not they find out, I just want it to be addressed, not have a red herring thrown at us and leaving it unresolved.

2.  Quan's relationship with his family and his issues.  They're hinted at in the flashbacks and the brief scenes with his brother, but never fully addressed or resolved.

3.  Quan's return to high jump, and whether or not he's able to meet his father's expectations and reach the level of being able to compete against Shen Le.  

2 and 3 are actually the storyline in the manga right now(well...as of vol 17...I haven't read 18-19 yet.)

On the one hand, I had a blast with the ending, but on the other hand, it wasn't an ending, they just stopped.  Yes, I realize they likely knew by then that a sequel was a sure thing and weren't worried about it, but I think leaving things hanging because of that was a copout.

Also, I don't know if it was the actor or the changes to that storyline, but Akiha(never really caught his name here...the photographer at the end, for those who haven't read the manga) felt more conniving and manipulative than he ever did in the manga, and not as nice.

Though...since they indicated it here, does this mean Xiu Yi/Nakatsu and Julia get together in the manga?  I've rather assumed they would for a good while (though I admit, I would kinda like to see her end up with Nanba/Senoir Nan...someone has to breeak him of the habit of chasing after anything with ovaries.)

Speaking of Julia...I absolutely loved her here.  I've always loved her from the manga, but I loved her even more here.  Largely because, unlike most supposed americans in doramas(or even any non-asians) she's not  acting like someone raised in *insert asian country* or weird...she's clearly trying to be as much like an american teen as possible, even if it seems to be based on TV, and she actually comes across as awkward when speaking her own language, as Julia is supposed to.    Also, her scenes with both Senior Nan and Xiu Yi were absolutely perfect.  Though...she kinda made Ella look bad in some of their scenes together, as Ella didn't seem to be making any attempts at coming off as anything but a Taiwanese teen(which is no slight to Ella, really, as she had a much larger role.)

I missed having more of Rio, Himejiya/Oscar and Shen Le.  Only Shen Le's first storyline was included here (the rest, I assume, will be in the sequel) and while most of Rio and Oscar's stuff wasn't here (again, hopefully in the sequel) what was included reduced their roles a lot (I particularly missed the scene on the school trip where Umeda/Mei Tian informed the class that anyone even looking at Rio would die...actually, I missed the Umeda/Rio/Nanba interaction in general.)  Except for Shen Le, though, it's just my missing something from the manga that wasn't in the drama, as opposed to any flaws in the drama itself.  In Shen Le's case, he's an important part of the unresolved high jumping plotline, so I allow myself to be a touch bitter.

While I loved it, I don't feel like I've seen all of it.  Rather, like I was watching along...and then it stopped several eps short of the end.  I think this is one where I'll have to view 1 and 2 as a single entity to be happy.

In other news, I'm considering checking out Tokyo Juliet.  Though, it's more for Ariel Lin and Ryan Tang than for Wu Zun.  While I ended up liking Wu Zun quite a bit, he's, here at least, a little too pretty and boyish for me to crush on(and his very un-Sano/Quan tattoo never stopped distracting me.)  Ryan Tang, OTOH...

Comments

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You are not going to like TJ, trust me. Though it is fully of silly fun. It's a really really silly drama.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I have to agree. I never actually finished it I got so tired of the Ariel Lin character moping and weeping over nothing every 15 minutes. Though I did rather love the evil dad. I was rooting for him to free his son (who brooded very well) from his eternally weepy girlfriend.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*refuses to be annoyed by Ariel Lin. Loves her too much.*

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

I didn't finish it either, but I loooooooooooooove Ariel Lin. I'm biased and think that Joe Cheng/Ariel Lin and Wu Zun/Ella are better together. ^^;;

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I am told I will be annoyed by Ariel Lin's character. I refuse to be annoyed by Ariel Lin.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

Yeah! You tell them!

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

They didn't know there would be a sequel when they filmed it. Taiwanese dramas are filmed entirely before they start to air & a sequel hinged on the ratings. I watched HanaKimi week by week as it aired & every week the cast would celebrate the ratings & hope a sequel would result (plus a trip to Japan the director promised if ratings hit a certain point).

So I've always thought the ending was their attempt to slightly close the show in case a sequel didn't happen while leaving an opening in case it did. It came off a bit lame but in a feel good type way.

I loved how totally psycho everyone acted while Rui Xi & Quan were trying to confess. It's like they all got drunk/high or something because it was totally rediculous.

But I disagree that Rui Zi knows Quan knows she's a girl. That part was a dream & didn't really happen. And that part at the very end where Quan was carrying her caused a lot of debate but I don't think that she heard him there either. I think it was more of an alternate-reality/they-communicated-it-in-their-hearts kind of thing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, they don't always. I don't know about HK, but I know Magicians of love was made longer because it was popular(not a good thing, really...that one needed to be a few eps shorter)

As a regular episode, but as a conclusionthe the series, it was a copout. The way they left most major plotlines dangling makes me think that someone, at least, knew they could count on a sequel if they left it open(after all, just because the cast soesn't know they can get a sequel, that doesn't mean no one knew)

They seemed to want to say she knew but avoided outright saying it...she was acting like she thought he knew, and he was acting the same, I assume she knew. It wasn't written cleared but leaned much more to her knowing than her not knowing.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

The only thing resolved is that Rui Xi knows that Quan knows she's a girl.
I only watched this episode once (I also thought it sucked, but if they make the sequel good I'll forgive them) so memories a bit hazy - did they really resolve this? I don't recall Rui Xi finding out..

I think they shoot tw dramas before they air all the way through so I think they might've left it open just because a) they didn't know how to wrap it up any better and b) they were hoping it'd be good enough to make a sequel a wise decision. Or something.

The photographer guy was SO creepy. I only appreciated him for making Mei Tian feel uncomfortable. :D

Though...since they indicated it here, does this mean Xiu Yi/Nakatsu and Julia get together in the manga?
I skimmed/skipped some of the vols of the manga but AFAIK Nakatsu is GYA for Mizuki until the very end. I think Julia/Xiu Yi was some sort of a weird idea of the script writers. I did not mind but I wonder what it means for sequel. Xiu Yi's gyaness is such a huge comedy part of the show...

I also loved Julia. Some people were annoyed at her but IDK, I liked her a lot, American accent and the fact she was sort of trying to resolve the situation in a way she felt would be the best way. She might've not had the right idea about the whole thing - in that I agree with Quan - but she just did it to help out.

I also liked how Ella spoke some English in her scenes with Julia and her English was very neatly pronounced and the Mandarin/English mix seemed natural and flowing.

Ryan Tang, yeah, I wanna see more of him, too. There's some drama called Angel (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Angel_%28Taiwan%29) which seems like a weepy drama with mature characters. Proooobably not any good but still, it's out there.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The photographer indicates it and then tells Quan that she knows, and then at the end they left it open for interpretation. They heavily indicate that she knows he knows but seem to be leaving themselves an out to say she doesn't know. It was a very, very wishywashy ending.

Akiha in the manga is underhanded and conniving at times, but utterly benign. Even though Umeda warns him not to mess with the kids, its always clear that he'll never do anything to them or really try to ecpose Mizuki's secret. Also, in the manga, Umeda wants to avoid him because Akiha is rather...energetically...after him, as opposed to how it came across here, where he seemed to creep Mei Tian out. I think they made the character darker to create conflict to end the show there, but I didn't like how they did it.

In the manga and drama both, Nakatsu/Xiu Yi and Julia come across as 5 year olds who like each other and show it by trying to beat each other up. Julia is a friend first and everything else second. Sadly, those kinds of characters often seem to get some irritation from the fans, I guess because it often means they object to OTP-ness on some level. I almost always love them, though.

[kitkat-cat.livejournal.com]

I still haven't managed to finish tw hana kimi. I got up to the bit where Quan and Ruixi were in the hot springs and never got further!

i get the feeling that they were banking on it being a runaway success so that they could get a sequel out, which they are doing of course! So, we might get more resolution in the sequel...maybe...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Any resolution is better than a complete lack of resolution, which I'm realizing more and more about the first series...it doesn't really resolve anything, just tricks you into thinking it's at least resolved a bit of it.

[dr-crgirl.livejournal.com]

From your other post, I have to disagree about Jiro being annoying. He overacted, he made Nakatsu silly to the point where that's all his character was, comic relief, which is not the only reason he was there. Of course in the Jdrama, well, I don't know have you watched it? Sorry that I don't know if you have!!! I should hope they have more on the other characters, at least in season 2, they did not do them justice here, and we should have more Nanba, because I must admit Danson is a really hot boy.

And Wu Chun is way too pretty, and then I see his arms, and it freaks me out, cause it doesn't match. I mean it doesn't match at all!!!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Uhm...I said that despite the overacting, Jiro ISN'T annoying. He can make his characters annoying, but he himself isn't. In the manga, one of the main purposes of the Nakatsu character is comic relief, amd Jiro made him more so. But then, they took several things beyond the point the manga did.

I haven't seen the japanese version yet, just raws of the first episode.

[dr-crgirl.livejournal.com]

That's what I meant, actually, no offense to Jiro, just his characters, I'm sorry, but both his ISWAK and Hana Kimi characters are soo over the top. But I feel even if he was there for comic relief it went too far. All was at no offense, I promise. I hope you watch the Jversion and blog about it ^_^

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the ending either, it was confusing and crazy. *-* I did like how everyone was freaking out when Rui Xi and Qian were in that room, but other than that, it was...:/. That's probably the only thing that I didn't like about the whole series.

About the Jdrama, I don't know a whole lot about it, but they're skipping around, and they've taken some plots and people out, I think. [Such as Julia, Gilbert, Kujo, Kadoma, Rio, male!gay!Akiha, KK, etc. etc., and then the Summer Holiday Job and stuff.] It makes me pretty sad, and I've only liked one part of the drama so far, one that isn't even in the manga. :/
I think you should watch it anyways, though. A lot of people seem to enjoy it. :]

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The thing about the ending is that the entire thing felt like nothing but a sequel ploy.