15 years of Lee Min Ho: How Boys Over Flowers changed Lee Min Ho's fate forever
Lee Min Ho celebrates 15 years of debut anniversary this year and we take a look at the drama that changed his life forever.
Happy 15th debut anniversary Lee Min Ho! The handsome and talented Hallyu superstar Lee Min Ho celebrates 15 years in the showbiz today! Lee Min Ho aspired to become a soccer player in his childhood, but a fatal injury at the age of 10 put an end to his soccer dreams. In his second year of high school, Lee Min Ho turned to acting. He auditioned relentlessly and landed his first break in EBS' Secret Campus. He hustled for the next couple of years, battling a life-changing accident that threatened to put a full stop to his acting career. However, life changed with Boys Over Flowers!
In 2009, Lee Min Ho landed his second major lead role, that of Boys Over Flowers. Lee Min Ho played the arrogant and haughty heir to the Shinhwa empire and the leader of F4, Gu Jun Pyo. In a Cinderella-esque story, Gu Jun Pyo falls in love with Geum Jan Di (Gu Hye Sun), a poor but feisty girl, who catches Gu Jun Pyo's attention. However, there is a roadblock in their romance in the form of Gu Jun Pyo's uncaring mother and his best friend Ji Hoo's interest in Geum Jan Di. The series became a major hit for KBS back then and continues to benefit the cast of the show to date.
Boys Over Flowers is the official adaptation of the Japanese manga series, Hana Dori Yango propagated the spread of the Hallyu Wave in the world, before PSY's Gangnam Style and BTS hit the screen and propelled Lee Min Ho to superstardom. The auditions for the show were a tough one. According to Lee Min Ho's own admission, he actually permed his hair to audition for Gu Jun Pyo and only learnt about his selection in the show, through the newspapers! The series attracted high viewership ratings and buzz throughout South Korea during its broadcast. Not just that, the show reached unique corners of the world. In India, in the Northeast, eager fans would buy DVDs of the show and illegally download it then to watch the episodes.
Actors Kim Bum, Kim Hyun Joong and Gu Hye Sun became household names post the show. Everything about the show achieved cult status. Almost every other teenage rom-com that aired post Boys Over Flowers aped the aesthetics of the show. F4 became such a popular phenomenon that every other youth show had their own version of F4, including the most recent one in Extraordinary You.
But what really worked for the show and why is it still relevant? The story is plain and simple and it wasn't even the first adaptation of Hana Dori Yongo, yet Boys Over Flowers stood the test of time and changed Lee Min Ho's fate forever? Let us take a look at some reasons -
1. Likeability
Despite being a decade old, the drama has a certain likeability to it and not a lot of dramas can boast about that! Lee Min Ho's The Heirs didn't age as well as Boys Over Flowers, primarily because it lacked a certain likeability.
2. One of the better adaptations
Boys Over Flowers was one of the better adaptations of the source material. Of course, this point is entirely debatable, but it is no doubt that Boys Over Flowers juiced the best aspects of the material.
3. Treatment
The story is plain and simple and it is a concept that can go either way - either you do a great job out of it or you create a bad product and we are glad to say, Boys Over Flowers falls in the former category. Everything was done well - the locations, clothes, grandeur, romance, innocence, drama, OST, casting everything fit like a perfect piece of a puzzle. the treatment was nice and refreshing and something you can watch over and over again.
4. Stood the test of time
Boys Over Flowers has stood the test of time and continues to do so. It is a series that holds relevancy in terms of liking and innocence, even though the story is dated. Fans of any age group can revisit it and enjoy it just for nostalgia.
We are glad that Lee Min Ho headlined the show, and of course grateful that the show gave us our heartthrob, Lee Min Ho! Happy Debut Anniversary, Lee Min Ho!
Have you watched Boys Over Flowers? Share your thoughts with Pinkvilla in the comments below.
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