The F4 Craze

All those who do not remember F4, please.... NO, HOW COULD YOU? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

Now I would like to ask you, HOW POPULAR WAS F4? 

Answer: F4 WAS SO POPULAR THAT THE SERIES HAD 3 VERSIONS, namely Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese, and even an Anime version of it... And the inspiration of them all, was Boys over Flowers, a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio.

 Here in the Philippines we were able to watch all three live-actions adaptations of it, and based on my experience, all versions of it have made a huge impact on the mass society. 

 

 Meteor Garden is a 2001 Taiwanese drama starring Barbie Hsu, Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Vanness Wu and Ken Chu. This was the first live-action adaptation of the manga. And most Filipinos went crazy over the love story of Dao Ming Si and Shan Chai. 

 

Hana Yori Dango, aired in 2005, starringMao Inoue as Makino Tsukushi, Jun Matsumoto as Domyouji Tsukasa, Shun Oguri as Hanazawa Rui, Shota Matsuda as Nishikado Soujiro Tsuyoshi Abe as Mimasaka Akira,was the next TV adaptation of the manga. Until now you can hear teenage girls talking about this , or even watching episodes online! That's how much we loved this cute story. 

 

 Boys Over Flowers is a 2009 South Korean television series starring Ku Hye-sun, Lee Min-ho, Kim Hyun-joong (of SS501), Kim Bum, Kim Joon (of T-Max) and Kim So-eun. This is the latest TV adaptation of the manga and probably has the cutest members of the F4,thus making girls all over the world swoon and love K-POP music along with this series, because some members of the F4 are also members of popular Korean boybands. 

Because of the F4 craze, somehow I can infer that the mass society really does define what becomes popular because all of these versions of Boys Over Flowers had a massive following in various countries. Some factors of the series' popularity include the actors, 

 

 

Take your pick! Which F4 group was your favorite? Share your thoughts with us :)

I'd like to believe that the target audience of the series was teenage girls, and they seem to have done a good job at making girls fall in love with F4! Everybody wanted to be Shan Chai, or Makino or Jan Di!  

Did I mention the influence of Jan Di in hairstyles? I'd be amazed if someone would tell that she was never ever tempted to cut and style her hair like this during the Boys Over Flowers craze.

And of course, the merchandise. 

 

We all wanted to feel like we're Shan Chai, and out of demand, "Meteor Garden" necklaces became popular as well!

 

Post cards of F4 became all the rage at some point as well!

You can tell that something is popular when it's all over networking sites, and media. I believe Boys Over Flowers has left quite good "feels" to its viewers because until now, they're still one of the most loved asianovelas ever.