is there a Pinoy Hana Yori Dango in the works?

There has been some buzz as of late that ABS-CBN has acquired the television rights to produce a Filipino adaptation of Hana Yori Dango [Boys Before Flowers or Boys Over Flowers -whatever fits your fancy]. Filipinos are more familiar with the Taiwanese adaptation entitled Meteor Garden which began a wave of Asian dramas making their way to prime-time television in this country.

If you remember that summer from a few years back when most Filipinos who had no knowledge of the Chinese language at all started singing "Zi pa wo zhu ji wei ai zhang niii...", when the guys started styling their hair like that of Jerry Yan, and when everyday at 5:30 pm all activity seems to stop and the nation was glued to their television sets... Well, if you didn't then you must have been living under the a rock because that was when all of them chinky-eyed boys started invading local television programming and they have been a viewing staple ever since.

It was not until 2005 when the Japanese finally adapted the once manga turned anime series into live action. The JDrama version of Hana Yori Dango was something else. It was grander by my standards, the clothes were really a stylist's dream, a little more violent when it came to Tsukasa and Makino, and I love the actress who plays Domyouji's mother. Truly, no one does it like the Japanese. This particular adaptation aired locally with a late afternoon schedule but was not received as well as the Taiwanese one. I know someone who got their mom addicted to the Japanese one...Hahahaha!!!

After that, a Korean adaptation which is garnering much praise was aired just recently, and I must say the guys they cast there were hotter than their Japanese counterparts! Hana Yori Dango is turning out top be quite the pop-culture phenomenon.

I hate to say this, but by the way of Filipino adaptations of certain Asian series, both major networks have yet to prove they have what it takes to make it a good one. The local version of "My Name is Kim Sam Soong" was just atrocious; add to that, casting an atrocious Regine Velasquez for the role [then again, they did well to have cast her as a fat and undesirable woman -she's got both those things in the bag without much effort]. And the local "My Girl" for me was a bit "blah" with Gerald Anderson and Kim Chu looking too young to play such roles.

When I heard that HYD/BBF/MG is slated to be produced, I tried to get as much information of the casting as best as I can. We shall be discussing that in the follow-up to this.

Until then...

Thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa