If you’ve watched Meteor Garden 2018 (see mini-review here) early indications show F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers to have a similar modern vibe attached to the classic manga story of the Japanese Hana Yori Dango (translation: Boys Over Flowers) and anime (Crunchyroll) plus live action drama of the same name. Directed by Patha Thongpan for Thailand’s GMMTV, he’s noted an interest in honoring the classic storyline, adding a ‘now’ freshness and displaying a unique Thai aesthetic that meets the original. What does that mean for us? Thai drama is known for its way-over-the-top ‘da-da-da!’ portrayal of stories but has more recently, particularly at GMM, gotten closer to a familiar highly dramatized reality in contemporary series like The Gifted or Kiss the Series. It’s delivered in a more believable, less day-time-TV fashion that’s way more watchable than some of the old-skool offerings.
F4 Thailand Boys Over Flowers Cast
If you watch Thai TV, you may have spotted the same faces cropping up regularly on the same channel. Many actors are signed directly to a station with long-lasting contracts. Interestingly, GMM, which has a dedicated BL (Boys Love) drama following, has previously featured two of the F4 leads in BL series 2gether. So, it will be interesting to see how they fare in a drama where chemistry is crucial to live up to the brand. Vachirawit ‘Bright’ Chivaaree plays lead character Thyme (Tsukasa Domyoji/Joon Pyo/Dao Ming Si). His counterpart in 2gether, Metawin ‘Win’ Opas-iamkajorn is the playboy Kavin (Sojiro Nishikado/Yi-jung/Ximen). Is it a miss that they’re not after the same girl? It’s actually newcomer Jirawat ‘Dew’ Sutivanichsak, who plays Ren (Rui Hanazawa/Ji-hoo/Huaze Lei) in the love triangle. But content to date seems to throw more emphasis on the Kavin character than Ren, indicating a slightly different balance in the storyline. Hirunkit ‘Nani’ Changkham as MJ (Akira Mimasaka/Woo-bin/Meizuo) rounds out the Flower Boys, but in this version he’s both playful and a fighter. And Tontawan ‘Tu’ Tantivejakul plays ordinary girl turned love interest, Gorya (Tsukushi Makino/Jan-di/Shancai). According to the director, all of these actors exude their characters – so, let’s wait and see!
Where Can I Watch F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers?
This new series is set to air on GMM 25 on Saturdays at 20:30 (Bangkok time) from December 18th for 16 episodes. It will simultaneously stream internationally through GMMTV’s official YouTube channel and on Viu. So that’s 13:30pm in the UK, 8:30am US East Coast.
F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers Episode 2 Release Date
Episode 2 of Boys Over Flowers will release on Saturday 25th December at approximately 8.30pm (Bangkok Time) which is 8.30am (ET) and 1.30pm (GMT) Expect episodes to be available shortly after broadcast online at the channels above. Promotional material for this does note there will be English subtitles available, but it’s still unconfirmed how quickly we’ll see them. As the official trailer has English subs, hopefully they’ll follow not long after posting date! Generally we would expect them to go live up to a maximum of 24 hours after release.
Is There A Trailer For F4 Thailand?
There is indeed! You can find a trailer for F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers below:
In addition to the trailer, the team have released a song from their official soundtrack featuring the main cast. It’s certainly channeling the vibe and seems to be right on target to deliver everything Director Thongpan has promised.
What Happened In Episode 1?
We’ve got the whole episode covered with our handy (and lengthy) recap, detailing all the big plot points and discussing the chapter with an accompanying review. You can find that link below! Read More: F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers Episode 1 Recap & Review We’ll be covering the series episode-by-episode, so watch along with us and tell us what you think. Any ideas based on the trailer or the song? Jot ‘em below – we’d love to hear it.
