Why Meteor Garden 2018 Sucks: PART TWO (Morally Bad)

And here it is, the reason Meteor Garden 2018 is the most ignorant and disgusting adaptation of Hana Yori Dango thus far: Meteor Garden 2018 is about dating violence. This definitely has not been addressed enough, and the popularity of the show means that not enough people are noticing the concerning issues hidden the guise of 'legendary romance'. Does Hana Yori Dango actuality stand the test of time, and if it doesn't, what should be changed? Which characterisation of 'Domyouji Tsukasa' is best? Those are the questions I'm going to answer today.

There is a scene in the manga of Hana Yori Dango in which Domyouji Tsukasa becomes so jealous and enraged over the obvious connection between Makino Tsukushi and Hanazawa Rui that, in a stupor, he attacks Tsukushi, unbuttons her shirt and forces kisses on her. When he sees how scared she is, he finally backs off and tells her not to cry. No apology. Just that. He assaulted and almost raped the girl, and yet she still falls in love with him! This is just one of the numerous reasons why I hate the manga.
  Now let's fast-forward to the present day, 21 years after the manga was first published, and see what Meteor Garden 2018 decided to do with this scene.

This drama isn't what I wanted it to be, but in parts it's still enjoyable (to make fun of, at the very least). There are some good moments that never existed before - like, Shancai (Tsukushi) and Si (Tsukasa) drawing on each other's faces was so sweet. But too many people, young people, are watching this straight and becoming invested in the romance. Why shouldn't you? Because the relationship between Dong Shancai and Daoming Si is unhealthy, and this is not what young people should be perceiving as how a romantic relationship should be.
  The almost-rape scene is almost exactly the same as it was in the manga. Shen Yue is a frustrating good actress here, and displayed how scared Shancai is to the point where I was afraid for her. She literally tries to run away, and he follows her! This probably starts what becomes a disturbing dynamic between the two.
  Daoming Si is never truly punished for what he did, and appears to embrace his possessive behaviour more after the incident. If he's angry at Shancai, she occasionally looks afraid. This was a terrible choice for her character in so many ways. Firstly, Shancai is supposedly to be the embodiment of 'strong weed' Tsukushi, the only person who can talk back to Tsukasa and put him in his places when he does thing that are wrong.
  Shancai's subtle fear of Si suggests that she never really recovered from the almost-rape scare, explaining her submissive behaviour after the two begin dating, and also shows that she isn't particularly comfortable with him. Hilariously, really, because the show goes out of it's way to state within character dialogue that Si is a better match for Shancai than Lei (Rui) because she can be herself around him. Except she can't. She almost always seems uncomfortable during romantic developments. Any teenage girl watching this might be led to believe that men should be dominant in a relationship, which is so irresponsible of the drama for denoting.
  To support this, the way Si treats her is aggressive, not considerate or romantic in any way. If he wants to take her somewhere, he'll drag her by her arm or her hood, like a pet. Occasionally, he'll prove how dated this adaptation is by putting into action an old romantic trope: cornering the girl against a wall. I'm annoying that baby-faced Dylan Wang managed to make Daoming Si quite endearing in places, because what the character's actions are always in direct juxtaposition with his cool playful demeanour.
  I spoke ever so briefly about character writing inconsistencies in the first part, and this is the worst one. After the almost-rape scene, Daoming Si tells his friends that he "would never do anything to hurt Shancai", when he already had, and would go on to again.
  And can we talk about Lei for a moment? On I think three occasions, Lei intervened in Shancai and Si's relationship, attempting to make her forget him. Every time, she ignored him. This was not a 'love prevails' kind of message, and Lei was not a scheming bastard trying to break up true love. HE WAS A GOOD FRIEND TRYING TO END A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE HE CARED ABOUT.
  This archaic drama should be the most progressive adaptation of the manga so far, but does nothing to adapt. It's a carbon copy of the original, with a few western pop songs thrown in. I have no problem believing that over twenty years ago, when stories like this were new and fresh (not a lazy standard for the rom-com genre), that scene could have been seen as a display of overwhelming passion, and not an act of violence.
  But this is 2018! Women are actually speaking up about unfair treatment, striving for equality, and being taught that they should never be made to do things they don't want to! We, as an audience, are already frustrated that it's the norm for female leads in dramas to take a passive role in their relationships, so how could this have happened? This drama is not made with a 2018 audience in mind, so I frankly have no idea why it had to exist.
  Take Boys Over Flowers, the Korean 2009 adaptation. Similarly to the original, Joon-pyo (Tsukasa) tries to forcefully kiss Jan-di (Tsukushi), but the drama does go to more lengths to show this is wrong. Firstly, she fights back before he can do anything and runs away. Of course, a lot of people would be too terrified in a situation like this to do anything, but here this reaction is used to demonstrate to the audience that you shouldn't tolerate sexual assault. Moreover, by changing the setting of this scene from an enclosed space (an abandoned corridor in the original, a private rooftop in Meteor Garden) to an open courtyard, Boys Over Flowers connotes that Jan-di was never in too much danger. In other words, it's not great, but it's much better.
  And what about Hana Yori Dango 2005, my favourite adaptation? THAT SCENE NEVER MADE IT INTO THE DRAMA. Tsukasa never did anything remotely reminiscent of physically harming Tsukushi, showing that he was genuinely repenting for bullying her when they met. What does it say about your production when a version of the same story that came out thirteen years earlier made smarter choices?

Okay, I'm done. If I want you to take anything away from this, it's that I can understand why some people may enjoy this, but I hope I don't see anything like it in the future. I don't think we necessarily need to abandon Hana Yori Dango in order to portray more sensible romantic relationships, but it is definitely irresponsible to not learn from the mistakes it made. Because it did make mistakes. It isn't a bible for shoujo manga, untouched by time. We just need to remember that.

Can I please go back to talking about shows I like now? Thank you.