Remake: Itazura Na Kiss

After "Remake: Hana Kimi", I would like to go through the different incarnations of another drama:

Synopsis:

After a crush of two years, a high school girl confesses her feelings but ends up being bluntly rejected by the top and the most good looking student in her school. Therefore, she decides to forget about this arrogant person. However, after losing her house, she's forced to move into with her father in his friends house, and she ends up living under the same roof with her ex-crush...

Main Cast:




                         Female lead : Sato Aiko                            Male lead : Kashiwabara Takashi

As soon as I finished the anime, which I dearly loved, I was going through YouTube's related videos and stumbled onto "Itazura Na Kiss drama", I thought like everyone else in my position: "So there's a drama version?". Considering my love for live adaptations, I ended up watching the drama without thinking ,and I still believe that seeing the Japanese version first was an extremely bad choice. The drama was nothing like the anime, and its characters were annoying for most of the time, not to mention that the lead female wins the title of "The queen of bothersome and irritating characters", she was enormously intolerable and I am not talking about looks; the character itself was frustrating and hard to sympathize with.
The storyline felt random and badly expressed with a lot of meaningless events but cut off many important events. I won't blame the fact that it was released back in 1996, because I was never bothered by the old production as much as I was upset with the whole storyline and cast.

Overall,Itazura Na kiss was a displeasure since it was lacking and badly conveyed.


                  Male lead : Kim Hyung Joong                                   Female lead : Jung So Min

For starters, I never knew this was a remake of "Itazura Na Kiss" until I saw the first episode and it became certain that I was watching Korea's version of one of my favorite animes. Thus, I was quiet happy, since it could make up for the disappointing J-version. However, my joy didn't last too long. Don't get me wrong, this version was better than the previous one, but it wasn't as deep as I wanted it to be. This was beautiful, cute and full astonishing cinematography, like any other Korean remake, and let's not forget that Kim Hyung Joong was very good looking in this drama and *insert shallow fangirl feelings in here* but that's about it.

I always thought that the whole point of Itazura Na Kiss's story was life after marriage and the deep bond between the main couple, but that was painfully absent in the 2010 version, since they tried to show all those moments in the two last episodes. Furthermore, the characters weren't very satisfying; Starting with Beak Seung  Jo's stiffness, Oh Ha Ni's stalking behavior, and they made Christine a guest character, while she has an important role in the story.

After that,I saw the YouTube edition (seven episodes specials) and I can say that I changed my mind a little. The specials were done well, with a better plot and a fixed story. I would've liked it better if it was made into a second season instead, because they could've showed more special events and strong bonds, which they excluded from the original drama, but the good thing is: Beak Seung Jo's character felt lighter and more pleasant to watch.

Then, I ran into "Beak Seung Jo's diaries" on YouTube: A non important special. Actually, it's a recap of the drama with subtitles of Beak Seung Jo's thoughts. While watching this, I sincerely felt that I am wasting my time but I didn't drop them since I always wanted to know Beak Seung Jo's thinking considering his inflexible character. I wouldn't recommend it but if you want to rewatch the drama, it's better to watch Beak Seung Jo's diary instead.

All in all, Playful Kiss wasn't that impressive and I wouldn't blame anyone if he/she hates it, since it was lacking on too many levels. Nonetheless, I never considered it a waste of time and I have to admit that I enjoyed its cute side, plus: it's absolutely better than the Japanese version.




                      Male lead : Joe Cheng                                           Female lead : Ariel Lin

After watching the two remakes, I was very reluctant about this one, because I didn't want to end up disappointed again. However, I wanted to see the story from Taiwan's perspective, so I decided to give it a chance. All I can say is: WOW! I am so mad at myself for not watching this version first instead of spending time on other meaningless versions. If there is a perfect remake, then this is the one!

While watching this version, I felt a deep storyline as well as profound characters mainly because Taiwan was faithful enough to keep all the details from the original story. ISWAK was quite entertaining and full of witty characters. Personally, I liked the second season (They Kiss Again) better than the first, because it shows the core of the whole story through many additional events related to family, romance and friendship. Plus: this season included Christine, the nursing team and many other amusing characters.

Since other versions had many flaws, I am not surprised to find people who hated them but when someone tells me that he hates "It Started With A Kiss" and "They Kiss Again" (Didn't happen so far) then I am sure that he hates the whole story because this version went in depth and showed a marvelous chemistry as well as stunning characters/storyline.

On a side note: The second season had many more steamy scenes and skin ship than the first.  




To summarize:

Drama	Strength Points	Weak Points
Itazura Na Kiss	☺ Good Naoki portrayal      ☺ Short drama	◘ Bad female lead      ◘ Weakly written storyline      ◘ Non stable characters      ◘ Too many missing characters      ◘ In short: WORST VERSION!
Playful Kiss	☺ Cute and fluffy      ☺ A great mother portrayal      ☺ Good cinematography      ☺ Good YouTube specials	◘ The chemistry was almost absent      ◘ The male lead was too stiff      ◘ The story didn't reach the core      ◘ A stalker-like female lead      ◘ Cutting Christine's character short
ISWAK/TKA	☺ Well written storyline      ☺ The greatest chemistry      ☺ The best female/male lead      ☺ The finest second lead male      ☺ Strong characters      ☺ In short: BEST VERSION!	◘ The two seasons are considered long          (50 episodes)