This review may contain spoilers
Hilarious rom-com
'Beautiful Gong Shim' was a perfectly balanced drama, blending romantic comedy with suspenseful twists. However, the last two episodes left me with mixed feelings. The one-year separation with zero contact and their swift reconciliation felt like a somewhat abrupt twist. Additionally, the absence of an apology from Gong Shim's sister, in contrast to the apologies she extended to Joon Soo, and the quick absolution of Joon's mother left me puzzled. Despite these moments, 18 episodes delivered pure entertainment, making 'Beautiful Gong Shim' a worthwhile viewing experience. Really cute and funny actingWas this review helpful to you?
Bye Bye Gong Shim
Constantly watching K-dramas for the past one year, I find that if the drama is UNABLE to focus on a powerful story line OR an intelligent script OR outstanding acting OR all 2 or 3, THEN it better have a highly compatible lead couple who has mind blowing chemistry, OTHERWISE bye bye drama.Unfortunately, this drama 'Beautiful Gong Shim' fell into the OTHERWISE category. The story line did not warrant it's 20 episodes and should have stuck with the regular 16 episodes or less, pumping in more depth. Then again, easier said than done, as I lazed on my sofa watching this drama for almost a week, running on marathon time.
Because it had to do 20, it was a struggle to see them trying to fill in every episode. This is especially difficult for seasoned romance drama watchers who could easily predict the series of events leading to the last episode. I am sure they were just tapping their fingers on the table and saying under their breath, "come on, let's get going. I know what is going to happen next". Okay, enough with my cynical thoughts.
The only redeeming factor, was my discovery of actor Nam Goong Min who played Ahn Dan Tae. As I am a late starter with K-Dramas, I only know of this actor now. I found him very talented and this drama did not do his acting justice. I checked his drama profile and I believe I will watch others of him.
In the meantime, for this role in Beautiful Gong Shim, he acted as a struggling lawyer by day and moonlight as a Uber driver at night, to make ends meet. Having to save money, he rents a rooftop room from Gong Shim, hence their love story. However, on the flip side, unknowingly, he is actually a long lost grandson of a huge and successful Korean business conglomerate, which makes up the gist of the the entire drama. The first few episodes were not too bad, but it goes pretty even tempo from there.
Apparently, with Goong Min who is already an established actor, Bang Min Ah (Gong Shim) became quite popular from this drama due to her cuteness. As her role required her to not give up and determined to have Dan Tae's heart, I surprisingly found her acting quite acceptable. Normally such actions can be irritating and turn our stomach inside out which I have seen in other dramas, but her acting was actually not too bad, doubled with her cuteness. But, 20 episodes of this? (eyes rolling). Furthermore, the chemistry between Dan Tae and Gong Shim could not make the thermometer mark. But, if you like occasional cute scenes, then you might like this drama.
Bye for now. Cheers! K-Drama Forever!
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It's interesting how this series was billed about a story of two sisters, when to be quite honest Gong Mi (Gong Shim's older, 'prettier' sister) is all but written out of the drama as a whole. I wonder what happened there?
Either way, the actors had excellent performances all around, though I admit I would've liked to see more of Gong Mi in the entire drama, even if as the predictable foil 2nd female lead. The music was probably what stood out the most to me in this drama, and the two male leads.
That being said, this was fortunately a case of a drama more or less losing its way down the line, but not failing to be entertaining all the same. I still greatly enjoyed this drama and would likely recommend it to someone...though it's not likely to be on my top ten.
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This review may contain spoilers
Too Long, Too Juvenile, Too Frustrating
Beautiful Gong Shim started with a quirky, lighthearted premise and a lot of potential, but unfortunately it never fully delivered. While the early episodes were watchable, several issues became more apparent as the drama progressed. The romance moved at a glacial pace and felt surprisingly juvenile, and as the show went on, the family drama increasingly overshadowed the charm and humor that initially drew me in. By the end, I was fast-forwarding just to get it over with.The ending, in particular, was ridiculous. The one-year time jump was bad enough, but then the male lead somehow couldn’t contact the female lead for the entire year? Yeah, okay. (Insert the biggest eye roll imaginable.) It brought back strong True Beauty memories, except this time there wasn’t even a compelling second male lead for me to emotionally fall back on. Honestly, I found myself wishing the female lead had ended up with no one at all and simply moved on to find someone new.
The lead couple had moments where they were kind of cute together, but it was hard to ignore that the male lead felt significantly older than the female lead. While the drama insisted they were only about four years apart, the real-life fifteen-year age gap was obvious and made their dynamic feel unbalanced. What made this even more frustrating was that both leads behaved like middle schoolers when it came to their relationship—poor communication, constant misunderstandings, and interactions that felt immature rather than endearing.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a drama I’ll be rewatching. Beautiful Gong Shim had potential, but in the end it was too long, too juvenile, and too frustrating to justify the time investment.
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I find the show easy to watch early in its run (I was watching Mirror of the Witch and this show kind of balance it out). I love how Gong Shim and Dan Tae interacts with each other and how they live their daily lives. Somehow, the main plot of Dan Tae'skidnapping, Jun Pyo rather, was somehow the least of the important things for me in the show. So when the show focused on it during the latter part of the show, I got a little impatient on how things are going.
My ratings are what I objectively think Beautiful Gong Shim should be evaluated and not how much I enjoyed it. Overall, the show made me laugh and sad for the leads in a way I didn't expect.
P.S. I think it will take another drama or two to totally forget Nam Goong-min's role in Girl Who Sees Smells and Remember.
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About the Other Sister - cute love story
9/10 is my rating. This South Korean television drama is also known as Dear Fair Lady Kong Shim. This drama spans 20, 60 minute, episodes.It can be tough to grow up in the shadow of an older (or younger) sibling who seems to be doing much better in life than you. Gong Shim (Bang Minah) finds growing up in the outskirts of the limelight cast on her older sistter, Gong Mi (Seo Hyo-rim), leaves her feeling inadequate in many ways. The older sister is beautiful and successful (a lawyer in a top firm) and pays for all the families' living expenses. Gong Shim is a jobless artist who does odd jobs to gather money to change her life by moving to Italy and studying art. She has a rooftop apartment as her sister was given her bedroom as a wardrobe - leaving Gong Shim the choice of sharing the closet/room or finding her own space. She decides to rent the rooftop room to Ahn Dan-tae (Namkoong Min) a pro bono lawyer with some personality flaws. Through a series of coincidences Dan-tae becomes friends of Joon-soo who is the son of a wealthy family. The older sister smells money and becomes interested in some of her little sister's male acquaintance.
I really liked this drama. Kong shim is very understandable and love-able. I like the character development and the plot twists at the right moments to keep it interesting.
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I won’t say I regret watching, because it was cute and funny enough to be worth it. However, I will say that the majority of the drama was a waste of time. Watch casually and skip all the nonsense…unless you’ve never seen a K-Drama before or are relatively new to the drama scene…then you will probably be able to enjoy the plot.
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A drama that is divided into two halves with fun chemistry between the ML and FL
Beautiful Gong Shim is a fun rom com with fun chemistry between our ML and FL. But the drama was a a tale of two halves. It falls into my lists of dramas where I loved the couple more than the plot.Plot: The first half of this drama up until episode 10 mainly focus on the life of Gong Shim and Dan Tae. How they became involved in each other's life and developing their relationship later becoming romance. These first 10 episodes include some of the funniest scenes I've seen in Kdramas. Their chemistry was clicking with me. Gong Shim is a person who doesn't have a stable career bouncing from various part time jobs. She isn't treated as equal as her older sister in her family. She is stressed out that she has hair loss in a small part of her hair where she wears a wig. Her wig makes her character lovable for who she is and others might just hate it. I didn't mind it. But she is not all that weak and hopeless. She has a attitude where she stands up and speaks truths to rich arrogant folks. Nothing is going right for her until Ahn Dan Tae moves into the roof above the building her family lives in.
Dan Tae is more of a eccentric ML. He's not the typical ML you find in Kdramas(perfect and flawless). He wears flip flops around in his free time, he tends to eat food that were dropped on the ground for 3 seconds, he loves to eat food at a convenience store, he is a lawyer, has a law firm, has buddies that look up to/help him with things, and is a fun wacky character. He's weird but kind and not a jerk. He is the person that comes into the life of Gong Shim and slowly helps her back onto her feet to improve her life. Sometimes the drama felt like one of those long daily soap opera kdramas. They had the awful older sister character trope but at least they didn't feature her a lot. That was surprising since in the description the drama said it was a love story involving her sister too. Lots of funny moments between them like the dreaming sequence or the hair pulling. This is what made Beautiful Gong Shim fun.
The second half from episode 10 to the end changed the drama into a different style. There was a other main plot you can say throughout the drama which was solving the case of a little boy named "Joon Pyo". Joon Pyo was kidnapped at a young age and his mother died from a car crash when she chased after the kidnapper. To note, Joon Pyo was from a chaebol family. The grandmother of the family is the only one still searching and having hopes to find him as that is his only blood related family member left. Gong Shim who had no connections at all to the case was left out and pretty much a side character in the second half. Sometimes they throw a plot twist where the FL is funny enough apart of the ML's past that she is now involved with the mystery but not here. So the FL who the drama is named after is shoved in the background for some mystery melodrama. Also note it was mostly filled with the cliche chaebol family drama. The second half lost the charm of the drama and probably lost the viewers who liked it. It dragged and fit in cliches along with some dumb writing.
Acting/Cast: Namkoong Min was a great choice to play Dan Tae. The weird wacky personality he put into Dan Tae was very fun. First drama I've seen of Bang Min Ah and she was good. I think their chemistry together matched very well. It can be difficult to act with a wig to their character but she nailed it. I only wished they made her drop the wig at the halfway point to show she as grown as a character waiting to be together with Dan Tae. Because by the end, she has grown out of the wig which felt kind of weird to me. I got used to her character with it that there wasn't enough time for me to get used to her character with her normal hair.
Music: Nothing special that stand out. It's alright.
Rewatch: The first half of the drama is worth rewatching for the enjoyment. Second half is pretty skippable.
Overall: The drama to me was a 2 person show that carried it. Chemistry is amazing for rom com lovers. Not alot of lovey dovey romance moments tho. It was more of a he fell first trope. Watch for the first half and just skip to the end if you don't like the second half of the drama.
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If you are an avid rom com watcher like me then you will enjoy this!
Personally I enjoy light, cliche romantic comedies all the time. To get a break from life, I will watch a light hearted kdrama. This show is one of the funniest rom coms I have come across. It may have not been the best show I have stumbled upon but it has a nice 2016 charm. The plot is a bit underdeveloped but in my opinion when you just want to laugh its not that big of a deal. If you just want a break from complex plots this is a show you would enjoy. Honestly, I think people forget some shows are cliches and are not ground breaking. Some shows are just there so we can laugh and this is one of them.Was this review helpful to you?
I really tried to like the title character Gong Shim, but due to her childish personality, her lack of fashion sense and that wig ... it just wasn't cutting it for me. I did find it amusing that the drama is called "Beautiful Gong Shim" yet the main story has nothing to do with her. She could have been a side character with her own side quest, and the drama could be named "Beautiful Dan Tae."
This story is supposed to be about a girl finding herself, leaving to love herself and to teach beauty is what's on the inside. Yet, this drama is mostly about the convoluted story about a kidnapped child and contrived family politics ... ugh!!!!!! I cannot recommend this drama. I am surprised that I was even able to finish it ...
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Why call it a romance?
This was a wasted 20 episodes of a typical run of the mill drama.The genre is comedy, romance and drama.
The comedy is cute in the first few episodes.
The drama drags on and on.
The romance - seriously don't trust it.
There was no attention paid to the development of relationship, no chemistry and not one single heart fluttering moment.
After I finished the 20 torturous episodes, I looked up the details on the cast.
The ML is 15 years older than the FL, which is not the problem at all - but then it all fell into place.
He was just so uncomfortable with her, barely held her hand or hugged her.
He was also presumably confirming his dating relationship that same year, so the romantic scenes may have been painful.
The second pair was even worse. Not their acting, just their situation. Pooooorly done.
Watch it for any other reason except the misnomer of romance.
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The story started out very oddly. Seemingly just tossing all kinds of tropes and concepts in. Such s Dan Tae's ability to see things in slow mow, which was convientaly utilzed and then forgotten though out the series. Once the story founds it's legs, I was blow away!!
Gong Shim was both hilarous and moving. She may have not have had high self esteem, but she was strong. I enjoyed that she stood up for herself. Even telling the male lead not to boss her around, it was "her choice" whether she wanted to do something. Though in the end I she did allow herself to be shelved by the man. Becasue she loved him enough to be abused.
Many interesting storylines were introduced pulling inspiration from Beauty and the Beast. I also think Cinderella themes. On inner beauty, outer beauty, self worth and so on. I loved it.
Sadly the plot of Dan Tae discovery he was the heir to Star Group took over. A plot that I thought the writer realized needed to be on the back burner. By episode 10 it came into full affect. It was uninteresting becasue veiwers knew right away what had happpened. The show quickly went from inavated and refreshing, do another dull drama. Not to mention that it felt like the writer forgot that it was Gong Shim's name in the title. It was the Dan Tae show and lost all of the interesting threads.
When things started out Joon Soo was the better love interest and I realy wanted him to get Gong Shim. Dan Tae warmed up as a love interest and I really loved him as well. It became clear that he would be IT and poor Joon Soo was almost fed to the wolves. To be honest I still think he should have gotten the girl. Dan Tae did some pretty crappy things. Though I will give mad props out to Dan Tae and Joon Soo's relationship. It was all so magical.
Even more annoying was that Gong Mi was pretty much abandoned. Despite that her as a villian was more interesting then the kidnapper and villian of the Star Group Heir arc. There were endless posiblities for the relationship between Gong Shim and Gong Mi. Sadly it was only brought up every now and then when the writer realized she was boring her viewers to tears. If I was actress Seo Hyo Rim I would be ticked.
I think the cast did an amazing job. The two fathers, Joon Soo's and Gong Shim's, turned out to be surprising story lines and the best part of the last episode.
The music was both fun, cheesey, and at times terrible. But more fun than anything. Honestly I don't remember most of the music and songs now, but I know while watching I had fun. Though I won't be tracking down the OST anytime soon.
Rewatch. This is tough. I'd probably watch certain parts again, espeically the first half of the series. However, the show became so mind numbingly boring that there is no way I'd revisit it. Probably a "Best scenes of Beautiful Gong Shim" on Youtube.
In the end Beautiful Gong Shim burned so bright when it found it's feet, that it burnt out. One of the biggest disappointing drama turn outs for this year for me. Mainly because it just couldn't maintian it's great concepts and like all Lee Hee-Myung dramas quickly deterated into another boring typical drama. One that disspoints it's characters. I will always value Gong Shim as a refreshing female lead, and despite the writers attempts to ruin her I'll hold on to that.
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