Beautiful Gong Shim

Well-written until halfway

The story revolves around the female protagonist Gong Shim, who feels inferior in life, especially to her beautiful successful older sister. By chance, Shim attracts the attention of two seemingly very different men: Ahn Dan Tae, an unconventional lawyer with an unpretentious view on life, and the kind hearted chaebol grandson Suk Jon Soo. Suk Jon Soo’s family carries a burden from over 20 years ago, and this resurfaces, intervening with the lives of our main characters.
The synopsis here on MDL feels a bit misleading in regards to “love story of the two sisters” in my opinion. The sister is a rather unlikeable person, but her story feels more like a thin sidetrack.

I thought the script was very well written, but it declined in quality from about halfway. That’s also when the way too obvious product placements appeared, btw.
The ending also felt a bit rushed, or should I say like they took some shortcuts.

As for the cast, I really like Namkoong Min from The Veil and My Dearest, so it was interesting seeing him in this earlier work. His character (Ahn Dan Tae) was a bit exaggerated, but he plays it out very well, and although I won’t say he is as strong in this as in the two before mentioned dramas, it is also a different kind of role.

Bang Min Ah as Gong Shim was convincing, but not brilliant. Her character did disappear a little as the story went on in a different direction, which might be one reason; as I feel she did shine more in the earlier episodes.

I enjoyed Ohn Joo-Wan as Suk Jon Soo; he portrayed emotions well and managed to build a connection with his audience (me, lol).

To sum it up:
It is not a waste of time watching this, but it could have been better. It is not a series I am likely to rewatch, but I might recommend it to others.

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Good start, but got boring real quick.

If you've seen ANY other K-Drama rom-com, you've seen Beautiful Gong Shim. Same cringe worthy tropes; same unrelatable conflicts and misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a simple conversation; same mind-numbingly boring filler episodes that drag the drama out WAAAAAY too long. Not to mention that Ahn Dan Tae has a "super power" that disappears after episode 4/5.

The most interesting part of the series was the kidnapping plot, but even then the audience knew who the little boy was from the first episode. If the same present is going to be wrapped up in a different package, don't torture your audience with 20 episodes of mind-numbingly bad rom-com troupes that we've seen a million times.

I'm giving the series 4 stars instead of 1 since all of the actors are bringing their A-Game and they deserve praise. The production staff and everyone else working behind the camera deserve recognition as well. Good job.

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This drama is not one of those TV series that will capture your interest from the very first episode. Actually, the story is quite predictable. So why watch it? Well, I guess the performances are really good, and that's a reason by itself. The actors are quite refreshing and funny, giving a youthful vibe to the drama. But what about the story? Well, the drama is about a girl who is being compared to her beautiful and successful sister, even by her parents. That's the main idea, but, the second half of the drama focuses on her neighbour, who tries to find a boy who was kidnapped twenty years ago, and his rich grandmother never stopped searching for him. The good part is that there are some funny moments, and some scenes are cute and entertaining. Though the romance is so-so, the love triangle isn't boring, which is a relief. In addition, the ending held a twist, and that gave a nice note to it, as most of the final episodes of the K dramas are usually boring, due to the fact that the story has ended in the previous episode. So, 6 out of 10.

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Slow paced but worth a watch!

In the first half, it was like a cliche story and the FL was so much in her own dreamland that it made me cringe. She was so immature in a lot of ways, which could easily be annoying more than once. But the latter half was better, with all the loose ends tying up, and the relationships getting a clearer view. Though there wasn't any development in ML other than him getting another degree, the FL had a lot of developments, especially her maturity. She started being practical which made her more appealing than annoying, towards the very end.

There's a lot of crying scenes in the entire series but it was in no way tear-jerking. The plot seemed to go at a very slow pace, and if it were to be at a normal pace, it would have taken 12-16 episodes, so feel free to fast forward some scenes.

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A good show with cute characters - for the most part.

(Possible spoiler at the end of review, clearly marked.)
I really enjoyed the majority of this series, but the ending was so terrible that it pretty much ruined it all for me.

The show starts out as a wierd cinderella style story with a lot of toxic family behaviours, and then takes a turn into mystery/intrigue/crime with dark secrets from the past etc etc.

The romance and "mystery" are all laid out for the audience by episode 10, but who's in alliance with each other keeps you guessing til the last episodes.

I did wonder how they could possibly stretch it out for another 10 episodes after the audience already knew everything. Surprisingly it kept my interest til the end.

I'm sad to say that I really really hated the ending.


*SPOILER AHEAD*
Spoiler for the ending: I thought the last episode was going to be a feel-good episode where you get to see all your favourite characters get their happily ever afters, but this one just really let me down in that department. I know there's a trend in k-dramas for the couple to be separated for a year or more, and then reunite, but there's no frigging way this particular relationship problem could be forgiven THAT easily.

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Idol-turned actress, Bang Min-ah has honestly surprised me with how well she acts. In my opinion, her acting was better than Nam-goong. The plot was intense with a bit of mystery and not as much romance as I would have thought. Min-ah has honestly ditched her idol looks and opted for a bowl cut to fit into her role which I thought was really cute. Her character was relatable to many younger siblings in the sense that she was the shadow to her beautiful sister. Jobless and without much looks but quipped with kindness that melted the two male's hearts, in my pessimistic opinion a bit unrealistic but you know, kdrama magic. I did cry a few times at places where I empathised with Min-ah's character and felt sorry for her.

If you're looking for a typical kdrama with a predictable plot then watch this drama. However, I can recommend you a bunch more drama with a better romantic plot? Overall, the drama left me with a mind that I should be a better person to others like how every heartwarming-happy-ending (does this count as spoiler?) kdramas always do to me.

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Beautiful Gong Shim (2016) – this drama started really great for me as a watcher. I think it is my first Minah drama and she is a great actress from being an idol, and she really suits the role Gong Shim. Namkoong Nim always delivers, he is really good in different roles and is a great actor overall. The cute banter between the leads at the start was so cute to watch. But as the story goes it became too serious to what it was supposed to be at the beginning. The pacing becomes dragging as the drama does not seem to hold its original stance. I did felt uninterested in the drama as it goes and somehow felt regret to how the story turned out.

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Cute story ~

I watched these series after finished with The Girl Who Can See Smells because of Nam Goong Min. I got a crush with the 2nd lead hero so because of that it leads me to this drama. 😂

My personal opinion, Nam Goong Min can play a psycho role better than the romantic one. I think he is not good in romance and I just can't feel the love that he was trying to deliver. But he is good in comedy also.

This drama is good. There is multi feelings mixed inside. There is sad, there is happy, there is funny. There is crazy also. If you are looking for a drama for you to laugh, yes you can choose this one. And it's not stressful also even there is conflict. And some of the problem in this drama, you can predict what and why.

I love all the character except the FL sister, Gong Mi and I'm not happy to see her until the end of the story. And I think the 2nd lead hero deserve someone's better. Ops! I'm sorry to reveal it.

So far, the storyline, the acting, the songs, all are good. Not very good but it's just good. Thank you for entertain me. Hope others will enjoy watching.

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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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