HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
I need to say that I don't understand the message here. Initially, I thought that it would be a drama about self-image and the importance to love yourself, and I waited for that, and waited, and waited... Then I figured out that the drama was ending and this wasn't happening. We can see Kang Mi Rae (Im Soo Hyang) showing some of this in the process, but it's insignificant in the middle of the process. Until episode 13 we still have a dialog as "I don't deserve to be with you because I'm ugly". I really didn't understand why the drama goes in this direction and didn't make a massive critical about beauty standards. It looks like if they bring the theme but hadn't the courage to do something with this. I felt a lot of frustration, I can't hide this. The message to me was "Beauty is happiness" in the entire show, and in the last episode just a turn "Oh no, you don't need to be pretty to be happy. But I am and this is everything to me". I'm writing this and getting upset again. I understand now why this show is so controversial. I think that what was missed here was the conclusion, a moment of catharsis where everyone could see the things cleary. Mi Rae's parents realizing that your daughter didn't need plastic surgery, but psychological help. Mi Rae herself understanding how confused her mind was and how her need embrace who she was with a "pretty face" or not. Kyung Suk expressing for real that Mi Rae was Mi Rae with a pretty face or not (this shows up very softly in some episodes). When you bring a problem and doesn't show a solution, you are confirming that there isn't a problem at all. This is dangerous, for me.Talking about acting... Please, someone explain this to me: Do Kyung Suk (Cha Eun Woo) was autistic?! I enjoy introspective male leads, but this one was too much. I thought that they will put him as an autistic (this would be amazing!), but after all, he was just shy. This wouldn't be a problem if we had a strong female lead, but Kang Mi Rae (Im Soo Hyang) was just tasteless. I couldn't get involved with the romance because I feel nothing with them. They were cute in the last episodes, but everything was so stiffened, that sometimes I just felt shame watching them. We could see the difference when we watch them interacting with Yeon Woo Young (Kwak Dong Yeon) and Oh Hyun Jung (Min Do Hee), the energy was totally different. This was another thing that made me mad, Woo Young and Hyun Jung were great characters, but we couldn't saw almost anything of them. Hyun Soo Ah (Jo Woo Ri) also was a perfect "villain" for me! I never saw a villain that maintain a falseness until the end of the show, and I thought very interesting her plot, but also obfuscated by the mess of the principal message.
Yeah, I didn't like this. I know some people really love this show, and I really tried to enjoy the process, but the inconsistencies and bad choices in the script really disturb me. I could forgive the tasteless chemistry of the main couple and their personalities, but a messy plot that could sustain a wrong message about beauty and health, it's too much for me. So, at your own risk (★ ★ ★ ★). I hope see Cha Eun Woo in another role, I saw that he will be on a drama "True beauty" (again, beauty) with Moon Ga Young (that I love), so I hope to see an amazing job here. And I will put "When I was the most beautiful" (beautiful, again) on my plan to watch's list, to see Im Soo Hyang and maybe start to be empathetic with her... Let's see!
See you soon!
XOXO, Mari.
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This review may contain spoilers
One of my all time favorite Korean dramas. I have re-watched this at least 5 times and have never been disappointed, it sits at my second favorite of all the dramas I have watched. This drama displays a very unique and worth praising story line and obstacles that are given to the leads in the drama. The female lead was always so insecure of herself, and went through a lot of harassment since she was younger. The only logical reason she thought she had left was to change herself by undergoing through a surgery. At first she was very satisfied with it and started fitting in, but as someone from the past she once knew and had feelings for had come to her university, her life was going to change. This is because he knows her secret from the past for what she once looked like. He is very popular in the school for his looks and is a cold male lead indeed. But he does not have interests for anything and comes to only care about the female lead from their chemistry. Much more challenges happen throughout the drama, when you go deep into the story, but this drama was definitely a cherished drama by its many viewers. Many surprises will happen throughout the story, and many obligations and objections will go throughout their relationship/love for each other. Once your very deep into the drama, the end will come with dark turns and complications. So have fun watching/binge watching. This drama is definitely worth it. Was this review helpful to you?
For a show like this, where appearances are a main factor, it was executed really strangely. She's supposed to be really pretty and also noticeably worked on (uncanny-valley territory) but she's neither. She definitely isn't ugly and she doesn't look overdone like the show is trying so hard to portray. So the intention falls flat, none of the casts' reaction to her make sense, she's an average girl with a slightly off nose if anything. She also (no offense) looks her age. That isn't a bad thing at all, but she didn't look like a just graduated high-school student at all.
Looks aside, the acting is what made me want to throw myself into a wall. I'm not sure if Cha Eun Woo can't act or if the script told him to act like he constantly has a stick in his ass and has been emotionally repressed since birth. He did not have the range for this role, and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt; however, he made me so mad I subconsciously avoid his works now. Pairing him with Im Soo Hyang was like making a mayo sandwich of un-toasted white-bread. Bland. I do think this is a case of bad writing though. There was really no plot to work with here and that did not help the actors make this work. Eun Woo had more emotions as a character though so I'll give him a 5 out of 10 personally
If they made this drama into 8-10 episodes and cut out all the childish antics, maybe it would've been better. I had a hard time watching these two adults with NO chemistry force themselves to fall in love. Though, since it seems people enjoyed it, give it a chance. You'll know pretty quickly if it's your style.
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I'm part of those 5% or even 0% who think this drama was just "ok"...
People were crazy loving this drama, but I didn't see anything special about it.
I started the drama because it is a school drama, and I love that type of shows and maybe because of Eunwoo too. I was curious how he would behave in a main role.
->STORY
It is different and it is about something that we don't usually see in shows: Plastic surgeries. But honestly that was the only thing that made the drama "ok" for me. And then we have the romantic side story, that was the usual couples we see in kdramas. But they focused in the romance too much.
->CAST
Failed a bit.
The characters are the typical ones in school dramas. The innocent main girl, the quiet, handsome, popular main guy, the 2nd lead guy who is nice and cute, the girl who is a bitch, the protective best friend, etc...
People were saying Eunwoo did really good and his acting is amazing, but where exactly? He didn’t change his expressions for the whole 16 episodes. We actually don't know much about his acting skills.
Im Soo Hyang//Mi Rae- Her acting was kind of ok, but she never changed her face expressions...it was so boring...
Her character was kind of off. She made a plastic surgery to be loved and feel ordinary, and there's nothing wrong with that, but she doesn't try to be loved either. Some of her actions are ridiculous. If she wants to start from zero, she needs to act like so.
Soo Ah, yes I’m going to talk about her, she was the typical bitch.
She has no developments during the drama, only in the last episodes we see her perspective.
I didn't hate her, I even think she was better that the female lead lol. But yes, she continued to be annoying.
I'm actually happy they added Mi Rae's best friend, if she didn't exist, it would have been a little boring, but it is a pity that we don't know about their friendship in the past, we always saw Mirai alone in the past...
2nd lead guy, another unnecessary love triangle...
->CHEMISTRY
Yeah, they were very cute together and lovely, but I have to admit it was kind of awkward.
->OST
Neh...it is energetic and good to listen to, but nothing more.
-> [Rewatch Value: Low just because I'm not the person who rewatches dramas, just really the ones I love]
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This review may contain spoilers
I wish to add content warnings on this review, no other spoilers!
First of all, I want to start with listing all the content warnings about this drama that I wish I had seen before starting it. There will be no other major spoilers of the story I swear! I just felt some of the things in this drama could be really triggering for some people, and that there should be some warnings.CONTENT WARNINGS:
- extreme misogyny all over the plot
- a LOT of sexual harassment
- bullying (about appearance)
- eating disorders, glorifying/normalizing extreme dieting/losing weight
- man acting threateningly/violently towards a woman
- self harm attempt
- physical fights
- older men (6+ years older) chasing after young women
The story of this drama was okay, but I felt very uncomfortable a lot while watching this. I originally thought (because of the drama's plot summary) that it would be a wholesome romcom story about realizing your inner beauty, but in reality it really focuses on everything that's awful about living as a woman. I watch dramas to escape real-life problems a lot, so to see so much of women's struggle on screen made me uncomfortable, especially when I was expecting some fluffy wholesomeness. (Also see content warnings list above to see other reasons this drama made me uncomfortable.)
The cast was okay, the male lead seemed inexperienced in acting and his character was really one note. He had the exact same facial expression for like 85% of this drama. But he seems very young so I'm sure he'll be able to improve in the future if he wants to. The female lead was honestly an idiot for most of the drama, who made stupid decisions with weird excuses. But that's not the actress' fault but the writers'. The side (female) characters were the best characters in this whole drama in my opinion. I absolutely adored Taehee, Yoonbyul and Hyunjung. Kwak Dongyeon (Wooyoung Sunbae) is one of my favourite actors, but his character hanging out mostly with the freshmen main characters was a bit weird because he was so much older than them. Most of the other male characters were either creeps or just rude which wasn't very ideal or comfortable to watch.
However this drama has some very good OST songs, I might even add some of them to my playlist later.
Overall I scored this drama a 6.5 because it was just so uncomfortable for me for most of the time I was watching it. Also some of the characters' actions were really stupid and made 0 sense, which was very frustrating to watch. Not to mention that the only characters I actually really liked were side characters. If you liked this drama a lot, good for you, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
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Gangnam BORING!
This was one of the most boring dramas I've ever watched mostly due to the fact that this romance was like watching paint dry. The FL had absolutely no personality and the ML was stiff af. By the time I realized that the FL was never going to develop beyond that one tortured expression that she kept making, I was too far in to drop. Also Sua, who was supposed to be this great beauty, was one of the most basic looking girls on the show. Ugh, I really did not enjoy this drama and found myself skipping chunks so I could just be done with it.Was this review helpful to you?
Started with a bang but ended with a whimper.
This drama started out promoting a very promising message but unfortunately, soon fell flat. Since I am not a fan of puppy love I didn't pick this up for the romance. I wanted to see our female lead's journey through bullying and how she conquers it. But apparently, her boy conquers for her. I feel a bit robbed cause I kept waiting for the character development that never came.Regardless, it's a cute drama and you gotta give it effort for picking up a topic as controversial as plastic surgery. The actors are cute too and they did a good job. The best arc was probably done for the antagonist and soon she became the only interesting person on screen.
It's unclear what the core message of this drama really is. Is it promoting plastic surgery? (lol) Is it teaching self-love? Is it telling us that beauty is on the inside and self-acceptance is the key to happiness?
I would really like to know but sadly the show's focus soon turned on being your every other basic neighborhood love story and stayed there. So yikes.
A fairly enjoyable drama, nonetheless. Watch it if you don't want anything too serious.
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This review may contain spoilers
Be ready for a slowwwwwwwww paced drama.
I got into watching this drama because some friends said it was good but despite forcing myself to watch it, there was honestly nothing special about it.An unpopular opinion but it's a drama that doesn't leave an impact on you.
The acting, other than the female antagonist in the show, was quite poor. The male lead had almost no facial expressions and the female lead was so "naive" to the point that her slow-witt got me quite annoyed.
The plot was VERY slow, as it, almost every episode it's the same thing over and over again. The male lead will chase the female lead and the female antagonist will chase the male lead but only to be turned down. I got to episode 8 and there's literally no progress.
If you're looking for a drama that can keep you hooked, this is not for you. But if you want something in the background while studying, this is perfect for you since it doesn't take as long to get what's going on.
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I liked how it talked about taboo topics that kdrama land doesn't show often. For example,suicide,lookism and sexism,plastic surgery...etc.
I also enjoyed the feminist side that the writers added,the tshirts that the female lead wore were amazing but sometimes her personality was totally different from what they were portraying. Thank god her character slowly developed and learned not to judge someone solely on their looks because they are much more than an item to be displayed. And also learned how to stand up for herself. It was absolutely annoying when she didn't.
The acting was okay,it could've been better tho,everyone including the main leads were pretty mediocre.
Also one of the other things i disliked is that they were trying to send the message of "everyone is beautiful in their own way" but at the same time they were promoting weight loss products and saying things like "She's on a diet. She's trying to get a boyfriend" or "Let's go on a diet and get prettier together",i mean...
But overall,it was a refreshing and enjoyable story that made me squeal from time to time.
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Hypocrisy in the show
I thought a lot before giving this rating because I actually loved the story... however, I couldn't overlook the hypocrisy that was presented in the TV show.The show talks about how outer beauty shouldn't define who people are but there are many moments where eating disorders are enforced.
First of all, wile showing the wrong behavior of Soo Ah who pretends that she can't gain weight, the show shows us the name of the diet pills she takes as an advertisement... more than once. There are no warnings before they show her binging and purging either.
Second, skinny characters who are shown as normal like Hyun Jung are continuously dieting to get boyfriends???? What exactly are they trying to normalize?
These, among other things, made me give this rating despite the fact that I like the overall story.
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Toxic message and bullying abound
The story was okay, but Im Soo Hyang looked totally plastic. I think it was to emphasized all the reconstructive work she had had done, but as her expression hardly ever changed, it reminded me of a bad botox job. Cha Eun Woo had absolutely no facial expressions and his voice inflections never changed. Both characters were just bland.So much emphasis was put on her completely making herself over, and her resultant self-esteem problems, I couldn't feel for her character at all. Was the message that you should be happy with who you are? Or was the message that you should consider plastic surgery? It was hard to tell. I didn't feel that the characters were fleshed out enough.
The body shaming in this drama was way over-the-top. A recurring question I have about Asian culture - do people just say whatever they think in front of people or is this just a cliche? ("He's so handsome" "She's so ugly") I can't imagine taking pictures of a man because he's handsome and talking to my friends about it with him standing there.
The last episode was cute though. Happy ending.
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