True Beauty

A story of friendship growth and courage

True Beauty is a drama very similar to My ID Is Gangnam Beauty in how it explores society’s beauty standards and the effect they can have on a person’s mental health. Lim Joo Kyung puts extra effort into her appearance, and this comes directly from the intense bullying she experienced at her old school. She was treated as an outcast because of her looks and her awkwardness, especially her love for horror books, which made her an easy target. After learning how to do her makeup and completely transforming her appearance, she immediately notices how differently people treat her compared to her old school. This makes her believe that being beautiful is necessary to avoid bullying and gain acceptance.

Lee Su Ho meets Lim Joo Kyung when she isn’t wearing makeup and befriends her because of her caring nature and the fact that she doesn’t drool over his good looks. This connection is also rooted in their past, when Su Ho was extremely rude to her at school, which made her goal very clear: stay away from him. Of course, fate intervenes, and Su Ho eventually discovers that the girl he’s been talking to at the bookshop is Lim Joo Kyung. That reveal adds tension to their relationship and highlights Joo Kyung’s fear of being truly seen.

I really liked how at her new school Lim Joo Kyung has classmates who accept her, even after finding out she isn’t naturally pretty. Her friendship with Choi Soo Ah stands out. Soo Ah is upset that Joo Kyung kept her bullying a secret and didn’t show her natural face, disappointed that her friend thought she had to hide herself. That dynamic was very relatable and added depth to the story about self acceptance and trust.

Han Seo Joon is basically a walking green flag. He quietly protects Joo Kyung and consistently shows up for her without needing recognition or praise, which makes him both reliable and endearing.

Mun Ka Young as Lim Joo Kyung was perfectly cast. She’s a strong actress and handled the emotional scenes beautifully, especially the moments where Joo Kyung’s insecurities and fears came to the surface. She balanced vulnerability and humor in a way that made her easy to sympathize with.

Cha Eun Woo as Lee Su Ho was a bit more mixed for me. While he fit the visual and reserved nature of the character, I wished we could see more of his emotions. He often came across as stiff, which made it harder to fully connect with his internal struggles.

Hwang In Youp as Han Seo Joon, on the other hand, was perfectly cast. He effortlessly exuded confidence and embodied the bad boy image while still showing emotional depth when it mattered. His presence added energy to the drama and made his character especially memorable.

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A teenager story - that does end up standing out

As much as I don't consider myself part of the high-school series demographic as much as I have to say that I mainly enjoyed this sugar-coated, young love story.
The storyline is quite simple but the actors, their interactions, personalities and quirks draw us in and keep the momentum going. Most of the series breezed by, although some episodes were on the slower side (and felt a bit like a drag).
After finishing all 16 episodes I do wonder what it is that makes this stand out - and it does end up standing out. I guess that it somehow feels genuine and doesn't try to be what it is not. It is a story of young love, a story of teenage hardships, a story of friendship. There is enough sweetness here to melt anyone while there is at least 1 episode where we inevitably end up crying our eyes out as well. Nothing more and nothing less.
The chemistry is there, and the supporting cast (especially the siblings of FL) definitely adds to the colourfulness of the story. The gender-reversed roles and quirkiness of the sister and her boyfriend were one of the special highlights.

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Maaaria, Mariaa

True beauty is the first drama where I could not wait until it was finished airing to binge it.
The 8 weeks between December and February were a torture because I could not watch anything else besides this drama.

True Beauty evolves around Lim Joo Gyung who gets bullied for her appearance by her classmates. There comes a point where she can not take it any more and wants to jump from a rooftop. Before doing so, Lee Su Ho appears out of coincidence and stops her from jumping. Lim Joo Gyung gets into enhancing her beauty through make-up and changes her school. People at her new school admire her looks, and she quickly finds new friends. The only thing is that Lee Su Ho is one of her classmates and knows how she looks, actually. She wants to prevent him from finding out about her real looks, because she does not want to get bullied again.

True beauty has amazing main/lead and supporting roles. We get to meet siblings, friends and classmates as well as teachers and their storylines. The acting was extremely well too, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Moon Ga Young (Lim Joo Gyung) captured my eye some time ago, especially since I found out that she was born in Germany. I really like her other dramas, and that one was no exception.
For Cha Eun Woo (Lee Su Ho), I do not know if they just give him these types of roles, like always, or if that is just how he wants to present himself, too. If you have seen him in other dramas, he is playing the exact same role, such as in My ID is Beauty Gangnam or the historical drama where he is a prince. He does not do his job awful, tho. It is just something we recognize from him.
Hwang In Yeop (Han Soe Jun) my dear baby :D. You did amazing sweetie. This is my first drama I've seen with him, and I genuinely liked his acting and his role sooooo.
All the other actors were incredible, too. Kang Soo Jin was such an interesting character. I completely understood why she was so desperate and rooted for her breaking free.

True Beauty is a light-hearted and funny drama with realistic elements. I laughed amazingly much and identified with the characters.
I personally liked the second-lead-male better than the guy she ends up with, but it is how it is :D.
Furthermore, I really liked that the gender roles, here, were not strictly followed to spice up some things in the side couple.

The ending scene and everybody gets together once again made me tear up.
Not all good dramas need to be heavy and complex. They simply need to be enjoyable and able to draw you into their world. True Beauty did exactly this, and I hope for more amazing dramas like this to come.

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The purpose of the story is depicted in a beautiful style. elegant story.

A beautiful simple story. every one doing best work for charish the drama. story concept is simple with motive but created and directed this drama with creativity. Good wishes. The purpose of the story is depicted in a beautiful style. To express your thoughts in a new way, the inner beauty of a person is more meaningful than the outer beauty. The story and its motive were simple but it was filmed in such a new style that it became a better story in itself. The director and everyone did a very good job. i really like this drama. Good wishes to all this drama members.

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No overreaction..... Just reality check

Those who have not seen this drama, please read the writings at your own risk. Spoiler Alert !!
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The story is not that good. There are many more dramas on such stories. But that's not the bad story. This is a little more drama than average. However, people are overtaking the drama by doing so-and-so. I would say you are better than "My id is gangnam beauty" see. A drama of almost the same plot.
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The first seven or eight episodes of this drama were quite good. Then the rest has made a mess.
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The hero likes the heroine and the heroine also likes the hero. There is love between them. But again it becomes a breakup. Meanwhile, the hero's friend also likes the heroine. The heroine thinks of him as a friend again. Like eight or ten dramas, at the end the hero-heroine match again.
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Everyone on the online platform is frustrated with the story of the second lead. But why they are doing is not coming to my mind. I think everyone has overreacted a little too much. The drama is over for this over react. Better dramas are lost in the crowd of these over react drama.
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The hero, heroine and second lead have performed well in the drama. But am I a bit confused first lead or second lead? Who is more troubled? It seems to me that the life of the first lead was dark. Then the heroine becomes the light in her life and enlightens. Unrest of the hero's family, friends misunderstand him. All in all, he got only love from the heroine. As a result, he helped the heroine from afar and always gave priority to her choice. On the other hand, the heroine had to endure criticism in school and society for her bad looks. And if we talk about the second lead, then he has also performed well. Helped the heroine in need. In the end his dream has come true. And the heroine has helped him to fulfill this dream.

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HUUUUGE SECOND LEAD SYNDROME (long review read at your own risk lol)

I thought this drama was pretty good, it had an amazing casting and was overall an okay drama. I didn't like a lot of things about it though, in my opinion, they completely wasted many opportunities to give us depth about the second lead characters such as Han Seojun and Kang Soojin, and make the overall show more enjoyable. The female mc (Lim Ju Gyeong) didn't really have the type of character development I would remember because it happened in an instant. This concept seemed overused and became more dragging like the webtoon, but I will say I absolutely loved the OST for this show. My favorites were definitely "Fall in You' and "It Starts Today", they had many great tracks that I occasionally listen to.

The moral story was lacking for me and rather than a feel-good confidence drama it ended up like any other romance cliche, which isn't bad, but considering the casting, I would've expected more from the plot as well. In all honestly, I wouldn't have continued to watch the show if it hadn't been for the second leads and side characters, their small moments in the show compensated for it, but the person who really stole it for me was Han Seojun. I really learned a lot from him watching the show and as a die-hard team Seojun, I was incredibly disappointed with the ending. The ending closed as many holes as possible in the vaguest and unsatisfying way possible which was really sad because it had so much potential. The female lead was also a basic pushover who was oblivious to everything and not very interesting personally.

This show followed so many cliches, it isn't the type of drama that gets you on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next or who she is going to end up with, instead, they make it painfully obvious who she's going to end up with. This show was advertised as a "love triangle" when in reality that wasn't it at all, it was just Suho and Jugyeongs love story with Seojun being the sweetest guy ever and getting absolutely nothing in return, he got the worst ending out of all of them. Would not recommend it as a classic "love triangle" drama when the female lead showed absolutely no interest, as no interest, nothing towards the second lead. Just once I would've liked to see that first love isn't final love because that trope is so overused in my opinion.

Hwang In Yeop and Moon Ga Young had the type of chemistry that I would expect from the main couple, seriously every scene of them together made my heart skip several beats and I was blushing like crazy. HIY just continued to surprise me with his acting skillset throughout the series, I remember the amount of hate he was getting when he was first announced in the casting because he was 30 at the time and a rookie actor, but what I saw from him in the drama was a whole new level. I wouldn't write this review if I said I didn't know my way around kdramas, I've watched several of them and when I'm telling you his acting stole the whole show I mean it. This man is the true definition of 18 again and his acting was so incredible it seemed like he has been doing it for years. Quite embarrassing to admit but going into this I thought I was going to be in team Suho because of how much I love Eunwoo but ended up making a whole fan account of Hwang In Yeop instead because of his visuals and talent.

Would I recommend this show to anyone? Not really, unless of course, you're a sucker for cold rich boys with daddy issues, a diehard Eunwoo fan, or someone who loves cliche romances.

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Deliciously cliché

Does this drama have quite a few cliches? Yes.
But ask yourself this, why are cliches used so often? Because they are appealing on some level to the general audience.
And that makes this drama deliciously cliche. Does it have a cliche love triangle with an oblivious female lead? Yes. But it's done well, and it's enjoyable to watch. And I'd make the same argument for the other cliches as well.
It won't be a show to philosophosize about or consider the greater impacts of politics on society or solve who murdered someone else, but sometimes you don't need all that. You just want a light hearted show to take you away from the dull reality of your own life or the problems you are facing. And in that situation, I'd say this is pretty perfect.

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cliche, nothing special but enjoyable

As a rom-com lover, watching so many dramas of the same old plot and love triangles gets me so tired and this was one of the many dramas that i enjoyed because I love rom-coms but also loathed to watch because of the cringe characters and the boring-same-school-romance-as-every-other-55-kdramas-out-there type of plot. Jukyung is so dense and cringe (not hating on moon ga young tho because her character is supposed it be like this) and I get annoyed so much by her that I just wished none of the two guys ended up with her. On the other hand, Seojun (played by Hwang In Yeop) totally stole the show for me and it was the hope of seeing him happy with Jukyung (although i dislike her) that motivated to continue watching because seojun best boy. Overall 6/10 for plot which is actually quite generous tbh.

Rated it a 8/10 overall which is quite good because despite the cringe and cliche plot, I found myself looking forward to watch the first 12 episodes. I liked Seojun and the stories of the side characters like Jukyung's brother and sister really brought up the comedic genre of the series which made me put aside the cliche plot and continue watching. Would recommend this drama for people for want to jump in the bandwagon/ hype, its not super bad aside from the annoying characters and basic plot and I guess it doesn't hurt to watch a typical kdrama. Oh and they have really good OSTs too.

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