True Beauty: Before

Impossible for me to not compare - It does not live up to the South Korean drama adaptation.

Even if I try to look at this movie in itself, separating myself from the South Korean drama adaptation (which was far from perfect, as well as what I have read from the source material, also pretty flawed), this film was quite a let down.

It is very colorful and pretty but the romance never worked for me, with the chemistry being very poor. That's the biggest flaw, with the lack of charism of the main cast. The role of Su Ho (called Kanda Shun in the japanese adaptation) is a pretty robotic one, but it felt even more bland in this version with the actor Watanabe Keisuke playing it in a very awkward way. The role of Seo Joon (here Igarashi Yu) gave me one of the strongest Second Male Lead syndrome but in this new adaptation, I felt nothing. To be fair, Tsuna Keito acting was not the worst but clearly he is suffering the comparison with Hwang In Youp from the South Korean drama.

While the movie took some shortcuts on the original story, the core of the story remained the same (even if I was frustrated at some scenaristic choices) but the feelings felt lacking as everything was accelerated. However, I feel it made perfect sense to split the story in a two part movie and to make the split at the point they chose to do it.

I would not recommend this movie to people as I feel the South Korean drama, despite its flaws, does a better job at bringing the webtoon to live. There are a lot of storylines that felt rushed off and the overall impression on this first part of the story is quite a superficial one as it does not dig enough into the suffering of the heroine and some of the most dramatic elements from the original story.

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I am so angry.

The japanese version of True Beauty lacks the unhinged and hilarious camaraderie from the original korean version, which it's a bummer because the friendship among the kids and how the leading lady learnt to love herself thanks to their support it was one of the best parts of the story. Instead, this version decided to put the emphasis on the romance and love triangle, which was incredibly unnecessary considering the actors got barely any chemistry together.

The family dynamics were not only toned down but changed (as I am finding it's the usual move in a jdrama adaptation of a kdrama) and I wish they wouldn’t have. One of the main conflicts' in the original story, it's the FL's relatioship with her mother and the way people were constantly comparing her older sister. None of this happens in the movie, so other than the external conflict of bullying, there's no inner development to be resolved. Which, by the way, it's another thing they changed: the bullies in this are a tenth of the original and there's no confrontation or consequence to their actions.

All of this changes meant that there’s almost no comedy in this rom-com. It's just a romance about a girl who one day found out make up and it made her feel pretty.

Koki looks like a deer caught in the headlights all the time, I don't know if this was a script change or the director's fault but it's like he very loved female lead of the original True Beauty had a lobotomy. And as I much I appreciate Watanabe Keisuke, he had no business playing a high schooler when he is thirty. I'm sorry but this was not good. Miyase Ryubi has a random cameo/guest role in this, and honestly? They should have swap him for Watanabe. Maybe we would have a more compelling love triangle

It does have some nice moments, Tsuna Keito and Sato Jiro being the highlights, but that's about it.

PART 2 REVIEW: https://kisskh.at/profile/namjhyuns/review/497372

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