Plastic Beauty

If you was hurt because of your appearance you'll understand them

Idk what's wrong comments here. This drama is good. It's not propaganda of the plastic surgery at all. It really shows that everyone who wants to change their appearance has some kind of mental illness and if they wouldn't do it their life becomes even worse without it. Because it's the human nature and not everything can be cured by therapy or makeover
I think people expected huge criticism of the industry here but instead was shown people's motivation and their pain. If you are an empath than you'll understand characters' motivations
If it was a kdrama, the rating would be much higher. Nothing new on this site. IMDb is 8,5 and that's proper rating

Read More

Frustrating disappointment

Plastic Beauty on Netflix is a frustrating disappointment that earns a 5/10, saved only by a fantastic cast. The show starts with a great idea: a serious emergency doctor who hates plastic surgery clashes with a celebrity surgeon who loves it. This should have been a sharp, fast-paced psychological thriller. Instead, it copies the slowest Korean dramas by dragging out a short story into eight boring episodes. It constantly walks away from the main plot to focus on useless, dramatic side stories that add zero value to the show.
The pacing is incredibly frustrating. The director constantly forces the camera to stare at the actors' faces in long, silent close-ups. These long slots are supposed to create a deep emotional mood, but they fail completely. They are just empty pauses used as cheap filler. Because the show wastes so much time, the storyline eventually collapses into ridiculous, unrealistic soap-opera drama rather than sticking to its fascinating medical ethics debate.
Thankfully, the actors do an incredible job trying to save a sinking ship. The entire cast gives very strong, dedicated performances that almost make you want to care. However, even great acting cannot overcome the circular writing, cheap twists, and hollow pauses that ruin the entire experience. Skip this show unless you just want to see great actors do their best with a weak script.

Read More

Ridiculous. Just Ridiculous.

I watched Plastic Beauty, a 2026 Japanese series with eight episodes.

It’s a medical melodrama that pits a high-profile plastic surgeon against a purist doctor who despises cosmetic surgery, absurdly working under the same roof.

What promises to be a contemporary debate about beauty standards and social pressure in Japan ends up becoming a medical soap opera with all the subtlety of a cheap melodrama.

The moralizing is painfully obvious. The series reduces a complex issue to two sides: those who defend natural beauty and the superficial people who profit from changing it, instead of allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions.

For most of the series, Fumi and Rin fight over the same thing: one accepts surgeries that the other considers unethical. Lots of conflict, very little depth.

And how do they resolve this conflict? Fumi has an accident, her face is disfigured, and she ends up asking Rin—the very person she has been fighting against—to reconstruct it. The doctor who spent the series questioning cosmetic surgery ultimately depends on it to recover her face and her professional life.

Then Rin closes her clinic, Fumi opens one of her own, Rin buys it for 200 million, and the two former enemies end up as business partners and best friends.

What a ridiculous mess. Eight episodes just to resolve everything like a Japanese version of La Rosa de Guadalupe.

What an absolute mess. Zero out of five stars. Absolutely not recommended.

Read More

Why speak when you have little to say?

It was an alright watch, but it felt very surface-level and was obviously lacking in nuance. When the drama started, I was actually surprised that it seemed genuinely critical of the industry, but that quickly fell by the wayside, just like Fumi’s resolve and sense of self. She was such a wishy-washy character who really could have benefited from better writing — and by that, I mean having at least one woman on the writing team.
It really is one of the downsides of watching Japanese film/TV, because you just know that a female-led drama is rarely going to reach its full potential, especially when it tackles complex topics like plastic surgery and self-identity.
The worst example of this was the voice actress episode. What is it with Japan and always turning female friendships against each other in the worst possible ways? They’re constantly portrayed as jealous and scheming behind the scenes, and this time they even threw paid sugar-daddy sexual assault into the mix for good measure.

Fumi not making any distinction between corrective/reconstructive and cosmetic surgery when asking Rin to fix her face, and then going on to open her own clinic at the end of the drama, really tells you all you need to know about how uncritical this drama ultimately is towards the industry and harmful beauty standards. She even got that lovely feminine makeover that always seems to happen to this type of character in Japanese dramas.

The character Rin was probably the biggest disappointment of the series. They could have done so much more with her, and I would have loved to see more interactions between her and her girlfriend. The writers could have really teased out a side of Rin that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise, making her feel more human and giving the character some much-needed duality.
I did like the way the relationship was written, it showed that Rin genuinely had a loving, understanding girlfriend and a home to return to, which made her feel much more human. But like I said, they could have done so much more with it, especially by fleshing out the girlfriend as a character in her own right. It would have been the perfect way to give us another side of Rin and actually make the audience truly root for her.

So yeah... great premise in terms of story and characters, but unfortunately the drama slowly started to collapse under the weight of its own poor writing and its reluctance to truly delve into the societal effects of plastic surgery and beauty standards. It constantly hints at having something deeper to say, only to back away from it when things get interesting. There was so much potential here to explore identity, femininity, the pressure to conform, and the way the beauty industry shapes how women see themselves and each other, but most of it remained frustratingly surface-level because the critique was shallow and hollow.

And speaking of plastic surgery... Naka Riisa’s performance could have been so much better without all the Botox. She looked visibly strained in some of the more emotionally demanding scenes, and for the rest of the series, her facial expressions barely changed. It made the whole thing feel unintentionally on-the-nose and, frankly, a little ironic.

Read More

Acting was so stiff with no emotion

I decided to watch this drama since I kept seeing clips of it on tiktok. The storyline for this show is good. It really does show what happens with plastic surgery and the addiction that comes along with it due to societal pressure etc. This is probably my first japanese drama I've watched. I normally have original audio and english subtitles on but for this I just watched it with english dubbed audio and no subtitles. I struggled getting through this series. Some of the characters I found really irritating and the acting (with the exception of Fumi's character) was incredibly stiff. It was as if they were just reading lines. The emotion didn't feel real and just very fake. All their faces seemed to be frozen and free of expression. Perhaps that was the whole point of the show with it being about plastic surgery? Or maybe this is just japanese style acting? The random "awkward" sound effects/music also didn't fit the scenes. In any case, I didn't end up finishing the show.

Read More

10/10 The Brutal Reality of Perfection

10/10 The Brutal Reality of Perfection
A brutal, brilliant look at modern beauty standards and human psychology. Couldn't look away for a single second.
Plastic Beauty is way more than just a surface-level critique of aesthetics-it's a deeply uncomfortable, captivating look at how we view ourselves. The pacing, visuals, and performances are top-tier. A solid. This hits way too close to home. My best friend's older sister passed away due to plastic surgery complications, so seeing these themes played out like this was both deeply unsettling and painfully real for me.

Read More

Cambiare faccia non ci cambierà

Il tema della serie è estremamente attuale ma lo sviluppo lascia un po’ perplessi, non è chiaro dove voglia andare a parare. Ho avuto l’impressione che più si andava avanti più si tentava di giustificare la dipendenza da chirurgia estetica. Un mondo in cui è necessario essere esteticamente conformi ai canoni di bellezza della società per poter (per dirne una) anche semplicemente lavorare nel mondo del doppiaggio, è assurdo! Appoggiarlo, folle.

Anche l’episodio in cui, io pensavo, si volesse sensibilizzare sulla chirurgia estetica ‘infantile’ è risultato (non solo piatto ma soprattutto) estremamente problematico. Un padre che chiede alla figlia (la quale palesemente accetta perché si sente costretta a farlo, dopo essere stata monetizzata per tutta la vita!) di sottoporsi ad un’operazione chirurgica per ottenere più visualizzazioni online… Pronto, assistenti sociali?

Forse l’unica storia che ha davvero espresso bene l’insoddisfazione, la frustrazione, di queste donne - sì perché, tra l’altro, raramente si tratta di uomini! - è stata quella sulla paziente inserita nella black list. In quel caso si è evidenziato come il problema della chirurgia estatica sia proprio questo: non risolve i problemi di natura psicologica. L’aspetto esteriore non curerà le mancanze emotive, le insicurezze, né le sofferenze che ci portiamo dietro. Perché in fondo non è la nostra faccia il problema e cambiarla non cambierà le cose.

Peccato che poi tutte queste buone intenzioni si perdano. Non mi sento di bocciare in toto la serie perché alcuni spunti di riflessione li lascia, però si poteva fare molto di più — per esempio una critica alla società giapponese e alla sua ossessione per la giovinezza. O ammettere che se se si ricorre a queste procedure non è perché in maniera disinteressata lo si voglia, ma perché è la società stessa che ci spinge a conformarci ai suoi canoni (all’inizio della serie si dà molto spazio al ruolo della pubblicità).

Se a un bruco non venisse ripetuto quanto è bella la farfalla, non avrebbe fretta di diventare una farfalla.

Read More

Mucho que contar, poco que desarrollar

Bueno, no sé por dónde empezar. Siento que quedan muchas cosas al aire que se dan por sentadas. Por ejemplo, lo de la amiga de la cirujana que quedó ciega. Según entendí, ella ya estaba enferma, pero no explican a fondo el motivo por el cual fingió quedar ciega y culpó a la cirujana. O, no sé si estoy entendiendo mal, ¿fue que ella realmente la dejó ciega y, después, al ver que se retiraba de la profesión, decidió buscar a su familia y contarles?

Luego, tampoco le veo mucho sentido a la problemática que tuvo con su padre. O sea, él decidió dejar de molestar a su hija adoptiva porque su hija biológica le dijo que, si lo hacía, ella se iría con él. Pero la hija adoptiva se retira, decide tomar su propio camino y ya. No se sabe qué reacción tuvo el padre ni qué pasó después con esa relación.

Y bueno, hay muchas otras cosas que no me terminan de encajar en la historia. Es como si hubieran querido abarcar demasiadas cosas y, al final, todas se desarrollaran de una manera muy superficial.

Read More

Des clichés à la scalpel, de l'émotion en injection

Un visage taillé au cordeau : c’est l’argument de big N pour avoir choisi Naka Riisa comme méchante chirurgienne plastique dans ce drama bling-bling et donc tellement Netflix.

Si vous cherchez une once de feeling à la japonaise dans cet énième revenge medical drama, vous voudriez peut-être passer votre chemin, mais faite vous le bon choix. Plastic Beauty est, comme son nom l’indique, surtout tape-à-l’œil afin de séduire l’Occidental que nous sommes. Les filles et les mecs sont beaux comme des hosts de Kabukichō et assument à mort leur chirurgie, tout comme la série elle-même, qui fait briller les beaux quartiers de Tokyo en rendant même glamour et sympathiques les usuriers des bas-fonds de la mégalopole.

Adapté certainement d’un webtoon, je l’aurais plutôt vu comme un remake d’un soap coréen. Sans vous méprendre, il y a souvent du bon dans ces séries et, grâce à une galerie d’acteurs formidables, on peut trouver du plaisir à un scénario qui tient sur un timbre-poste. Mais là, on ne peut être que déçu, surtout si l’on s’arrête au premier épisode, ce que je vous déconseille fortement. Les cicatrices et le dégonflement mettent du temps à révéler toute la perfection d’une série après un premier épisode qui se veut racoleur.

Passons sur la VF, qui vous donne l’impression, comme trop souvent, d’être, lorsque l’on ferme les yeux, dans un shōjo manga de magical girl, pour nous concentrer sur les personnages originaux, qui ont pourtant du mal à m’impressionner d’entrée de jeu. Après le succès d’Unmet et sa sensibilité taillée au scalpel, je m’attendais à une direction tout aussi remplie d’émotion de la part du réalisateur Yuki Saito. Mais il n’en est rien ici, tout du moins dans les premières heures. Il semblait avoir pris le parti de gâcher le pouvoir expressif de l’excellente, mais trop peu présente à l’écran, Matsuoka Mayu.

En pause depuis 2024, elle revient ici dans une série qui, si l’on s’attache aux apparences, ne va pas laisser une seule cicatrice visible dans le paysage dramatique japonais. Et pourtant, dès la salle d’attente, c’est elle qui réalise la meilleure prestation. Déterminée et vraie dans son jeu, sa nemesis Naka Riisa et les personnages masculins, Mamiya Shotaro en tête, font tellement glamour forcé et host maquillé que cela en devient ridicule. Hautaine, hautain ou arriviste, tout en charmant son auditoire par des yeux de biche et un ton condescendant… Pitié, quoi !

Je ne m’attendais pas à voir Les Feux de l’amour, mais une vraie série qui donne à réfléchir sur l’apparence, la chirurgie et la psychologie en général, dans un monde où l’image est reine. Mais ça, c’était jusqu’au 2e-3e épisode. Car la profondeur et le thème du bien-être mental vous éclatent d’un seul coup au visage comme une bombe artisanale. Et c’est alors des heures et des heures de chirurgie réparatrice qui s’enchaînent dans votre cerveau. La force de la mise en scène nous fait accompagner Matsuoka Mayu dans sa remise en cause, et dans la nôtre, des idées reçues sur la chirurgie plastique.

Et, pour couronner le tout, la carriériste inhumaine Naka Riisa redescend de son piédestal en apprenant de notre chirurgienne désorientée. L’humanité, les sentiments, l’émotion sont partout. Des seconds rôles tenus par l'excellente Amano Hana, récurrente et touchante, ou par la vétérane Ken Naoko, qui, à 73 ans, va vous faire pleurer toutes les larmes de votre corps, si vous en avez encore à ce moment là.

Quelques fausses notes gâchent un peu l’expérience, comme cette propension à vouloir faire dans le sensationnalisme gore. D’accord, la chirurgie doit être montrée sous toutes ses facettes pour éviter l’effet glamour et publicité pour clinique. Mais un peu de retenue aurait ouvert la série à davantage de monde, notamment aux adolescents, qui ont bien besoin d’être aiguillés dans ce monde gangrené par l'apparence reine.

Read More