Beatrice

There could have been an amazing, beautiful story here about the fluidity of gender, gender as a performance, and someone who learns to accept both parts of themselves with their partner learning to love all parts of them as well, but this production is absolutely not the one to responsibly tell it.

Immediately starting off with Ji Eun getting punched by her boyfriend and having him be disgusted by the thought of kissing her in her male Ji Hoon form was already bad, but even at the end there is no difference in the distance that Yoon Jae puts between them when she's in her male form though he claims it doesn't matter. It obviously does, even in private he acts completely different to her with no physical intimacy in the form of kissing and touches unlike when he's with her in her female form. He only ever thinks of just her female form in the romantic sense, never her now other form as well. She is two different people to him. It's not a grand romantic finale gesture if there's not a kiss, nor even a hug to assure her that he loves her no matter where she is. That's a backslide further than even over a decade ago in terms of queer representation. It's sweet that Yoon Jae's sister and dad is supportive in thinking that he is gay, but ultimately it all hinged on how he acts towards Ji Eun and it just falls apart. Yoon Jae flip flopping on his poor professors about studying at Corning University is also terrible. He doesn't need to give up a cool studying opportunity to reconnect with Ji Eun. He could have just gone back for a day or on vacation or something to clear things up with her. The only way it would make sense is if the 2025 in show is the same as real life and he's in danger as a POC with a student visa in the US.

Ji Eun in her male form also gets slapped by the creepy underclassman Min Joo who doesn't understand no means no even after her multiple brushes with someone into her that she flatly refuses. The gay panic humor is offensively homophobic and making Ji Eun extremely jealous in either of her male or female forms is also never funny. Min Joo's disgusting behavior is the writing's way to always keep her around to do these unfunny jealousy scenes. I do like that Ji Eun is able to physically defend herself with Kendo skills against the creepy guy stalking Min Joo, but unfortunately not against the creepy girl Min Joo. Ji Eun's own sister sexualizing her is also extremely uncomfortable and unfunny, as is her whole storyline with her first love. Ji Eun's best friend Yuri was also obsessed with her male form, but at least she gets past it eventually and can be just besties as usual with her no matter which body. Yuri's pairing with Min Hyuk is pretty cute.

The story tends to focus on how Ji Eun's transformation affects others than herself when it's the strongest when it does actually focuses on her and her family. It was so sad when it's revealed that her grandmother and also great-grand mother stayed in their male forms the rest of their lives, with her great grandmother really embracing the change. I really wanted the scene where she finally gets to ask her grandmother all the questions of the logistics of living with their unique circumstances, but the scene cuts away. The show also ends with the awful implication that Ji Eun and her mother seem to remain in their female forms once they find a man who loves them after finding out unlike her grandmother whose husband left her. Yoon Jae also never has the hard conversation with his mother, so her homophobic attitude towards him and Ji Eun is never resolved. There were so many interesting aspects to explore, but the storytelling here was totally ill equipped to do so.