It's the story of Kang Mi-Rae (Lim Soo-Hyang), a college freshman. She's been bullied all her life. First for being fat (kids calling her Pig, chasing her, locking her in closets, etc.), but she overcame that by exercising/eating right and becoming thin...but then, in middle school/high school, for being ugly. She was called an orc and constantly teased. Consequently, she's got some serious self esteem issues (though, happily, she does have a best girl friend that has been with her through all of it). Before starting college, her mother helps her get plastic surgery to try and give her a normal life. She's pretty now but she's still shy and meek and has no self confidence.
She soon runs into Do Kyung-Seok (played by Cha Eun-Woo), who attended the same middle school and is also an entering freshman in the Chemistry department. He's a handsome dude and all the girls are hitting on him (except Mi-Rae, who is a bit freaked that someone she knew "before" is there) but he's not at all interested in their somewhat shallow attempts to woo him. By the end of the first episode, he's saved her from a creeper upperclassman and has apparently recognised her from before, even though she looks totally different (not that we know exactly what she looked like before as it's all blurred shots or from behind a curtain of hair or closeups of poor Mi-Rae's haunted eyes). He's playing it as a very deadpan character, which I like (I have no idea why) and is obviously the forthcoming love interest. Maybe because his smile, once it comes, will feel like a rainbow? I dunno. These types of characters often appeal to me.
Obviously, there's a lot of baggage here and I'm not necessarily for Cinderella stories where it's all about oh, now I'm pretty, so life is good but I think this looks like it will be more about learning to love yourself. Because Mi-Rae definitely needs to learn to like herself. And Cha Eun-Woo has that sweetly earnest thing going for him (OMG he's such a baby -- he's only 21, though Soo-Hyang is 28 in real life). Wasn't totally in the mood for a university-aged show BUT I think this one does pass the no-chaebol test. So I think I'll give it a shot. And so many people have been raving about it on Reddit and Twitter that it seems a shame not to give it a go.
Oh! And Woo Hyun, who played Gong Shim's dad in Beautiful Gong Shim, also plays Mi-Rae's dad in this. And he's ridiculous funny. So that kind of clinched it for me.
Edit: Okay, I've watched three episodes. And answered emails. Still nothing from my editor. Ack. I'm sort of liking the show but, man, seriously, Mi-Rae has run into some absolute assholes at her school. There's the jerky creeper, but it's actually the mean girl playing nice, apparently out of jealousy, that's really the kicker. I'm not really getting her motivation, to be honest, other than that she's obviously been set up as the antagonist (that everyone thinks is nice except for Kyung-Seuk, who hasn't been taken in -- he keeps quiet and looks and sees...which is, I imagine, why he noticed Mi-Rae before). Maybe the thing that bugs me about her is why Mi-Rae can't see her for what she is...after all, she's spent her whole life being bullied and teased. How is she not recognising it when it's pretty obvious?
So...I'm really liking Cha Eun-Woo -- both character-wise and his acting -- but I wouldn't say I'm totally loving the show as a whole. Mi-Rae has a lot of climbing to do to get out of the hole that she's in and there hasn't been much movement on that part yet. She was top in her school before, so she's not stupid. Yes, there's some emotional stuntedness obviously BUT...eh, I dunno. I want to see at least a hint at growth. There's just 16 episodes. Not sure how many of those I can sit through purely on Cha Eun-Woo's character even if he is ridiculously adorable.
Edit: Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Midway through episode 4 and the estranged/absent mom of Kyung-Seuk has appeared AND she just happens to be the lady that saved Mi-Rae from committing suicide (by jumping off a bridge) when Mi-Rae was a teenager AND she's the head of some perfume company AND she was the one who inspired Mi-Rae to pursue chemistry because she loves perfume. I mean, really. AND the TA that's got a bit of a crush on Mi-Rae was also introduced to estranged mom. Methinks there might be a few too many coincidences in this show. Also, bitchy girl is ridiculous. She even dropped a flask that Mi-Rae was handing her (which was full of chemicals) to try and get attention. And she has nothing better to do with her life than try and make Mi-Rae's miserable? Ain't nobody got time for that at unversity. So, I dunno.
Some random observations about this one:
- The best girl friend of Mi-Rae might actually have more dialogue than the main character. She speaks in complete sentences/thoughts whereas our titular lead is often silent.
- Kyung-Seuk is also quite a quiet character, though at least he has minute changes in expression. The lead actress seems to barely change her expression (except for the one scene where she got to go all aegyo for the first time in her life--that was a good one)? I guess that works for the character though? Still, the basic emotion she seems to convey in nearly every scene is sadness and stillness. Eun-Woo has managed to convey more with his bare hint of a smile (pleased when she asks him for a drink) or slight widening of the eyes (when he thinks his sister has actually started smoking)
- Seriously extensive use of flashbacks, often to stuff that just, like, literally happened in the show and often of the same thing multiple times. Did they need filler or something?
Those things (plus some other stuff) is making the pace feel quite slow. Some judicious editing would be good.
To be honest, I think I'm continuing to watch because SO many people were gushing over this that I feel like maybe I'm missing something (other than Cha Eun-Woo). Hopefully it tightens up a bit.
Edit: about to start episode 6. Okay, it's getting better. The best bits are when the leads are together and not the stuff focused on bitchy girl. Seriously, very over that. And some of the secondary relationships are finally starting to be fleshed out, so that's good too (bartender friend / the TA). Liked that Mi-Rae's dad was the "stalker" rather than there being an actual stalker. Mi-Rae is also starting to show more emotion, so that's good. The actress seems fine when she's allowed to show some emotion other than "pensive." Though all the girls need to stand up to the senior boys because they're a bunch of jerks.
Edit: after episode 9. Still going back and forth on this one. "Glad" that they've at least shown that Sua (the evil bitchy girl) isn't just focused on Mi-Rae but basically every girl/every person? The slightly chubby girl started a relationship with a guy, so Sua immediately begins flirting with him. Still feel like her motivation makes no sense at all. She's not happy, so no one can be? Beauty as a weapon? I really hope they don't try to redeem her at the end somehow because there's just no excuse for someone to be such a bitch. I don't care that she's probably poor or that she might've had a bad childhood and maybe has abandonment issues. That's still not an excuse.
Kyung-Seuk is honestly one of those "too good for this world" type of characters. Somehow, he never noticed back in school that Mi-Rae's nickname was "Kang Orc" or, it seems, that he was popular. He was in some kind of bubble. He thought she was "cute" back then when he saw her dancing. He thinks she's cute now. He's actually very awkward and it's sweet. He's totally not realistic, but he's lovely.
There's family drama going on with him and his asshole congressman dad (who apparently drove off the estranged mother, partly by punching her in the nose and killing her sense of smell and then claiming that she was having an affair when she wasn't) and he's moved out but he is woefully unprepared to be out on his own.
I realise that these shows have to have adversity to overcome and antagonists. That's what makes them a story. But the parts where this show shines aren't those bits -- they feel tired and I really want to forward through them. The nice bits are in the small moments and the parts where people are relating to each other. I'm liking the development of the side relationships too.
Edit: about to start episode 13. It took until episode 10 before Mi-Rae finally figured out that Sua isn't nice. At least Kyeung-Seuk has known all along.
I like how straightforward he is. Though now we're at the part in the show where, basically, Mi-Rae's biggest hurdle to finding happiness and accepting herself is...herself. I get it. I do. But it's also frustrating. I feel like I should have more patience with her, but that's probably also me looking back at this with, ahem, the wisdom of age. Cue the laugh track.
The coverage of the supporting characters has really been up and down, like the show drops the ball and then picks it back up again and hopes you don't notice. I am happy that the chaebol-ish related stuff (Kyeung-Seuk's dad/family situation) hasn't been at the forefront. It's concentrated more on him and his sister connecting with their mom again rather than the political ambitions of the dad.
But mostly I'm ready for Mi-Rae to allow herself to be happy. And for Kyeung-Seuk to be happy too. They both deserve it. Oh, and this show makes me glad I'm not Korean. I suppose every culture has beauty issues but Korea's idol culture is a bit extreme. I'm sure I've known some people who've had plastic surgery. Seems likely. But I couldn't pick them out. I mean, I can look at some Hollywood stars and think, whoa, they really should have left themselves alone but I don't know that I'd look at the actress who plays Mi-Rae and think she's had stuff done. I'd just think she was pretty. Well, I might think she'd had something done to her lips. They're a bit oddly puffy, especially around the top lip. But I don't care.
Actually, that's one of the weird things about this show -- Sua is supposed to be this amazing natural beauty but I didn't even think from the beginning (before you knew she was evil) that she was all that pretty. A few of the other girls are much more interesting. The one who plays the freshman class rep (Eun) is, I think, one of the prettiest on the show as well as the actress that plays Mi-Rae's best friend. Oh, and what happened to her rap dreams? That's one of the things they dropped -- so early on that now I wonder why they bothered having spent any screen time on it?
Edit: Okay, I finished it. Overall, I'd say that I liked the show BUT there was WAY too much about Sua and her issues (bulimia, mental health, she gets a stalker who's as crazy as she is, crap childhood, etc. etc. ad naseum). Honestly, I did not care at all about her. This is likely partly because I've been through a lot of crap myself, including a bout with being fat/anorexia + a bunch of other stuff that I'm not going to go into. All of that stuff doesn't have to turn you into a raving bitch. Obviously, I'm supposed to have sympathy for her, but I ultimately don't. Most of her problems she brought on herself. If it hadn't been my first time through the show, I would have forwarded through all of those bits with her, especially the last two episodes where I really would have rather spent the time on the leads.
Or on ALL of the secondary relationships or even the family drama (and when do I EVER say that?). That's one place where this show definitely fell short. There really wasn't much of a resolution to ANY of the secondary character's stories. It was a bit too open-ended. I suppose you could argue that they were going for that -- the mom doesn't take the dad back (and why would she??), the slightly chubby girl doesn't take the boyfriend back (I don't blame her), the bartender and the girl that liked him never start anything up (though they've become close and she gives him life advice and he even introduces her to his dad), best friend and Woo-Young never get it together (though there's chemistry there and definitely feelings at least on her side)...basically, nothing gets any kind of resolution at all. Like real life often is. But this isn't real life. At least they did a better job on the main couple -- Kyeong-Seuk even mentions that where they are in the final scene would be a lovely place to come back to for a proposal some day... and it was a bit nice to see him as the one that was a bit insecure when Mi-Rae had been such a waffle through most of the episodes.
I get that there was a lot of subtext throughout about the real meaning of beauty and truth, etc. etc. Some of it pretty heavy-handed. I can appreciate that and I know that's where they were going with the Sua/Mi-Rae dynamic...two girls who have more in common than either would want to admit. But, man, I didn't enjoy that aspect at all.
So...overall it was fairly sweet. Liked Cha Eun-Woo a lot. He's still a bit stilted on some of the delivery BUT some of that might have been direction (there were a lot of those slow moving Kdrama-style scenes here that move at about 1/2 speed...I can forgive it on the scenes where they are walking as, hey, yeah, if you're walking with your crush and you want it to go on longer, you naturally slow down...but they did that with the first kiss -- as many shows do--and it makes it very unnatural and jerky.) He's young too and I imagine he'll only get better. I saw some clips of him on variety shows and in an interview and he actually seems very animated and energetic there and much more natural and silly. Of course, that's merely another type of theatre, so who knows what his personality really is. But he seems like a nice kid.
I also quite liked Eun and the best friend (why can't I ever remember her name?). Would like to see either of them in something else. Lim Soo-Hyang as Mi-Rae was better in the last half than the first half, but I can't say that she's my favourite. She was also a bit old for this role, being a 28 year old playing a 20 year old. She mostly pulled that off, but there were times I caught myself thinking it didn't work before I even looked up how old she actually is.
Anyway. Am I glad I watched it? Yeah. I'd put it middle of the road for my personal enjoyment scale. There were a handful of scenes that were really wonderfully done but also some I struggled to get through. Would I watch it again? Hmmm, probably just clips of scenes. Do really adore the actors who played Mi-Rae's parents too and wouldn't have minded more with them. So...My ID is Gangnam Beauty was worth the watch, but not in my top 5. I can see why it was hyped so much but it probably suffered for that because I expected more from it.
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| Obviously, one of her problems is being blind. |
Edit: after episode 9. Still going back and forth on this one. "Glad" that they've at least shown that Sua (the evil bitchy girl) isn't just focused on Mi-Rae but basically every girl/every person? The slightly chubby girl started a relationship with a guy, so Sua immediately begins flirting with him. Still feel like her motivation makes no sense at all. She's not happy, so no one can be? Beauty as a weapon? I really hope they don't try to redeem her at the end somehow because there's just no excuse for someone to be such a bitch. I don't care that she's probably poor or that she might've had a bad childhood and maybe has abandonment issues. That's still not an excuse.
Kyung-Seuk is honestly one of those "too good for this world" type of characters. Somehow, he never noticed back in school that Mi-Rae's nickname was "Kang Orc" or, it seems, that he was popular. He was in some kind of bubble. He thought she was "cute" back then when he saw her dancing. He thinks she's cute now. He's actually very awkward and it's sweet. He's totally not realistic, but he's lovely.
There's family drama going on with him and his asshole congressman dad (who apparently drove off the estranged mother, partly by punching her in the nose and killing her sense of smell and then claiming that she was having an affair when she wasn't) and he's moved out but he is woefully unprepared to be out on his own.
I realise that these shows have to have adversity to overcome and antagonists. That's what makes them a story. But the parts where this show shines aren't those bits -- they feel tired and I really want to forward through them. The nice bits are in the small moments and the parts where people are relating to each other. I'm liking the development of the side relationships too.
Edit: about to start episode 13. It took until episode 10 before Mi-Rae finally figured out that Sua isn't nice. At least Kyeung-Seuk has known all along.
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| He tells it like it is. And, yeah, she totally is. Not that being mentally ill makes you a bad person. She's done all that part on her own. |
The coverage of the supporting characters has really been up and down, like the show drops the ball and then picks it back up again and hopes you don't notice. I am happy that the chaebol-ish related stuff (Kyeung-Seuk's dad/family situation) hasn't been at the forefront. It's concentrated more on him and his sister connecting with their mom again rather than the political ambitions of the dad.
But mostly I'm ready for Mi-Rae to allow herself to be happy. And for Kyeung-Seuk to be happy too. They both deserve it. Oh, and this show makes me glad I'm not Korean. I suppose every culture has beauty issues but Korea's idol culture is a bit extreme. I'm sure I've known some people who've had plastic surgery. Seems likely. But I couldn't pick them out. I mean, I can look at some Hollywood stars and think, whoa, they really should have left themselves alone but I don't know that I'd look at the actress who plays Mi-Rae and think she's had stuff done. I'd just think she was pretty. Well, I might think she'd had something done to her lips. They're a bit oddly puffy, especially around the top lip. But I don't care.
Actually, that's one of the weird things about this show -- Sua is supposed to be this amazing natural beauty but I didn't even think from the beginning (before you knew she was evil) that she was all that pretty. A few of the other girls are much more interesting. The one who plays the freshman class rep (Eun) is, I think, one of the prettiest on the show as well as the actress that plays Mi-Rae's best friend. Oh, and what happened to her rap dreams? That's one of the things they dropped -- so early on that now I wonder why they bothered having spent any screen time on it?
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| Loved the parents reaction to finding out Mi-Rae was dating Kyeung-Seuk |
Or on ALL of the secondary relationships or even the family drama (and when do I EVER say that?). That's one place where this show definitely fell short. There really wasn't much of a resolution to ANY of the secondary character's stories. It was a bit too open-ended. I suppose you could argue that they were going for that -- the mom doesn't take the dad back (and why would she??), the slightly chubby girl doesn't take the boyfriend back (I don't blame her), the bartender and the girl that liked him never start anything up (though they've become close and she gives him life advice and he even introduces her to his dad), best friend and Woo-Young never get it together (though there's chemistry there and definitely feelings at least on her side)...basically, nothing gets any kind of resolution at all. Like real life often is. But this isn't real life. At least they did a better job on the main couple -- Kyeong-Seuk even mentions that where they are in the final scene would be a lovely place to come back to for a proposal some day... and it was a bit nice to see him as the one that was a bit insecure when Mi-Rae had been such a waffle through most of the episodes.
I get that there was a lot of subtext throughout about the real meaning of beauty and truth, etc. etc. Some of it pretty heavy-handed. I can appreciate that and I know that's where they were going with the Sua/Mi-Rae dynamic...two girls who have more in common than either would want to admit. But, man, I didn't enjoy that aspect at all.
So...overall it was fairly sweet. Liked Cha Eun-Woo a lot. He's still a bit stilted on some of the delivery BUT some of that might have been direction (there were a lot of those slow moving Kdrama-style scenes here that move at about 1/2 speed...I can forgive it on the scenes where they are walking as, hey, yeah, if you're walking with your crush and you want it to go on longer, you naturally slow down...but they did that with the first kiss -- as many shows do--and it makes it very unnatural and jerky.) He's young too and I imagine he'll only get better. I saw some clips of him on variety shows and in an interview and he actually seems very animated and energetic there and much more natural and silly. Of course, that's merely another type of theatre, so who knows what his personality really is. But he seems like a nice kid.
I also quite liked Eun and the best friend (why can't I ever remember her name?). Would like to see either of them in something else. Lim Soo-Hyang as Mi-Rae was better in the last half than the first half, but I can't say that she's my favourite. She was also a bit old for this role, being a 28 year old playing a 20 year old. She mostly pulled that off, but there were times I caught myself thinking it didn't work before I even looked up how old she actually is.
Anyway. Am I glad I watched it? Yeah. I'd put it middle of the road for my personal enjoyment scale. There were a handful of scenes that were really wonderfully done but also some I struggled to get through. Would I watch it again? Hmmm, probably just clips of scenes. Do really adore the actors who played Mi-Rae's parents too and wouldn't have minded more with them. So...My ID is Gangnam Beauty was worth the watch, but not in my top 5. I can see why it was hyped so much but it probably suffered for that because I expected more from it.
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