title: true beauty
cast: moon ga young, cha eun woo, hwang in youp, park yoo na
genre: romantic comedy
lim ju kyung (moon ga young) is a bright young high schooler, but she is unlucky in her appearance. out of all her siblings, she is the ugliest. her dad is quite good looking but her mom isn't. she is often being bullied at school because of her appearance, but she endured it all. but she reached her limit when she was being bullied by her schoolmates because she was rejected by a man she liked. she was on top of a building when she was "saved" by lee su ho (cha eun woo). su ho thought ju kyung was about to have a suicide so he prevented her, but he was seemed angry for some reason. ju kyung's glasses was knocked out and broken so she couldn't see su ho's face clearly, thus she didn't know the face of her savior. she thought they wouldn't meet again. but guess what.. ju kyung's dad got scammed so they lost their apartment and had to move back to their old house, which made ju kyung had to transfer school.
determined not to be bullied again because of her appearance, ju kyung learned how to put on makeup by binge-watching a famous youtuber, selena. she managed to succeed in her new school. all of her friends think that she's naturally pretty, but she knows that she's ugly underneath all that makeup. in her new school, there are two famous boys, one is lee suho, whom ju kyung has met before but she didn't know it yet, and the other one is han seo jun (hwang in yeop). they were best friends before, but due to some unrevealed reason (yet), they became apart and even almost like enemy. outside school, ju kyung has met su ho in her comic rental place without makeup comfortably, thinking that su ho wouldn't find out that she is the "pretty" ju kyung from school. but su ho did. so when ju kyung found out that su ho knew about her true face, she became a running errand girl for su ho, in order to prevent su ho from telling the truth about her appearance at school. while su ho, apparently has started to have feelings for her, thought that this way could make her closer to him, but he was wrong. unfortunately, seo jun caught up that su ho had feelings for ju kyung and made ju kyung his target too. however, seo jun also started to fall in love with ju kyung as well. outside school, ju kyung's mom and seo jun's mom were friends and they lived nearby, that makes things more complicated.
ju kyung unknowingly helped seo jun's little sister, goo won, when she was being bullied for being ugly by her peers in the choir and put on makeup for her when she was about to performed. watching goo won's performance, ju kyung's little brother, ju young has crush on her. while ju kyung's older sister, has crush on ju kyung's homeroom teacher. ju kyung herself, managed to make friends with kang soo jin (park yoo na) and choi soo ah (kang min ah). kang soo jin is second in school, she lost to su ho and got beaten by her dad because of it. soo jin's family were close to su ho's family as well, but her father didn't like that su ho's dad became rich because of his entertainment company, and not like himself, a respectable doctor. while soo ah is a cheerful and cute girl, who has on and off relationship with yoo tae hoon (lee il jun).
at school's camp, things got complicated as su ho wanted to confess to ju kyung. while seo jun knew about it and tried to make su ho jealous. while soo jin started to realize her feelings for su ho and couldn't believe that su ho had a crush on someone else. she also managed to find out about ju kyung's secret but decided to keep ju kyung's secret at first. su ho and ju kyung became closer and even though it was complicated, su ho managed to confess his feelings to ju kyung, and seo jun for the first time let ju kyung to be with su ho and chose not to confess his feeling. su ho and ju kyung became a couple but upon ju kyung's request, they kept it a secret and it annoyed su ho, since they couldn't do things couples do freely.
then a mayhem happened at su ho's dad company. hee kyung (ju kyung's older sister) found out that the company plagiarized a song composed by leo (it was su ho's secret name) and used it without permit hence confronted su ho's dad about it and told him the truth behind the suicide incident of jung se yeon (kang chan hee). the manager in su ho's dad company decided to let out the bullying rumour around se yeon to cover the scandal of su ho's dad. su ho who came running, heard that and couldn't believe that his dad had involved in the incident. seo jun who came last, confronted su ho without knowing that su ho has been shocked enough to learn the truth and came running toward the busy street, chased by seo jun, and later both got into car accident.
ju kyung came running to the hospital upon hearing su ho's accident, without makeup, without thinking, crying her heart to a man under the blanket, but she was wrong. it wasn't su ho but seo jun. didn't want seo jun to find out about her secret, she covered her face and su ho who came seconds later told seo jun that ju kyung was his cousin. later both of them got back together in the hospital (yep, they were broke up for awhile because su ho wanted their relationship to be out in the open but ju kyung wasn't ready yet). ju kyung also confessed about their relationship to soo jin who seemed okay with it at first, but later we found out that soo jin still wanted to win over su ho. soo jin later found out that ju kyung was bullied by se mi in her old school, conspiring with se mi and uploaded ju kyung's old photo and videos in the school's website, along with her new picture hugging su ho.
the entire school found out both ju kyung's secret, her old ugly face and her relationship with su ho. shocked by the incident, she ran out, leaving su ho devastated looking for her. while seo jun tracked soo jin and confronted her as the one that uploaded the photos, and even the webmaster and threatened her to take down the photos and video. while ju young (ju kyung's little brother) stepped up and punched his friends who made jokes about ju kyung's ugly face. he might teased his sister at home, but at school, he became her secret defender. even her homeroom teacher, broke up with hee kyung for a bit, because he thought ju kyung was shocked after finding out his relationship with hee kyung. but later he found out that wasn't the case and asked ju kyung's mom to school and told her everything about the bullying.
sad after learning the truth, ju kyung's mom tried to bring ju kyung to a plastic surgeon but backed out after hearing that ju kyung needed to re-do her entire face. however, ju kyung finally came in peace with her old self. she braced herself and went to school the next day bare face. luckily, her classmates were supportive of her choice. soo ah who seemed angry at first, turned out she was furious because ju kyung told her secret to soo jin and not her, thinking that soo ah might leave her because of her ugly face. soo ah also confronted soo jin and told her to apologize to ju kyung. yay to no bullying!
anyway.. soo jin's plan backlashes at her as in the next few days, there was news about soo jin betrayed ju kyung in the school website, leaving soo jin feeling ashamed. seo jun and su ho got back together and seo jun initially asked su ho's permission to admit his feeling to ju kyung in order for him to move on, but his plan didn't work. su ho's dad got back to the US but then got brain hemorrhage so su ho had to fly to the US immediately, leaving ju kyung behind. at first they decided to do LDR, but as su ho's dad condition worsen suddenly and the doctor couldn't predict whether he's going to recover or not, su ho decided to break up with ju kyung as he thought it would be unfair for ju kyung to wait for him.
two years later, without any update from su ho, ju kyung graduated, got an internship in selena beauty shop, while ju young became closer to go woon. seo jun trained back in su ho's dad company under hee kyung's wing and was about to make his debut. when ju kyung was drunk, he accidentally confess his feeling to ju kyung and asked for 5 dates. but after 1 date, su ho came back. he met ju kyung accidentally in namsan. oh yeah, ju kyung found out that su ho was the crybaby boy back in the comic store when they were just little and she finally remembered him. su ho tried to get back with ju kyung but ju kyung denied her feeling at first. but when seo jun told her that su ho was going to go back to the US, ju kyung couldn't deny her feeling and ran to su ho's house. i guess you can guess the rest of the story.
what i like:
- i guess the moral story is how you should accept yourself. you might be born ugly but you might have a bright personality. in this story, you can see how it's not about ju kyung accepting herself, but also her friends accepting as how she is. like su ho who doesn't mind about her appearance. he loves her just as is.
- this story brings up about bullying in school again. i guess considering how bullying became trends nowadays, they have to make several dramas talking about bullying in order to stop kids from thinking it's cool. but i guess it won't matter if the school doesn't do anything about it. in my time, bullying were considered natural stuff to toughen you up, and most teachers have the similar opinion about it. so unless the school teachers and staffs have more updated opinion about it, then bullying will still happen at school.
- this is another story of family love, like how ju kyung's dad teamed up with her because she's the ugly duck. and how her mother finally understood why ju kyung wanted to learn makeup after hearing about her bullying story. also how her older sister and younger brother protect her with their own ways, despite them sometimes annoy each other at home. we also see family conflict and story in seo jun's family and su ho's. as well as soo jin.
- talking about soo jin, we see again how they bring up the story of pressure from the upper class family for kids to have good grades, to become doctor or lawyer or other prestigious job. similar to sky castle, but in smaller portion.
- all the actresses and actors are good. even the supporting ones. and i have to agree, cha eun woo is a webtoon's adaptation specialist. looking at him you'll agree that he looks like he walks out of the webtoon.
- i don't know i should like it or not. i don't read the webtoon so i don't know how much the scenario is different from the original webtoon. but i do know that in the webtoon, during su ho's absence, ju kyung chose seo jun. while in the drama, ju kyung kept waiting for su ho and at the end, they got back together. as someone who can't deny eun woo's charm, obviously i am #teamsuho. but it must be disappointing for seo jun's fans if you read the webtoon.
what i don't like:
- though i like how they bring up about being able to accept yourself, i can't say i agree that they use "ugly face" as the condition that you have to accept. like the standard is beauty and being ugly is wrong. and how this drama is full of sponsored items, makeup for example. i do get that makeup can enhance your feature, but in this drama, makeup is a way to cover your flaws. and wearing makeup during high school? in my school days, no one wore makeup even in high school.
- and let's not forget about the two years gap when su ho was MIA. i have my own suspicion about the long gap. one, as high schooler, they won't be able to make happy ending as high schooler still have years ahead in their life. their love story might end. but as an adult, their happy ending is closer. plus they get to make the steamy scene as they're pictured as adult. but as high schooler, sleeping over is outrageous, even though nowadays even asian can accept that most high schoolers are not virgin anymore. second, as high schooler, they probably couldn't accept alcohol beverages as sponsor. but if they were pictured as adult, you can see drinking scenes thus soju appeared in the scene. most of the drama we could only see hee kyung and ju kyung's parents drinking. but they were just supporting ones. so i bet the sponsorship would want the mains to do the drinking scene. that's why probably they jumped into adult life so they can have drinking scenes. but again.. these are my suspicion.
- if they want to make his father to undergo brain surgery, at least shave his head! or make him suffer from another disease. i bet you've watched enough medical drama to understand that you have to shave the hair for brain surgery!
rating: 9/10
binge worthy: yes.
recommended for: the fans of the webtoon or interested in the webtoon but haven't read it yet, fans of eun woo, moon ga yeong and hwang in youp, don't mind high school love story which is usually a bit cheesy.
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