:)
In my honest opinion, this drama was not that bad. I did have a bit more high expectations from it but it was genuinely not that bad. I liked how all the characters weren't perfect. All of the characters in this drama are flawed, which makes the plot more entertaining. Some of the acting was a bit too much, like FL's acting, however she was supposed to be portraying a mentally ill character so.. I did not like how forgiving FL was towards her bully. The bully literally traumatized her and then like,,, she just forgot all about that in the ending? It would've been more realistic if the FL didn't forgive her bully, as it takes time to forgive them, and it can even lead to the victim never forgiving the bully for their actions.I didn't really enjoy the ending, I expected more from it but it was just... meh..
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Honest review of this drama
This is the worst fucking story ever. At the beginning of the drama they showed us something else and at the end it was something. This story of the drama spoiled my mood but all tho an acting of the actors was good but story is fucking worst . Recommending you to dont waste your time on this drama . It will ruin your day .......at least true beauty better than this shadow beauty. The chemistry between moon ga young and cha eun woo was best in true beauty. But this drama is worst ššš¶. Recommending you to go for any other drama other than this . I have wasted my 5 days on this drama š š. Now regretting . If someone had told me this then i wouldn't have watched this .Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Shadow Beauty: Pros and Cons
after consuming the entire series in one sitting, i wasn't left highly disappointed. the acting was decent and esp noting the fact that half of the cast are idols turned actors, i will give props for that. i was especially impressed with choi bomin's acting, seeing him go from A-TEEN to this is honestly very intriguing and i look forward to seeing him in more unique and interesting roles in the near future. and ofc shim dal gi, she was incredible and gave sm life to her character. will def be checking out her other projects :) nagyung, for her first role as a rookie, it was pretty good. i think that def with more practise, she will be an amazing actress one day. hongseok, i don't really have much to say because he wasn't in most of the eps but there were moments where i felt his acting was a little stiff but that's maybe because this role is jus a boring role in general.[SPOILERS from this point on]
however with the positives, come the negatives. please don't take this seriously, this is merely my opinion and it's your decision as to whether or not you want to take it to heart. with that being said, let's move on with the characters. starting with ho in, honestly I'm kinda confused about him because, on one hand, he's this psychopath who knows abt ae jin's secret and has a tormentful past but then he treats his gf like crap and you want me to be fine with that? i jus felt so bad for ha neul because yes he's a psychopath and isn't able to feel emotion but that doesn't mean u have to be a douchebag. ok moving on to ha neul, actually, i think that her character was pretty well developed. since her backstory was introduced rather early on so we were able to actually see that in fact, she is just a person who wants to be loved. i think this decision was great because you were able to see the actual growth and development of the character. ae jin, I'm also a bit conflicted with this one. honestly, the only thing I have a major problem with is her and her mom's relationship. throughout the 12 episodes, we constantly c ae jin shoving, yelling, belittling, degrading her mother, and then in ep 13 when we find out that her mom has a sickness, we get like maybe one scene of them actually talking and having a healthy relationship. how r we meant to feel emotional and sympathetic for ae jin if all this time she was treating her mom like crap and because of this one scene, we're gonna forget all the shit she did?? yeah no. ok next, jin sung. he was fine, pretty boring and he was gone for like half the eps so...next. sun mi jin, i jus think she's dum lol. she could've jus said she wasn't genie and everyone would've been like wHat and then everyone will eventually find goo ae jin to be genie and then she would be victimized and she would get all the attention she wants. she was a good villain ig, but that crying scene made me cringe. I would like to emphasize this again this is my opinion and if you think shadow beauty is an excellent masterpiece then I will prob give less than two fucks but you do you ig. ok bye
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I enjoyed it somewhat.
I liked this show. I watched it in one night, but that was also because the episodes were quite short.I wish they would've been longer, and we could've seen more. I really liked the leading couple, so I hoped for more scenes with them, but I understand that there were none since the main genre isnāt romance.
This show was sometimes stressful and illogical, but it didnāt bother me much. I enjoyed the show, though it was quite chaotic with people switching sides.
The female lead's acting wasnāt the best, but it was bearable. The acting of the antagonist was bad, but didnāt ruin the show for me that much.
Overall, a good show to watch in one night, especially since the episodes are only 20 minutes long. However, don't mainly watch it for romanceā¦ romance is just a side plot, and we get like 40 minutes or less of screen time for it. The show portrayed a great message also!
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A MUST WATCH!!!
I came in not expecting much from this drama. Especially because itās a web drama and the plot seemed very cliche. However I was EXTREMELY wrong. The writing, the plot twists, the characters, the cinematography, the portrayal of mental illness,/bullying/beauty standard was soo GOOD. The drama felt real, the characters felt real. The message was truly beautiful. I didnāt expect for it to be such a psychological drama but it was. To see such complex characters in such a short amount of time really blew me away. Youāre bound to relate to atleast one of them. It can be very hard to watch at some points, especially if youāre sensible to bullying , but it helped the story feel deeper. Watching it I didnāt know what to expect. Every action of the characters felt thought out and even relatable (at some parts). Of course itās a drama so a lot of things are exaggerated or can be a little hard to understand, but those aspects didnāt take away from the overall message or story. I felt so emotional seeing the main lead change and seeing the people around her change to. It was truly such an impactful and good drama, and it really makes you think about how weāre not all perfect. And what does it even mean to be just that?Was this review helpful to you?
Good Enough
Korean Mini Series "Shadow Beauty" is a dark version of True Beauty with more focus on the main lead and her progress in learning to be herself rather than the romantic prospect.The drama does a great job creating the right atmosphere right from the start, with the main character being all creepy and sad at the same time. Her family situation seems ominous, her school life is a nightmare and all this has resulted in her seeing enemies everywhere and trusting none, even her best friend. The story, with the right pace for such a short drama, covers all the aspects of her life, with a smooth showdown in the end and a nice conclusion that wraps up everything.
However, the drama didn't handle the transition from a bully to a friend of the second lead. All the side characters actually were briefly presented, as the focus was mainly on the main lead.
The performances, though, were all great and the ending of the drama with the focus on the main character's revelation was pretty interesting and refreshing.
So, overall, 8 out of 10.
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but I was pleasantly surprised it was psychological! I almost thought it's a jdrama! something like Switch.
It was intriguing in the earlier episodes,
however, later it starts to lose it's charm...
I believe it lacked character relationship build up, their relationship with each other felt flat... and sometimes confusing.. (I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers)
maybe it would've been better if it was longer. and tbh some parts didn't make sense but I was ok with it cuz whatever
Although I found Koo Ae Jin a little annoying because I don't tend to like weak and negatively stubborn female leads but I liked how she portrayed a realistic character, not a handsome guy entering her life and suddenly she morphs into a popular extrovert *rolls eyes*
the actors did a good job however in the later eps some acting parts were a bit cringe, I think that's the direction to blame..
Despite everything I was excited for new episodes and that's quite rare of me since if I don't like a drama I'd immediately drop it (more like exile it to the On-hold list to feel less bad harshly dropping it)
my favourite character was Jisung and I'm upset they barely gave him any screentime :(
All in all, I recommend it, I really liked the ending moral of the story. so don't worry it's not a toxic beauty show.
(btw I rate music low if I don't remember the song.. I'm sorry to the artists maybe I was too focused on the story)
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Think J-drama but in K-drama format
This was actually a good drama. It's good that it's short cause I don't think it would've worked as well if it were longer.Everybody's broken in some way and they all found a -not so healthy- coping mechanism and outlet.
Ae Jin is more than Genie. in fact, she doesn't even seem to really identify with the persona at all and she uses it as a tool to attain what's missing from her "irl" life.
It's a story about mental illness, grief, human behavior and their society's infatuation with beauty.
I feel like you might dislike this if you go in expecting more from it or something different.
This drama never tries to be what you think it should. It's not True Beauty and it's not a romance.
It's also not complicated so if you're gonna watch it, just enjoy it for what it is.
If the ending was more fleshed out it would've been better.
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This review may contain spoilers
FULL OF SURPRISES!
Honestly, this does not give you any break from endless plot twists. Always able to catch my attention regardless of how predictable the plot is. Give it a try everyone, your 20 minutes will for sure be worth it!Whatever that has been portrayed here, I bet all of us can easily relate to it. Either based on our own experience, or we actually know someone who is going through it. Some scenes, in my opinion, was cringy and hard to watch, but not worth to skip. How I wish the ending could slow down a lil, coz as my headline suggests, it is FULL OF SURPRISES! Especially, the ending, non-stop shooketh moments, I tell you that!
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The Story that Might Have Been
7.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean romantic drama with 13, 20 minute episodes.Ae-Jin (Shim Dal-Gi) lives a double life as a bullied high school student who is constantly harassed as being "ugly" and a "goddess" social media influencer which she achieves through costumes, camera angles and photo editing. Her worst fear is that someone will discover her trickery and reveal her dual existence to all. This fear nearly comes to fruition when she receives a text with a picture of her posing in her costume and makeup unedited. A series of circumstances lead her to suspecting her only friend at school, Lee Jin-Sung (Yang Hong-Seok) of being the blackmailer. Lee Jin-Sung is an idol trainee who is literally too cool for school and he, on the other end of the spectrum, is also an outcast. He and Ae-Jin become friends as they were both frequently alone at school.
The premise of this was very interesting and that alone carries viewers through. All of the young actors do a great job of conveying their roles. Spoiler(s)** Often I am disappointed because the actor who plays the role of someone unattractive is not unattractive. Now I am on the opposite end, the actress who plays Ae-jin can be pretty with makeup and a flattering hair style but they do everything to have her look unattractive in never smiling, her body posture, and attitude. Which makes it really hard to buy that Jin-sung would fall in love with her. I got the whole he was an outcast because he was too cool sort of thing but, even if they were lunch friends, him falling for her when her personality did not even come through as that good, was a stretch. If she had been super smart, really nice, creative, or just really fun, I could have seen him falling for the beauty inside. But, she was a bit self focused and whiny so it was a stretch to believe he would have fallen for her. The more believable pairing would have been Ae-jin and the "lunatic detective", Kim Ho-In (Choi Bo-min), because they were alike on so many levels. Ho-in's girlfriend, Yang Ha-Neul (Heo Jung-hee) was such a bully to Ae-jin, even with her later redemptive actions, I could never see Ae-jin embracing friendship with her. And Ho-in even mentions how he hated seeing her bully other people and yet he still cannot live without her - that was a bit of a stretch too. The 12 short episodes flew by and it really felt like some of the issues could have been fixed with more episodes. They could have shown a side of Ae-jin we didn't see that would have made her more lovable. Maybe a fuller explanation of why Ho-in was bullying and an apology to Ae-jin. I really wanted to like this show more than I did because it was a great premise. I think it is worth watching for the unique premise, I would not re-watch it, but watching it once through was enjoyable enough. I also thought it showed, quite well, how bullies can make every day a living hell for the bullied whether it be a bully at school, at home, or in the workplace. I have combated bullies in my life, defending others, and also a workplace bully once myself, more times than I care to count. Seeing a bully get come-uppance is enjoyable as it rarely happens in real life. Hopefully a similar premise will arise in the future but there will be a better job with developing the characters and showing positive aspects of the relationships. Not a bad series, just not particularly good either. It's the show that might have been.
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Very interesting- plot will keep you hooked
This drama was super entertaining to watch. Itās the perfect length, and every episode is jam packed with interesting storylines and concepts to keep you hooked. Its such a good drama that represents real themes and leaves you with good morals. It explores the ideas of self perception and toxic cultures online and at school very well. The acting was really good and ho sung is my favourite character (just an interesting and funny character really). The plot always keeps you on edge and although there is a lot happening itās not confusing or overwhelming. Amazing drama, would rewatch, really good.Was this review helpful to you?
