I find the show easy to watch early in its run (I was watching Mirror of the Witch and this show kind of balance it out). I love how Gong Shim and Dan Tae interacts with each other and how they live their daily lives. Somehow, the main plot of Dan Tae'skidnapping, Jun Pyo rather, was somehow the least of the important things for me in the show. So when the show focused on it during the latter part of the show, I got a little impatient on how things are going.
My ratings are what I objectively think Beautiful Gong Shim should be evaluated and not how much I enjoyed it. Overall, the show made me laugh and sad for the leads in a way I didn't expect.
P.S. I think it will take another drama or two to totally forget Nam Goong-min's role in Girl Who Sees Smells and Remember.
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About the Other Sister - cute love story
9/10 is my rating. This South Korean television drama is also known as Dear Fair Lady Kong Shim. This drama spans 20, 60 minute, episodes.It can be tough to grow up in the shadow of an older (or younger) sibling who seems to be doing much better in life than you. Gong Shim (Bang Minah) finds growing up in the outskirts of the limelight cast on her older sistter, Gong Mi (Seo Hyo-rim), leaves her feeling inadequate in many ways. The older sister is beautiful and successful (a lawyer in a top firm) and pays for all the families' living expenses. Gong Shim is a jobless artist who does odd jobs to gather money to change her life by moving to Italy and studying art. She has a rooftop apartment as her sister was given her bedroom as a wardrobe - leaving Gong Shim the choice of sharing the closet/room or finding her own space. She decides to rent the rooftop room to Ahn Dan-tae (Namkoong Min) a pro bono lawyer with some personality flaws. Through a series of coincidences Dan-tae becomes friends of Joon-soo who is the son of a wealthy family. The older sister smells money and becomes interested in some of her little sister's male acquaintance.
I really liked this drama. Kong shim is very understandable and love-able. I like the character development and the plot twists at the right moments to keep it interesting.
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I won’t say I regret watching, because it was cute and funny enough to be worth it. However, I will say that the majority of the drama was a waste of time. Watch casually and skip all the nonsense…unless you’ve never seen a K-Drama before or are relatively new to the drama scene…then you will probably be able to enjoy the plot.
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If you are an avid rom com watcher like me then you will enjoy this!
Personally I enjoy light, cliche romantic comedies all the time. To get a break from life, I will watch a light hearted kdrama. This show is one of the funniest rom coms I have come across. It may have not been the best show I have stumbled upon but it has a nice 2016 charm. The plot is a bit underdeveloped but in my opinion when you just want to laugh its not that big of a deal. If you just want a break from complex plots this is a show you would enjoy. Honestly, I think people forget some shows are cliches and are not ground breaking. Some shows are just there so we can laugh and this is one of them.Was this review helpful to you?
I really tried to like the title character Gong Shim, but due to her childish personality, her lack of fashion sense and that wig ... it just wasn't cutting it for me. I did find it amusing that the drama is called "Beautiful Gong Shim" yet the main story has nothing to do with her. She could have been a side character with her own side quest, and the drama could be named "Beautiful Dan Tae."
This story is supposed to be about a girl finding herself, leaving to love herself and to teach beauty is what's on the inside. Yet, this drama is mostly about the convoluted story about a kidnapped child and contrived family politics ... ugh!!!!!! I cannot recommend this drama. I am surprised that I was even able to finish it ...
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The story started out very oddly. Seemingly just tossing all kinds of tropes and concepts in. Such s Dan Tae's ability to see things in slow mow, which was convientaly utilzed and then forgotten though out the series. Once the story founds it's legs, I was blow away!!
Gong Shim was both hilarous and moving. She may have not have had high self esteem, but she was strong. I enjoyed that she stood up for herself. Even telling the male lead not to boss her around, it was "her choice" whether she wanted to do something. Though in the end I she did allow herself to be shelved by the man. Becasue she loved him enough to be abused.
Many interesting storylines were introduced pulling inspiration from Beauty and the Beast. I also think Cinderella themes. On inner beauty, outer beauty, self worth and so on. I loved it.
Sadly the plot of Dan Tae discovery he was the heir to Star Group took over. A plot that I thought the writer realized needed to be on the back burner. By episode 10 it came into full affect. It was uninteresting becasue veiwers knew right away what had happpened. The show quickly went from inavated and refreshing, do another dull drama. Not to mention that it felt like the writer forgot that it was Gong Shim's name in the title. It was the Dan Tae show and lost all of the interesting threads.
When things started out Joon Soo was the better love interest and I realy wanted him to get Gong Shim. Dan Tae warmed up as a love interest and I really loved him as well. It became clear that he would be IT and poor Joon Soo was almost fed to the wolves. To be honest I still think he should have gotten the girl. Dan Tae did some pretty crappy things. Though I will give mad props out to Dan Tae and Joon Soo's relationship. It was all so magical.
Even more annoying was that Gong Mi was pretty much abandoned. Despite that her as a villian was more interesting then the kidnapper and villian of the Star Group Heir arc. There were endless posiblities for the relationship between Gong Shim and Gong Mi. Sadly it was only brought up every now and then when the writer realized she was boring her viewers to tears. If I was actress Seo Hyo Rim I would be ticked.
I think the cast did an amazing job. The two fathers, Joon Soo's and Gong Shim's, turned out to be surprising story lines and the best part of the last episode.
The music was both fun, cheesey, and at times terrible. But more fun than anything. Honestly I don't remember most of the music and songs now, but I know while watching I had fun. Though I won't be tracking down the OST anytime soon.
Rewatch. This is tough. I'd probably watch certain parts again, espeically the first half of the series. However, the show became so mind numbingly boring that there is no way I'd revisit it. Probably a "Best scenes of Beautiful Gong Shim" on Youtube.
In the end Beautiful Gong Shim burned so bright when it found it's feet, that it burnt out. One of the biggest disappointing drama turn outs for this year for me. Mainly because it just couldn't maintian it's great concepts and like all Lee Hee-Myung dramas quickly deterated into another boring typical drama. One that disspoints it's characters. I will always value Gong Shim as a refreshing female lead, and despite the writers attempts to ruin her I'll hold on to that.
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Overall a great story with cute characters
I'll first start off by saying I unexepectedly,really liked this drama. I have quite strange tastes when it comes to K-dramas.Right out of the gate I'll say Gong Shim has become my favourite character of any K-drama now. She is funny and cute and awkward. I've never seen Minah in anything else but loved what she did with the character. I'll be checking her other stuff, as well now. I also hadnt seen Namkoong Min in anything else. He was great here, as Ahn Dan-tae. Dan-tae and Shim, had great chemisty and were very cute and funny together. The last main character was Seok Joon-soo, played by On Joo-wan. While, I dont think he necessarily stood out, I think he did a good job witht the character. The rest of the supporting cast was very good and had some funny moments, as well.
The story of the missing Jun-pyo, was decently handled. I do think the mystery was solved a little too quickly, which meant they stretched the story out, a little longer than they had too. But overall it kept your interest. Others have said it was predictable, but I actually felt it was less formulaic than others. Overall very enjoyable.
Now, onto my only complaints. First, I'm not sure Shim's family was handled very well. Her sister, was awful throughout. She may have slightly redeemed herself, in the end, with Joon-soo but she never grew as a character, with her family. The parents, also seemed unevenly written. In the ealry episodes, they didnt seem to care much for Shim (Shim directly says this) and through her living arrangements, we are too think she's not liked or looked after by her family. (her sister uses her room as a wardrobe, nuff said) But by the later episodes, they seem to support her and really appreciate her. Again, I would see that as growth but there were never any scenes resolving their issues. Its a minor nitpick. The second issue I had was, Shim's change in attitude and looks by the end. Dan-tae always described her as cute and made it clear he liked her wig. By his final return in the end, she is dressing in much more mature clothing and has her natural hair again. To me, at least, she had lost the cuteness and looked like everyone else. Im sure the writers did this to show she had matured and moved on a bit. I just think it was too much of a juxtaposition. I half expected to see Shim with her natural hair styled the same way her wig was. But maybe I'm alone in this criticism.
Overall I loved this drama and will put down Gong Shim as one of the best chracters, ever.
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How to keep others from wasting their time
I'm going to sound pretty harsh, but it would've saved me many, many, many hours watching this series if I saw a review that didn't beat around the bush.5 reasons to avoid this series at all costs:
1.The story does a 180 halfway through. The story goes from a romcom to something unrecognizable after 10 episodes. There where things I liked and things I disliked in the first 10 episodes, then everything I liked was taken away at about episode 11. Why?
2. Mr. Hyde. One of the reasons I watched the show was for the male lead character. He was funny, sweet, protective and delightfully weird. Then he suddenly changed for no understandable reason (yes, you guessed it - at around episode 10). He became distant and uncaring and became someone the viewer can't recognize. To make things worse he never came back to the guy you liked so much.
3. The romantic relationships. The ML chased after the FL for months and then, when he finds out she likes him back, he snubs her. Why? No damn reason. He leaves her twice, once for a month and once for a year without any contact at all - once again for no reason. If your boyfriend goes overseas and doesn't say goodbye and doesn't have any contact with you for a full year without an excuse would you take him back? A year is a bloody long time to ignore someones calls and messages and to then just say "I was busy".
The secondary couple is a man who is so sweet and nice he is like a little puppy. He ends up with the FL's sister, who is the equivalent of Cruella Deville and the wicked step sisters in Cinderella rolled into one.
4. The FL is childish without ever really being charming. She is also that person who can get trampled on again and again and again and just comes back for more without ever needing the other person to truly show remorse. There is no groveling in this story and it is sorely needed.
5. The story is just plain weird and that weirdness never serves a purpose. It was disjointed and the pacing was way off. Halfway through the story was actually over, but there was still 10 hours to fill.
I really wish I didn't waste my time on this show and if I ever invent a time machine the first thing I'll do is go back and warn myself not to watch this train wreck in the first place.
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Slow paced but worth a watch!
In the first half, it was like a cliche story and the FL was so much in her own dreamland that it made me cringe. She was so immature in a lot of ways, which could easily be annoying more than once. But the latter half was better, with all the loose ends tying up, and the relationships getting a clearer view. Though there wasn't any development in ML other than him getting another degree, the FL had a lot of developments, especially her maturity. She started being practical which made her more appealing than annoying, towards the very end.There's a lot of crying scenes in the entire series but it was in no way tear-jerking. The plot seemed to go at a very slow pace, and if it were to be at a normal pace, it would have taken 12-16 episodes, so feel free to fast forward some scenes.
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A good show with cute characters - for the most part.
(Possible spoiler at the end of review, clearly marked.)I really enjoyed the majority of this series, but the ending was so terrible that it pretty much ruined it all for me.
The show starts out as a wierd cinderella style story with a lot of toxic family behaviours, and then takes a turn into mystery/intrigue/crime with dark secrets from the past etc etc.
The romance and "mystery" are all laid out for the audience by episode 10, but who's in alliance with each other keeps you guessing til the last episodes.
I did wonder how they could possibly stretch it out for another 10 episodes after the audience already knew everything. Surprisingly it kept my interest til the end.
I'm sad to say that I really really hated the ending.
*SPOILER AHEAD*
Spoiler for the ending: I thought the last episode was going to be a feel-good episode where you get to see all your favourite characters get their happily ever afters, but this one just really let me down in that department. I know there's a trend in k-dramas for the couple to be separated for a year or more, and then reunite, but there's no frigging way this particular relationship problem could be forgiven THAT easily.
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