True Beauty (2020)

Good!

i really loved this kdrama. it had me in tears MULTIPLE times, and the acting was really good considering everything (like eunwoo, being an idol, for example) — the only reason its a 9 and not a 10 is because the last ending felt very rushed to me. i understand why the timeskip happened and everything, and that is completely fine! its just, i dont know, i feel like suhoo and ju-kyung couldve taken it a bit longer to rekindle their relationship and everything? i really wish we couldve seen more of how she was post breakup, breaking it to her friends, and so on. we did get a glimpse of her being comforted, but i wish there was more, yk? other than that i loved it and i will most likely rewatch! it was very comforting

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True flaws yet entertaining and sweet

I am writing this review after re watching this, a rewarch that was highly enjoyable, entertaining and even though I knew what eould happen still had me pushing that next episode button as well as watching it in the passenger seat in the car just so I could watch a little bit more.

Yet still I lowered the score from a 9,5 to a 9 as there are just a few too many high pitched chogia, over the top mimics and horrible elements for me to completely let them slide all things that could lower the score to a 6 or even 5 brought up by the high bingsbilsty, the combination of depth snd issues with sweet sweet romance and lovable side characters.

The older sister is deffenetly one to steel the show in her gender bender reveresed roles relationship Im Se Mi kills it and is far more interesting than the female lead.

The Secound male lead has given many SLS and is indeed a very entertaining and talanted boy to watch however the writers did him wrong with the conflict with the male lead. Making heím do and say some unforgivable things.

Our male lead is handsome, sweet and aweare of his flaws. Some say he is a green flagg, I say not really but close enough.. as he does have som communication and jellousey. All things the female lead handles pretty well but still a fun dramabiyfriend to watch and woo over but not relationship goals. At least not for my younger self.

The female lead has great dynamics with the people around her and she does have some fun moments when she lets out the tiger in her instead of running away scared. But to be honest it is hard to fully understand why both male leads fall for her, pretty or not pretty something is missing...

All in all an entertaining drama that despite all its true flaws has enough good in it to make it a 9 and that is actually pretty impressive!

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Heartwarming and hilarious, but also deep

Things I disliked (or could be better)

1) When being guilt-tripped by Seo Jun, on top of his already existing guilt regarding Se Yeon’s death, Suho decides to make Ju Gyeong distance herself from him by lying to her and saying that he only ‘looked out’ for her and ‘cared’ out of pity. But later when she confronts him about it and says how he shouldn’t ‘lead her on’, he doesn’t even give her a proper explanation for this. I was hoping he’d do that later in the series but he doesn’t, and I think he should have.

2) I did not like how Ju Gyeong refused to try to listen and understand Suho when he expressed that he was uncomfortable with her being around Seo Jun so much (working part time at the cafe together, doing a couple photoshoot together), and that he ‘didn’t like it’. She only acted defensive and was so dense that she couldn’t even realize that Suho’s jealousy and discomfort are totally reasonable? Especially considering the fact Seo Jun DOES like her, and after the school literally spreads tons of rumors about her and Seo Jun dating. Like, how does one not realize that?
Suho even literally said ‘So you don’t care about dating rumors between you and Seo Jun being spread, but announcing we are dating is not ok?’ which was a very valid point.

3) I found it weird how everyone in the class reacted so poorly and judgy after Ju Gyeong’s ‘true face’ was exposed as well as her bullied background at Jongpa. Yes, she did get selected as visual representative for the school and I get that some people may feel fishy and salty about it and judge, but her own classmates after getting along so well for a while already? Even Su Ah acted avoidant and I did not get why. Then in the end it had to be the teacher Han Joon Woo to ‘educate’ everyone to not judge and act like that. That was disappointing.

4) Suho and his dad honestly have a lot more complexity and tension to their relationship because of multiple things, not just because of the ‘Se Hyeon being falsely accused and forced to his death’ thing. Yes, his dad wasn’t aware that that’s what Director Oh did in order to cover up his own possible scandal (the photo with him bringing home a young actress). He does genuinely apologize for this to Suho, but to me their relationship seemed to heal too easily and too quickly. I can understand that when it comes to life and death you can disregard a lot of things, and considering his mom already died he only had his dad now. So when Suho’s dad gets a brain hemorrhage problem and has to be treated overseas he immediately comes along with him. But that still doesn’t erase all of the things his dad did previously in the past, when Suho was younger. For example the ‘affair’ he caught his dad having with some woman on the day his mom died. That’s just fucked up. How does that not get addressed?

5) The reason that Suho states when he breaks up with Ju Gyeong I honestly find quite weak and not convincing. Ju Gyeong expressed not minding to wait for him at all while he’s in America taking care of his dad, and yet he insists that waiting is ‘too painful for her’ and breaks up with her. I felt that was unnecessary, and that it wasn’t a right choice in the writing at that point in the drama. Considering point 4 (my previous point), I think the rest of the episodes should have addressed that instead of making up more ‘drama’ because of this.

6) Then after 2 years, when Suho comes back again he acts as if the breaking up and dumping Ju Gyeong and not replying for a full year just didn’t happen at all, and doesn’t even explain things and apologize to her right away as he should have. Instead, he tries to take her back like it's no big deal and I found that really hurtful and disrespectful. Ju Gyeong’s hurt reaction and avoidant behavior are totally reasonable and understandable. In the end they do make up, but I just didn’t like this.

7) It’s unclear what happened to the bullies from Jongpa High. Ju Gyeong does fight them and beat them up and teach them ‘a lesson’, but I feel it would have been better if the bullies got officially punished and addressed by the school or some legal authority. Bullying is something that will continue if serious measures aren’t taken by schools, or by other authorities. It is a happy ending for Ju Gyeong, but the bullies could still terrorize other people. Especially because this drama centers around this topic quite a bit I was hoping for some sort of ‘closure’ in that sense.

8) Even if Su Jin apologized to Ju Gyeong, it seemed off to me how everyone else, including Suho, were happy to see her when she appeared at Hee Gyeong’s wedding as a guest. I would imagine being quite disappointed and off-put by your childhood friend whom you’ve known for so long and cared for for so long to do something like that to your girlfriend. I would appreciate the apology (given that Ju Gyeong told Suho that Sujin apologized), but I’d still be stand off ish. But that’s just me. Suho’s reaction just didn’t seem realistic to me.

9) This isn’t a plot point, and I appreciate the amount of kissing scenes in the drama, but honestly they can be a lot better. Cha Eun Woo’s kissing is stiff and he barely even moves his lips when he kisses Ga Young, and if he does it looks kind of unnatural. We are way past the ‘peck and freeze’ era now, that’s literally so 2000s kdrama kissing style. Then their kiss at the end of the last episode also felt kind of awkward. He was holding a comic book in his right hand, but Ju Gyeong’s arms were free. She could at least put her arms around his neck or something like that, instead of once again freezing in the position and just staying like that (that being said I did like the kiss after he confessed to her during the school trip). Overall it could just be better.

Things I liked (or that were funny)

1) The ‘panty incident’ when Seo Jun dances by himself half naked when he’s out of the shower and then turns around and sees that Ju Gyeong is there, and then he continues to dance on his way to his room and then quickly ‘breaks’ character in embarrassment. That was hilarious.

2) Suho makes Ju Gyeong do stuff for him in return for keeping her bare face secret. But in reality he was just using those as excuses to see her and spend time with her. One time he even asks her to come to Prince Comic to bring him something but then she quickly leaves, not giving him time to invite her to eat ramen with him (which was his real intention). Then the camera zooms in on the two bowls of ramen that are prepped laying on the table.

3) Tae Hoon and Su Ah being THAT pda couple is cringe to some, but super adorable to me (ok Tae Hoon did have some cringey moments but I don’t mind it given his character setting lol). I loved the part where Tae Hoon prepared a whole surprise for their 100 day anniversary in the classroom, with all the other classmates and friends participating as well.

4) On the playground when Ju Gyeong trips while they are playing basketball and Suho catches her, but then he hugs her. Then he tries to play it off as making her smell his ‘new detergent’. Then the Prince Comic owner happens to pass by and he rushes over to hug him as well to make it look like he wasn’t specifically just hugging Ju Gyeong. LOL.

5) In episode 6 (and end of ep 5), when a singer at the school festival performs one of Se Yeon’s songs as a tribute, Suho gets a panic attack. Even after being told he only looked out for her ‘out of pity’ (which is a lie unexplained to her) and being hurt by it, Ju Gyeong still rushes to care for him. When he runs off and ends up on the rooftop crying alone, she finds him and stays with him, embracing him and comforting him. This really shows how much she loves Suho and that when push comes to shove she can put all things aside and still be there for him.

6) In episode 7, Suho goes to great lengths, from making everyone at school yell ‘apologize’, to hacking his computer during a game in an internet cafe, to telling on his dad, to the point of even losing sleep, just to make Lee Sung Yong apologize to Ju Gyeong for kidnapping her. That was true dedication.

7) In episode 10, Suho visits Ju Gyeong’s room for the first time and sees a photo of her younger self laying on a couch (that appears to be at Prince Comic). He finds out that Ju Gyeong was the same girl he met as a little boy at Prince Comic who called him a crybaby, and then tried to cheer him up by doing animal impressions. He then takes that photograph home with him.

8) In spite of point 3 from ‘things I disliked’, I love how Su Ah speaks up and confronts Sujin about her deeds. Even if Sujin doesn’t admit her fault or show remorse even then, Su Ah stands up for Ju Gyeong. Afterwards she reassures Ju Gyeong that she is not ‘that kind of person’ and admits feeling hurt that JG thought she’d be shallow, then they ‘make up’ and hug eachother.

9) In episode 13, Suho records an aegyo video at Prince Comic and it’s HONESTLY ADORABLE. He sends it to Ju Gyeong in order to cheer her up. (Ngl Cha Eun Woo pulls off aegyo really well and his voice also sounds cute when he does it.)

10) At some point Suho reenacts the animal impressions to Ju Gyeong, and Ju Gyeong finally realizes they’ve met before as kids. The way he did it is very cute.

11) In episode 14, when they are dating Suho itches to call Ju Gyeong, but then he imagines the worst case scenario where he ends up being ‘the tiring type’ (as said by Tae Hoon), in which Ju Gyeong runs off with Seo Jun on his motorcycle, leaving Suho alone on the track field. He then kneels down and screams ‘NO!!’.

12) The beach date was honestly so wholesome and romantic as well, I loved seeing them go on an ‘official’ date like that.

13) 'OH MY EYEEEEES, OH SHIIIIIIIT' - Im Ju Yeong

14) While my previous points in the ‘things I disliked’ still stand, I did enjoy watching how the show extended beyond the high school setting. I really loved seeing Ju Gyeong pursue her ambition and passion in makeup. I also loved seeing Seo Jun make his way back to music and eventually debut, and that Suho decides to pursue music again too. I also really enjoyed the sub-plot of the relationship between Hee Gyeong and Han Joon Woo and how it progresses to them getting married. The show wraps up in a lovely way.

Final thoughts

Visually, I enjoyed it in all aspects.
Firstly, the cast. I haven’t read the webtoon (yet) but I think the casting is just perfect when comparing the actors to the drawn versions of their characters. Cha Eun Woo is literally perfect as Suho, I don’t think anyone else can match better. Ga Young and Hwang In Youp are perfect as Ju Gyeong and Seo Jun as well. Even the casting for the side characters match super well. For example Goo Woon, or Hee Gyeong. Even Selena’s actress pulled off the vibe really well. The acting was also really good, I was especially impressed by how well Cha Eun Woo did considering his performance in some previous roles were underwhelming.
Secondly, the cinematography is beautiful, the colors are soft but vibrant.
Thirdly, the fashion is also on point most of the time (some of Suho’s outerwear and outfits are kind of questionable tho imo). Also, I don’t know how Ju Gyeong suddenly leveled up her fashion sense by 100 after ‘the makeover’, but I did really enjoy her cute outfits. I especially liked her academic outfit variations. I like how she wore different colored knee socks, sometimes grey and sometimes white. Her matching pastel colored outerwear goes well with her uniforms too.
The soundtrack is also very memorable, both songs with vocals as well as atmospheric instrumental tracks.

I loved the characters. First of all, I need to give a big shout out to Seo Jun for being such a respectable and good character. Even if he loves Ju Gyeong, he never acts selfishly by crossing the line or boundaries and always respects her and Suho.
He also does so much for her behind the scenes, it's admirable.
The side characters are awesome too. Ju Gyeong's sister and brother are also so fun and have unique personalities as well. Hee Gyeong (older sis) is very confident, tomboyish and funny with her interactions with Han Joon Woo (the teacher), but she has a really righteous side. Ju Yeong (younger brother) is a goof and banters with Ju Gyeong a lot and seems like the usual 'obnoxious' sibling, but he definitely shows a more serious, mature and caring side to him as well. For example when he tells Suho to not play around with Ju Gyeong's feelings and actually be serious if he really likes her, or when he fights someone at school when they talk shit about Ju Gyeong (after she got 'exposed'). His protective side definitely shows.
Then another side chara I especially liked is Yoon Tae Hoon, he was hilarious. He was a bro to Suho as well, trying to give him tips and help him out. That scene where they broke the 4th wall talking about drama cliches was HILARIOUS.

Plot wise, as I’ve stated in the points before, it’s not perfect. However, the characters and their backgrounds and personalities are very well developed and I think that really uplifts the show and carries it in places where it lacks plot structure.
This show gave me many laughs, especially in the first half. It also gave me some tears. There are definitely a lot of cliche moments like in a lot of kdramas, but those honestly didn’t bother me.
Finally, I just loved how organically and naturally Ju Gyeong and Suho’s romance develops throughout the show, it doesn’t feel forced at all. I loved seeing their relationship and interactions change from ‘cold’ and ‘on edge’ to being warm and fluffy and silly. Suho definitely learns to ‘let loose’ and show a more playful and cute side when their relationship progresses. It was also relieving and heartwarming to see him and Seo Jun reconcile in the end and become friends again.
All in all, despite having some flaws, True Beauty is a show that has a great combination of fluffiness/comedy and deeper themes. I honestly didn’t expect it to address things like panic attacks, trauma, serious family issues and OCD. However these are real things that happen on a daily basis for many people and I can fully appreciate the show addressing these, while still being balanced with the more lighthearted side of it. I enjoyed this show a lot and I’m going to miss it.

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An Interesting Feel Good drama about high school love and self motivation!

It's a good drama. It had it's ups and downs so I cannot say it's a very good but it's definitely above average to a good category. The characters and story was interesting but execution was not great. It had a lot of potential to touch important high school issues but it didn't explored them, which I think was intentional from the creators. They wanted to keep it as a light hearted story which is totally fine. This is one of very few stories very second lead was equally good as the main lead, sometimes second lead overshadowed the main lead which is a great thing.

I really liked the character of elder sister and her love story. In the last episode when everyone started dancing at the wedding that was very wholesome moment and I will definitely remember as one of the best wedding celebration.

Overall It's a good watch!

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AMAZING AND AWESOME SHOW..........

Amazing! just so amazing! this is literally the best thing i've ever watched in my life! THE STORYLINE AND CHARACTERS ARE SO AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGG ! once u start watching, you cannot stop!!!!!! the cast choice was awesome! I highly recommend watching this drama because it has everything! from depression to happiness, from liking to loving, YOU'LL FIND EVERYTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF! plus, this drama is very funny and emotional at the same time!!! One time when I was eating Chocos w/ milk while watching,I laughed so hard that I had to spil the milk and chocos out of my mouth to stop them from entering my wind pipe because I was laughing so hard! There'll be times when you will feel so sad for characters and sometimes you'll laugh so hard. I'm still addicted to the drama and still IN LOVE with the OST--MISSING U..............

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Why is this considered a classic in the kdrama fanbase?

First of all why was this so fucking long like damn. I'm so glad we got rid of forcing every single kdrama to have 16 episodes. The story was dumb as fuck and didn't go anywhere. Every single cliche you could think of was present here. The worst of all: the miscommunication trope: CHECK!!!! YAYYYY!!!! Like we're TIRED. It's also the fact that they tried to convince me that girl is ugly because she got some pimples and glasses and when she put makeup on everybody gagging all of a sudden like no ma'am! Mun Ka Young being the fl does NOT help this show, in fact she's the reason why it was hard to keep watching and i had to force myself to finish it. Cha Eun Woo is (as we know) not the best actor either so he didn't help either. Park You Na is a good actress but her character is fake as hell so I didn't care for her either. Hwang In Youp was definitely the selling point here even though his ass was annoying asf too like he FAILED to drop the douchebag act for one second and then was surprised when she ain't pick him!!! And I was mad too!! Like that's how badly written the show is. I'm rooting for the fl to end up with the antagonist chi-

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A Better Watch The Second Time Around

I watched this drama while it was airing. I was also watching it while the web took was at it's peak and was actually good. I originally rated this drama 6.5. I was bitter they changed so much to the original webtoon and everything could not compare. Watching it a second time and with the web took being over (and disappointed how it ended), I really enjoyed this one much more. Unlike the webtoon, the characters, especially Ju Gyeong, have more development than the webtoon. You get to know more about them and why there's strained relationships or they are the way they are. The story had somewhat of a plot to follow. Yes, that plot is the love story, but they do sprinkle the self-confidence bit. It wasn't like the webtoon where it was always, "woe is me Ju Gyeong. No one else is important.

I think for the genre that the drama is, the acting was good. It's meant to be that over-exaggerated dramatic high school close-up with pained facial expressions style. It's supposed to be leagues more animated than the normal drama. Did I personally care for it? No. Would I have watched the drama if it was more serious? No. It was the right balance.

The drama circles around constantly to one song. Naturally, you hear that song a million times because of it. I don't blame the writers and there was other music, but you really take away remembering that one song.

Would I rewatch it? I'd be lying if I said no. Technically this was a rewarch because I couldn't remember a lot of what happened and wanted to give it a proper rating. With that aside, I honestly would not watch it again. It's not my genre, so there's no need to continue to force myself to try to enjoy it.

Overall, this was a cute drama. They stray from the webtoon in a clear, cohesive way that leaves it open to really develop the characters and understand what they're going through in that moment

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Inhyeop carried!

Why does female lead always fall oh my gosh. All wattpad y/n clichés are here, but were not in a way that get you hooked. It was indeed funny but the chemistry between the leads was so meh.

People were lying when they said the female lead should have chosen Seojun because Seojun actually deserved better! The break-up between her and Suho felt so unecessary and I would have wished that she made it at least hard for him before they get back together but noooo, she forgave him easily like he didn't leave her hanging.

Also, why did they have to ruin soojin's character?! For a guy?! Her development of feelings for Suho was so quick and random so her sudden betrayal to the female lead (yes, I don't remember her name) was so out of the blue and was only done for the plot.

The only thing I liked about this was Inhyeop's acting (he carried) and Jukyung ?? being able to stand up for herself after being bullied like it was actually kind of satisfying.

Overall, if you want a quick watch with a frustrating love triangle and bullying, this is meant for you. Had a good laugh, still.

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Absolutely a delight, amazing cast and characters but they failed one character

Absolutely loved this series. Amazing leads, from both FL and ML1 and ML2.
FL lead is super charming and likeable and very funny at times. It's funny she was called ugly in beginning of the show even her ugly makeup, she was still a very cute girl.
It is predicable though but it is expected with these type of kdramas.
I've enjoy everyone from the cast, seems like everyone really had great chemistry. Honestly, I would have been fine if she ended up with either ML
Since she had chemistry with both. That's usually hard to pull off. I'm guessing the actress is likey so much fun to work with.
I've had issue with one Female character I liked in the beginning but as the show progressed, they turned her into a villain and she became so easy to root against and hated.
She was such a bad ass character. She ruined all her image and almost her life for a guy who clearly said many times he didn't like her, he has a girlfriend and only saw her as a friend.
She decided to ruin her friendship with the FL, ended being the worst pos ever put on TV.
Worst part, it took her like 3 years to apologize.
When they decided to bring her back to the show. I just didn't care one bit.
Which is a shame since I do love cool and bad ass female characters from dramas
But anyway, I think this show is definitely my third favorite show after a business proposal and it's OK to not be OK.
When you have amazing set of characters it is very easy for your show to be so loved and successful
Oh almost forgot about the best friendzone character in the show.
ML2. He did everything he could to get the girl and even waited for 3 years
He could have turned into a scambag at the end but he knew he really didn't have a chance or never had any. So he decided to work on himself and try to move on.
Oh, lastly one crazy relationship was the FL older sister and the teacher.
She was the most forward woman I've ever seen in my life lol
I'm not sure if he was scared of her and decided to say yes to everything or was he really in love with her.
That relationship was something lol
Anyway review way too long.
I definitely would watch this again just because how amazing Everyone are.
Earned its 9.5

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True Beauty: A guilty pleasure.

There's absolutely nothing extraordinary about this drama, but it does a very good job at being medium. Really!

Here's a few of my thoughts (no spoilers)

Writing - It's a shame that the bullyng and the characters traumas weren't really developed. It had a lot of potential, but they just covered it with comedy. So even though the drama has interesting and important topics, they weren't explored as they should.
Also, why so many embarrassing scenes? I never skip scenes but this button was definitely used on this drama.

Couples - The drama focused so much on the romance that at some point people forgot about the first plot, Lim Jun Kyung problem with her appearance and the bullying.
The whole "Who's she ending up with" wasn't necessary and made the story worst in my opinion. But I liked the final couple, so I'll give them that.

Acting - None of the actors showed a award worthy performance but they didn't disappointed me as some people said they would. It's decent.

OST's - I loved every single song in this drama!

True Beauty made me laugh, tear down, made me angry, sad and root for the characters. It's worth watching and I recommend if you're looking for a funny, silly, easy watch drama.

Overall it's pretty decent although I wouldn't watch it with my friends who aren't part of this kdrama world cuz it would be embarrassing. A true guilty pleasure.

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Hilarious & a Classic Cliche

The drama excels in its dialogue and delivery, the acting is superb and the show is hilarious. Several laugh out loud moments additionally several moments where I cried too. I felt for Joogyung and was extremely happy for you when she realised her self-worth and inner-beauty. Story is filled with a bunch of cliches but executed really well.
I would say the drama goes extremely well up until around episode 12, which is why I rated the rewatch value at a 6 because I'd watch it up until then. After ep 12 I no longer felt the hype and would watch the show several days after release. The storyline was a bit of a drag. The last two episodes were disappointing, I'm satisfied with the ending however the episodes were not needed, the pace was off. It felt like they were fitting so many things into the episodes.
OST was alright, it wasn't impactful, didn't add anything to the scenes but some of the songs were catchy.

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