This review may contain spoilers
I have to say this drama is bold. It has gone where (in my short drama life anyway) no production has -society’s mostly unspoken yet almost always skin deep obsession of beauty. This drama has lots of potential but (please don’t hate me too much) sadly fell short in so many ways. It could have been so much better and I tried, I really did.I LIKED the Plot- it is real, current and so relevant. I DISLIKED how it was developed- it was drawn out ever so slowly that it was painful at times. I understand some typical scenes are needed, the sweet fluffy romantic and even the ever present shower scene but, it was just way too forced that it was actually cringey. There were so many unnecessary repeat flashbacks that I feel they ran out of materials which is sad because there are so many layers they could have uncovered just with the story of Mi Rae alone - there really was no need for Soo Ah’s story....but I digress.
I LIKED the CEO MOM character the most and the artist who played the part. I felt her love and longing for her kids mostly just from her facial expression and body gestures that she didn’t really need too many words- I’d say that is pure talent. I LIKED TA WOO YOUNG, his line “real life begins when you move out” is so full of wisdom! I loved Dong Yeon in his other dramas and love him here as well. The same goes for the ever firecracker small but terrible Do Hee, loyal as always :)
I DISLIKED the acting of the main FL, I feel bad for saying this because I think she truly did her best but she ... just.. didn’t carried out Mi Rae’s character. I didn’t feel the connection, I didn’t feel her agony nor her desperation...it just felt soooo shallow...whew, there I said it! And my dear Eun Woo did his best as well, his brooding character always angry at the world which he did well but, again I didn’t feel connected. Needless to say that their relationship did not have the click factor for me so it was hard for me to cheer or stand up for their relationship.
The one good thing this drama showed me was at the very end (I really have to dig deep here to find it) when Mi Rae asked Soo Ah to look at herself, is she happy because she’s been pretty all her life? No different than what Mi Rae felt before (and even after) her surgery, In short, enough of deep skin beauty already! Let us find and embrace the real beauty instead, ones that actually matters.
I would not call this RomCom material neither would it be in my recommended list....but I am off to take a whiff of the Atelier Pomelo Paradis in Sephora... my olfactory senses are piqued!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This is the first time I'm giving a review for a drama...That's because I just couldn't tolerate the people saying things like.. "The dialogue delivery was too slow" or "The male lead was expressionless all along"
This review is for the readers who are getting influenced by those reviews n chose not to watch this drama, because if you read such reviews, you need to know that they did not understand the story at all!
STORY & CAST:
The story is about a girl Kang Mirae(Im Soo Hyang) who was bullied throughout her school life and goes under knife to make herself pretty before she enters the college. But unfortunately, she starts being called "gangnam beauty" (which means pretty all because of artificial things like surgeries and cosmetics). Her low self esteem makes her life even harder.
The male lead Do Kyung Seok(Cha Eun Woo) is a perfect guy who attracts all the attention because of his good looks, also being called "genius face".
Yet he has the scars of his past due to his family issues which makes him not care about his surroundings (in other words, he's a loner)
A pretty girl Hyun Soo Ah(Jo Woo Ri) who was born beautiful and craves for attention and has her own story behind her strange personality
A kind senior Woo Young (Kwak Dong Yeon) who lives working hard on his own and helps his juniors through their problems.
ACTING:
The female lead whose character is supposed to have low self esteem was carried too well by Im Soo Hyang..talking in a low voice, giving a blank expression when she is praised or asked about something that's good in her (coz she was never loved before). Our male lead who is a loner had to give very subtle expressions but still show what he's thinking! This job was excellently done by our Cha Eun Woo! The character of Hyun Soo Ah which no one mentions, is pretty hard to be carried out...coz she has to be very kind out in front of everyone and keep her true self to herself! She was good too..and the casting was just done too beautifully.
So I suggest everyone who reads this review to try watching at least the first episode..coz you'll watch the next episodes on your own, out of curiosity!
Hope this review was helpful...Enjoy watching MY ID IS GANGNAM BEAUTY
Was this review helpful to you?
At first, I liked her, and I could sympathize with her, but I got tired of her monotone personality.
The 2nd hand embarrassment I got from her was unbelievable. Felt so so bad for Do Kyung Seok:(((
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Gosh, this may not be the best drama I've ever watched, but it was so freakin addictive. I just wish Soo ah's backstory was more developed and that we would see what happened to Mirae's bff & Wooyoung, cause I highkey wanted them to end up together. Other than that, it's a drama that has a good mixture of serious and light-hearted topics, and I think it's a perfect one for binge-watching. The main leads are so cute together. Also the ost for this one was nice, I still listen to some of the songs since they are so catchy
Was this review helpful to you?
NOT JUST YOUR TYPICAL YOUTH ORIENTED DRAMA
This drama talks about plastic surgery a very controversial social issue but turned out to be a very positive, light hearted, romantic drama with all the positive message of inner beauty, loving yourself, growing up, first love, forgiveness, loyalty and freindship. The drama explores what is truly mens to be beautiful and happy. That is loving yourself and giving the respect that you truly deserve.Talking about the actors, they are well chosen and that they brought life to the story. I swear Cha Eun Woo is the perfect Do Kyung suk and Im So Hyang gave beauty to Kang Mi Rae. It is like fate that brought this two to lead the drama and they gave 100
% justice to their characters. Their acting are raw, pure and natural. They are so comfortable with each other and interact with much fluidity that resulted to an excellent chemistry on screen. The supporting actors are well casted too and that they made the whole drama more relatable and delivers one of the best youth oriented genre in the last decade.
The music used fits the whole drama. OSTs made watching more ligt hearted and easy to watch. CEWs rendition of one of the background with his angelic voice becomes all the more romantic and heartwarming.
This is probably one of the few dramas I would like to rewatch again and again. If you want to feel in love and relieve your college and first love, rewatching this is the best way to do it.
All in all, this is such a heartwarming, heartfluttering drama. Light, sweet, romantic with a lifetime lessons it provides.
10/10
Was this review helpful to you?
I've read others opinion and most of them were saying that story is slow running well this isn't wrong either but don't you think being slow story contains "Detailing" i mean, presenting this much characters in every single point of them within 16 episodes, isn't it too good like DevilMan Crybaby Anime it has 10 episodes and absolute masterpiece..
Why i like this series?
- This story is too realistic as much in know about Korea beauty is everything there and maybe that's the reason that country has different benchmark from others and this story presents and directly indicating this is wrong to judge others by their faces because being beautiful isn't up to us we can't do anything about this..
Acting/Casting of the characters was quite amazing specially Mi Rae's, taking plastic surgery isn't wrong in anyways it's just our mentality has became like natural beauty is everything and it mustn't be altered well naturality has it's own status like Ms. Na's character presented, in short overall i like this series too much after all this is my first time watching K-Drama and it influenced me in many ways i used to watch Anime....
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
think before u do
I want to write a review .. here it’s probably better not to criticize nationality because people are different everywhere, but I noticed a strange thing among koreans, from the position of a victim they always strive to forgive the offender ... wake up! Life has not yet taught u in all of history that if the offender does not suffer punishment, then evil, roughly speaking, will never stop! The fact that someone supposedly “forgives” someone will not make him/her better, he/she will look even more pitiful than before and will not learn to fight back!In this case, it’s about Mirae and Sua, some kind of sadomasochism, honestly! Well, u don’t like the person, u’ve finally realized how bad he is, move away from him or take revenge, why continue to help!? What does Mirae expect that Sua will change and suddenly stop envying her? Sua had the same bad life only in a different direction, but it was her own fault that she programmed herself for the result she got! But it would be better if she had acid on her face.. then she would understand how bad Miras life was! Although this is relatively all, she is so stupid that she would hardly stop .. just like Mirae... Mirae has a boyfriend and she cares more about other people’s opinions than about him! So she directly insults him! She wants to be treated well, but she behaves badly towards those who treat her well! If I were GenSok, I wouldn’t date her at all or leave her...trauma is trauma, but don’t forget that there are people around u just like u and constantly reproaching other people’s feelings to please urself is not good...so I think this drama is great will teach those who doubt themselves how not to behave so as not to have what Mirae had, and people like Sua will understand that what they ridicule in others can happen to them too... although of course the strange korean mentality... this it’s not the culture, but the mentality, a little sick, not healthy... I can’t understand how this can be popular there... I’d like to hope that there are adequate people there too..
Was this review helpful to you?
The story is unique but cliche at the same time. I like the message of this drama, that it's okay to have plastic surgery.
It was really slow at some parts and you kinda get bored but it's worth it. The main lead was realistic, she was still insecure about her looks and that's totally understandable. I liked that they told Soo Ah's(second female lead) backstory that really changed our perspective about her at the end. It was a pretty realistic drama.
The actors were good, even though Cha Eun Woo's acting was a bit emotionless(he's so handsome btw). Im Soo Hyang portrayed Mi Rae well.
If you like heartwarming and realistic dramas then I would recommend!
Was this review helpful to you?
Well-developed, thoughtful, heart-melting romance
One of the most well-developed, thoughtful story lines and cast of characters I've seen in a while.Some random thoughts while I was watching and after:
- People judge each other so openly about their appearances, and it seems almost expected by the one being judged. Like the overweight girl in their circle of friends was barely fazed (at least externally) when the guys started commenting quite blatantly and harshly about her weight and needing to go on a diet. I feel like that would never be socially acceptable in the US. People do judge each other but it's not done so openly or set up on this high pedestal of ultimate importance like it is in Korea.
- I love all the other side stories and relationships. There are so many cute couples that are easy to ship.
- The show has perfect pacing with the story and character development, and I was impressed by how the writers were able to organize it to include satisfying side relationships alongside the major one.
- Do Kyung Seok is ultimate boyfriend goals. And can I just say, his mom is like "coolest mom of the year" award-worthy?
- My only complaint about this show is that it ends too quickly. I felt like it could've gone another 1-2 episodes to completely wrap up the side plots. And of course I could've done with more of Kyung Seok and Mi Rae and their adorableness overload! But overall it was a very satisfying ending.
Best quote:
"She's neither pretty nor ugly. She's just herself." -Do Kyung Seok
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
What really made me watch the show were the interesting storylines and the secondary characters. Sua, the second lead, Mi Rae's best friend, the class rep, their seniors, all of them had really interesting stories. I personally loved Sua's story. Very rarely you get to see such 3 dimensional antagonists.
What I don't like is the exact same reason. The secondary characters were so great that I felt least interested in the main leads. The main guy, never had a personality apart from being "Good Looking". His other moods were - Emo, brooding, or getting angry whenever our girl talked to any other guy.
I liked our main girl Mi Rae, she was still relatable and I understand that the whole point of the show was to develop a certain feeling of self love and show that as character development. But seeing her act stupidly, and wide eyed really made me cringe and skip forward a lot. They were seriously bland for most of it. If you make me least interested in the main leads then what is the point of the drama?
Some of the college scenes were nice, but I still felt that inspite of having progressive themes, the attractive male lead was shoved in our face. Anyways all the points is mostly for story and deducted for acting. Plus 1 for Sua.
Was this review helpful to you?
TLDR, I'd recommend this drama mainly because the plot is meaningful, but also because the acting is good.
Was this review helpful to you?
