I have mixed feelings about _Miss Korea_. In a way I like it because there isn’t an over-the-top predicament, which a villain, whose malice defies description, creates for the character whose naive goodness makes him more a victim than a hero. And yet this very lack of an impossibly bad villain makes _Miss Korea_ a real oddity: a drama-less drama. There are a number of candidates for the impossibly bad villain from a mid-level gangster boss to the successful-business-guy and rival lover of the heroine to the greedy, ambitious rival company manager to the rival beauty salon owner to the despicable department store manager of the “elevator girls.” Incredibly, every one of these candidates, with the exception one, turns over a new leaf and becomes a likable and sympathetic character. (At the end, even the potential villain, who holds out in turning over a new leaf, concedes victory to the hero.) Moreover, the bid to become Miss Korea, which is one of the two conflicts upon which the drama revolves, is decided around episode 15 of a 20 episode series. At this point, the drama hangs on the question of whether the hero’s cosmetic company will survive and prosper. Alas, what with all but one of the potential villains having become the hero’s and heroine’s allies, by this point, it seems inevitable that the company will survive and most likely prosper. Whatever must-see value the drama then has is diverted to a side story which involves the possible romance between the reformed gangster boss with an elementary school education and the Ph. D. chemist who works for the hero’s cosmetic company. Though the side story is sweet, it’s not enough to fill in the vacuum left by the premature resolution of the Miss Korea contest and the inevitable financial success of Vivi Cosmetics.