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The Beauty Inside korean drama review
Completed
The Beauty Inside
0 people found this review helpful
by ltspada
Nov 4, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Solid Romance with surprises along the way -

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2018 South Korean Fantasy, Romance Drama with 16, 60 minute episodes.

Han Se-gye (Seo Hyun-jin) is known as someone who is flightly, literally, she runs out of important engagements and it has given her the reputation of an irresponsible troublemaker. Despite that she is a Hallyu A-list actress but struggles keeping her career moving forward with all the bad publicity she receives. What people do not know, and she cannot tell them, is she transforms once a month into someone else. She could be an old man or woman, a child or any gender and age in between. When it happens, it lasts about a week and she disappears from the public eye. It happens somewhat unpredictably although she can feel it coming on which is why she runs. Her friend and manager, Yoo Woo-mi (Moon Ji-in) has her work cut out for her trying to keep Se-gye out of trouble. Seo Do-jae (Lee Min-ki) is the Managing Director of his family's airline company and Se-gye is their top model/spokesperson. Things take an intersting turn when Do-jae decides to become personally involved in getting Se-gye to re-sign as he knows of her flight risk. He seems to have everything going for him being a Chaboel heir who is very intelligent and handsome. However, a tragic accident left him with prosopagnosia, which he must hide to keep competitors, such as his step sister, Kang Sa-ra from taking the top spot in the family business. Sa-ra is fiercly competitive but meets her match when she encounters Ryu Eun-ho, Se-gyes friend whom she enlists to distract Sa-ra at a critical moment. Eun-ho dreams of being a priest and his calm and peaceful nature seem well suited but there is something about Sa-ra that makes him rethink his plans. Can Do-jae and Se-gye find love in each other and trust each other with their secrets?

Spoiler alert* Most notable for me in this one is just how much I liked all the characters. Se-gye is a beautiful actress who is the perfect blend of sassy, she speaks her mind, and just incredibly kind. Some of the things she did both as herself and when she would become someone else was incredibly heart warming. I decided early on that she most likely became others to do something in that role. And in the end they indicated a bit that was the reason but they did not expand or highlight it. That is the one minor fail I thought was to not fully explain why she shifted. Her best friend and manager, Yoo Woo-mi (Moon Ji-in) is her number 1 nagger (as you would expect from a South Korean talent manager) and biggest advocate. She is one of the few that I think looks amazing with short hair because she has such a delicate face. I wanted to see her get with the male lead's secretary/best friend/jack of everything, Jung Joo Hwan (Lee Tae-ri), as they were so alike in so many ways. They looked adorable together. Woo-mi's boyfriend story was a story unfinished - you were left wondering what was real and what was not. The male lead character, Seo Do-jae (Lee Min-ki) underwent a huge transformation. He was a rather flat character when he needed to be but started to change and flourish when he encountered Se-gye. Very quickly he spotted the beauty inside of Se-gye and became her biggest advocate. His step sister and biggest rival, Kang Sa-ra, underwent huge character development. She went form an Ice Princess whose only goal was to replace Do-jae as the lead heir in the congolmerate to a caring friend, girlfriend and sister. I loved Se-gye's friend/brother of her heart, Ryu Eun-ho (Ahn Jae-hyun), and how he had plans to go into Catholic ministry but the beautiful and complex Sa-ra changed his dream. He said she became his new dream. And the big surprise that he wasn't who exactly you/she thought he was was a great plot twist. I also loved Se-gae's mother, Han sook-he (Kim Hee-jung), and was disappointed when she died so suddenly. I loved seeing her "mother" Do-jae as she was so protective of Se-gye yet could see he was the perfect person for her and quickly gave her blessing. Do-jae's mother, Im Jung-yeon (Na Young-hee), I loved how she went from Se-gye not being good enough for her son to she is the only girl for my son when challenged with an alternate reality. I just loved all the characters and thought they were so well developed and went through great character development. Slight detractor was the death of Se-gae's mom, I did not feel it was necessary and introdoced a sad element to an otherwise heart warming series. There is an absolute cringe scene where Se-gye has transformed into the body of an old man and Do-jae indicates he could love her even in that body. I was afraid of what type of affection they might show each other. I get the point they were trying to make but man, it was cringy.

As with just about all South Korean series, this turned out to be much different than I expected from the description and the clips. I thought the focus would be on her transformations and it was more of a side aspect, the main focus was on the chracters and their relationships. This is one of the more "steady" romances I have seen where the romance is kept front and center and does not get lost in side plots. I loved this series and highly recommend to anyone that wants an, on balance, heart warming romance.
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