Korean Drama: 뷰티 인사이드 The Beauty Inside (2018)
Genre: romance, drama, romantic comedy
Starring: Seo Hyun Jin, Lee Min Ki, Lee Da Hee, Ahn Jae Hyun
Aired: October-November 2018
Watched: July 2019 on Viki
WATCHED IT BECAUSE...
After finishing Discovery of Love, I needed a new drama to watch (since I was still waiting for My Absolute Boyfriend to finish). I think I was going to watch Radio Romance but I just clicked on this one instead, since it had good ratings.
THE REVIEW
How amazing was this drama? Even more than I expected.
I knew the title of the drama sounded familiar—turns out this is the drama version of the movie (which, what, is based on an American internet series??) starring Han Hyo Joo. Han Hyo Joo is my favorite so I’ve been meaning to watch the movie (… since 2014 apparently).
In this drama, the female protagonist is Han Se Gye (played by Seo Hyun Jin). She plays a very famous actress who is known for her scandals and running away—like, literally running away. In the moment that she is going up on stage to accept a prestigious acting award, she runs away, dropping her shoe like Cinderella. Turns out, she became a stocky man. This is because she has a curse—when she turned twenty, she turned into a different person; and this has continued since: once a month, for about a week, she turns into a different person. The only two who know about it are her two friends, Yoo Woo Mi (Moon Ji In) and Ryu Eun Ho (Ahn Jae Hyun).
Then one day, Han Se Gye meets Seo Do Jae (Lee Min Ki), the Management(?) Director of T’way Airlines, which is a company that she models for. He strangely doesn’t realize who she is when he hands her his handkerchief. And so begins the maddening relationship between the two. We learn that Seo Do Jae has face blindness, or prosopagnosia (a word that I’ve seen for the past like two weeks but can’t remember for my life). He strangely calls Han Se Gye by her name even when she becomes a middle-aged lady. She eventually finds out his disorder, and eventually she tells him about her curse. And then, of course, the two fall in LUV. It’s really silly and cute, but also very meaningful.
A little change from the movie, in which it’s the male lead who has the curse instead of the female. Also in the movie, there IS no male lead, because the male character changes everyday., instead of for a week each month. So I think even if you’ve watched the movie, the drama will still be fairly different (although this is me saying it without having watched the movie.)
I watched the drama on Viki, and I don’t know if it was the subtitles or what, but the first few episodes and some of the events seemed a little choppy at first. I couldn’t understand the flow or would have to go to the previous episode to make sure I didn’t accidentally skip an episode. That being said, it wasn’t a dealbreaker, and I got used to it (or something changed) after a while.
In terms of characters: I LOVE HAN SE GYE. She’s sooo cool—regardless of what the tabloids say, she’s not rude (on purpose) and not scandalous at all. She kind-hearted and tough. I feel like every time she changes, she’s like an Avenger of sorts.Meanwhile, Seo Do Jae’s personality took me a while to warm up to. I KNOW that that’s just the character that Lee Min Ki has to play, but it was a little annoying: he was very cold and stiff. But you can see him warm up—sort of—over time. It’s just, he’s sooo formal (with his speech) and it seems strange to me.
Some of our other characters: Kang Sara is Seo Do Jae’s stepsister who leads a rival airline company? (that’s also under the same corporation?). She seems wicked-ish and cunning… Lee Da Hee does a good job with her character (and can we talk about how SHE’S SO TALL AND SKINNY??? No one reads this atm so I’m just sticking this in here and I may or may not be exaggerating, but can we talk about how she’s probably 1cm taller than me, and like 30 kilograms lighter than I am???? Although I would say she’s definitely TOO skinny and not body goals for me.
Also, Ryu Eun Ho, played by Ahn Jae Wook is a cute character, although I would say Ahn Jae Wook is not my type (appearance wise), but super cute @ him and Goo Hye Sun. Actually (just looked this up) I hadn’t heard of Blood (the drama that they starred in together). I think he looks better in that drama (rather than his priesthood hair…), and I want to watch the drama that started their relationship…!! (So many dramas to watch. I just looked it up to see if it looked too old to watch—so warning, DON’T look for clips on youtube because they’re all bad qual so they look mad old. On Viki, it looks fine. Also, oh! This is what Tiffany sang “Only One” for. I didn’t super like the song, but maybe I would if I watched the drama with it.) But anyhow, Eun Ho’s character is the super nice guy who accidentally leads people on, so if he were a real person, I’d probably fall for it. But in general, not digging the hair. :P
Kking Kkang is super cute too. (Doggo.)
Last comment for now though: I actually did slow down around episode 11-12 for some reason. I think not because it was getting boring but (sort of spoiler but not really) they were happy at this point, and I didn’t want their happiness to get broken by whatever or whomever, so I didn’t want to watch… But then when I finally continued watching, it was still so good and I cried more. SO JUST WATCH IT.
SPOILERS
(highlight below to read)
“Han Se Gye’s umma gets really sick.. I cried so much in those parts. And then.. SHE CHANGED WHILE HER MA WAS DYING… and passed away. Only at the end of the funeral did she become herself again.
Seo Do Jae’s family didn’t know that he had prosopagnosia. His competitors wanted to use that to bring him down but he told everyone himself. His stepsis ends up being super good and cool. Lee Da Hee is so cool.
The two mains sort of broke up—Han Se Gye ran away because she changed into an old man and she wasn’t changing back… And then she disappears for a while. AND SHE FINDS OUT THAT HE WAS THE ONE WHO SAVED HER WHEN SHE FIRST CHANGED. She was a grandma and she was so distraught and confused and about to get hit by a car, but then it was SEO DO JAE who pushed her away and hit his head… And caused his prosopagnosia. And after this, she left him because she couldn’t handle knowing that she was the one that caused him all this difficulty and stress and pain. But he said he was okay with it, but she ran away.
A year or so later, he comes back—he went to America (I think?) and got surgery to fix the prosopagnosia. So he can recognize people again!!
I cried when she finally understands and recognizes that what is happening to her isn’t a curse. She is starting to accept and realize that she can help other people when she’s not her own face. This moment of acceptance was so astounding to me, since I spent the whole drama thinking that she would someone find out the truth of why this started to happen to her, and it would be lifted (honestly, I thought she would meet her long lost dad who would end up being somehow responsible for this…). But instead, she doesn’t ever go back to “normal”. She accepts it. And acceptance is so powerful—and it was so unexpected, which made it only moreso.
I also cried at the montage at the end of the movie, because I was so happy for them.
Also, Han Se Gye totally owned Chae Yoo Ri—in an almost crazy way: Chae Yoo Ri becomes crazy paranoid.”
</spoilers>
OST/MUSIC
The OST is soo good! I think I really liked all the songs. But! I think they sort of revealed (?) the songs a little to fast. It seems like all of the main songs were played by the third episode… which is fine, but at the same time I do like slow reveal of songs :P. But there are a few newer songs towards the end, but I don’t think they’re aaaas good.
* Wendy (Red Velvet) - Goodbye
I actually listened to this song when it came out and I loved it. It actually reminds me a lot of Soyu’s “I Miss You” which was on Goblin OST. They’re both nice songs, pretty mellow.. And then their bridges are really pretty. They sound different but the change from the whole rest of the song in relation to the bridge feels the same… and I think the timing is also the same in the sense that you can sing one of them while listened to the other and they fall together almost perfectly…
* Davichi - 꿈처럼 내린 Falling in Love
This song is so nice! Davichi songs (don’t hate me for saying this, I love them!) always sound very similar… as in they’re all pretty and good. But I think this song is a little prettier than usual, and then it’s very emotional, especially paired in the drama (it played at all of the right parts).
* K.Will - 내 생에 아름다운 Beautiful Moment
I LOVE K.Will!! I also listened to this song when it came out, BUT actually, I didn’t love it at that time. I just listened to it once and I was like, it’s nice, but it’s not his best. I think this is the drama OST effect! When you watch the drama that a song comes out in, you associate it with the characters, plot, and feelings at the time, and them music adds to it. So I like the song a lot more now!
* Rothy - 구름 Cloud
I love Rothy! I first heard her song “Stars” back in January or February of this year? because I told Google Home to play K-indie, and “Stars” came on, and I loved it right away. I also went and listened to the rest of the songs that she had and I loved all of them! But when I heard this song I didn’t love it so much—because it wasn’t a ballad, so I just skimmed through it once and the end. But now that I hear it in the drama, it’s really cute.
OTHER COMMENTS
This drama unexpectedly became one of my favorites * - *
Seo Hyun Jin!!! I thought Hyun Jin seemed familiar but I didn’t realized it was the same one!! MILK! I didn’t particularly know her well, but in 2006, I romanized songs for the Korean Drama Hyena. Hyun Jin’s 0 ((look at that old school youtube resolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M10gsi2tMp4 ) and Super Junior - K.R.Y.’s songs were my faborite. (listen to it too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYOVGp6Xttk ) That’s mad crazy!! She’s such a good actress. This makes me want to go watch Another Oh Hae Young now, since she’s the main girl and Eric’s the main guy!!! ex-SM artist actors reunion?!
OVERALL
- Did I cry? YES T_T. Many many times.
- Should you watch it? If you couldn’t tell by reading the review, then I don’t know what to tell you. (YES.)
-huay