Korean Drama: 내 아이디는 강남미인 My ID is Gangnam Beauty (2019)
Genre: romance, school
Starring: Im Soo Hyang, Cha Eun Woo, Jo Woo Ri, Kwak Dong Yeon
Aired: July-September 2018
Watched: August 2019 on Viki
WATCHED IT BECAUSE...
I was guessing that this would be like True Beauty, the webtoon.
THE REVIEW
And it was, sort of. It was about a girl who in her childhood/early teen years was made fun of for being “ugly”. However, unlike the webtoon, our main character Kang Mi Rae (played by Im Soo Hyang) got surgery before starting college. Like a complete face transformation to the point where she was unrecognizable by even the people closest to her. Oh. Okay.
Apparently this drama (quotingish from wikipedia) is one of the highest-rated cable dramas ever, and it’s received praise for its portrayal of social issues in Korea revolving around beauty standards and superficiality. Okay, well, let’s take a step back and think about the meaning of ratings—because actually I never really questioned “ratings” before. But ratings aren’t the type of ratings we think of like, say, rottentomatoes ratings… They’re more like % viewership. So who’s to say that the people who watched it weren’t like me: wanting to know what happens, but also wanting to fast forward to the end.
So I found myself trying to figure out Im Soo Hyang’s face, whether she got plastic surgery or not. I think this distracted me from the drama, if ever-so-slightly. I think it’s the way they did her makeup… (I didn’t do this till now (like 3 months later while I’m watching Graceful Family) So if you look at pictures of Im Soo Hyang when she was younger, she basically looks the same. People said that she has said she got her nose done.)
The other thing was, I wasn’t really into Cha Eun Woo’s character. I feel like the goal of the main guy should be to win me over (as in make me become your fangirl HEHEE), and the goal of the main girl is to make me cheer for her. I don’t feel like either of our protagonists really did that. But on the other hand, the antagonists did a great job because I hated them so much because they were so messed up. And I want to say that they’re just characters… but could people in Korea really really be like this? This definitely wouldn’t happen to people in America, since universities are arranged differently (e.g., majors aren’t as tightly knit clubs; no sunbae-respect or die rules... so ridiculous; and for the most part… who the heck cares if you got so much plastic surgery; do you really need to chase down people’s high school yearbooks?? If they’re a good person, then what do you want?). (Sorry, that latter bit isn’t really so much about how unis are arranged, but rather a value judgment. But so be it. It’s so ridiculous and I think that’s what made watching some of these scenes so almost-unbearable. People need to just get over it.) (Sorry that could be taken as an aggressive statement, but to burn bridges and make someone feel so worthless because of how they look is just not something that should be the most important thing in your life. And actually, now that we get here, this becomes a huge problem, because people know how bad netizens and cyber bullies can be. Some of the characters in this drama were like that, but in real life, which is just as bad, if not more.)
Anyway. So that’s that rant. Alsooo, Im Soo Hyang is MY age and she played someone that was a freshman in college (aka that was 10 years ago last year…) and Cha Eun Woo is 7 years younger, AND LOOKS LIKE A KID, so maybe that’s also part of what made me not love them together. And Cha Eun Woo’s Do Kyung Seok…. Maybe it was just the way the character was written?-I guess I could see like cool, suave, brooding guy in a manhwa…. But moving around in a drama made him sort of bleh.
Yes, all in all there were important lessons, but it was just so dramatic and unnecessary—just let her be, for heavens sake.
Oh, I did want to add that the side friend characters are really cute. Particularly Mi Rae’s friend, Oh Hyun Jung (Min Do Hee) was super cute. Good that there are people who are genuinely nice people.
SPOILERS
(highlight below to read)
“We never find out what the young Mi Rae looked like—which is nice because to have to play a character that was supposed to be SUPER UGLY… That’s so mean.
I’m writing this review at the beginning of November, and I honestly forgot most of the stuff already. It was not memorable. Let’s look around and see what I can recall.
Jo Woo Ri as Hyun Soo Ah is so evil. She’s NOT that pretty. Which is fine, but let’s even say that she’s the prettiest person in the world—what she does to bring Mi Rae down is so so ugly. She’s such a dumb person. Trying to find the person who rejected Mi Rae in high school or whatever. Trying to do stuff with Kim Chan Woo. Ugh he was disgusting too, trying to sexually assault her. Like all these people are messed up -—_—-. Oh theres another upperclassmen who was a little plump, but she was dating this guy in secret, but Soo Ah didn’t want any guy to like anyone who wasn’t her basically, so she hit on that guy too, making him think that she was interested in him—and he dumped the other girl. So bad. So so bad. So disappointing.
Kwak Dong Yeon as Yeon Woo Young is super cute. Although wut. He’s a TA hitting on a freshman. Um. Like FOR ME, if I was in that drama, he would be so <3. But he’s a GRAD STUDENT TA. HEH-LO. As a grad student and TA, there are so many things that are wrong with that. Let’s not even go there.
Oh the other people in the major are pretty cute too. They all have their own little scenes. Oh right, so Kyung Seok and his sister haven’t talked with their mom, Na Hye Sung in a long time. When they were young, she went crazy and abandoned them. Or so they think. Mi Rae meets Na Hye Sung and at first we think it’s just because she’s the CEO or whatever of a perfume company (Atelier cologne!? hahaha) and Mi Rae wants to do fragrance stuff too (Chem major, remember!). Later, we learn that the two have actually met before: Mi Rae almost jumped off a bridge when she was young because she was so bullied; and his mom actually saved her.
And the huge thing is-Kyung Seok’s ma didn’t abandon them at all. I can’t remember why exactly, but their dad was abusive, and he like smacked her in the face, damaging her Olfactory nerve. And she does things with PERFUME. And she lost her sense of SMELL. So sad.
Btw—Mi Rae’s plastic surgery was a gift from her umma; and actually her appa didn’t see her… until it was like parents day or something in college, and he was so angry at them both when he discovered that Mi Rae’s face changed completely. Poor papa.
Um. I can’t remember what else. I’m getting some dramas mixed up in my head. But yeah. The end.”
</spoilers>
OST/MUSIC
Overall, the OST is cute. I don’t think anything was SUPER stand out for me (I didn’t download any songs and put them on my phone right away…)
*진민호 Jin Min Ho - Always You
But actually this song is really nice. Maybe I should put this on my phone after all.
OVERALL
- Did I cry? No.
- Should you watch it? Now looking back at this post, I guess that there are good discussions that can come out of this drama… But it’s stll not the most exciting drama… So, nah, there are other dramas that you should definitely watch first.
-huay