You're Beautiful (2009)
미남이시네요
Starring: Park Shinhye, Jang Keunsuk, Jung Yonghwa, Lee Honggi
Seen: Fall 2018
This drama became the first Korean drama I watched. I don't remember exactly when I saw it, but it couldn't have been far behind Meteor Garden. I loved the idea of a girl cross dressing. Of some reason, I felt like it was a kind of bold storyline. From the cultural interpretations I'd done along the way I'd gotten the impression that there was a big cap between girls and boys in the social society. I might be wrong, but that's the feeling I've got. I have several guy friends whom I love hanging out with and there's nothing weird or any restriction about being one on one with them. All my Korean friends are girls, but as far as I've understood they don't have a lot of guy friends. They have girl friends and then boyfriends. So I got very intrigued about this story and really wanted to see how they hide a girl in plain sight by just dressing her as a guy. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with a girl to prefering guy clothes or maybe a guy liking make up. You do you, honey! Rock it you way! I'm raised in a country where the culture of my generation is very open about different sexualities, genders, fashion senses and nobody pays too much attention to it. In Korean it's still considers out of the norm to anything but stereotypical ordinary and following lines of the social mindset as it's always been. I love this difference, I find it extremely interesting how it can be so different. I got curious about how they'd see the situation when finding out she's her and not her brother.
Storyline summary:
Ko Mi Nyeo (Gemma) has lived at an orphanage with her twin brother, Ko Mi Nam, since their dad died. Years later, Mi Nam becomes an idol and Mi Nyeo lives in a junior nun dorm to fulfill her dream of becoming a nun. Mi Nam succeeds with an audition to join the band A.N.Jell, but can't join right away because he has to leave for America to redo a plastic surgery. Thus, Mi Nyeo pretends to be her brother and joins the band A.N.Jell, in hope that her brother's fame could help with finding their mom whom they haven't seen since childhood. While portraying her brother Min Nyeo meets its members: the arrogant Hwang Tae Kyung, the kind Kang Shin Woo and the bubbly Jeremy.
In the beginning, Tae Kyung doesn't like Mi Nam joining the group and sets on making her life hard, while Shin Woo and Jeremy try to make friends with her. Eventually, Tae Kyung discovers that Mi Nam is a girl and threatens to reveal it, but Mi Nam manages to keep him from it. As time pass, Tae Kyung begins to develop feelings for Mi Nam. So does Shin Woo and Jeremy, even though Jeremy thinks Mi Nam is a boy. As Mi Nyeo struggles to hide her identity from being revealed while performing with A.N.JELL, she discovers her mom's past, which is somehow connected with Tae Kyung.
First impression:
This drama is full of clichés, and I'm not a very big fan of clichés. It's those clichés which make this show though, so I don't exactly hate them even if I don't quite like them either. Gemma's portrayal of her brother is very humorous, I cringed so much watching the crazy antics especially between Tae Kyung and Mi Nam but at the same time they could be quite sweet. Those two were constantly getting into awkward situations, and Mi Nam constantly needed rescuing. Gemma is very cute, shy and quite clueless to romantic feelings and when people are joking with her. I must have slapped my forhead every single time she did her pigs nose thing in belief that it'd keep her from liking Tae Kyung. Sigh.
Even though it’s not one of the most swoon worthy romances, it is quite cute and funny with some extremely heartfelt moments. It's got some angst too, which gave the storyline a little more dept but not too much. It might sound very strange of me to say, but one of the scenes which stuck with me was when Gemma found out her biological mom was dead and broke down crying. That was the peak angst, which was quite obvious but still very sad to watch. Perfect angst scene!
My biggest comment on this drama is that it was predictable. It was obvious that at some point Gemma's true identity would be discovered, it would be discovered by a guy and said guy would fall in love with her. Said guy in this show was the typical sweet guy, and the guy who typically would not get her. The "bad boy" would. That wasn't hard to figure out at first glance of the main male characters.
Cultural imput:
So far this is the oldest drama I've watched, and though the picture quality has improved a bit over time, I see no difference in quality of the actual dramas. All the dramas I've watched I've considered well made with interesting storylines. And that's where this drama began for me too - an interesting storyline. Of some reason it feels easier to kind of dismiss a show if it's old. You might not think it keeps up to standards you're more used to with up-to-date modern productions, but I saw the cover is not the book so open it up and take a look. It's a bit like if a book doesn't have a higher quality of a front cover (you know what I mean) you don't bother reading the synopsis when it might actually be a bound piece of gold. A lot of western movies or series who are older, maybe from my parents younger days, are so much better than you think when you first see the DVD case. Take Grease, Dirty Dancing, Top Gun, Cocktail and Rambo as examples. Do you know them? Maybe, maybe not or maybe you know a few. These are some of my "older" favorites, filmed in the 70-80's and they slam. Sure, this drama is from 2009 which even though it's more than a decade ago (but it feels like four years ago, I know) is quite "new" in comparison. In the K-drama world though, it's considered old and I hope it doesn't get forgotten just because if it's age. I don't know how popular it was in Korea when it came out or how popular it actually still is, but I can imagine it getting shadowed by a lot of the newer dramas - sadly.
This drama wasn't one that made much of an impression on me, at all. It was a bit funny but not one that left a mark of love on me.
Look forward to the next review! 안녕~
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