She Was Pretty (2015)

Moderately enjoyable but almost too flawed to forgive

This drama was somewhat enjoyable, but that enjoyment is marred by almost unforgivable flaws, as follows:

1. The FL's acting just grated on my nerves. I don't understand why she had to overact and shout so loudly and gesticulate so violently all the time. I guess that was her version of "funny and dorky," but it just felt horribly irritating, especially in the first few episodes. She just was too over-the-top. I think overacting is an understatement.
2. She actually looked better with her frizzy hair and freckles than when she was made over (the makeover made her look noona-ish) and yet the drama implied she was somehow not being her best self in the earlier parts just because she wasn't into makeup and fashion. Not all girls are girly in that way, and it's fine. It's fine too that she decided to put on makeup later on, but I didn't like the way she suddenly became quieter and more ladylike. It seemed too unnatural and made me feel even more emotionally distant from her.
3. There are too many frustrating communication problems. I couldn't count how many times the characters (especially the horrible friend) had something very important to say and were like, oh, I shouldn't tell him/her now because she's not in the best of moods. If something is that important and you know your not telling the truth will just end up hurting people, you need to tell the truth ASAP. Maybe try to talk to them so their mood shifts and they calm down, and then tell them. You don't drag it on for days and weeks. I get though that she may have only been using that as an excuse to not tell him the truth. Pretty stupid, considering she must have known she couldn't hide that truth forever.
4. The second male lead is just too charming, fun, flamboyant and cute that he easily overshadows the main lead, whose character is stiff, boring and unlikable. IMO, this is the main flaw. The kdrama romcom experience is so much better when you actually fall in love with the main lead for the space of 16 episodes. Sadly, that's difficult to accomplish here because of the way the character was written. Or is it PSJ? I really enjoyed him in Fight My Way, but I think that was the only drama of his I liked. In Hwarang, he was, IMO, again overshadowed by Hyung Sik. In Hwarang too, and in his other roles, his characters tend to be a bit boring and a bit stiff. Just IMO. But nowhere is that emphasized more than in this drama. The second male lead definitely stole this show. He had a funny persona but you could tell, in certain moments, that he had great sensitivity and depth. The actor played the character really well. You can see the fleeting moments of sadness in his eyes when no one is looking. His character was just so much more interesting.
5. My main beef: how the male lead was obviously obsessed with his childhood friend, and the drama seems to think it's cute. Like how many grown-ass adults do you know who are still pining over their childhood crushes? And let's face it. That was all it was -- puppy love/a baby crush. Everyone had a childhood crush, but what healthy person actually clings to that without developing other healthy relationships as they go through life? Everyone outgrows those crushes. Yes, you may eventually reconnect and might fall in love, but to draw a straight line from what you felt when you were virtually a baby to what you feel as a grown adult man is just not right. And to actually keep mementoes of your childhood crush in a glass case? That is almost creepy IMO. Like how can that be cute??? And it all points back to that Korean obsession with children falling in love, which oftentimes has an incestuous twist. They not only strongly correlate it with being "destined to be together" but they also obviously find it super cute. Anyway, why can't two strangers meet, jive and fall in love, without ever having met ever in childhood? In kdrama that is not allowed. If you didn't meet as children or babies, that means you were never meant for each other LOL. Anyway, this obsession with his past would've been something I would forgive easily if the main lead was more likable. It just annoyed me, but could have been easily forgivable in the context of kdramaland. It just was more annoying here because of the way the main character was written.

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Only for anyone who likes cheese and fluff

She Was Pretty was a disappointment to me. IMO there simply wasn't enough of a story to push this for 16 episodes. The subplots were weird, rushed and made absolutely no impact to the main story. The main story itself was annoying because Ji Sung Joon treated Hye Jin like trash. It just goes to show that he respects people only if they've done anything for him. He liked her only because of what she had done for him and not because of the person she had become. It is understandable that he got frustrated with her because she resembled a childhood friend he absolutely adored and was mean to her because he thought that they couldn't possibly be the same person. It was a coping mechanism and was acceptable enough. But he never apologized. And Hye Jin seemed to forgive him way too easily. I disliked this series mostly because of the random subplot and slow pace of the story with Ji Sung Joon's unapologetic character.

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Waste of time

Plot: A story of a clumsy and pushover heroine who is meeting with her first childhood love but decided to hide because she’s not confident with her current self. I didn’t expect much because the story line sounds like a cliché already so I was just hoping it would be entertaining at least, however, it was more annoying even though I tried being patient for any character development.

Acting: Terrible acting from the female lead. She tried too hard to be the stupid, doormat type and that made me dislike her character. Even so, I kept watching because characters tend to improve over time, however, nothing happened whatsoever. She was still the old, immature version of herself who just ‘realized’ her dream at the end. They tried injecting random act of kindness from her but it still looked pretentious or unnatural by the way her character was written or shown. Despite that, other characters did good or at least were more convincing and tolerable than the heroine.

Music: I only like one song and the rest were not memorable. Not too much sound effects too.

Rewatch value: Definitely 0. No highlights worth rewatching as my eyes kept on rolling from the over the top acting of the heroine. She wasn’t ugly physically but her attitude was. Her mouth says something but her actions are different. I could also count the times I laughed or found something funny with one hand.

Overall: If you love Park Seo Jeon as much I do, I suggest to skip this. Despite him looking sexy and charming, the overall feeling of the drama isn’t enough for me to recommend it. I felt like I wasted my 1 day of watching this. I’m just glad this wasn’t my first PSJ drama because I probably wouldn’t appreciate him here. He did good in creating chemistry with her but it was still lacking. Their relationship and dialogues were too shallow and the only line that made more sense said by the female lead was her ending monologue.

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She Was Pretty is a drama that is adressed to rom-com fans, and especially those people who like comedy along with a light-hearted story.

STORY
The main meaning of the drama wants you to believe in yourself, as it talks about 'main characters' and 'supporting characters' in real life. It doesn't matter how you look, or what your dreams are, believe in yourself, believe you can be happy, believe you deserve it, believe you can get your dream job, believe you can get your dream guy/girl, just believe and fight, and you will be rewarded. Don't let yourself in the backround, being a 'supporting character' in other people's lives because, maybe, on the outside you don't shine as much as others, you are as important as they are!

The drama has a very cute feel and it is a great feel-good drama, but when it comes to the actual story it lacks severely. The base concept is interesting, it takes a totally different approach to identity change (two best friends change names because the main lead is ashamed to show herself to a friend she hasn't seen in years) and it was fresh but it gets dragged and repetitive fast tbh.

The drama is completely a rom-com, and basically has 2 things to offer.
1. Comedy. The comedy was on point, delivered solely from Hwang Jung Eum and Choi Siwon.

2. Ships. The writters played a lot around with the ships, made us root for everybody and ship everyone with everyone (even though the end game was apparent from the beginning).

However, the drama doesn't have anything else to give story-wise. There is no real backstory here, no big revealings, nothing to drive the characters or give them depth, just the ships. The backround of the show is developed in a workplace of a huge fictional fashion magazine, so you fashion lovers have one more thing to look forward to watching!

The drama started very promising, but it quickly gets dragged with cute, funny but stupid (a lot of the times) situations to bring the characters together (or tear them apart), a lot of uninteresting for me office drama, and a lot of the times i felt many many things were used conviniently just to fill 16 episodes (especially during the last 4 episodes). I do believe the story could have worked better as a movie or as a 10/12 episode drama.

ACTING
The acting was, overall, great, but due to the light-hearted nature of the show the actors didn't get the chance to shine or express what they can really do.

Hwang Jung Eum. The woman can act, she has established that. She wasn't bad here, she didn't overact too much, but she did overdo it at times. It is obvious that she likes comedy more than other genres but i would definately encourage her to go back to melodramas since they suit her more.

Go Joon Hee was my favourite, if only her character would have been given more proper attention... She did great nonetheless.

Choi Siwon was amazing and arguably the best character of the show. The actor did a great job and he has charm. He executed all his comedy scenes flawlessly, and he made us all fall for him!

RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Since the majority of kdrama fans are rom-com fans i can totally understand the hype of this drama, even if i wouldn't really agree. So, i would most definately recommend this to anyone who likes rom/coms with emphasis on the comedy part. However, if you like your dramas a bit more... deep, or dramatic, or real, you won't really enjoy this as much as everyone else, i talk from experience.

I can also totally understand why someone would rewatch this, it was funny, but i wouldn't.

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THE STORY COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER!!

I was actually pretty excited to watch this drama since its about a childhood crush but later on the storyline I was really disappointed. The story could've been better if they matched Mr. Kim and Kim Hye-jin and it would be a major plot line. I was really devastated because Mr. Kim and Kim Hye-jin had that chemistry, they look fun together, and they were happy. I wouldn't really recommend watching this series cause I know you will be hurt cause literally I was crying when Mr. Kim said "Don't go Jackson:'‹" and clearly Sung-joon was really harsh in the beginning to the point you curse him.

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She was pretty but that was NEVER the point

Okay, maybe that was the point in the first episode, but then it was not. I am a HUGE PSJ fan. I love love love him, he is the undeniable king of romantic comedy BUT, this drama was more of a miss for me. His character is cruel, hypocrite and even an elitist. The ML was a very unlikable character, the FL was the quintessential self sacrificing heroine. I was not a big fan of her caricature character and predictable journey of ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan. I think there was a little redemption for me towards the end when she accepted her true self. She wasn't ugly, she was just broke

At some point, I thought that the FL and the SFL had a wonderful friendship, but boy I even did not get that. I do have major Second lead syndrome after watching this show. Siwon was delightful at times except when he was not ( his character was a certified lunatic).

The OST was not memorable, the production was decent, how it tends to be for newer shows. The story was dragged and maybe the last 6 episodes we not required. The side characters were not very memorable, but there were some good moments with them.

My takeaway from this show is the Siwon could be a great ML, he overshadowed PSJ at times and THAT is saying something as a PSJ fan.

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I have just finished this drama and in two minds about it. Part of me LOVED IT! The other part eh... it was ok. However having said that if you love Kdrama romances don't pass this one by and here is why...

The story was predictable and as clichéd as you would expect from a Korean Rom-com but I'm not complaining about that, sometimes it is nice to know what your getting yourself into.
The problem I had with it was the story wasn't rounded enough to be believable. For example why would Hye Jin's character change so very much from the time she was about 10 to grown adult, and I am sorry but being broke is not enough of a reason to lose all femininity and wear ill fitting clothes!
That said they really got it right when it came to friendships particularly between Ha Ri and Hye Jin . It was so nice to see an adult female friendship that includes love and caring and petty jealousy and arguments and isn't broken by it. I also loved the budding bromance between Ji Sung Joon and Kim Shin Hyuk.

What I really loved about this drama was the cast and their acting! All of them gave stellar performances from side characters to the main leads. Yes some were over the top in 'THE Most' way possible. But they were the reason I kept watching.
Park Seo Joon does puppy love in the most adorable way and Hwang Jung Eum truly has scatterbrained down to a fine art, but Choi Si-won really did steel every scene that he was in, he was wonderful to watch and I would certainly watch if they did a spin-off on his character.

The music was suitably catchy and I would probably re-watch certain scenes if not the whole thing.
I would say give this a go and watch at least the first 3 episodes before deciding whether or not to give it up.
Happy viewing

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Story: It was fine. I had a really hard time starting it, and actually put it down two or three times before really watching it. That should have been a warning that something was going to be up. The start is pretty challenging just to get over the premise and how skeevy the characters are. But it found the groove pretty quickly and I started to really enjoy it. The turning point actually brought about the downfall of the show, since the writer couldn't quite figure out how to keep the tension in the story once everyone knows everything. Which meant the ending had all of the filler flashback montages, and was just a tragedy.

Characters/Acting: I will eventually like Hwang Jung Eum's acting. I will. I keep watching things she's in and I want to like her (I think she has a great look), but I am not a fan of the flamboyant over-acting I keep associating with her. It definitely fits the characters she's playing, but I wish was a little bit less funny faces and shouting. Mostly the shouting. Her character was fun and lively, and I really appreciated how positive her character was. Park Seo Joon was great as always, and my only complaint was that I actually liked his hair more in Kill Me, Heal Me (and I can't stand the parted hair in the middle). His character was annoyingly hot/cold in the beginning, and I appreciated how he mellowed out as the story progressed. Now about Si Won... oh Si Won how I wanted to love you. I actually kinda did, but there was something very annoying about his character as second lead I had a hard time getting behind. Maybe he was just a little bit too silly, or a little bit too tough on Kim Hye Jin, but I was sadly not pro Si Won. Which is a tragedy. We should always be behind Si Won. The BFF was good, and I definitely didn't hate her. I was actually really sympathetic to her and the position she'd been put in. Special shout out to Jung Da Bin, who is becoming my favorite child actor ever. I look forward to more from her.

Overall: Again, it was fine. I'm not saying don't watch it, but if you've got something else on your list I'd go with that first. Like every time. If you're in it for the leads, watch Kill Me, Heal Me instead. The camaraderie is much better, and it has Ji Sung.

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ok so after being constantly harassed by my younger sister to watch this drama i finally gave in and watch it.

Dear lord was i glad i did! i loved everything about this drama. the cast were wonderful, you totally crush on both male leads, the relationship between the female leads is just so adorable too. it just makes you want to fall in love all over again lol. i also liked the fact that the female lead showed that it's best to feel comfortable with the way you look and if you want to change yourself then make sure its for you and not anyone else. (at least that's the feeling i was getting)

if you want something to just cheer you up and de-stress you, then this is a must watch.

i don't really do long reviews lol but for a first time i believe this is a good start!

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Some dramas start off with a punch to the feels, keep you there for an episode or two, and then taper off somewhere into the overdone and dull. Other dramas start off mediocre and gain momentum as they go. For me, She Was Pretty started off annoying as all heck, gradually improved, annoyed me again, and then finished off with one of the most satisfying endings of any drama.

Hye Jin is a typical over-the-top, blundering female lead: jobless, frazzled, and quirky. Usually, I can sympathise with those types and find their clumsy approach comedic, but something about Hye Jin just drove me nuts. Before I'd even finished Episode Two, her dramatics had almost made me quit the whole thing. I'm glad she improves throughout the course of the drama, and I suppose that's more realistic than having her suddenly change into a fashion-savvy bombshell overnight. But it was really frustrating for me until her amazing best friend, Ha Ri talked some sense into her about making an effort.

Let's talk best friendship, now. One of the best parts of this drama was the closer-than-a-sister relationship Hye Jin and Ha Ri had, despite the huge secret Ha Ri ends up keeping that threatens to ruin their friendship at one point. It was played off so realistically it hurt my heart., and I loved so much seeing a solid girl-best-friendship in a drama, rather than the stab-you-in-the-back evil wench syndrome like most have.

Now, the side guy. I'm sorry, but Kim Shin Hyeok annoyed me through the whole drama even more than Hye Jin at the beginning. Maybe I can see how some people find jokesters like that endearing, but I just find them obnoxious and cowardly. When no one can take a word you say seriously, and you get your kicks by making people buy you things and mocking everyone around you, I don't think that's cute, that's just being a stupid jerk. I usually fall for the side guy, and hardly ever do I fail to sympathise with them. Not this time. This time, I couldn't wait for him to get out of the scene and go away. I've known too many people in real life situations who behave like that, and you can call it cute and fun in a drama, but when you're dealing with it firsthand, trust me, it gets really old, really fast.

Thankfully, he wasn't enough of a presence to ruin the drama, though! And Ji Seong Jun was so utterly adorable as a fat kid, and as a man in love, that I think he made the whole drama.

The ending, as I said, was amazing. I'm a big fan of prolonged happy endings, and the final episode gave plenty of closure, happy wrap-ups, and scenes to make you cringe from the cuteness. My favourite! So although I was ready to quit this drama early on, I'm glad I stuck it out, because it's one of my favourite last few episodes of any drama in the rom-com genre.

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