The Beauty Inside (2018)

"I won't be able to forget because you are the one who recognized me first."

Before going too deep into this review, I honestly think that this is one of the best rom-coms out there in Dramaland. Sure, it's got some of its flaws, and some storyline aspects were left unmentioned, but those are overlooked by what TBI has to offer.

Casting // Acting // Story
There honestly couldn't have been such a better cast- with Seo Hyun Jin brining Han Se Gye's character to life, whether it be happily in love with Seo Do Jae or facing angst because of past events long ago. Throughout the drama, Seo Hyun Jin demonstrated her capabilities as a top actress- there were some challenging emotional scenes that she needed to pull off, and I'm wondering how her tear ducts were able to handle all of it. Thankfully, the angst doesn't last long. Lee Min Ki on the other hand delivered his lines with a mostly deadpan expression, but through his eyes he conveyed all the emotions needed for someone who struggles with prosopagnosia. He could be cold in the beginning, but he shifts to someone who deeply cares for those he loves. To be honest, Kang Sara and Ryu Eun Ho felt like side character rather than main, and I wish that they too got some more screen time, but it was ok for what it was. Lee Tae Ri and Moon Ji in brought so much life to the scenes that they were in, whether it be Secretary Jeong's bromance with Seo Do Jae or Woo Mi being the best suportive friend for Han Se Gye.

I've seen a lot of people wondering about why Han Se Gye transforms, or what happens to the dads. Unfortunately, TBI never touches on these topics- in reality, although it would have been nice to understand contextually why these events happened, show used them as a placeholder to reflect on other themes. In the end, Han Se Gye realizes her transformations were an opportunity to help other people. She reflects on all the times she's helped others come to terms with their problems, with each transformation setting the stage for something else. We don't know if Han Se Gye would become a young child or an old man in the next, which makes each transformation a surprise. The cameo of Kim Min Seok was a really nice one, and it set the stage for all the future transformations to come. I also really liked how Seo Do Jae portrayed acceptance and love to what's truly on the inside, and not based off of the exterior alone. In one particular scene, it really touched me how Seo Do Jae promised Han Se Gye that he'd be with her, even with her current state as an old grandpa. TBI also portrays the difficulties between what happens behind the scenes in a Hallyu star's life, and I thought that it was done very well, with Han Se Gye running whenever she transforms and how she deals with the media afterwards. My only quip with the story was why did Ryu Eun Ho want to be a priest? It was never explained his origin (like the earlier two I mentioned), but unlike those, this serves no real purpose at all, except to create tensions between him and Sa Ra. Now TBI never has any true antagonists, except in Han Se Gye's rival hoobae actress Chae Yoo Ri. Such a trivial character, but I love the way Han Se Gye stood her ground and dealt with all of Chae Yoo Ri's shenanigans (the orange juice scene...damn girl!)

OSTS //
As for the OSTs, I really loved the tracks Falling in Love (Davichi), Beautiful Moment (K.Will), and Goodbye (Wendy). Maybe I'm just a sucker for ballad-y songs, but these songs hit differently whenever our characters felt poignant and angsty. It really set the mood for the scenes, and I loved how they didn't just overuse one song repeatedly for "sad scenes."

Overall //
As a rom-com, TBI feels familiar in all its aspects. There's no true antagonist constantly pining after our OTP's lives, but it didn't need it. It didn't need any major plot movers because the love between our leads was enough. As a viewer, I never thought it was slowpaced and boring- seeing the character developments between our OTP coming to terms with themselves and finding peace in each other was enough for me. One final thing, I also really liked how the show used the time to fully flush out the relationship of our OTP. Unlike other dramas that end immediately upon reunion (or shortly afterwards), TBI focuses on our characters' lives and gives good fanservice to what we can expect should the story continue on years into the future. The ending scene with all of Han Se Gye's transformations walking behind Han Se Gye herself towards Seo Do Jae's open arms in the end really set it for me: this is one of the best rom-coms in Dramaland.

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Understanding the story

I really luv the six people if u watched it 🙂
I want all six of them to act together again
especially I'm in luv with ep 13 nd 16
when u realise u have to submit a review of 500
💓💗💗💓💗💗💓💓💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💓💓💓💗💗💗💗💓💗💗💓💓💓💓💓💗💗💓💗💓💗💗💗💗💗💗💓💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💓💓💗💗💗💗💗💓💓💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

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Great concept but writers aren't good enough to execute it.

I think I liked this show?
I'm not sure if I do really hence the question mark lol
I think the ML had one expression through the whole thing. I can't tell when he's happy, sad, mad, nothing.
He looks like he's sleep walking or looking like an Asian vampire from twilight lol


FL is great and she got some decent range but the show said she's the most beautiful woman ever but the ML sister is definitely the prettiest on the show lol but whatever.

As for the story, it is not executed well.
It is very boring and not that interesting most of the time. Since the concept of changing doesn't really has any real plot or any reasons since she's usually herself before the episodes ended lol
Most they have done is just changed her into some random person and went on some side quests.
I think in hands of better writers and directors the whole concept would have worked better.
The finale was pretty good for the first 40 mns then it turned into a recap episode at the end.
So he's cured and she's gonna keep turning into random people people every week.
Romantic right? Lol
7/10 since i can't decide if I like this or not.
I think only few people are likeable in this show. 2 or 3 side characters.


Oh I didn't mention the ML sister much but since she was mean to his brother only because she didn't know about his condition
I hated her first but ended up liking her a lot. She had that no bs way of her.
That's it. This was just a side note lol

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Minha humilde opinião

eu gostei bastante da ideia desse dorama achei bem diferente de uns que eu assisti , eu não estava botando muita expectativa pq eu não me atraio muito pelo modo como ele atua do personagem masculino principal (Lee Min Ki) , eu ri bastante assistindo esse dorama e acho que o relacionamento deles vai acontecendo de um jeito muito natural o que é uma coisa boa pq tem muitos doramas que vocêfica cansado de assistir ou pq a historia não esta interessante ou quando tentam forçar um casal que não tem nada a ver , eu acho que a química desse dois atores foi bem melhor e mais confortável de assistir do que "Because This is My First Life" Onde tem o mesmo ator que esta nesse dorama e acho que ele não tem uma química boa com a atriz

Minha segunda resenha aqui <3

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Untunglah dramanya tidak terlalu mirip alurnya dengan filmnya.
Di sini lebih complicated dan lebih seru dibandingkan dengan film, konfliknya juga lebih jelas dan permasalahan gak cuma ada di cewenya saja

Seperti yang tertulis di sinopsis si cewe bisa berubah wajah ataupun badannya bahkan gendernya, sedangkan si cowo menderita masalah pengelihatan dimana dia tidak bisa mengenali wajah. Kalian bakal dibuat kasihan dgn masing-masing karakter krn permasalahannya itu. Tp di sisi lain kalian mungkin dapet bbrp makna dr drama ini yg memang sangat sesuai dgn kehidupan saat ini. Seperti biasa akting hyun jin unnie sudah terbilang bagus jadi gk perlu diragukan lagi. Akting min ki oppa juga bagus sii, mungkin d awal kalian bakal bilang dia b aja atau bahkan jelek tp lama" dia lumayan juga hahaha

Ceritanya sangat fresh dan sangat lucu. Awalnya ku kira chemistry mereka gak dapet trnyata lama-lama mereka unyu juga. Yg butuh drama romance ini sangat cocok sii. Selain itu ada bbrp scene yg bikin sedih bgt, mending siap" tisu saja bagi yang hatinya soft/suka nangis.

Untuk Ostnya cuma dikit tp sangat melekat bgt d memori, bakalan terngiang-ngiang di pikiran kalian setelah liat ini. Ost favku si punya bang K.Will (케이윌) - Beautiful moment (내 생에 아름다운)

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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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Story
In my opinion, the story itself is very rich, unique, and straightforward. The thing i noticed very much is there's no boring experience in the middle episodes like we usually do when the producers need to prolong the story just to fulfill 16 episodes. What i loved specially in this drama comes from how they package the proper ending. Hundreds of Korean dramas have amazing early episodes, very tense and rich middle episodes, but they have compressed the ending into one poor episode. In this drama you will feel absolutely different, the way they tell the ending is superb. There is nothing to complain from the story side.
Acting/Cast
It is no doubt what makes this drama 10/10 is Seo Hyun Jin. She has very natural acting in contrast to other actresses e.g. Jun Ji Hyun. The way she deliver the emotion, condition, and romance is absolutely top class. She is truly queen of melo-drama and you will know very best why she has that title in this drama. In addition to that, Lee Min Ki also suits the very role he needs to play. In this drama he is typical of cool and ignorant man that will change overtime. There is surely lots of drama using this plot, but he successfully role that to the viewer. For side casts, they also bringing their top class performance and i rarely see any flaw in the acting.
Music
This drama does not has lot of OST, but they all top rated. All the musics are very good, compatible, unique,a and rich. however i need to add another honor to Wendy Red Velvet, which has very developed singing technique combined with great song composition. The song she contribute in this drama named Goodbye, it is heart-touching sad song which suits really well in many situations in the drama. I absolutely love this drama's OST.
For the various instrumentals and backing song, i also enjoy them very much and hardly experienced bad things caused by the song. The songs really bring you deeper and deeper to the drama.
Rewatch Value
There is no doubt that this drama has all the potentials to be top drama in it's era. The characteristic of the drama itself, very light yet rich, makes it potentially high to be watched again sometimes. I myself gotten really high urge to watch it back just after the drama ended, signify the capability of this drama to bring people back watching it. High score is well earned in this category for this film.
Conclusion
Score of 10 is big thing. it Has such high of responsibility in giving both the score and review. the reason for that is i am definitely sure with all the odds, people will love this drama. That's all review from me, enjoy watching the film.

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What a year 2018 has been for kdrama, we had What's Wrong With Secretary Kim & 30 but 17 and now The Beauty Inside. TBI doesn't quite match up with the other 2, but it represents the same trend, doing away with tedious love triangles & instead using other tools to generate tension and I do love a good mystery... (even if everything is obvious about it on day2)

I felt that Lee Minky's acting was a bit off in this series, it was nowhere near as good, as it has been in This is my 1st Life. Still very decent ofc, just that he felt off here and there. I really liked the rest of the cast, especially Lee Dahee, she was really awesome here. Na Younghee is an "ajumma" actress I never liked before in any of the dramas I've seen her appearing in, but this time she was a good fit. The OST was fairly pleasant too, but not very memorable.

Now why am I not giving this 10/10? Well there are some issues. Probably this wasn't pre-produced, the way how they dealt with the rival actress's character was super strange, like the writers wanted to use her as a tool to mess everything up, but changed their minds half way. Episode 14, well this was really just a plain bad episode. I realize that they felt that a work labeled as "drama" needs to have drama in it, but oh man this was pretty badly executed in my opinion. For reference, Oh My Venus had an episode with the same writer intent, but it was SOO MUCH better in every way. Let's not even mention the time-skip part.. The assistant writers(interns?) responsible for product placements were definitely not very good, too obvious boys and girls..
There were some missed opportunities too. They could have done so much more with Segye's alter egos. I mean sure I liked it when she turned into a kid spending time with mom, but there could have been so much more. Remember how memorable Goblin's ghost stories were?

So yes, overall I was entertained, will watch it again someday. I hope that in 2019 we will have more dramas like this one.

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This drama will be on my "all time favorite" list, which means I could watch this drama many times over and not be tired of it. It was not a typical love story due to the fact of the unusual difficult challenges that both leads had to overcome but the drama really drove home the question to the audience of "Do we really love people for who they are on the inside or would we not love them if their outside appearance changed or if they had a disability? I loved the character of Seo Do Jae, who overcame his own fears and became an unstoppable, relentless love to Han Se Gye despite her unusual issues. Episode 11 was a scenic and demonstrative exposition of the most romantic gestures that I have ever seen in a Korean drama by a male lead character toward the female lead. You also have to understand the things that happened prior to episode 11 to understand how powerful this romantic rendezvous was including the things that he said and did for Han Se Gye.

Special recognition needs to be given to Seo Hyun Jin's ability to portray a woman who had multi-faceted sides and her ability to portray vulnerability on one hand and confidence (with great sassiness) on the other hand. It was quite a sight to see on screen and it made you fall in love with her character more and more.

I would recommend anyone who is thinking about watching this to take the plunge. Please do not try to compare this drama to the movie with the same title (also on Vicki). The story elements between the drama and the movie had some similarities but the narratives told were very different from each other. I liked the drama a little better than the movie because the story was different and the writers had more time to develop a deep and enduring love story between the two lead characters.

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One of the best Kdramas on Netflix USA

The Beauty Inside is a must-watch Kdrama on Netflix. I highly recommend it because it is not just a feel-good movie, but one with heart and empathy.

The director and scriptwriter were brilliant in making the 1st and 2nd episode so entertaining that I wanted to watch the next episode as soon as I get off work. Lee Min-Ki is indeed a versatile actor. I hope JTBC will give him more TV projects. I would love to see him again in another rom-com Kdrama with Seo Hyun-jin. They played their characters so well that it's hard not to be emphatic with these two. These two characters made me laugh for days. Who didn't laugh when Han Se-Gye and Seo Do-Jae were sharing their unsuccessful and fake dates? Who didn't cry when Seo Do-Jae revealed his fears to Han Se-Gye at the hospital? Who didn't laugh when Seo Do-Jae took Han Se-Gye's mom shopping?

I hope this Kdrama will be watched by more Netflix subscribers so it will stay on Netflix forever.


+

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It is better than my expectation for a romcom

Just completed this on xmas 2023, and it is better than my expectations for a romcom.
Consider this if you are looking for a drama to watch this year end - easy watch that has happy endings!

While the FL's disease/spell is far-fetched (the fantasy part), the cameos of her new identities convey meaningful messages on loving someone beyond outer appearance, dealing with unexpected happenings/ lemons in life, and embracing new identities to help others. There are heart-felt reflective moments in this romcom with a dash of fantasy.

Love the FL's performance and the exceptional friendship she have with her two buddies, and the romance of the second couple is predictably good - I kinda know and hope the second couple will get together and indeed they did.

Actually watched this drama for the ML Lee Min Ki, but was kinda disappointed. His deadpan look from Because This is My First Life (2017) seemed to have followed him in this drama. He was funny with that deadpan look in Behind Your Touch (2023), and while it was still convincing in First Life, it backfired in this drama, even though he is suffering from Prosopagnosia.

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