Shadow Beauty (2021)

Le culte de l'apparence...

Ce petit Web-drama m’a intriguée de par la noirceur de son affiche… (Et oui, il me suffit d’un rien parfois ^^’) & le petit speech parlant d’une influenceuse a fini de me convaincre.

Parlons des points clés de l’histoire :
► Le harcèlement scolaire : Cette histoire comme beaucoup du genre scolaire, nous conte la vie de divers personnes qui vivent du harcèlement scolaire… (Psychologique mais également physique) & comme souvent dans ce cas, personne n’intervient. (À croire qu’il s’agit d’une norme… Enfin qui sait après tout, c’est pareil en Europe ^^’)
► Le culte de l’apparence : Ce drama nous montre comment une jeune fille assez « banale » devient « Genie » une beauté influençant les masses… (J’avoue avoir du mal à comprendre l’intérêt, d’autant plus qu’elle se cache & culpabilise…) On peut voir sa descente aux enfers lorsque son secret est prêt à être exposé mais également sa volonté de finalement vivre en étant elle-même.

Après autant d’années à regarder des séries asiatiques… Je vois bien l’ancrage de l’idéal de beauté en Asie. Il est difficile d’y réchapper… & la présence de stars passant sous le bistouri pour rentrer dans ce moule n’aide certainement pas… (On peut même dire qu’à force, les stars se ressemblent énormément…)
D’ailleurs, je pense qu’à l’heure d’aujourd’hui, tout le monde connait la mode des « influenceurs » (rentrant eux-mêmes dans ce moule…) qui résulte souvent de télé-réalité.
[Petite parenthèse : En quoi constitue le rôle d’un influenceur ? Vendre son « image » en étant sponsorisé afin de mettre en avant divers produits… (Je ne raffole pas vraiment de cette tendance mais bon, chacun pense ce qu’il veut ^^’)]

En conclusion, ce drama n’a pas de grands mystères & la finalité n’est pas réellement inattendue ^^ (Il n’y avait que deux possibilités de toute façon x’D) mais les thématiques de l’acceptation de soi ainsi que celle des influenceurs sont assez intéressantes que pour donner envie de voir cette histoire. Je regrette néanmoins qu’on ait mis une dimension « troubles mentaux » dans ce web-drama… Cela n’apporte rien à l’histoire & donnerai presque l’image que l’adolescence = la folie !

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Quand la beauté physique se confronte à la beauté du cœur

Si vous êtes dans un mauvais état d'esprit, moralement fragile ou ultra-sensible, Shadow Beauty n'est pas pour vous. Ce n'est pas un drama qu'on regarde pour se détendre. D'ailleurs ce n'est pas pour rien qu'il est classé pour les plus de 15 ans. Sa cruauté morale pourra en affecter plus d'un.

Le drame pointe deux sujets qui ont une place assez importante dans nos vies actuelles.
Le premier, le harcèlement scolaire. Ces dernières années on relate de plus en plus de victimes. D'une petite injure à une simple bousculade, cela peut prendre des proportions énormes au point d'aller jusqu'à l'irréparable. C'est un « phénomène » tristement courant en Asie, dont la Corée du Sud. Si vous suivez un peu l'actualité ou même des artistes de l'industrie du divertissement, alors vous n'ignorez probablement pas les acteurs, idoles et autres qui étaient victimes ou bourreaux.
Si une majorité des dramas traitant du genre ne font qu'effleurer les scènes, Shadow Beauty nous montre une majeure partie d'entre-elles. Ce qui choque le plus à mes yeux reste le fait que personne ne vient en aide à Ae Jin. La preuve étant qu'une personne harcelée est presque normale.

Le second point, c'est évidemment la culture de la beauté. Lorsqu'on pense à la Corée du Sud (et même l'Asie en général), on ne peut s'empêcher de voir de belles apparences. Pourtant, la beauté n'est-elle pas suggestive ? Comme le mentionne Miyu dans son commentaire, je regarde également des dramas dupuis des années, il est évident que la beauté est devenue une obsession. Les maquillages parfaits, les peaux parfaitement lisses au point que cela enlève tout le naturel.
Pourtant qui a décidé qu'un tel était beau et qu'un tel ne l'était pas ? Qui a décidé que "ceci" était la norme en beauté ?
Cela fait le lien avec Ae Jin qui devient Genie sur les réseaux sociaux. Une personne complètement différente au point que cette personne n'existe physiquement pas. Mais elle devient populaire parce qu'elle est « socialement » belle aux yeux de la société. Cela remet également en avant le fait que ce qu'on trouve sur les réseaux sociaux n'est pas la vérité.

Plus globalement, certaines zones m'ont laissé dans une épaisse fumée. Je n'ai pas compris certaines directions ni scènes. Quant à la romance, elle n'avait pas d'intérêt à mes yeux. Cela ne m'a pas empêché de continuer à regarder. Je ne m'en souciais juste pas.
Ce qui m'a le plus séduite reste le jeu d'acteur et la réalisation. Le scénario est vide devenu secondaire. J'étais comme fascinée par la réalisation que j'ai trouvé d'une froideur réelle et parfaitement adaptée au genre. C'était comme se faire lentement avaler par une lumière qui est bien plus sombre que les ténèbres.

Côté casting, rien à redire. Shim Dal Gi livre une performance parfaite. Son personnage est touchant et on ressent une profonde affection pour elle. On veut lui tendre la main et l'aider, pourtant on assiste impuissants à son enfer.
Choi Bo Min des Golden Child était bon également bien que certains aspects de son personnage m'échappent.
Quant à Hong Seok de Pentagon, il confirme à mes yeux son bon goût dans l'acting.

Shadow Beauty porte bien son titre.
Cependant à ne pas oublier que la beauté physique ne reste qu'une image qu'on projette. Elle ne pourra jamais égaliser la beauté du cœur.

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A werid but unique experience

_____Story_____
Pros: The plot was unique, and so were the characters. The portrayal of people's internal conflicts astounded me. Ae Jin was so helpless at school that she pretended to be someone other than herself most of the time. She found pleasure in her second identity that she couldn't find in herself. The plot moved quickly, and the way things were revealed was intriguing.
Cons: The beginning was a lot of fun, but by the time we got to the middle, the drama had sunk. I won't say why because doing so would be a spoiler.
I really liked the idea that this drama was attempting to convey.

______Acting_____
Shim Dal Gi (Koo Ae Jin) and Choi Bo Min performed admirably (Kim Ho In). Dal Gi's performance as Ae Jin was superb, and Bo Min was successful in giving Ho In a psycho yet attractive vibe. He made a favourable first impression on me, and I was encouraged to watch his other dramas. The one flaw in Dal Gi's acting was that she exaggerated her performance. But, at times, I felt it was necessary because she was behaving like a mentally ill person.

_____Rewatch Value_____
The main reason why the rewatch value for this drama is high is because of the amount of episodes and its duration.

______Overall______
Shadow Beauty is neither a good nor a bad web series on the whole. This drama has its own set of weak and strong points. Some may enjoy it, while others may not. It all depends on how you look at it. Personally, I enjoyed it. I won't say it's a must-watch, but it's definitely worth watching, and I recommend it to everyone who reads this.

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This drama was like an explosion

The time an explosion happens, what you see from afar is impressive, you are shocked, surprised and curious at the same time. You wonder and you come closer, what you finally see is ruins.

That was the feeling Shadow Beauty gave me. At first, I was really impressed and shocked about how good, thrilling and well executed the story was. But as the episodes were passing through, this first impression slowly faded away.

Shadow Beauty is a web-drama of 13 episodes. The pace of the drama is pretty fast and the small duration of the episodes make the drama very easy to binge-watch.

Although it’s a psychological thriller, it’s a light-watch drama that can be watched by everyone who likes this genre. The drama is somehow thrilling and it keeps its tension till the end but also, the level of frustration is also growing up little by little as the episodes are passing. Romance is also one of the main genres of the story, but the drama isn’t Romance-centered as the romantical relationships aren’t fully explored.

As far as the technical part of the drama is concerned, both the production team and the majority of actors did a pretty good job. What I especially like about the production was the drama’s direction and montage, combined with on-point music which wasn’t unfortunately something memorable but it works well in the building of the drama's tension.

It has to be mentioned that this was the time Shin Dai Gi played the main lead in a drama and she was stunning, I hope we will see her in more main roles from now on. Shadow Beauty was also the first drama as a main lead for Choi Bo Min and the first time I saw him in general and he left me a good first impression.


~~~The webtoon~~~


Shadow Beauty is based on a webtoon by the same name written by Ahum. The webtoon is completed and it consists of 100 main episodes and 25 special episodes. The English translation is still ongoing and until now (December 29th 2021) 78 episodes have been released. The story is about Koo Ae Jin, a girl who has built a fake social media persona called “Genie” and she is basically living a double life.

As I said before, I was very excited and pleased with the first episodes of the drama. Then a certain thing happened that bothered me so I decided to read the original story. Guess what happened, the thing that disturb me wasn’t part of the original story.

I kept reading as well as watching the drama and now that I have finished both (I’ve read until the last published chapter of English translation), let me say the negative (for me) parts of the drama while doing a comparison with the webtoon at the same time (which is spoiler free so don’t worry).


The coherence


The episodes were very few compared to the episodes of the webtoon. To fill the whole story in only 13 episodes a lot of parts were cut and the story was limited. The original story is about Koo Ae Jin’s life in general and not only her school years which the drama contains.

As the drama only focuses on Koo Ae Jin’s school years, it is only logical for the drama writers to change some things and create their own ending of the story. This for me was a disadvantage because by limiting and editing the story, the storytelling ends up becoming incoherent and rough at some parts.

Also, by changing the story, what the author has in mind and the purpose behind the situations fails to be delivered. The story’s main purpose is the Koo Ae Jin’s secret identity and how she will keep it secret when in the webtoon this isn’t the case.


The characters and their relationships


One of the biggest mistakes was the alteration of the characters but also the alteration of the relations between them. My main problem here was the relationship between Koo Ae Jin and Yang Ha Neul which can be described with one phrase as “a hot mess”. Something quite curious that happened between them isn’t part of the original story so it was just something the drama writers came up with to create more drama in the story. This certain thing though makes Yang Ha Neul twisted to the point that her character’s writing seems weak.

Unlike the webtoon, the drama builds villain/s which Koo Ae Jin conflicts with and that makes the drama another ordinary drama despite the story’s attempts to break the norm. In the webtoon, the characters are mostly gray with their own wounds and mistakes that determine them. During the webtoon’s episodes, you see the characters mature, learn from their mistakes or shrink because of them. The drama didn’t completely fail to show this side of the characters but it didn’t succeed either.

In the webtoon, the main reason why Koo Ae Jin and her backstory are revealed in the early episodes, in the drama this is done at the end of it. This was bad because in the drama, the background of all the other main characters was explored before hers and made somehow the story unfocused on her.


~~~Overall~~~

Generally speaking, Shadow Beauty wasn’t a bad web drama, it was a regular school story with some thrill elements and some quite interesting parts. The finale of the drama is decent and the message that drama wants to get cross is very well delivered. I wish I could have rated this drama higher, but knowing the original story and how it failed to deliver its uniqueness I couldn’t do it.

Shadow Beauty is a story about people who are fighting everyday and conflict with themselves so they can mature, overcome their insecurities and accept themselves. Each character's monologue was a delightful and unique journey. It’s a pity this beautiful side of the story remained in the shadows.

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MC needs BTS to tell her to "Love Yourself"

Okay, where do I even begin.

I've read like 10 chapters of the webtoon itself, so I'm not sure how that ends, but I must say the drama itself is very confusing.

STORY:
It started off really strong as I've always been interested in "beauty" type dramas. Also, I love seeing transformation. However, DO NOT go into this drama w/ a True Beauty mindset because it is nothing like it (except MCs hiding under a fake persona??) I feel the progression of the drama got super messy because certain characters were thrown in without explanation. I felt viewers needed more background on the MC and her family but I guess you can't do that w/ such a short web drama. It's a very cliche story and a lot of the characters weren't even necessary but okay, director.

ACTING:
Okay, this is good. HOWEVER, some of the characters must've done a REAL good job because they pissed me off so much and I wanted to either a.) scream or b.) punch them through the screen. The MC is super super super super stubborn and she really needs to learn to speak up for herself... but of course, we can't expect much from a low self-esteem character. All the actors did a good job, especially the villian because they were annoying.

There are no special/specific OSTs so like... rip. But color toning of each episode was super aesthetic and I loved binging this drama because of the 25min per episode. Go into this drama w/ a clear mindset and just relax without thinking of anything. This is not a heavy drama, with just sprinkles of mystery and thriller. Do not count on romance to be the center of this drama.

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A web drama filled with life lessons

I don't think it's easy to find a web drama that is filled with life lessons and good character development. Every character had the chance to redeemed themselves towards the end. I honestly hate this at the start and I even dropped it at first but I picked it up. It was really worth it picking it up again. The cast did an amazing job in portraying each of their character.

The story focused on friendship and family. Family part may not be big but it was shared bit by bit and I love that we get to know more about each main character. My favourite character development is probably Yang Haneul. Some people might probably still hate her towards the end but I think her development was good enough in a web drama form.

The story tells you that, being beautiful it's not everything. That it's okay, if you're not perfect.

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Original, full of twists

This is one of the most original plot lines i have ever seen. Normally it's popular guy falls for unpopular girl, not saying it isnt but, in dramas like that the girl has to changed herself. One thing I loved about this one is that the girl didn't physically change one bit, she just became more matured, and the boy liked her inside and outside, from the very begging till the very end.
The character development from the FL, was just spot on. It's almost perfect.
I´m looking forward to kdramas where the female lead doesn't become "prettier", because why should the boy or girl become prettier just for someone. That´s just messed up. I need more kdramas where the character actually focuses on their character development.

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A drama that genuinely deals with the issues of modern beauty standards.

For anyone whose in a rush to read full paragraphs I'll leave a list of pros and cons of this drama.

*Pros*
Better than true beauty.
No silly and exhausting romance.
Short episodes, so an easy watch.
Acting is well done.
No boring parts.
Female lead from weak to strong.
A satisfying ending.

*Cons*
There are a lot of plot holes.
Bullying is handled not very well.
Overly exaggerated characters with unrealistic characteristics.
Kinda dumb characters.
No ost(not that much of a problem tho)


But its overall a good watch.

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Crazy AF character that grow on you

I hated almost all the characters at the start of the drama. It took a few episodes for them to grow on me, but I took an almost immediate liking to Ho In though he is not any more sane then any of the other characters. Jin Sung was probably the only clear headed and sane character. At first I thought it was a bit over the top, how insane all the characters were, but its set in a high school and honestly, high school student can be terrifying when it comes to bullying, especially in a fairly sane Kdrama, which this is not.

I shipped Ae Jin and Ho In together almost throughout this entire drama because they were so alike. But I didn't mind that they didn't end up together, I thought I would be disappointed but I wasn't. This drama has very little romance. There are couples, two different couples throughout this drama, either they had very little screen time or they weren't 'real'.
As much as I hated Ho In and Ha Neul together, they grew on me after watching their POV. Every episode would start off with the POV of a character and once I saw the POV of one of the main characters they start growing on me, because I get to see the story from their side and get to know their history. It really helped with the character development.

I did not like Jin Sung at first because he seemed really dodgy for essentially being a normal and decent human being since absolutely no one else in this drama was. But I loved him when he came back after being absent for SEVERAL episodes. His POV was one of my favourites because we got to see what a genuine person he was. And his scenes on the last episode were so damn sweet and probably the only real romance in this drama where a ship I didn't even know I was shipping sailed.

This drama had a very satisfying ending where EVERYONE got what they deserved and the FL and SFL finally became best friends again, a friendship that, again, grew on me after the flashbacks and POV of Ae Jin and Ha Neul.

Definitely a worth while drama to watch. Short and straight to the point with no unnecessary drama.

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Probably the worst drama (and webdrama ) i ever watched

1)Story:

When they announced this drama i was excited because it kind of looked like a mix of True beauty (the fact she is a "fake beauty" ) and Live on ( the fact that there was a mysterious person who know the truth behind her secret and "plays with her") , wich are dramas i really appreciated.

But the drama is a total joke.
The only good thing in this drama is the fact the female lead ends with the second lead wich is kind of refreshing.
The rest is just...
There are moments where you are like "what?!why?"

First :
There is a moment in the beginning of the drama where she is afraid of posting image on her wingstagram because of the mysterious person . She finally does it because of the pression of the brands she works with and risk of breaking terms with them if she doesnt post photos ! But like 2 episodes later , she decide to stop her account for like a few days but the brands doesnt ask refund? (In the head of the scenarist at that moment be like : " let's just forget that for the sake of the plot"). And at the end too , she decide to stop faking her image and show her true self but still nothing from the brands!!!

Second:
There is a moment where Aejin(Shim Dalgi) get blackmailed by Minji ( Nagyung) with a video of Jinsung (Hongseok) wich no one ever saw because Aejin was affraid it maybe that Jinsung send her some "Raunchy"/"Inapropriate stuff" . She is affraid for him?! There is nothing to get blackmailed at all for one simple reason: there are 2 posibility :
- The contents of the video isn't something raunchy and then Jimin has nothing to blackmail our female lead for.
- and if it contains hot stuff then Jinsung is a total pervert and deserves tottally to be exposed!

Third :
The story about her mother who is solved by itself at the end and is totally forgetable.

Fourth:
The fact that the short hair girl totally lose her mind and use the estinguisher on her classmates but there are no consequences for her because she is still there in class and at the party a few days after( normally incident like that doesn't stay unpunished!).


About the characters (not yet the acting):
-Jinsung:
Not much to tell about him since the only thing he is is "i secretly like the female lead" . His story is basic for the simple fact : he appears in like only 6/13 episodes.
-Female lead/Aejin :
I think i'll have more to tell in the acting section about her?
- The female lead best friend on sns but bully in real life:
I think she is okay. Her character isn't that bad.
- Bomin's character :
He is a total stalker , psycho (and he is the mysterious person who knows her secret)!
He literally take pleasure to play with the female lead by sending messages to her and making her stressed out like crazy, he treats his GF like sh*t (and it has nothing to do with the fact his GF is Aejin Bully!). There is a moment when him and Aejin wants to know where the bully is and he says " I just tracked her downed" with his phone in his hand showing a tracing app, wich means he tracks his GF?What the f*ck??! In the end , they try to explain why he acts like this but this still unaceptable but all they forgive him like ????
Also to illustrate some incoherent scene : a moment where Bomin is dressed like a clown and wears tone of makeup but still manage to appear 2 minutes later with no makeup and normal clothes ( damn if i knew he was that fast , they should have casted him as the next enemy of the season in the flash)

Five:
At the end, the scenarist be like " oh my god we have so much plots to solve in one episode , what do we do?!?? Let's solve every side problems that are not the main plot in 1 minute". Everything is solved so fast , like Bomin explaination on why he is like this( I really think he should be audition for The flash next season).


2) Acting/Cast :
Bomin , Hongseok , and the Best friends/ Bully: They are pretty decent actor .( Even Hongseok having a fake accent for this role was very good)

Nagyung: some scene was just bad: like the scene when she discovers Aejin's secret , it feels like a bad Thriller/Horror movie scene.

Finally, Shim Dal Gi:
Her acting for this role is just the worst acting i have ever seen in my life( and i can say i've watched like more than 300 series and much more films). Every scene with her is just awfull. She exagerate every emotion so that it becomes totally absurd .
I know some may say : " Yes but it is how most Kdramas are , they are more exagerating scenes to be funny because this is their humour " and i find this type of scenes funny , but even for kdramas this is exagerated and totally weird .
This is one of the biggest problem of the drama : Her acting in this role!

3)Music:

This a shame that there are no OST or no song in this drama when the cast literraly includes 60% idols . What does it costs to make an OST with Bomin, Hongseok or Nagyung.

4) Rewatched Value :

When i first saw the first episodes , i decided to rewatch it and continue watching it with my sister to be sure that this wasn't just me who tought this drama was complete garbage! And no she thinks the same. Actually we laughed at how bad was the scenes in this drama were!??

I consider if you have other dramas on your watchlist , wacth them! But if you don't , i highly recommend watching this drama cauz you may find funny how bad is it!

Thank you for reading my opinion on this drama❤️
Hoping to a season 2 for more explaination and more fun???!

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Never expect sweet romance in this drama!

This drama is different from the normal school genre. Because the dark side of the student is unearthed. Not the sweet romantic side of school life. The story is short so it's not too long to watch a marathon.

Although the solution seemed sudden. But the whole story is very interesting to follow. Because it is related to the world of today's teenagers who are bound by social media.

The message conveyed has actually been felt since the first episode. So the emphasis at the end feels rushed and too easy.

But I really enjoyed the story. A darker and suspenseful drama than I imagined. Even more tense than some mystery dramas I've watched. The problem is about feelings or human psychology. So there's a lot of mental pressure.

How can the human soul in young people be depicted so horribly here.

Don't expect romantic sweetness in this drama.

Excess

- Only 20 minutes each episode. A total of 13 episodes.
- Highlighting the lives of today's teenagers who are obsessed with showing off physically on social media.
- Seeing the mental health side of teenagers who are addicted to social media.
- More suspenseful than thrillers, because of the enormous psychological pressure. You will find characters with the darkest characters for teenagers. Of course with trash words from them.
- The director is very clever in building camera shots so that the elements of mystery are outlined hard. The author also wrote the scene very well.
- All of the actors are A class.

Lack

- The resolution of the case is focused on episode 13 so that it seems only and too fast.
- The change in character relationships is unrealistic after many horrific events in the previous episodes.

Postscript

- One of the darkest school plays I've ever watched. But challenging to watch.
- It may seem strange to some because the depiction of a high school boy is anything but ordinary. They are not described as innocent people, but have a terrible 'shadow'.

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I loved all the twists!!

At first, I found the storyline very slow but the ending was good for me. It's a great show and it shows how you should love yourself. I wouldn't watch it over though. All the twists in the storyline was very interesting and that's the only reason why I loved the show, there was too many boring scenes but after the twists it made me want to find out the ending and if things would end on a bad condition or a good condition. Overall the drama was like a lesson and it was interesting. I would definitely recommend this drama to my friends or someone that enjoys mysterious dramas like this. The actors and actresses played their role well and the director probably is a very creative person. You should definitely watch the show!

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