Shadow Beauty (2021)

What True Beauty Should've Been

Good premise with a bit of unpredictability. The plot was actually focused and every episode was engaging. The dark tone and lighting choices contributed positively to the overall vibe of the show. Tho this might've been disappointing for some, I appreciate the romance not overshadowing the larger story at hand. Had that been the case it would've been a disservice to the subject matter. I might even look into the webtoon...

The characters were decently fleshed. Their arcs were a bit rushed but ig that's to be expected with thirteen 20 min eps. The execution made Koo Ae Jin's character far more believable than the FLs from True Beauty or MIIAGB. Kudos to the casting team for prioritizing realism, at least in that aspect. The standouts were Shim Dal Gi and Bomin.

CONCLUSION --I'd recommended this show for a quick binge. My only real complaints are 1) This could've been longer so the characters could cook more and 2) The ending felt rushed to the point where impact was subtracted heavily. Would've bumped this up an 8 if the ending was satisfying and something truly thought provoking was left behind but the average rating is appropriate.

Lire davantage

The thriller was there, tiny bit comedy and romance. Every episode was short and keeps me excited to binge.
Usually when watching thrillers the first thing i do is to find who's the real villain, but i can't do that with this drama. Every character had their own flaws, which adds a good twist.
The ending wasn't as impactful as i expected, but it's okay.

The female lead actress was overacting sometimes, which makes her look a bit weird.
Other actors portray their role nicely. Btw Nakyung really shows different image, i only know her as idol, but her she does her role perfectly.

My biggest problem is within the cinematography. The color palette was good, it fits the whole vibe. But it's just too dark. I have to put my screen brightness to 90% to watch most of the scenes. I get it that it's a dark themed drama. But they could use some lights...

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Never wrote a review but saw the bad ones so I have to!!

Those who said that this was horrible, story was awful and all must've been really liked TRUE BEAUTY

Let me tell the difference between TRUE BEAUTY and SHADOW BEAUTY...both have same concept of that beauty standards but in SHADOW BEAUTY the girl doesn't go with makeup to school, which was stupid....like how everything in TRUE BEAUTY was unrealistic, fake, extra cliché. But in SHADOW BEAUTY the reality is shown, the actors were brilliant, the main actress was amazing. I don't think anyone else would've done better than her. The story was really good(better than TRUE BEAUTY). It was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was short but best short drama I've watched.

Now if you'll looking for romance then skip this cause the ending was perfect according to me.
Prioritising yourself should be your priority. If you like romance then go watch TRUE BEAUTY.

I would lie if ill say I didn't like TRUE BEAUTY, it was cute, funny. But I really liked SHADOW BEAUTY more.

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:)

In my honest opinion, this drama was not that bad. I did have a bit more high expectations from it but it was genuinely not that bad. I liked how all the characters weren't perfect. All of the characters in this drama are flawed, which makes the plot more entertaining. Some of the acting was a bit too much, like FL's acting, however she was supposed to be portraying a mentally ill character so.. I did not like how forgiving FL was towards her bully. The bully literally traumatized her and then like,,, she just forgot all about that in the ending? It would've been more realistic if the FL didn't forgive her bully, as it takes time to forgive them, and it can even lead to the victim never forgiving the bully for their actions.

I didn't really enjoy the ending, I expected more from it but it was just... meh..

Lire davantage

Think J-drama but in K-drama format

This was actually a good drama. It's good that it's short cause I don't think it would've worked as well if it were longer.

Everybody's broken in some way and they all found a -not so healthy- coping mechanism and outlet.

Ae Jin is more than Genie. in fact, she doesn't even seem to really identify with the persona at all and she uses it as a tool to attain what's missing from her "irl" life.

It's a story about mental illness, grief, human behavior and their society's infatuation with beauty.

I feel like you might dislike this if you go in expecting more from it or something different.

This drama never tries to be what you think it should. It's not True Beauty and it's not a romance.

It's also not complicated so if you're gonna watch it, just enjoy it for what it is.

If the ending was more fleshed out it would've been better.

Lire davantage

Honest review of this drama

This is the worst fucking story ever. At the beginning of the drama they showed us something else and at the end it was something. This story of the drama spoiled my mood but all tho an acting of the actors was good but story is fucking worst . Recommending you to dont waste your time on this drama . It will ruin your day .......at least true beauty better than this shadow beauty. The chemistry between moon ga young and cha eun woo was best in true beauty. But this drama is worst 😑😐😶. Recommending you to go for any other drama other than this . I have wasted my 5 days on this drama 😒 🙃. Now regretting . If someone had told me this then i wouldn't have watched this .

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Shadow Beauty: Pros and Cons

after consuming the entire series in one sitting, i wasn't left highly disappointed. the acting was decent and esp noting the fact that half of the cast are idols turned actors, i will give props for that. i was especially impressed with choi bomin's acting, seeing him go from A-TEEN to this is honestly very intriguing and i look forward to seeing him in more unique and interesting roles in the near future. and ofc shim dal gi, she was incredible and gave sm life to her character. will def be checking out her other projects :) nagyung, for her first role as a rookie, it was pretty good. i think that def with more practise, she will be an amazing actress one day. hongseok, i don't really have much to say because he wasn't in most of the eps but there were moments where i felt his acting was a little stiff but that's maybe because this role is jus a boring role in general.

[SPOILERS from this point on]
however with the positives, come the negatives. please don't take this seriously, this is merely my opinion and it's your decision as to whether or not you want to take it to heart. with that being said, let's move on with the characters. starting with ho in, honestly I'm kinda confused about him because, on one hand, he's this psychopath who knows abt ae jin's secret and has a tormentful past but then he treats his gf like crap and you want me to be fine with that? i jus felt so bad for ha neul because yes he's a psychopath and isn't able to feel emotion but that doesn't mean u have to be a douchebag. ok moving on to ha neul, actually, i think that her character was pretty well developed. since her backstory was introduced rather early on so we were able to actually see that in fact, she is just a person who wants to be loved. i think this decision was great because you were able to see the actual growth and development of the character. ae jin, I'm also a bit conflicted with this one. honestly, the only thing I have a major problem with is her and her mom's relationship. throughout the 12 episodes, we constantly c ae jin shoving, yelling, belittling, degrading her mother, and then in ep 13 when we find out that her mom has a sickness, we get like maybe one scene of them actually talking and having a healthy relationship. how r we meant to feel emotional and sympathetic for ae jin if all this time she was treating her mom like crap and because of this one scene, we're gonna forget all the shit she did?? yeah no. ok next, jin sung. he was fine, pretty boring and he was gone for like half the eps so...next. sun mi jin, i jus think she's dum lol. she could've jus said she wasn't genie and everyone would've been like wHat and then everyone will eventually find goo ae jin to be genie and then she would be victimized and she would get all the attention she wants. she was a good villain ig, but that crying scene made me cringe. I would like to emphasize this again this is my opinion and if you think shadow beauty is an excellent masterpiece then I will prob give less than two fucks but you do you ig. ok bye

Lire davantage

Beauty and the Beast Inside

This is another high school drama about Beauty and the Beast Inside or the girl who was teased as an unattractive beast, but made herself over into a beauty. Other Korean dramas in the same vein are True Beauty and Gangnam Beauty. For me, this Korean drama was the most believable. Why?

A shadow person is a person who lives in the dark, behind another person. The shadow can be the true you or the false you. In this teen drama Shadow Beauty, it is a story about a very popular teen beauty blogger, who is a major influencer. The blogger is a teen beast beauty, who touches up her photos to look very attractive. Problems arrive when it is found out that there is a teen on another side of town who is a doppelgänger for the teen image she creates. And things get more complex when this doppelgänger transfers to her school and takes over the influencer’s false life. Of course, the influencer can’t tell the truth about the faker, because that would also expose the influencer as a faker too. Therefore in this Korean drama, you have two shadow teens, one who is a beast who made herself a beauty and another who is a beauty who has a beast of a personality.

Shadow Beauty is based on a webcomic, "Geurimja Minyeo” by A-Heum and has 12 Episodes at 20 minutes each. The cast of characters is great and there is an excellent use of young teen actors. The drama highlights how all the main characters have hugely interesting backstories, which makes them the personalities they grow up to be. Your shadow self emerges from inflicted wounds of your childhood, which have never healed.

Quote: “(As the so called loser) I was comparing myself to unrealistic beauty standards.” The anti-heroine of Shadow Beauty.

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I enjoyed it somewhat.

I liked this show. I watched it in one night, but that was also because the episodes were quite short.
I wish they would've been longer, and we could've seen more. I really liked the leading couple, so I hoped for more scenes with them, but I understand that there were none since the main genre isn’t romance.

This show was sometimes stressful and illogical, but it didn’t bother me much. I enjoyed the show, though it was quite chaotic with people switching sides.

The female lead's acting wasn’t the best, but it was bearable. The acting of the antagonist was bad, but didn’t ruin the show for me that much.

Overall, a good show to watch in one night, especially since the episodes are only 20 minutes long. However, don't mainly watch it for romance… romance is just a side plot, and we get like 40 minutes or less of screen time for it. The show portrayed a great message also!

Lire davantage

A MUST WATCH!!!

I came in not expecting much from this drama. Especially because it’s a web drama and the plot seemed very cliche. However I was EXTREMELY wrong. The writing, the plot twists, the characters, the cinematography, the portrayal of mental illness,/bullying/beauty standard was soo GOOD. The drama felt real, the characters felt real. The message was truly beautiful. I didn’t expect for it to be such a psychological drama but it was. To see such complex characters in such a short amount of time really blew me away. You’re bound to relate to atleast one of them. It can be very hard to watch at some points, especially if you’re sensible to bullying , but it helped the story feel deeper. Watching it I didn’t know what to expect. Every action of the characters felt thought out and even relatable (at some parts). Of course it’s a drama so a lot of things are exaggerated or can be a little hard to understand, but those aspects didn’t take away from the overall message or story. I felt so emotional seeing the main lead change and seeing the people around her change to. It was truly such an impactful and good drama, and it really makes you think about how we’re not all perfect. And what does it even mean to be just that?

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Good Enough

Korean Mini Series "Shadow Beauty" is a dark version of True Beauty with more focus on the main lead and her progress in learning to be herself rather than the romantic prospect.

The drama does a great job creating the right atmosphere right from the start, with the main character being all creepy and sad at the same time. Her family situation seems ominous, her school life is a nightmare and all this has resulted in her seeing enemies everywhere and trusting none, even her best friend. The story, with the right pace for such a short drama, covers all the aspects of her life, with a smooth showdown in the end and a nice conclusion that wraps up everything.

However, the drama didn't handle the transition from a bully to a friend of the second lead. All the side characters actually were briefly presented, as the focus was mainly on the main lead.

The performances, though, were all great and the ending of the drama with the focus on the main character's revelation was pretty interesting and refreshing.

So, overall, 8 out of 10.

Lire davantage

When I started to watch this, I expected it to be something similar to True Beauty, a romcom
but I was pleasantly surprised it was psychological! I almost thought it's a jdrama! something like Switch.

It was intriguing in the earlier episodes,
however, later it starts to lose it's charm...
I believe it lacked character relationship build up, their relationship with each other felt flat... and sometimes confusing.. (I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers)
maybe it would've been better if it was longer. and tbh some parts didn't make sense but I was ok with it cuz whatever

Although I found Koo Ae Jin a little annoying because I don't tend to like weak and negatively stubborn female leads but I liked how she portrayed a realistic character, not a handsome guy entering her life and suddenly she morphs into a popular extrovert *rolls eyes*

the actors did a good job however in the later eps some acting parts were a bit cringe, I think that's the direction to blame..

Despite everything I was excited for new episodes and that's quite rare of me since if I don't like a drama I'd immediately drop it (more like exile it to the On-hold list to feel less bad harshly dropping it)


my favourite character was Jisung and I'm upset they barely gave him any screentime :(


All in all, I recommend it, I really liked the ending moral of the story. so don't worry it's not a toxic beauty show.

(btw I rate music low if I don't remember the song.. I'm sorry to the artists maybe I was too focused on the story)

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