You’re Beautiful – Drama Review
Clichéd storyline, amazing performances, and heavy infusion of humor is what summarizes K-drama ‘You’re Beautiful’. This show appears on most of the ‘must-watch’ K-drama lists and now that I have watched the series I know why it makes it to so many lists. The show was so popular that it was remade in Japanese under the title ‘Ikemen desu ne’ in 2011 and in Taiwanese under the title ‘Fabulous Boys’ in 2013. The show may be criticized for its faulty plot but fans like me have loved it for all the elements that make the show memorable and worth watching.
You’re Beautiful (2009)
Korean gender-bender drama, You’re Beautiful is a 16 episode long TV series about a girl, Go Mi Nyeo who impersonates her twin brother, Go Mi Nam, to save his singing career after he was forced to go into hiding following a bad eye surgery. She takes her brother’s place as the new member of a popular boy band, A.N.Jell. The other members of the boy band are Hwang Tae Kyung (Jang Geun Suk), Kang Shin Woo (Jung Yong Hwa) and Jeremy (Lee Hong Ki). Tae Kyung is the leader of the boy band and is totally against the idea of adding another member to the band which is why he dislikes Mi Nam and doesn’t accept him easily. Tae Kyung finds out the truth behind Go Mi Nam and threatens to expose her. She begs him to let her stay and assures him that she will leave soon. Her stay with the band is a journey full of fun, chaos, and love angles.
Let’s weigh You’re Beautiful on our show beam balance and see if it is worth any praise or no.
Good Weights
Hilarity – The major plus point of this show is that it is so damn funny. The show may not be perfect story-wise but what makes it so appealing is its humorous screenplay. There are serious plotlines too but most of Mi Nyeo’s encounters with Tae Kyung are so amusing that I would be in splits.
Acting – Park Shin Hye played the gawky Go Mi Nam to perfection. She was so endearing that I was forced to ignore the fact that she didn’t sound or look like a boy at all.
Jang Geun Suk as the smug and big-headed Hwang Tae Kyung was simply superb. Initially, his sneering and pouting (not to mention his pathetic dressing) irritated me but as the story progressed I accepted all of that and even started liking him as an actor.
Bad Weights
Outfits – I don’t follow K-pop stars so I don’t really know their dressing style. But the wardrobe for the main cast was such an eyesore. Most of the stuff that Tae Kyung wore looked so feminine. Go Mi Nam is healthy so it must’ve been difficult to conceal her femininity and dress her to look like a boy, so they ended up layering her with multiple pieces of clothing that seemed way too much for a guy. And I don’t know why Jeremy was dressed in such loud colors. Was it to add to the comic element or just to further emphasize that he is the most vibrant of the three boys? Whatever the reason was it just didn’t suit him.
Storyline – Yes the story is heavily flawed. Few scenes here and there will leave you wondering ‘How did that happen?’ But then if you are enjoying the drama for what it is i.e. SIMPLY HILARIOUS then you will learn to overlook all of it. The only thing that disappointed me was that they never showed the real Go Mi Nam. I was looking forward to the reunion of the twins but that never happened. Of course, they did show a poorly shot scene of Go Mi Nam at the airport but nothing more than that. There was absolutely no interaction between Go Mi Nam and Go Mi Nyeo. Mi Nyeo helped Mi Nam to save his career and he couldn’t even thank her over the phone. Weird!
The number of weights may be equal on both sides but let me add that the weight of the acting and hysterically funny script weighs much more than the bad weights. I give the show 3.4 out of 5 rating. If you are looking for some rib-tickling romance then do spare 16 hours of your life for this one.
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