Frumusețe Adevărată (2020)

All cliches in one drama but still a fun watch.

I love the message of the drama. But as time went the story lost its focus and all focus was on the aggravating love triangle, and at that point the characters just looked pathetic. To make it worse, the FL is so clueless it's frustrating. Anyone can watch this but I definitely think the drama is geared towards younger audiences. The best thing I love about the drama is the characters, some of the characters had so much depth and shined anytime they appeared on screen. They really elevated a story full of cliches.

Now as for the love triangle, as someone who never gets second lead syndrome this was very hard to watch. Writers need to stop this trope where the second male lead is left sulking for the girl even after time jumps. How about introducing another love interest, at some point it gets tiring to watch and I hope they never make another drama regarding that. I was stupid enough to expect some kind of change in the last two episodes, but it had the same cliche ending. Overall, this wasn't a bad watch, I love how they wrapped up everything. 

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Felt my brain cells atrophy with each episode

Watched this because of Cha Eun Woo. Could not finish it.

It was so predictable and stupid. The protagonist's problem is not so much that she is ugly but more so that she is dumb. She has the voice of a preschooler and just comes across as an absolute bimbo. If I could retitle this show it would be "A Schoolgirl's Manual for Transformation into a Date-Rape Target". She comes across as self-absorbed and lacking in any self-preservation mechanisms for her own safety. Going on blind dates with older men while dressing up as an older woman; giving her number to strange men just because he asks for it; letting men invade her private space; having an imbalanced response to just being a victim of upskirting. If I had a teenage daughter, I would keep them away from this show or at least let them know this is brain fluff and not to be taken seriously. At all.

JG's voice grated the entire time. She is immature, does not care about anyone at all except her own issues. Sure, it's to escape bullying and such, but having achieved her objective of being allowed to live her own life and not be bullied, one would think that someone in that situation would at least spend that time on SOME amount of planning for her future. Hell, no. She has no mental ambitions at all and is quite happy to have her grades be as low as her skirt is short as long as she is considered pretty. Why bother being left alone when you're not going to do anything with your life? Even Han SJ's younger sister has more ambitions than her. I watched on because I was fascinated with her cool older sister but the r/ship with the teacher was unnecessarily angsty and weird that it wasn't enough to keep me invested.

Pretty much every episode has a kdrama romcom formulaic slo-mo clumsy moment from the protag that involves falling and getting caught by the handsome male lead and then this time-stood-still stupid, googly-eyed stare at him. Once in a while is tolerable but this was nearly every. Single. Episode. On some episodes, any close contact with the male will lead to her having heart palpitations while in others, she's quite naive to invading their personal space and being oblivious to their reactions i.e. with Han SJ. Like, really?! Very convenient. Who goes around roaring like an idiot up close to the guy? Bimbo JG, apparently.

The mother's treatment of the father was appalling as well. Flip the genders around and see a husband treat the wife the way the mum treated the dad and what would one think? She's unsupportive, verbally and physically abusive. She puts him down when he's trying out new ideas and having new interests. She's the type of partner that wants to keep the other one meek so she has the upper hand in the r/ship. She's shallow AF and so is her bimbo daughter.

I can't believe this got as high a mark on MDL as it has. Cha Eun Woo reprised his role as a tsundere handsome boy in My ID is Gangnam Beauty but that show has 100x more depth than this absolute... WTF.

Immature. Shallow. Stupid. Formulaic. Don't waste your time on this.

Addendum:
Regarding viewing this show as just a brain fluff, easy watch, yes, I totally went into it knowing that it is just such a show. There wasn't an episode that went by that I didn't roll my eyes but I reminded myself that, "it's just brain fluff. Just for a brain turn-off watch". And I accepted the rules that were set that in this parody-esque romCOM dictating that the protag would be the "norm" for cute and desirable. The problem I had was that even the writers didn't stick to their own rules so why should I?

Part way through they intro'd a new char of Go Woon, the bad boy Han SJ's younger sister. GW is the cliche char that's meant to showcase the vulnerable side of the bad boy tritagonist and also provide multiple excuses for the protag to be in close proximity to SJ whilst having the setup be construed as totally innocent and coincidental i.e. she just happens to be at their home when SJ is prancing around, headphones in ears, in nothing but his underwear and a loose robe; convenient. And predictable. As a third function, GW is also the mirror image of JG, sharing the same "wounded" background as JG, albeit younger. JG is able to save her in a way that she was never saved herself and this helps to soothe her own past wounds. The problem with GW is that she is superior to JG in every way.

When we get intro'd to her r/ship with SJ she is maternal and independent. She cooked her own ramen and SJ loves her cooking and commented that it was delicious. When next we meet them in a family setting again she is with the mother, the matriarch of the family, and she is shown to have folded the clothes and instructed her brother to take his underwear and head off to the room in a very un-younger-sibling-like way. She is mature, has ambitions (wants to get into Music Academy) and, unlike JG, only uses makeup for the stage and her performance, not to maintain a duplicitous life. She is aware of the benefits of makeup for its effect on an audience and does not need it in real life, not even in school. When the part-time job comes up at the comic store, she's there in a flash, securing an income before JG does even tho the latter frequents the shop more often than she. In terms of guys, she knows what she wants and doesn't want and has strong boundaries and knows how to set them. Most of all, she has a normal speaking voice and does not have a predilection to trip over herself every episode so we can get the cliche time-stood-still-slomo catch/rescue from a guy. In fact, I doubt she really needs a guy to rescue her. When her bro wants to sort out her bullies, she insists she'll deal with her problems herself. Even had JG not have stepped in, I believe she would've found a way to do so. Maybe she'd have missed that one performance but her eyes will still be set on the Music Academy. What's the use of a small high school performance when she'd be unhindered in a larger platform later on? It's obvious that the teacher recognised her talent. She would've had no problems getting recognised at the Music Academy later on too.

At the same time, we get the parallel to JG. She decides that she doesn't like the baseball player and starts to kinda set her boundaries, in a much less confident voice than GW and only, if I recall correctly, after seeing Lee SH set his boundaries with someone who'd known him in the past (that no one knew or have seen and have seen after). I don't recall ever seeing her do something adult like cook in all the 9 episodes. She only stepped in for the family and did the cleaning once the dad was gone and when he was around, she was daddy's girl and princess and did not do any cooking of her own. Tho an older sister, her r/ship with her younger sibling seems to be more like she's his younger sibling. He always seems to have the power, using his upper hand to blackmail her into things and they are constantly bickering . She showed no initiative in getting a p/t job until later even tho she would've passed the job sign at the comic shop often and she only got her job through SJ's help. She also never had any ambitions until later, in fact, it's not till after she's met GW that cosmetology crystalises in her mind. In all these ways, she is inferior to GW and the show itself got changed in tone because of this juxtaposition. As a viewer, I now have the option of something "normal" and superior in GW. The problem is she's only a side char with the role of fulfilling a bridge function for the WTF protag. Her romance arc would've been either that she rejects JG's brother totally or that she gets charmed by his sincerity in the end or, worst yet, she might've been subjected to having a crush on a yet unknown pretty boy char so that the stereotypical love triangle can be expanded to a love decahedron to fulfill the quota for the kdrama romcom theme of it's-not-as-much-about-love-as-it-is-about-how-many-trophies-of-alpha-males'-hearts-you-can-get. Gawd knows they tagged on the Kang SJ love interest to make it a love pentagon (along with the baseball creep) when she'd been pretty ok with a friendship with Lee SH for TEN YEARS. They even changed her capacious char to be a conniving, manipulating wench just to fit this pentagon arc. WTF. I couldn't bear to watch GW's char be subjected to a cliche in the short moments that I'd get a glimpse of her.

Because of these reasons, that the writers showed it was possible to get a normal, functional female char, the show pushed itself out of being just a brain fluff, easy watch offering into something that needed to be considered properly. In those terms it failed miserably.

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Shallow and repeatedly tedious

I don't know what I honestly expected from a series focused on such a shallow character and premise, but I suppose it was - character development. There were no changes to the people, no character development, no communication, and no reason to continue watching.

I expected her to grow as a character, and get better, but instead, I felt myself wanting to smack her and both the male leads. Each arc, each new drama, was tedious and forced, and was then fixed within an episode, which led me to wonder why they needed so much drama in between it.

I honestly don't know why I expected anything less, honestly. Considering it's about 100 chapters into the webtoon and the MC is still just as shallow and conceited as she is in this show in the manga. (Fun fact: the mc has the audacity to complain that people around her are "fake" and catfishing her on blind dates. What the eff is she doing then? Can you spell hypocrite?)

The ONLY reason I got to episode 13 is that I wanted to see if their relationship when it was finally here was worth the tedious leading up to it. And it was not. Even with the brilliant, hard-hitting actors that I've thoroughly enjoyed in other things. Even they couldn't save this train wreck, and I'm genuinely not sure why people seem to enjoy this waste of a show.

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The webtoon times 10

The show and drama are both ongoing. So how is it possible to come to the conclusion that the drama is ten times better than the webtoon?
Is it because I dislike the webtoon. No, infact i love it.
Is it because I'm Team Suho in the drama? No, infact I'm team Jugyeong and whoever makes her happy. [ In the webtoon I was completely in love with her wholesome beautiful relationship with Seojoon, and I was SO happy she got to be experience true love with him. But in the drama Suho is clearly the one for her, what with the the length he will go to protect Jugyeongs secret, to make her happy, to help her study, to defend her honour, to encourage her while she’s down. ]
Is it because of the change in plot? Partly. I like not knowing which direction this show is going to take. I like drama Sujin. I have a girlcrush on Heegyung who was wallpaper in the webtoon. I like seeing glimpses of my favourite moments and costumes in the webtoon brought to life. I like all the other show parodies and cameos by actors.
Is it because of the stellar cast? YES! EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER has been cast to perfection in this drama. It's like they were made for these roles.
Is it also because of the depth of characters and intersecting storylines?? YES. YES. YES. I cannot tell you how rich and well fleshed out the drama characters are. They pale in comparison to the ones in the webtoon.
It's also also because this show is light, fluffy, embarrassingly funny, totally over the top and exactly the kind of crack i needed to end 2020 on a high and begin 2021 with a bang!!

PS: To those who are disappointed because it's different from the webtoon. This is how I see it. They’re distant cousins. Like your mother’s-fathers-brothers-sons-daughter. They have the same roots and foundation but are intrinsically different. It doesn’t make one better than the other. They’re both special in their own way. Comparing them is pointless because they were never meant to have the same personality. You realise this from the get go. Right from the way Suho and Jugyeong meet, to the harsh bullying Jugyeong was treated to, or the early introduction of Seojoon. They are both unique. The more you compare the more disappointed you’re likely to get. Enjoy the two for who they are. Individually. I mean who likes to be compared to their cousins am I right??

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Not what you expect!

Now the headline might make it seem like this is a negative review but this is far from it, although i am not finished watching this drama I can tell that it's going places. THE RIGHT PLACES. With the way that it's progressing I really enjoy how they stuck to the main point of the drama as a whole which is basically in the title, true beauty lies within. I also enjoy that they DIDN'T STICK ENTIRELY TO THE SCRIPT. I will admit, at first I was a little disappointed but let's all be honest. It would be really boring if they did do that. It'd be like reading the webtoon except they'd be acting it out. Some of you may be yelling EXACTLY! THEY'RE ACTING IT OUT! But if that were the case I'd just reread the webtoon. ( I dunno maybe its just me) in any case! I just really love how they added their own twist to her backstory making it more interesting and full of depth. So far it's a really cool watch and it's funny. Her relationship with seojun is funny and heartwarming. Her relationship with seojun is complicated. AND THE CAST DOES SUCH A GREAT JOB. Before watching this drama I was suho all the way. I still am, I just want seojun to myself LMFAOOO. In this drama they make the characters more round than the webtoon does. The drama is circled around romance, but its much more than JUST ROMANCE. In any case I totally recommend.

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Cute but flat

The biggest deal-breaker for me is that the characters are flat and caricaturish, and IMO the writing is cheap and shoddily done, full of cliches that will probably be new and thrilling to most young or new kdrama watchers but are stale and boring to old-time kdrama fans (old as in pre-webtoon era) like me. I did not read the webtoon so I am not sure if the characters are as one-dimensional and cliched there as in the drama. Pretty sure there are those who are in love with this type of "cuteness" but if you want dramas with characters you really feel for, who are fleshed out and feels real and are not just cute cartoon characters, then this would not be for you. You could do romcom and ridiculous and silly while still having well-rounded, fully fleshed out and relatable characters, like in Full House, for instance. I found the storytelling here scattered and all over the place, as you would expect from something adapted from a serialized webtoon that has a lot of senseless fillers. I also find the main guy (Suho) bland and uninteresting even though he is playing out one of my favorite tropes -- the cold genius. It takes a certain character/personality for an actor to be able to pull that off well, and this one didn't do it for me even though he looks gorgeous. Overall, cute but flat and boring. Lacks good writing and characterization.

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Creative Entertainment

Entertainment is what the director have in mind when he make this drama, there are a lot of creative funny scene inserted in many situation, and that what's actually make me appreciate this more.
A lot of cliche scene are also inserted purely for entertainment, and they've gone deep with it, so you have to keep that in mind when you watch this.

For someone that want to watch K-drama seriously this might be not for you.

Although they've started with heavy subject (bullying & suicide) in episode 1, they took their time and focus more on the love triangle and FL transformation after she changed with make up until they continue touch it again on episode 10. I do hope they still maintain their comedic tone between those heavy subject scene, and can wrap it up high.

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Ainda me sinto mal

Deveria ter ouvido meus extintos quando senti vontade de adiantar o primeiro episodio sabia que era um mau presságio pois depois de 89 dramas assistido essa é a primeira vez que acontece no primeiro episódio, mais fui teimosa e continuei por que sou orgulhosa.

Quando li a sinopse desse drama logo me interessei, pois achei que iria tratar de um assunto serio de uma forma leve com comedia, ou seja tinha tudo para dar certo porem contudo todavia não deu, a receita que tinha tudo para dar certo desandou. Eles colocaram tudo que mais detesto neste drama, uma tonelada daqueles clichês batidos que ja está desgastando de tanto uso, uma comédia forçada chega ser infantil forçado, artificial e o maldito triangulo amoroso que faz parte do clichês da maioria dos dramas esta lá mais uma vez e eu realmente não gosto disso. e aquela vontade de adiantar os episódios estava cada vez mais presente , Meus olhos sangraram em ver esse drama talvez em curtisse isso quando tinha 10 anos de idade talvez.

A protagonista feminina tentou seu melhor porem com que deram para ela fazer só milagre para ela salvar, e como não ouve milagre , seu personagem na maioria das vezes era caricato, infantil , forçado como a maioria dos personagens, falando em forçado que voz era aquela que ela fazia, gente é pisar na minha inteligente era irritante demais , Deus ainda me sinto mal só de pensar.

O primeiro protagonista masculino pelo conseguiu entregar um trabalho melhor mesmo com mesmo com o enredo fraco roteiro bagunçado e com aquele excesso de comédia ele conseguiu entregar algo melhor não fizeram o personagem dele tão estupido quantos os outros. Vou dizer a mesma coisa do segundo protagonista masculino também, gostei até que bastante dele e me peguei simpatizando mais com ele .

Agora quanto os assuntos sérios que deveriam ser tratados para mim ficou tudo muito raso estranho . Não me entendam mal não é que eu não goste de comédia, eu até gosto porem que seja bem feita.
O enredo era tão previsível, enfadonho que 16 episódios foi realmente desnecessário acho menos que 10 já estava ótimo. Achei os episódios demasiadamente grandes desnecessário podiam ter 30 min ou menos. Talvez se fosse mais curto esse drama seria mais fácil e menos doloroso de se assistir.

Aprendi que meu orgulho não me levou a nada, da próxima vez que eu me deparar com um drama assim vou escutar meu coração e parar de assistir, esse meu orgulho não me levou nada. Acabei esse drama frustrada com raiva de mim mesma por ter assistido, e com aquela sensação de que perdi meu precioso tempo com uma lista enorme de dramas para assistir ainda.

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It started out good but then....

For someone who has never read the webtoon, I think it started out pretty well, but after a few episodes it just became a typical love triangle with a pretty expected ending. At the beginning, I was really hooked to the story and was expecting a korean drama to finally adress that physical beauty is not what matters the most, but unfortunately I think they ended up giving the wrong message since we can see that only after she got her makeover is when she started to have tons of friends and some guys attracted to her. For some reason, I disliked the fact that they made her be bad at studying, because I felt like they related it with being "ugly" and "clumsy" (since the best students at their school are so good looking). Just stereotypes and more stereotypes. I wanted to see the end of this drama, but as I continued the episodes, it just became more boring and cliché.

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Com ou sem maquiagem, você é sempre você

"Se você se sente confiante, ninguém pode tocar em você. Com ou sem maquiagem, você é sempre você".

Evitei dar play em "True Beauty" por saber que ia rolar triângulo amoroso, mas assisti os 14 episódios em um fim de semana pra poder acompanhar a finale.

True Beauty é uma série baseada em um webtoon, e conta a história de Im Ju Kyung, uma estudante insegura com a sua aparência. Ao aprender a se maquiar, ela muda de colégio e também de vida. Depois de sofrer bullying por anos em sua antiga escola, agora ela era a mais linda e popular do colégio.

Apesar do tema central ser o bullying (que é muito relevante e necessário), outra coisa que me tocou na série foi a relação dos protagonistas. Como eles se distanciaram pela simples falta de diálogo. Quantas pessoas nós já perdemos na vida da mesma maneira? Os momentos que mais me emocionei envolviam a amizade dos dois sendo reconstruída (e os flashbacks com o amigo idol).

Também amei os personagens secundários, principalmente a Unnie gamer e o seu Grapefruit. A inversão de esteriótipos no casal foi sensacional!

E pela primeira vez na vida meu bias foi o second lead. Shippei certíssimo para a Im Ju (#teamsuho), mas a escolha pra mim (na vida real) seria o ?. Is that true? Yes! E quem falar que o shipp oficial não balançou no episódio 15 tá mentindo. Louca pra ver mais dramas do Yeop! E eu seria facilmente do fandom do grupo do Seojun.

Se você gosta de séries leves, de drama escolar, cheias de clichês que te tiram um sorrisinho do rosto a todo momento, personagens divertidos e atores incríveis, pode dar play sem medo em True Beauty.

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Relieves Depression & Stress this Pandemic Times

Its the perfect Korean Drama for me to watch in this time of Pandemic, considering how depressing this times are.. i just badly needed to watch something that would take my mind off from all this stress and luckily True Beauty did the Trick, it contains funny comedy scenes, that made me really laugh. I also find The romance between SuHo and Jukyung soo Cute (this is why I love Romantic-Comedy Kdramas. they definitely serve their dual purpose of being comedic and romantic, noice 10 Stars for this drama.) I love how all the actors did their best trying to be as entertaining as possible by means of portraying their roles well specially to the comedy scenes. The music was also nice, cute and catchy, it suits my tastes since I really like cute things ♡

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