You're Beautiful

The gender bender genre hasn't really ever interested me.  So how did I end up watching You’re Beautiful, a gender bender drama?  Funny story that.  My husband and I were building a computer, neither of us are overly tech-savvy, but we’re competent.  We’d dismantled our old computer and started building the new one from scratch.  Unfortunately we did not complete it in a day, which meant that I had no way to watch my dramas.  Fortunately, I have a Kindle Fire and Amazon Prime so I jumped on there and started searching out Korean dramas.  I now know that there is an app for DramaFever (where I watch all my dramas) for the Kindle and we also have a Roku so if this happens in the future I’m covered.  There were only about five shows that I could find on Amazon Prime to stream through my Kindle, and of those five You’re Beautiful caught my interest more than the rest.  So I sat down to watch a gender-bender drama.

My biggest turn off was how they dressed/styled Park Shin Hye.  Since watching You’re Beautiful I have watched Coffee Prince and Yoon Eun Hye was such a more convincing boy.  Even back when I had watched this drama, before having seen Coffee Prince, I was disappointed with the effort they put into Park Shin Hye as a boy.  Shin Hye is definitely feminine and beautiful even with neutral makeup and the short hair, it wasn't enough to disguise her.  I wanted more effort in the styles they dressed her in, though I couldn't honestly pinpoint any specific ideas.  It just fell flat for me.  Also, her actions and mannerisms weren't masculine.  I know it is a TV show and I should suspend my disbelief and just accept that the members of the band would look at her with her short hair and accept that she was a boy.  But I can’t, she was still just too pretty for me.  Anyway, even though I can’t really give meaningful ideas on how this could be improved, it was what made me not emotionally invest in the show as much as I could have.

The thing I liked the most was the Bromance between the band members.  I thought they cast the band perfectly.  Each one represented a different quality/personality.  Their interactions with one another were very enjoyable.  They were like brothers and best friends throughout the whole of the show.  Jeremy was so adorable and innocent.  His fun loving attitude made him my favorite of the band members themselves.  Though I think my most favorite thing about him was the fact that he read the fan-fiction about him and the other band members, that was just an absolute hoot.  I like that Kim Shin Woo was the calm one, the voice of reason.  He balanced out Jeremy's eccentricities and Hwang Tae Kyung's diva/narcissistic personality.  Then Hwang Tae Kyung was the perfect leader role, he was pushy and needy but also really did have a desire for the band to succeed.  The writers did a great job with the band as a whole.

Kim Shin Woo also gave me yet another seriously heartbreakingly painful case of second male lead syndrome.  I wanted him to get the girl so badly.  However, it frustrated me how he went about getting the girl.  His plan of attack had so much to do with why he didn't end up with Go Mi Nyu.  I wanted him to get the courage to talk to her long before he confronted her in the chapel.  If he had been more open with her and let her know that he was in on the secret, well it could have been a totally different story.  So I both loved his character’s story and disliked it.

I also appreciated Uee in this drama.  She did a fantastic job with portraying her role.  I totally believed that she was a spoiled brat who had the whole nation fooled.  Additionally, I think she did a great job as her part as a villain.  Though I think the best part was her redemption wasn't completely out of left field, she grew as a character but didn't escape the natural boundaries they’d set up in the beginning. 

However, out of everything I think I loved the music the most.  This is only one of four OST’s that I’ve actually purchased.  It helped that the songs were actually performed by the actors, it gave it a very real feel throughout the show itself.  If A.N. Jell was an actual band I would buy their music in a heartbeat.

Though I do really like this drama, it just never really reeled me in through the feels.  I think it had the most to do with it being a gender-bender story.  I just couldn't completely invest myself in the story as it unfolded because I found it so very unbelievable.  But that doesn't stop me from giving it a high rating, in the end it was an enjoyable ride and I’m glad I watched it.

For a full synopsis of the story check out this link.

Noona's Rating
Overall: 7.8 (I rated this 4 stars on DramaFever.com)
Story/Writing: 8
Cast/Actors: 8
OST: 9
Sets/Costumes: 7
Feels: 7